Is Sears always the answer?

November 13, 2009 9:59 PM

I have $2,000-$2500 to spend on a good gas range What should I get?

In looking online, and reading Consumer Reports, the GE Cafe is rated highly. And I like it's looks okay and it seems to do what I want it to, but are there other, great stoves/ranges that I should look at?

I need the following: Gas, true simmer, extra high burners for faster boil, well insulated so it doesn't heat up the entire house (my 20 year old stove makes it massively hot in the kitchen), self-cleaning, bakes evenly, and it needs to be slide in, 30". The GE Cafe meets all these needs, except it's stainless steel is not treated so, it gets fingerprints and scratches way too easy. I have a feeling after 6 months it would look crappy.

Doe anyone have one of these or have any experience with one?

I love some of the pro ranges but they're so expensive, I might spend an extra $1000 if it was worth it, but, I can't find any reviews on the high end stoves. I love the syle of Elmira, for my 1928 Tudor cottage, but $6000? Come on!

Any recommendations? Thanks!

posted by generic230 to home & garden (7 comments total)

The GE range is just fine. Get some Bartenders Helper, it's at any store, and will clean it up beautifully.

On a side note I have been cruising high end "pro" ranges in the last few weeks for my job. We need a specific high end model to test some failure modes on. You can get a used Viking, Wolf or DCS pro style range for about $1500-2000 on craigslist, original being around $5000. If you don't mind it being used for a year or two, you can get a big mofo of a pro-style range in the 30" variety for that price.
posted by sanka at 10:13 PM on November 13, 2009

Best way to pick up a pro range is as a display model. They're basically brand new and if its been in the store's display for a while you can save lots. Another thing you can do is do a pro cooktop and a standard electric oven. Electric will provide you the most even heat for baking, and you can get true convection models for less than a thousand. The big difference that you pay for in a pro unit are the quality of the burners, i.e. the even distribution and output of flame around the entire burner. When I purchased my present house I called myself saving money and purchased a Kitchen-aid "prosumer" range (my previous house had a 30" DCS range when I purchased it). Comparing ovens the Kitchen Aid is equal to or better than the DCS (convection gas vs. standard gas) but there is no comparison with the cook top area. Even when using cast iron, still one of the best pans for even distribution of heat- I get hot and cold spots all over the burner face. This was never an issue with the DCS; even heat distribution from center to edge, even on big paella pans. As for the Elmira, they are rather dear. Have you looked at AGA? they're not cheap either, but I was in a Super Home Depot in Springfield, NJ and they had a new line that wasn't always on (like the traditional AGAs, used as a supplemental heating source when not cooking) that cost right around 3K. At the end of the day if you cook a lot the better equipment will pay countless dividends over the less expensive Prosumer models. Good luck!
posted by chosemerveilleux at 11:33 PM on November 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have a GE Profile dual-fuel range that's about four years old; the Cafe line didn't exist when I was shopping. As far as I can see from GE's spec sheet, the Cafe dual-fuel model is basically my Profle range restyled with more utilitarian ("professional") lines. I've got the same five gas burner sizes, the same electric self-cleaning convection oven, etc.

The 18,000 BTU high-power burner (right front) is almost overkill; It only gets turned up to full blast when bringing a very large pot of water to a boil; if the base of the pot is less than 12" across, the flames actually wrap around the outsides of the pot instead of heating the bottom, which is counterproductive.

The 12,000 BTU burner (left front) is more than adequate for stir-frying.

The smaller back burners are fine for simmering.

The oval center burner is really only useful for the griddle; it distributes heat well over a large area, but the flame never gets very big.

The oven is great, whether we use the convection feature or not. It's big, it heats up fast, it's well-insulated and bakes evenly.

The lower oven is kind of pointless (don't know if the model you're considering has this). Unlike the main oven, the lower oven is 110v, takes forever to preheat, and also takes forever to regain a decent temperature when you've placed a cold food item of any size in it. As an oven, it's crap. As a warming drawer, it's fine. We rarely use it.

Overall, it's a really nice stove. I looked at some of the pro-style ranges, but I don't think there's much benefit to them unless you have space for a very large one. There's only so much you can do with 30".

Finally, I'm skeptical about your worries re:"untreated" stainless. It's steel. There's no "treatment" that's going to magically change it's properties. It's possible to coat it with a clear coating, but then you're dealing with the properties of the plastic-like coating instead of the properties of the steel; it can scratch, burn, peel, etc. Yes, stainless will scratch too. If you want scratch-resistance, get a white or black enameled stove.
posted by jon1270 at 2:34 AM on November 14, 2009

Have you considered an induction cooktop?

They are amazing to cook with, and from what I've heard, pros prefer induction over gas. Induction gives you all the benefits of gas like instant on/off, super high heat, etc with none of the drawbacks (gas makes your kitchen hot, wastes a non-renewable resource, is a safety hazard, etc).

In fact, induction cooktops give you finer control than gas, allowing you to cook at even lower temperatures and distributing the heat evenly throughout the bottom of the pan. They are more than 80% efficient while gas cooktops are about 40% efficient. Most models are only a couple inches thick as well.

The only disadvantages I can see are that you can't use non-magnetic cookware such as aluminum, and you have no real flame if you want to do something crazy like flame roast a red pepper.

Anyhow it's just something to think about.
posted by bengarland at 7:17 AM on November 14, 2009 [2 favorites]

I don't have anything to recommend to you, but I will make some random comments regarding the GE Cafe range ...

About 2 years ago, I got my wife (the Chef of the house) a Cafe duel-fuel range along with replacing the rest of kitchen with the same Cafe stuff. This was when they first came out, so they might have changed. The range top is gas, the oven is electric. It looks great, when its clean. It gets dirty on a nightly basis, as does any SS appliance. The range replaced a very high end glass-top unit because the Chef wanted a gas cooktop.

My random observations:

* The burner tops change from black to a permanent gray-tinged appearance after a year of so.
* The burner control handles are a very cheap plastic and have a lot of play in them. This is my biggest complaint. They just feel cheap.
* After 2 years, I still have no idea what the perfect setting is for cooking scrambled eggs (as compared to the electric range where I put it on "3" and was good-to-go).
* If the oven is used, a very loud fan turns on. This fan does not turn off until 15 minutes after you turn the oven off. I very much do not like this noisy feature.
* The bottom drawer SS facing is a different texture than the rest of range (cheaper metal?).
* Due to the way the gas and electric lines behind the range are configured, it will not sit flush against the backsplash.
* It takes longer to boil water on this range versus my previous high-end electric.
* The oven handle is cheap and after a year, starting spinning around in its mounts.
* We would not buy it again.
* I miss the electric range.

It looks great. That's a bonus. But, in hindsight, we could have got a less expensive (not "professional" looking range that does the same thing better for less money.

If you're considering the other stuff ... the dishwasher is near-perfection, the fridge makes ice at a glacial speed (slow), the microwave is excellent except that its near-impossible to clean the front "glass" type material (its not glass, but some kind of see-through material).
posted by Dave. at 12:42 PM on November 14, 2009

We had a maytag gemini that might work. A bit under your price range, a true simmer burner, a power burner.

The kicker is that it's a true double oven in a 30 inch slide in form factor. 6 inch or so oven at the top, standard size at the bottom. We almost always used the small oven, since it preheats faster and is plenty tall for most dishes. For big pots we used the bottom, and on holidays or when baking multiple things we almost always have both going at all times. Fully independant temperatures and controls. It's a real improvement over the warming drawer, broil only, or pot storage you see on other ovens. We've since moved, but we plan on buying one for this house soon. Take a look, it might meet a need you didn't know you had.
posted by true at 3:01 PM on November 14, 2009

UPDATE: I shopped and shopped and shopped. After realizing that there was not really any stove in the $2k-$2.5k range that met all my wants and needs, I did the unthinkable. I bought a Viking. This was after my SO talked about how all I do is work and I say I have no hobbies, but that it wasn't true. She reminded me that cooking is my hobby and that I love it, and that I've been frustrated and constrained by our stove. She volunteered to give up our annual Thanksgiving trip to Carmel CA, in order to use that money for me to buy a more expensive stove. So, I did it. It was just so solid, no plastic parts, great design and cooking tech ingenuity. It has always been my dream range. I got it for around $3700 on sale. Now we will see how it works. Thought it was a nice sacrifice from the SO, since we go to Carmel every year at Thanksgiving and have been for 9 years, and it means the world to her. So, very sweet sacrifice.
posted by generic230 at 4:47 PM on November 15, 2009 [1 favorite]