Using the Charts | Cooking | Dishwasher | Dryer | Heating/Cooling | Microwave | Refrigerator | Washer

Gas ranges represent 80% of the market. All of these are spark ignition, meaning no pilots.

Some are basic without a waist high broiler and with no self clean. A porcelain liner is best with manual oven control.

Upscale models offer self clean, digital control pad and other features. Digital touch control boards have become most common, but are expensive to repair.

Sealed surface burners are on most ranges today. The name suggests that they are somehow sealed against spills, which is not the case. These types of burners are difficult to clean if spilled on and are expensive to repair. The small electrode that lights the gas is similar to a spark plug and can be fouled with food, grease or water very easily. Be careful.

Gas cook tops are made with the same technology and sealed burners.

Choose Whirlpool, Hotpoint, Electrolux, Kenmore.

Wall ovens have become popular when mounting in an island under a gas cook top. This way you can get gas surface cooking (preferred) and electric oven cooking (preferred). Ask a chef.

Gas surface cooking can be regulated to a very low simmer which cannot be done with electric surface cooking. Also, the electric cooking surface elements continue to stay hot, even after the burner is shut off.

Electric oven cooking is more consistent and cooks more evenly because of double elements, cooking from the top and the bottom. Gas ovens bake only from the bottom.

Wall ovens are usually dependable, just be careful not to lean on the oven door hinges or break the glass.

Choose Whirlpool or Kenmore.

Down draft cooking, like Jenn Air, has been most disappointing. The smoke and cooking odor extraction by a fan that is next to the burner is ineffective. The appliance is tough to clean and never has been good for grilling inside, usually leaving lots of grease on floor or countertop. Leave the grilling for outside on the barbeque.

Convection ovens employ a fan in the back of the oven to circulate air. It makes for more even cooking and cooks about 15% faster, but it does tend to dry out foods. With the added cost of the convection feature it is usually not worth the expense. Most customers who bought it say that they would not recommend it.

Electric smooth top cooking surface is easy to clean, but remains hot after turning off and is difficult to slow simmer on. Glass breakage is also a problem if something heavy is placed on cook top or something is dropped on stove top.

Choose Whirlpool or Kenmore.

The self clean feature allows the oven to lock itself and raise temperature to 1000 degrees in order to burn off spills on the oven liner. After it has completed the cycle (usually about 4 hours), open the door and wipe out ash from bottom of oven with a paper towel. This works well, but excessive heat does cause premature failure of oven components.

My experience and Consumer Reports both indicate expensive ovens like GE Profile, Thermador, Dacor, Viking, LG and Bosch are not worth the cost. Performance in these units has been substandard and not worth the extra purchase price.

			Cook top mounted over wall oven
Waist-high broiler

Some burners come apart  for easy cleaning
		Convection fan in oven
Sealed burners are  difficult to clean  after spills		Standard removable burners are easy to clean in the sink
Standard 30" Range		30" Gas Double Range
Upscale 30" Range