seeking stove/oven recommendations

We've just moved into a new house and will be renovating the kitchen, This means that I have the opportunity to get a new gas stove.

The gas stove at our old place was a Magic Chef which had all kinds of design problems such as an oven vent which discolored the back splash (or whatever you call that on a stove) the first time the self-cleaning feature was used. The stove top had sealed gas burners which were set in depressions in the enamel top to contain spills and to make cleaning nearly impossible.

However, the oven was a dream. It had an electronic control system which allowed setting the oven temp in 5-degree digital intervals and would beep when the oven was up to temperature. It did a beautiful job of maintaining temperature and did a good job in keeping the top and bottom oven racks at about the same temperature.

Although I'm not excited about the price tags, my spouse is looking at the Viking and Wolfe product lines. While I like some of their features, these pseudo-commercial ranges lack many of the convenience features of higher end consumer ranges by GE and others.

I bake bread twice per week on average and both my spouse and myself are avid cooks who enjoy working in the kitchen.

The trendy thing appears to be "dual fuel" ranges with gas cooktops and electric ovens. In my experience, electric ovens produce a drier baking environment that gas ovens (in which combustion yields water vapor and carbon dioxide.) Bread baking seems to favor humidity.

This is a major purchase decision and I would appreciate input from the folks in rec.food.baking who actually use stoves for baking and not just to look impressive in the kitchen.

Regards, The Old Bear

Reply to
The Old Bear
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Hi --

Consumer reports did a thing on ovens and ranges not so long ago, maybe a couple of years? It might be worth looking up at your library.

We have two ovens, both inexpensive. Both set the temp digitally (in 1 degree intervals) and beep when the temp has been reached, so perhaps that is a commonplace feature now.

If I were getting a new range (I keep hoping the old one will die so I can justify it :-) I would be sure to get HEAVY burner covers. Mine slide around every time I use a heavier pot on the range. (No sealed burners; the range is old.) I'd also make sure I could put a SMALL pot on the burner and not have it tip because of the center hole. Perhaps sealed burners solve both these problems? I've never laid eyes on sealed burners so don't know.

One of our ovens is convection. I find a never use the convection feature. I use the self-clean feature all the time.

I hope these rambling thoughts help,

--Beth Kevles snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

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-- a page for the milk-allergic Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the AOL one if you wouldlike me to reply.

Reply to
Beth Kevles

One feature that we like on our new stove ( ours is a jenn Air, but lot's of them have this now), is the grates over the burners form a continuous top made out of 2 pieces, you can place a small or large pan anyplace and it sits level. The grates themselves fit into each other and sit on silicone pads and don't slide at all. For small pots, there is a tiny little 'simmer' burner located right between the other 4, not used often, but it is there and the tiny gas ring and small hole in the grate suits the size of a tiny pot quite well. The sealed burners don't affect the placing of pots, they are below the grates the pots sit on, ours are nice in that spilled stuff never gets inside the stove so you can wipe it right up, the downside is that the whole top is somewhat recessed which makes cleaning it a little annoying, you can't just easily wipe the stuff off onto the floor them sweep.

Reply to
Mikey S.

I'm pretty new to baking and far from an expert but for the last couple of months I have been baking bread 3 times a week or so and I can't find fault with my gas oven ( a less than a year old Jenn air stove), the electronic temp. control seems to be quite accurate and it beeps when it reaches temp too, the same way your old one did. My wife says this oven is much more accurate than the old one was, but then again, that one was 30 years old and a cheap wall mounted oven so that doesn't say much. About my only gripe about the oven is that the oven controls are on the rear, and while this saves space and makes for a bigger, less obstructed cooktop surface ( I think) it does mean occasionally reaching over 5 boiling pots ( if my wife is cooking while I'm baking) to adjust the oven or cooking timer. Not a problem if your careful..but you do need to watch what your doing. See my other comments in this thread about the cooking surface, it works great but it seems to suffer from the same cleaning issues you mentioned in your post. I didn't get the convection option but my brother just bought the same stove with it and since I installed his only yesterday I haven't really seen it in action, once I get a chance to bake with it I'll see what I am missing.

I think you may be right about the gas making for a moister oven, I have been baking sourdough this last week and while I did add a pan of water to the bottom just on principles, the oven never seemed to be dry anyway..but to be honest I have never used electric so I can't really compare them, it just seems logical.

Reply to
Mikey S.

IMHO, these pseudo-commercial ranges are seriously over-hyped. I will be looking for a new range for a new house in September, and I will not be looking at those, only residential brands.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

We have a Viking cooktop, not a commercial style but still has that look with features such as very heavy grates, 6 burners and is stainless. While I do like that it has varying ranges of BTU's on the burners, I find that it is very difficult to keep (the grates) clean and the SS is prone to scratch easily. Both of the above drawbacks would also be true of any commercial style range, IMO. If I were to do it again, I would probably opt for (I think it's a Thermador) cooktop. Our Dacor double convection oven is an outstanding appliance and I love it.

The OP did not ask about cooktops, but I thought these observations were noteworthy.

Ginny

Reply to
Ginny Sher

If you live in the US, look at and consider

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have top of the line ranges which are available as gas only or asgas and electricity. In other parts of the world this brand can beobtained as coal burning, if memory serves, but you are not likely towant one of those. There is a dealer locator on this web site for theUS. Note that these stoves are expected to last OVER 100 YEARS!

To quote from their site re the biggest of their ranges as sold in the US, ================= The classic 4-oven Aga cooker is the flagship of the Aga line. Based on a proven design of more than 70 years, the 4-oven Aga provides a truly unique and rewarding cooking experience. With 4 radiant-heat ovens, two hotplates, warming plate, and optional gas cook top, this Aga has unmatched flexibility and cooking capabilities. It's a true culinary thoroughbred. For those who want to add a conventional gas cooktop, we have a gas 2-burner option.

Agas are available in a wide range of models and colours, starting from $5000.

Dimensions: 33 1/2"H × 26 3/4"D × 58 3/4"W Materials: Durable cast iron covered by three coats of vitreous enamel in one of 15 colors. Click here for color options. Estimated Operating Life: 100+ years (excluding burner and thermocouples). Maintenance: Yearly on-site "check-up" Installation: Requires certified Aga fitter for proper installation.

Weight: 1290 lbs - No Po>I bake bread twice per week on average and both my spouse and

======================================================= Copyright retained. My opinions - no one else's... If this is illegal where you are, do not read it!

Reply to
RsH

We have a Viking range and the functionality is great, but the reliability stinks and the customer service is much worse. They originally provided knobs that broke in normal use and thought it was completely reasonable that a knob should only last two years and that I should happily pay $35 each for replacements. (They finally changed the design, but no free replacement parts for the suckers who bought the defective ones.) The igniters for the oven run several hundred bucks a pop and according to the customer (non)service reps have an expected service life of 2-3 years. We've had several welds break in the frame and are just living with it because repairs will run into the thousands. Viking of course denies that there is any possibility of a manufacturing issue there. Makes me yearn for my 60 year old Caloric.

Aside from that (how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?) I would certainly go with a commercial stove again. The big burners and massive cooktop are a joy, and the oven produces fabulous baked goods. Convection makes a huge difference.

For me a stove is a tool, not a display item so I expect it to look well-used, and I don't expect a working kitchen to be pristine. The oven and grates are hard to clean, but don't need it very often because the stuff just burns off eventually. These stoves are not for picky housecleaners--way too many nooks and crannies where dirt can hide and you will make yourself crazy of you try to keep them polished at all times.

So by all means look at commercial ranges if you are into serious cooking, but avoid Viking like the plague.

Roger

Reply to
Roger

Most people don't realize that a "commercial stove" probably isn't shut off long enough to be "buffed and polished". After all, it IS a piece of cooking machinery.

The Fine Art of Cooking involves personal choice. Many preferences, ingredients, and procedures may not be consistent with what you know to be true. As with any recipe, you may find your personal intervention will be necessary. Bon Appetit!

Reply to
Ida Slapter

whatever stove you get. consider using a surge protector. Replacement of electronic controls cost a great deal.

alkem

Reply to
alkem

We remodeled the kitchen last year and chose a Dacor electric oven and a separate Dacor gas cooktop.

After a year of use I'm satisfied though not ecstatic. I bake bread twice a week, pizza once a week and maybe a dinner. The oven works well for bread with even heat and good temp control.

A couple of gripes: be certain to verify that the model oven you're interested in runs the way you "would expect it to"... as far as fan operation, temp display, audible beeps, etc. Here's why: Our oven (model MCS130S) can run in Convection mode if desired; it will also do a 'delay bake' where you can set the stop time as well as the total cooking time. It then deduces when to start. HOWEVER, (and I think this is REALLY STUPID), it wants to run the convection fan during the entire delay time, regardless of the chosen settings for the bake to occur! Why, I have no idea. It seems a real waste of both fan bearing life as well as a little electricity, not to mention the possible detrimental drying effect on whatever food might be sitting inside waiting to cook. I think this is a programming bug, but I can't get any kind of coherent answer from Dacor other than "that's the way the oven is designed to operate".

Others have also found that Dacor isn't as "customer-centric" as we customers might hope. Is this the way all giant, important corporations treat their customers?

I've also found that if you have the temp probe plugged into the oven and set to run after the delay expires and baking begins, the fan DOES NOT run during the delay, so it's clearly someone's mistake in code design which they either won't own up to or actually don't even know about, which doesn't seem likely.

The only problem we've had with the cooktop is that now, several of the igniters aren't firing reliably so sometimes it's tricky to get a burner lit. I think this could be a cleaning issue so I'd have to defer on this one until we have time to buff out the spark plugs and see what that does to the problem though. The sealed burners are nice, and really a breeze to clean though. Our designer cautioned us that you only want to buy a Viking if you're really "into taking lots of things apart all the time to clean it". I've also heard of reliabililty issues with Viking, which you wouldn't expect after spending the kind of money they want for their stuff.

Wolfe is really nice but damned expensive. They DO however have a really cool baking stone accessory for their ovens that has it's own dedicated heating element, and the whole thing just plugs into a socket in the oven. What a great way to get a really hot stone... but you need to part with around $3500 to get hooked up with this one.

Also: if you're a serious cook and appreciate high heat on occasion, be sure you TEST the vent hood you're considering prior to purchase. We went with advice to get a Broan "Allure", and I'm sorry we did; it does a lousy job sucking real smoke off the cooktop, even though it makes enough noise that you'd think it was in fact doing something. Get CFM, and probably one fan per side is a good idea too; the Broan uses a single fan on the left side and has a "path" to the other but there's hardly any air moving on the right... it just doesn't work well at all.

Off subject, but we went with Silestone for the countertops; it never needs sealing as does Granite, and it looks fantastic. Check it out.

Good luck!

Reply to
eno

We just received our new GE. It is a replacement for a Whirlpool that was a lemon. This range is around $895. I checked the temp and it is right on. Has a 15000 BTU burner that works wonderfully for stir fries. I am really happy with the oven after four years of having one that couldn't warm a pizza in the center. Looks like this is a good bet.

Reply to
marriz

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