I'm burnin', I'm burnin', I'm burnin' for you

August 24, 2007 12:48 PM

Which cook-top should I buy: the more powerful one with a sketchy repair history or the wimpier one with a nearly spotless repair history?

I'm getting the kitchen of my dreams and am finally going to have a gas cook-top. I've only ever cooked on professional cook-tops (at culinary school and in the industry). Every range I've ever had/cooked on has been electric. I know I want a gas cook-top, but which one? I don't want a big honkin' professional cook-top; I'm not going to do restaurant work in my home kitchen. I am going to use it a lot and I know that more power is better. My two choices (after a year of research) are the Dacor Preference PGM365 (which has one 18,000-500BTU burner, one 12,500-400BTU burner, one 12,500BTU burner and one 9,500BTU burner) and the GE Profile™ 36 In. Built-In Gas Cooktop (which has one 18,000-140BTU burner, one 11,000-150BTU burner, one 9,000-150BTU burner, and two 5,000-140BTU burners. The Profile is highly recommended by Consumer Reports and has a history of very few repairs, and the Dacor is highly recommeded by Consumer Reports and has a much spottier repair history.

So, fellow cooks and foodies: what do I do? Does anyone have experience with the Dacor w/r/t repairs? I'm not really willing to be talked out of these two choices (please don't suggest Wolf or Vulcan, for example; I've done a lot of research on this and have my own reasons for ending up with these two choices), but would love to hear anyone's experiences (good or bad) with these two cook-tops.

posted by cooker girl to home & garden (7 comments total)

I have a Dacor, but not that particular model. Have not had any problems with it in the 3 years or so that I've had it, for what that's worth. Also, GE Profile was my "other" choice when I was looking, but the Dacor model fit the specific needs of my kitchen better. Either way, make sure you get sealed burners -- that turns out to be a really good thing.

Another random data point: Dacor is kind of a Jesus-y company. Evangelical posters in the showroom, and all that. That's a turn-off for me, but may or may not be to you.
posted by spilon at 1:11 PM on August 24, 2007

Well they both have top burners capable of putting out some serious heat, so you need to ask yourself if in the course of home cooking you feel you will need to be generating that kind of heat for more then one dish at at time. In all likelyhood you will be cooking one thing intensely then maybe simmering a few other things. I would suggest the wimpier model unless my guess about your home cooking habits is wrong.
posted by BobbyDigital at 1:12 PM on August 24, 2007

I have GE Profile appliances throughout my home, including a cooktop very similar. I have had about zero repairs ever in the several years we've owned it. Agree with the sealed burners.

And the fact that GE also makes (or at least made) weapons systems bothers me no more than Dacor's 'Jesus-y' showroom.
posted by uaudio at 1:47 PM on August 24, 2007

If I am reading your comments correctly, the Profile's smallest burner will go from 5000 all the way down to 140 BTU/hr? My problem with gas cooktops is generally that they won't go -low- enough. The hottest burner on each cooktop is 18KBTU/h, but the GE blows the Dacor away in dynamic range of each burner (that is, max to min range). I looked for the max-to-min range of the GE and didn't find that in five minutes' checking, but if the GE's burners will go as low as I think you say, I'd buy it without hesitation.
posted by jet_silver at 2:27 PM on August 24, 2007

One other thought - how much does it bother you if it does break down? Personally, it so inconvient to have things break that I place a very high weight on reliability.
posted by metahawk at 4:33 PM on August 24, 2007

Thanks everyone, this really does help.

Jet silver: I actually wasn't aware of the bottom range of the burners until I was composing this post. I agree with you completely and I may have been swayed to the Profile even more now.

Metahawk: It would bother me a lot if it broke down. Beyond the cost, I wouldn't want to be inconvenienced.
posted by cooker girl at 4:37 PM on August 24, 2007

One more thing: I incorrectly typed the lower range on the Profile's burners as BTUs. It should be "degrees Farenheit." Still, those are nice, low simmer temps.
posted by cooker girl at 6:23 PM on August 24, 2007