On Fri, 08 Jan 1999 21:19:50 -0500 Margaret Maurer <sky@en.com> said:
> [...]
> Now we're remodeling our kitchen and are actually contemplating spending
> more money on a 6-burner-range-of-our-dreams than some people spend on
> an automobile. The problem is that unlike when you purchase a car, they
> don't let you test out the ranges in the store - I can't see how long it
> takes to boil a pot of water, or how evenly the oven bakes. Does anyone
> want to recommend any specific brands? We're looking the
> quasi-professional range, and are even considering one of those new
> dual-fuel ranges. BTW - it's gas or nothing on the cooktop. Anybody
> have a stove that they don't think we should buy? Do you love your
> stove? Tell us why - please - I just don't want to buy a dog and spend
> a whole lot of money on it.
A couple of years ago I went through many of these same remodeling decisions.
And I agree with you: gas is the superior way to cook. However, I prefer
electric "fuel" for baking... for the oven. So I decided on an electric oven
and a gas cooktop. I liked this arrangement for a second reason. A "range",
i.e., a single standalone unit that has both, generally stands between two
sections of the countertop, providing a small gap on each side for food and
whatever to fall into, creating a feeding and breeding ground for insect
pests. Built-in units eliminate this problem. They make for a much cleaner
kitchen.
A couple of caveats are worth mentioning though. For logistical convenience I
wanted the cooktop directly above the stove. The next kitchen I design
probably will be different. The reason for this is that it was quite
difficult to find a built-in oven short enough to fit under a cooktop mounted
in the countertop. (The standard countertop height is 36 inches.) Most of
the ovens were too tall by just an inch or more. It was possible for me to
buy a special oven, one meant for such an installation, but it was
exorbitantly expensive. After a lot of time spent shopping, I finally found a
reasonably priced unit which would fit in the allotted space, but it took far
too long to find.
The second difficulty with having the stove directly under (centered) under
the cooktop was the fact that prefab cabinets (all the the makes I looked at
anyway) came in six-inch increments. Yes, it is possible to use spacers to
shift the next cabinet a few inches, but if you have to use too many of these
spacers, the amount of usable space under your countertop can shrink
considerably. This might not be a problem if you have a large kitchen and so
enough space to afford this loss. Otherwise, you might find that you can't
fit in all the cabinets you would like. If you're going to use these prefab
units, I would recommend that you *first* get the dimensions of your possible
oven and stove and a few catalogs of them, and then make your plans at your
home kitchen with a tape measure to determine which cabinets are going to go
where and how everything is going to fit together.
Re: a dual-fuel range: Generally speaking, the more complex a technology is,
the more parts there are to break down. This is why, whenever and wherever
possible, I opt for simplicity. And if something does break on your expensive
cooktop, it'll be more difficult to find someone to fix it and they'll likely
charge more for repairs than for a simpler cooktop.
Simplicity also applies to the aesthetic design of your cooktop and oven.
While a variated surface might look nice in the showroom, when the unit is
actually in use in your kitchen, any embellished design will be more difficult
for you to clean. Select a unit which has plain, smooth surfaces. The knobs
and other hardware should be easy to remove (to the sink where they can be
washed easily) and put back again. Knobs should also be away from the burners
for safety's sake and so as little food as possible will splatter on them. If
there'll be small children in your kitchen, knobs also should be situated
distant from playful hands. You should be able to lift and easily and safely
prop up the entire top for servicing and cleaning. Although the entire cover
should lift completely off, it shouldn't fall off when all you want to do is
prop it up. While the cover is up, check to ensure that the fuel adjustment
screws for each burner are reasonably accessible. Normally people want a
flame which is just an inch or two high, but for cooking with a wok, you'll
want to adjust the flame much higher... and perhaps adjust it back down again
afterwards. (Electric ranges are pretty much useless for wok cooking.) Also
for the sake of cleanliness, the centers of the burners should be flat or
convex rather than concave; the latter collect food debris more readily and
then are also more difficult to clean.
As part of actually selecting your oven and cooktop, read the installation and
owner's manual that comes with it. Most have safety proscriptions regarding
the empty space around the unit needed for air circulation for heat
dissipation; these numbers should figure into the placement of oven and
cooktop between adjacent cabinets and so too into your overall kitchen design;
likewise for the installation of the gas line feeding the cooktop (also which
should be described in the manual). If you rely only on the outside
dimensions of your cooking units, you might find later, when actually
installing them, that they don't quite fit.
The quality of the flame shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'm not any kind
of engineer in this field, but gas cooking is a technology that has been
around for a long time, so I would suspect that it's been awhile since there
were any significant improvements in the design of gas jets (the little holes
where the gas comes out) or valves or pipes. It's likely that in this respect
most gas burners are going to be about the same. Having lived in a lot of
different apartments with a lot of different cooking facilities, I've found
that gas burners work about the same regardless of the particular stove's make
and model.
Best of luck with your new kitchen,
Ken Fisler
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