Gas range - what to look for

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Me too on stove clean up. After the holidays it will be time for a good stove cleaning.

I guess my wok is too big.
 
Sorry to be a pain and ask all those questions but it's great to be able to rely on you guys for information!!

I'm still debating what I should do and now my actual range is acting up so I may need to accelerate my purchase :(

So I'm undecisive between those 4.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the following 3 have little difference and would mostly go to personal preference on look
Samsung Burner are 23K,16K,10K(center) ,5K,9K
Ge Cafe Burners are 21K,15K,12K,9.5K(center),5K
Kitchenaid Burners 19K,15K,5K,9K,8K

Now this one is more expensive ( extra 2000$ CAD from the 3 above)
Kitchen Commercial Burners 20K,20K, 5K,15K

This one has no fancy LCD screen (which can be a pro or con), much smaller oven capacity more or less an issue as I mostly cook pizza and bread in it. Is it worth to spend more $$ on this one?

Thoughts ???

Thanks !!
 
Depends how much money you have!

I don’t love the dual ovens of the Samsung at all. If you have a pot you want to use that’s too tall you’re screwed. Or if you go whole hog for lining your oven top and bottom with clay tiles. I’d reject that out of hand.

I find for me that one 20k burner is enough. I don’t do short order diner cooking too often where I’d look for two real hot burners so I wouldn’t spend the extra for that expensive KA range. Plus oven size is always good to have.

So I’d vote either ge or cheap kitchenaid
 
my 2 cts: get an outside high power Wok burner as your hood most likely cannot cope should the range has the power, get a pizza oven that can do HIGH heat and a decent gas range for inside. I have used two Bosch pro units for like 5 years each and I loved them except for the fact that doing a stir fry is impossible due to low power output (as with almost all non professional ranges over here, mainly due to the usual gas pressure)

O and for Pizza, go see pizzamaking.com for ideas what oven you want !
 
@evilgawd: Depends on how you cook. Think about your current stove. How often do you cook something with the burner at max heat (other than boiling water)? If you're like most it isn't very often. It's easy to sear steaks in a cast iron pan on an old 1960s electric. This thing the mfg have about BTU output is just the typical American bigger-number-is-mo-better. And I say that as a guy who has two 25,000 BTU jet engines in the kitchen. (BTW, the dirty little secret is that for many homes the gas lines can't actually supply enough to get those BTUs). I never actually cook anything at that output. It would turn a pan red glowing hot. There are exceptions of course, like the posters above who do a lot of wok cooking.

It's just heat. Mandatory features: the heat adjusts. Can it go low for a simmer? Does the flame spread to heat the pan evenly? To me this is more important than total BTU. Is the oven heat even (convection fan is a must)? Will it fit a full-sized sheet pan? Is it reliable? Does it look good? We're done. Everything else is irrelevant (LCDs, timers, control with your phone, internet, etc.).

It's just heat. I have friends who bought a 10-burner custom Gullo for the price of a nice car and yet a good chef could prepare a great meal on a two-burner tabletop hotplate.
 
I would buy the simples gas range there is as it has less to break. When I installed my Viking gas range it was funny when we needed to time something in the oven. We had to buy a timer as there is none on the Viking. The Viking is a very simple range with very few parts to replace. There are very few parts and are simple to replace as there are videos out on the net with how to do it. The ignitors and gas tubes are things that wear out. You might think about a Viking low end in 30-inch if you are thinking kitchen commercial.

I don't think a home range gets hot enough to make great pizza. You might think about a pizza oven or a smoker you can run real hot. I can get my smoker 600 plus degrees. I would not worry about a kitchen range being a pizza oven. I would not buy a Viking to make pizza, but it has a great oven and broiler.

But I am just a home cook so what do I know.
 
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@AT5760 All stores are currently closed up here, but from my quick research Bluestar range were closer to 7K CAD , which brings up almost to double of what I originally wanted to put ;)
@MarcelNL yup I'm a lurker at pizzamaking.com but I don't buy the oven specifically for pizza making, I'm using a baking steel and it gives decent results. If I want to step up my game, I will get something outside.
@SeattleB
Mandatory features: the heat adjusts. Can it go low for a simmer? Does the flame spread to heat the pan evenly?
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Kind of hard to tell from the website or is there a way to know?

Ge cafe or kitchenaid is mostly a toss .... The kitchenaid commercial style is REALLY sexy and would buy it in a flash but the oven dimension concerns me a little , so damn small
 
On my ge range I often have to resort to a heat diffuser.

Inelegant, awkward solution that totally solves the problem.

Also make sure your exhaust system is adequate for your stove. That bkuestar probably needs an additional grand in range hood too.
 
I currently have a 600 CFM , so I would assume the GE or KA would work without the need to run at full speed
 
For sure the Samsung, but get the model with the single oven NX60T8711SG/AA. It has the highest BTU single burner, and since its a dual ring the inner ring is perfect for simmering. For the folks who say they rarely use their burner at the max setting, that is a matter of learning to use high heat properly rather than one of cooking style. At the very least, who doesn’t use max heat to boil a pot of water for pasta?
 
As others have stated, you have to first identify what are your musts., likes, don't care, and cannot have's..

for example: i really didn't want any electronics, as they are #1 thing that will break.

So, if you so a lot of stir fry's then you may want a wok burner or a 25k+ burner. If you broil, then you want a very nice broil element (some ceramic ones go up to 2000F). If you're a baker, then you want the best possible oven with convection. If you do a lot of slow cookers then you want to control heat, so either have a summer burner or a highly adjustable burner.

I think once you narrow down to what you specifically want and what you don't want, then you can start working on the rest. Just remember, as some have said, 1/2" line may not delivery the btu's you need, so if you're getting a 25k+ burner stove on multiple burners, then you want/need a 3/4" line.

As for make up air, that's only mandatory in newly build houses that are much better insulted and are almost air tight. I live in an old factory modded into condos, so it's not very airtight... no make up air will ever be needed.
 
Just made a few calls to get pricing on some higher-end models, just for fun. Obviously, those are more expensive ranges but curious to see what you guys think.

For my use case I do pretty much everything, I cook mostly fish/seafood, do lots of saute/stir fry, over the last year I started playing with bread and pizza ( pizza should be considered a requirement here) .

Miele/Viking/Bluestar = unable to get any pricing / no local dealers
Jennair 7000$ CAD JDRP430HM Spec for Spec its very similar with the kitchenaid commercial , any opinion on the brand reliability? Worth spending a few more dollars for it?
Bertazonni 6000$ CAD PROF304DFSXT Reading a lot of bad reviews about their ranges
thermador 8500$CAD PRD304WHC very very very sexy

Thanks
 
Too bad no Viking dealers. I am happy with my Viking range and it is 13 years old and works as good today as it did when it was new. They are built to last. It is right at 500 lbs. and I need someone to help move it around. It is very easy to work on. There are videos on how to repair it. The gas broiler is outstanding.

I do like Thermador as I almost replaced my wall oven with a gas Thermador wall oven before I changed to the Viking.

I have 3/4-inch gas pipe to the valve and from the valve to the Viking I have a short 1/2-inch flexible gas line. It seems to work well.
 
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Gas isn't allowed in my condo complex. I had to go with a GE Advantium induction stove and oven. Had to get the induction compatible cookware (Demeyere). Gas has been outlawed in Berkeley and San Francisco for new installations. The San Bruno conflagration was the death knell for gas. Infrastructure is rotting.
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At this point I think it's really worth looking ahead what your local government's policy is for the next 20-30 years before investing in a fancy gas stove. Sure there's still significant uncertainty to it, but over here there's plenty of places that already have plans outlined to basically take neighbourhoods / towns off gas in the coming decades.
Even though I cook on gas I made it a hard requirement for all my pan acquisitions in recent years that they should work well on induction, because there's a high chance that sooner or later I'll be cooking on it.
 
Gas for cooking is headed the same way as gasoline for cars. Obsolete within the next 10-15 years.
 
Michi said:
Gas for cooking is headed the same way as gasoline for cars. Obsolete within the next 10-15 years.
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It depends a lot on where you live. Gas-producing countries will likely keep using it for quite some time simply because it's available to them and cheap. And even within more modern places the timeframe is usually longer... I live in quite a progressive city but even here the plan is to get most neighbourhoods off gas by 2045... that's 22 years from now. And some neighbourhoods like the inner city are likely to remain using gas because it's just such a clusterfornication to redo everything... plan there is to switch to either biogas or synthesized gas using natural power.

A lot can happen in those 20 years... sure, Russia has provided a significant boost to 'going off gas' in Europe, but it's often easier said than done. Switching over existing neighbourhoods often means redoing half the infrastructure.
 
Induction is a largely equivalent tech anyway and we're about to see massive investment in it that will make it even better.

Plus it doesn't rot your brain or give you asthma. People are seething at the idea they will "have to give up their gas stoves" but the angriest about clearly don't know how to cook anyway. Dumb culture war/politics blowup over nothing meaningful.
 
tcmx3 said:
Induction is a largely equivalent tech anyway and we're about to see massive investment in it that will make it even better.

Plus it doesn't rot your brain or give you asthma. People are seething at the idea they will "have to give up their gas stoves" but the angriest about clearly don't know how to cook anyway. Dumb culture war/politics blowup over nothing meaningful.
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Yes, this linkage between stove usage and asthma is pretty recent in terms of public awareness. I’m in NYC, our asthma rates are insanely high and apartment ventilation is notoriously lacking. This essay seems credible:

https://www.massmed.org/Publication...ween-Natural-Gas-Stoves-and-Pediatric-Asthma/
//edit. The angriest may not know how to cook but I’m guessing they know how to accept money from lobbyists representing the natural gas industry.
 
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tcmx3 said:
Induction is a largely equivalent tech anyway and we're about to see massive investment in it that will make it even better.

Plus it doesn't rot your brain or give you asthma. People are seething at the idea they will "have to give up their gas stoves" but the angriest about clearly don't know how to cook anyway. Dumb culture war/politics blowup over nothing meaningful.
Click to expand...

rickbern said:
Yes, this linkage between stove usage and asthma is pretty recent in terms of public awareness. I’m in NYC, our asthma rates are insanely high and apartment ventilation is notoriously lacking. This essay seems credible:

https://www.massmed.org/Publication...ween-Natural-Gas-Stoves-and-Pediatric-Asthma/
//edit. The angriest may not know how to cook but I’m guessing they know how to accept money from lobbyists representing the natural gas industry.
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Though I agree with the point that at this point induction is 'good enough to transition to'.... I think the root cause of the problem here isn't the stove... it's the bad ventilation.
With good ventilation even a bad (gas) stove isn't a problem. With bad ventilation even if you have induction it's still a health hazard. And in a big city like NY there's likely a lot of other factors (like air pollution) that play a similar role.
Sadly the 'bad ventilation' problem is only likely to get worse as houses get better insulated but eventually some of them will be poorly designed, essentially becoming unhealthy for the inhabitants.
 
Jovidah said:
Though I agree with the point that at this point induction is 'good enough to transition to'.... I think the root cause of the problem here isn't the stove... it's the bad ventilation.
With good ventilation even a bad (gas) stove isn't a problem. With bad ventilation even if you have induction it's still a health hazard. And in a big city like NY there's likely a lot of other factors (like air pollution) that play a similar role.
Sadly the 'bad ventilation' problem is only likely to get worse as houses get better insulated but eventually some of them will be poorly designed, essentially becoming unhealthy for the inhabitants.
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I've lived in American houses all of my life, and I will just say that anything recently built I would straight up not trust the ventilation unless I had had the house built myself.

Ironically, my current place is over 100 years old and done properly.
 
evilgawd said:
Just made a few calls to get pricing on some higher-end models, just for fun. Obviously, those are more expensive ranges but curious to see what you guys think.

For my use case I do pretty much everything, I cook mostly fish/seafood, do lots of saute/stir fry, over the last year I started playing with bread and pizza ( pizza should be considered a requirement here) .

Miele/Viking/Bluestar = unable to get any pricing / no local dealers
Jennair 7000$ CAD JDRP430HM Spec for Spec its very similar with the kitchenaid commercial , any opinion on the brand reliability? Worth spending a few more dollars for it?
Bertazonni 6000$ CAD PROF304DFSXT Reading a lot of bad reviews about their ranges
thermador 8500$CAD PRD304WHC very very very sexy

Thanks
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Friend has a Bertazonni. Avoid. Quality control issues.

I have a bluestar platinum. If high btu’s are what you seek this thing is a monster.
 
There's no way to check this in the store, but several years ago i got a higher end range. The dials to adjust the stove top burners are numbered 1-10. Problem is, the whole range can be covered in 1-3, meaning once you get to 3, it's on high! So, 3 to 10 is all HIGH heat. Makes it a pain to micro adjust. I have to do it by sight.
I dislike the propane oven. Will get gas top/ electric oven next time.
 
And "gas " is a genetic term. In reviewing burner output and size, propane burns a lot hotter than natural gas. Stoves usually come plumbed for natural gas. You have to change the orifaces to run propane through them( if that's what you'll have).
 
It is definitely worthwhile to spring for a dual fuel range. Gas ovens are awful. Beyond their inability to hold moisture/steam, they don't tell you when they've preheated! You have to find a calibrated oven thermometer and then babysit the damned thing.
 
Never having tried it can anyone tell me how well induction works with a wok on stir fries? Chinese cooking teachers make a big deal about only gas being hot enough for proper stir frying.
 
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