Anyone bought a gas range lately?


 
Brad Olson

Brad Olson

TVWBB Diamond Member
I've had my current gas (LP, 30" wide) range for at least 10 years and it seems that the oven needs a new ignitor. Not a big deal as I've done it before, but I got to thinking that maybe it might be worth upgrading to a nicer model. This one is a pretty basic Whirlpool with 4 burners and I'm thinking that a 5-burner top might be a nice thing to have. Has anyone bought a mid-price (under $1K) unit lately, especially one with 5 burners? If so, how do you like it so far?
 
We bought a scratch & dent Frigidaire Professional (prosumer at best, really,) several years ago. If I didn't point out the problem, you probably wouldn't ever know. I do like the center burner, although it really doesn't spread heat out enough for the cast iron griddle I have. I really am not interested in the majority of the fancy features, although I have gotten rather attached to the thermoprobe feature (cook to this temp, cut down to keep warm.)
 
I was in Home Depot today and looked at a couple of Frigidaires. One has a round center burner while the other has an oval burner and comes with a griddle instead of a grate. Given the choice I think I'd prefer the round burner, at least right now.
 
We have a Whirlpool Gold gas range with the 5 burners that sells for just about $1K. The center is oval and in 4 years, I do not think we ever used it. The range is very good and the convection oven works well.
 
I bought and installed a top of the line KitchenAid drop in cooktop this summer.

Absolutely love it. 20k BTU center burner, of a 5 burner setup. Illuminated dials which shows which burners are lit. Automatic light and relight if a flame should go out. Incredibly low simmer which makes fine work of melting chocolate. SS top with cast iron grates. Cleanup is a breeze. I was looking at a Thermador and decided to save $1k and bought the KA. KA makes a model below this one without the illuminated dials and less BTUs in the high output burner.

Very happy with build quality and functions. Would highly recommend their products.

If you’re seeking a full on range with built in oven(s) I’d recco one that has convection for bake, roast and broil. The ovens output a high quality product when cooking.

We installed KA built in convection oven and micro combo two summers ago. This was our rebuild project for builder grade appliances that all died inside of 20 years when our home was newly built.

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Thanks for the suggestions, although some of you are being a bit free with my wallet.;)

I should've mentioned that it needs to be a free-standing model and not a slide-in. Fortunately we don't use the oven that often, so I'm not in a hurry. Especially with the holidays behind us.
 
Brad Olson said:
Thanks for the suggestions, although some of you are being a bit free with my wallet.;)

I should've mentioned that it needs to be a free-standing model and not a slide-in. Fortunately we don't use the oven that often, so I'm not in a hurry. Especially with the holidays behind us.
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Check out Whirlpool as it’s the level below KA. Main differences are warranty and maybe some lower output burners, and less heft on the cooking grates. They all come down the same production line and parts are very similar. I’d bet you can hit the $1k mark in that brand.

I look at it as I’m going to cook on it for 20 years. What’s worth buying to have for twenty happy years? And if you’re selling your home in those 20, what’s the resale value. A kitchen is the top item a buyer looks at when buying a prospective home. All depends what you’re comfortable spending and true needs are.
 
Forgive the mess, have not cleaned up from the feasting of last night.8FF4DF87-E475-405E-9D61-E7EB24CEABA6.jpeg
I don’t use the center burner a lot but, I knew I would not use the griddle. I have an old cast iron one that was my Dad‘s I can put that across two burners if I want to use a griddle. Had this about two years now, I like it it was not brutally expensive, around $600.00 I think.
 
That looks a LOT like the one I saw yesterday at HD, although the price was around $825. Maybe instead of getting a new range I'll just borrow yours.;)
 
I got mine from Lowes, won’t set foot in HD!
I think there was a “deal” going when I got it, It may have been nearer 700 but, I know it wasn’t 825. I’m too cheap to have spent that much😉
 
Something I would warn you about. LG, is definitely not worth buying. Bought one about 3 or 4 years ago when our Bosch dual fuel died. In the end I wish I had kept the Bosch (even if it meant spending over $1000) to repair it. Yeah the LG is that big a POS. Honestly I would not give a plugged nickel for Frigidaire/Electrolux either. Oddly I just helped my dad buy a new range from ABT in Glenview IL. Truth be told in the $800 to $1200 range they had there, we settled on a GE. Now for the record I truly dislike GE stuff. They do not make appliances anymore. Their stuff is made in China by Heier. But, I have to say so far this GE works quite well.
As for 5th burner. On a 30" range it's difficult to make use of. Anything you have on it precludes use of any of the other 4. So there's that. On ours it's used only for a griddle and I had to do a little modification to the burner output to even get that to work sufficiently.
Honestly though I cannot wait for the LG to just die. So I can get another Bosch dual fuel. Truly was a very nice range
 
I did. All the stuff at HD is essentially the same, but masquerading otherwise.

I would buy the cheaper model and I would stay away from extra buttons, fancy buttons, and displays as much as I possibly could. Professional ranges don't have any of that.
 
Scott Smith said:
I did. All the stuff at HD is essentially the same, but masquerading otherwise.

I would buy the cheaper model and I would stay away from extra buttons, fancy buttons, and displays as much as I possibly could. Professional ranges don't have any of that.
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The house we bought came with an infrared ceramic top stove, and quite honestly........ I never really used any of the "advanced" features. I learned to cook on gas, and griped under my breath frequently with that stove. The house was already stubbed out for gas, so I could have put in that space anything I wanted. We'd decided that if we ever replaced the stove, it was gonna be gas, convection, and otherwise relatively simple, same as what you're suggesting.

I do need to dig in to the controller on the gas stove, though. The preheat indicator is not functional, but only on the convection roast setting (works on everything else.) I suspect that a relay has failed, but I haven't decided if I just going to replace the entire circuit board assembly, or take it out of service long enough to figure out what relay I need, then de-solder the old relay (it's a through hole, fortunately not a surface mount) and mount the replacement.
 
Dacor four burner professional range. 30 inches wide with just four burners on top.

But those burners are 14 inch wide oversized and the grates are continuous over the full 30 inch width. So you have space for four big pots/pans at the same time.

Realistically, you'll likely never have more than 2 or 3 burners going at the same time. So you mostly just use the other burner grates as holding space to move stuff around. Comes with a 14 inch wide griddle that lays over two burners.

IMO, far superior and practical than squeezing in a goofy fifth burner on a narrow 30 inch unit.

It will cost you a lot more than than $1k. But maybe someone else makes a unit with the same layout.

We had the six burner 48 inch wide. It was simple and simply awesome.
 
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I have a GE all gas stove top and oven combo (about 4 to 5 years old. The stove top has a big griddle burner in the middle that we haven't used much. The quality of the griddle than came with the stove top is pretty poor/lightweight, and the griddle burner output is so weak it still takes forever for it to get hot.

Two of the 5 burners have decent output, but the other two are undersized IMO - where the low setting on the burner is roughly equal to a cigarette lighter, and high on these burners takes an hour to boil 2 cups of water. I agree with Jim C, I would rather have a cooktop with four correctly sized "high performance" burners than the unit I have. On the plus side, I have been fairly impressed by how well the gas oven performs. It holds temperatures really well according to my remote probe thermometers.....

I WISH my kitchen was big enough for a 48" top.... A friend of mine has a 48" top and it has "simmer" burners that actually cycle on and off to keep things warm without burning the bottom of your chili. The burners are also shaped like 5 point stars that helps with heat distribution. Obviously having good cookware is important too but, working with these kinds of burners is a lot of fun. Maybe when I get to DGAF land like ChuckO, I can downsize my house & upsize my kitchen and have one of those bad*ss cook tops ;)
 
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