Buying a range for your kitchen is not a straightforward as you may think. Sure, most ranges will do the job of boiling, searing, and baking. However, there are plenty of other considerations such as fuel types, smart functions, baking features, and so much more that can make your next range the best decision you’ve ever made – if you know what to look for.
At Appliance Palace, we want you to be certain that the appliance you choose will live up to your expectations before you buy it. So we’ve picked our experts’ brains to learn everything our customers should know about kitchen ranges before browsing our vast inventory of high-quality appliances. That way, you’ll be able to quickly and efficiently narrow down your search to the features and functions you need – or didn’t know that you needed.
Before You Buy
The last thing you want on delivery day is to find out you can’t use your new range. Let’s go through some basic housekeeping tips to determine which models are compatible with both your preferences and your installation space.
- Ensure you have an outlet with matching voltage for your range regardless of whether it is powered by electricity or gas. Gas ranges require an electrical outlet to power spark ignition, oven lights, and digital displays. If your range’s power requirements do not match your existing outlet, consult an electrician to change or upgrade your outlet’s voltage.
- For Freestanding Ranges: Freestanding ranges have finished sides, allowing them to be placed anywhere with space against your kitchen’s wall or within a cutout in your cabinetry. When integrating a freestanding range into your cabinetry, take the height, width, and depth measurements of the cutout where you want your range to go. A good idea when measuring depth is to add an additional 1-2” for plug and gas line clearance.
- For Slide-In Ranges: Slide-in ranges do not have finished sides so they can tuck flush with kitchen cabinetry, creating a sleek, built-in appearance that exudes luxury appeal. When integrating a slide-in range into your cabinetry, take the height, width, and depth measurements of the cutout where you want your range to go. There should be no gaps on its left or right side, but a maximum of 1/8” clearance can be filled with matching trim pieces if available. Slide-in ranges also have counter aprons, so factor in an additional 1½” of counter space on each side for the overlap lips to rest. Add an additional 2” to your depth measurement for plug and gas line clearance.
Fuel Types
When deciding on a primary fuel type for your range, it is important to consider more than just their power. Each one comes with its own specific strengths and tradeoffs that make it suitable for different lifestyles and cooking preferences.
Gas Ranges
- Gas Cooktops: Gas burners are popular for their instant ignition capability, allowing them to release high heat whenever you are ready to start cooking. This makes gas very popular in commercial kitchens where searing and boiling is a round-the-clock necessity. Gas cooktops have a unique advantage over other fuel types – as long as you have match to replace the electronic ignition, they can be used in power outage situations. The main tradeoff is that, because it utilizes an open flame, more ambient heat is released into your kitchen. This can be easily mitigated with a standard range hood unit. In certain circumstances where gas hookups are not available in your area, select brands offer gas ranges that can be converted to use liquid propane.
- Gas Ovens: Gas ovens produce heat through combustion, which creates a moisture-rich environment compared to electric ovens. This additional moisture helps meats retain more of their juices, produces a higher rise in baked loaves, and desserts like cookies or cakes will have less cracks in their surfaces. The main tradeoff is that gas ovens without a convection fan have less even heat distribution than electric units.
Electric Ranges
- Electric Cooktops: For a more eco-friendly alternative to gas, many consumers are opting for electric ranges in their kitchens. Electric cooktop elements maintain more consistent heat levels than gas burners, but require pre-heating to reach your desired temperature. Since there is no flame produced, there is less ambient heat to warm up your kitchen throughout the cooking process. Additionally, their simple electrical hookups make installation quick and easy. Many have a hot surface indicator included since their glass and coils can require a few minutes to cool down. Since your cookware does not rest on grates, it is important to keep it centered over its element to avoid damaging the area around the cooking surface.
- Electric Ovens: Electric ovens produce a drier baking environment compared to gas ovens, making them superior for crisping foods like homemade croutons, roasted potatoes, thin crust pizzas, and puff pastries. Unlike gas, they can maintain consistent temperatures throughout the oven cavity roughly within a 5°F range. The main tradeoff is that electric ovens take longer to preheat to their target temperature compared to gas units.
Induction Ranges
Induction ranges are essentially high-end electric ranges with some structural differences that make them popular choices for luxury kitchens. An induction range’s cooktop utilizes electromagnetism to transfer heat directly into your cookware, speeding up the cooking process and expelling no ambient heat. This makes their smoothtop glass surfaces safe to the touch when in use and allows spills to be wiped up immediately since they do not burn onto them. While they start at a higher price point, the energy savings over their lifespans more than offset the cost of purchase.
The main tradeoff of induction is that it requires conductive, metallic cookware to be used. While the surface itself does not heat up, hot surface indicators are still included. This is because heat conducted by your cookware may release back into your cooking surface, keeping it hot to the touch for a brief period after cookware is removed.
Dual Fuel Ranges
Dual fuel ranges are specialized high-end hybrid units that combine a gas cooktop with an electric oven, giving you the best performance features of both fuel types! Seasoned chefs will love having instant gas flames for searing steaks and wok cooking, while avid bakers can expertly utilize the consistent heat of electric ovens to produce a wide assortment of delectable desserts.
Burner Styles and Surface Options
After choosing a fuel type, you will also have to decide what surface configuration will suit your preferred cooking style. Here are some additional considerations to make whether you are purchasing a gas or electric range.
Gas Burners and Grate Options
- Sealed Burners: These burner types are slightly elevated over the recessed surface of your cooktop, ensuring spills do not fall into them and can be easily wiped away. However, because they have burner caps covering them as well, heat is distributed around the edges of the cap. This creates slightly lower temperatures at the center of your pans while cooking.
- Open Burners: True to their name, these burners provide direct, intense flames to dramatically speed up the cooking process. However, this exposed design makes them prone to crumbs and other items falling into them.
- Continuous Cast Iron Cooking Grates: These durable grates have a rock-solid surface that more evenly distributes heat and resists warping over years of use. Their bridged design lets them support oversized cookware over multiple burners and easily slide heavy pots without lifting them over to a new cooking zone. Many brands design them to be dishwasher-safe so you can avoid tediously scrubbing off burnt-on spills.
- Porcelain Cooking Grates: These grates have a rust-proof, non-stick enamel layer covering their metal cores. They are available in multiple colors (usually black, white, or grey) to match your cooktop surface.
Electric Element and Surface Options
- Radiant Coils: Exposed coils most often found on budget-friendly range models. They will get the job done, but you should expect longer pre-heating times as heat travels through the coils.
- Smoothtop Surfaces: Smoothtop electric models conceal their coils under a glass surface, creating a seamless surface that easily wipes cleans after spillage. While they are crafted durably, take care not to slam heavy cookware onto them, as these impacts risk cracking them.
- Bridge Elements: Select induction ranges have cooking zones which can share and spread their power over a greater surface area to accommodate oblong, oversized cookware.
Hybrid Cooktop Ranges
Luxury brands such as Fisher & Paykel offer unique hybrid-cooktop ranges, combining gas burners and induction elements onto one cooking surface. If you find utility in both fuel types, these high-end cooking units can be worth the investment. Quickly sear steaks on a gas burner to maximize cooking power while boiling a pot of water on the induction surface to minimize ambient heat production!
Accessories and Upgrades
Sometimes, standard grate shapes are insufficient to prepare specific dishes. Luckily, many ranges’ cooktops can be equipped with accessories that greatly expand the types of meals you are able to make at home. While some ranges may come prepackaged with certain attachments, select accessories are sold separately due to their niche cooking applications. The most popular available accessories include:
- Griddles: Multipurpose flat top cooking surfaces that often come with a grease catcher. Since they are full depth attachments, they are capable of cooking multiple burgers, pancakes, omelettes and other foods together instead of having a dedicated pan for each.
- French Tops: A large, cast-iron plate that concentrates heat in the center and radiates it outward, creating dedicated cooking zones with one burner. That way, you can slide multiple cookware items to each one’s ideal temperature zone without using multiple burners.
- Wok Grates: These circular grates safely cradle large wok pots for stir fry.
- Grill Attachments: These accessories give you the classic sear marks of a grill without going outside and lighting up your barbecue.
Alternate Oven Configurations
While most ranges have a single oven cavity and sometimes a storage drawer for cookware, modern range designs offer a handful of unique, multi-oven designs to tailor cooking to your preferences.
Double Oven Ranges
Double ovens are a cooking innovation that revolutionizes food preparation by slashing bake times and allowing simultaneous preparation of dishes requiring different cooking conditions.
- Vertical Double Oven Ranges: Double oven ranges measuring 36” or less have their oven cavities stacked, making them very efficient for quickly preheating and cooking several small dishes. The tradeoff is that you sacrifice vertical space in each cavity, making it more difficult to fit large roasts.
- Horizontal Double Oven Ranges: Double oven ranges over 36” have their ovens side-by-side, allowing them to fit large items like turkeys since they keep their full cavity height. The tradeoff is that you need a much large cutout in your counters to fit these wider ranges.
Warming Drawers
Warming drawers are a convenient feature for those who entertain often and prepare multicourse meals. These specialized compartments utilize residual heat from the baking process to maintain finished meals at serving temperatures while you continue cooking other dishes.
Premium Features and Design Elements
Luxury ranges have numerous specialized features and design elements that greatly enhance the average cooking experience, including:
- Bluetooth hood synchronization from select brands automatically starts and adjusts range hood power based on settings and/or heat detected from the cooktop surface.
- Glowing knobs are both a stylish way for your range to stand out and a safety feature that alerts you when a burner is active.
- Slide controls intuitively respond to your touch, allowing you to easily adjust settings without pinching or twisting knobs.
- Single and dual convection fans circulate hot air throughout the oven cavity, eliminating cold spots and producing even baking results on all sides of your food. This also cuts down cooking times, potentially reducing static cooking recipes by several minutes.
- Cast brass burners more effectively resist warping compared to standard aluminum burners thanks to their high heat tolerance. They last 2-3 longer than aluminum, can be polished back to bright metal after spills, and provide better flame stability.
- Star-shaped burners from brands like Thermador provide greater coverage on the underside of your cookware, release more heat, and eliminate warm spots.
- Triple ring burners allow you to seamlessly transition from gentle simmering to intense searing as outer rings ignite to release more power over a greater area.
- Integrated downdraft ventilation offered by luxury brands like JennAir extracts heat from the cooktop without requiring an additional range hood.
- Specialty cooking modes like air fry and steam cooking not only expand your cooking repertoire – they make foods healthier, too! Air frying requires little to no oil to create low-calorie finger foods, while steam lets you cook sous vide dishes that preserve most of their nutrients.
- Wireless temperature probes communicate directly with luxury ranges’ control panels and automatically shut off the oven once optimal internal food temperatures are reached.
- Smart features and Wi-Fi connectivity add hands-free functionality to your range, letting you operate it by means of a smartphone app or even your voice.
Smart Ranges and Wi-Fi Features
Whether it’s your phone to your Bluetooth speaker, your computer to your TV, and now even with appliances, the era of “smart” and “connected” devices is going strong. However, most people are not sure of the difference between smart appliances and connected appliances.
Smart Ranges
“Smart” refers to intuitive operations initiated by the range unit when certain sensors are triggered. An example of this is GE’s Chef Connect feature which allows select ranges to communicate with compatible GE range hoods. When a burner is activated, the range hood’s fan will be automatically activated at comparable ventilation speeds to efficiently extract the heat being released.
Connected Ranges
“Connected” refers to Wi-Fi compatibility. Connected ranges can access the internet to download updates, send notifications to your smartphone, allow the manufacturer to perform remote diagnostics, let you operate the range with your voice using a smart home manager, and so much more. One of the most impressive modern examples of this is Bosch ranges that can sync with the Home Connect™ smartphone app. Using Home Connect™, you can preheat the oven remotely from your phone, allowing you to get a head start on dinner before you even reach your house after work.