<p>My husband is actually the one who suggested I query the collective wise ones on CC!</p>
<p>The very old electric coil top range that was in our house when we bought it just died (actually only the oven; the coil sparked, flamed, and broke just as I was putting in cornbread for our dinner with company!). It is so old that it has to be cleaned manually, so I don’t want to repair it. Prior to this we always had gas and now that we have to buy something new I’m not sure where to begin.</p>
<p>We have natural gas in the house and I have someone coming in on Monday morning to give us an estimate as to the cost of running a line to where the stove is.</p>
<p>I had thought about an electric smoothtop but just found out I can’t use cast iron on it–and I love my cast iron pans! I then found out that the most highly rated one in Consumer Reports (GE JB700DN) is nowhere to be found in the state I live in, so even if I wanted one I can’t find one to see.</p>
<p>Do you like the cooking range you have? If so, what is it and why do you like it? If not, same questions.</p>
<p>Now I need to buy some bread–it was time to bake…</p>
<p>I have changed out electric to gas every time we’ve purchased a home with electric. The running of the line has never cost much, so you shouldn’t have a problem with that.</p>
<p>We replaced the JennAir that came with our current house (which had been taken over by a poltergeist, lol) about 5 months ago. We decided to go for the professional range look and feel, but not at the price of the Wolf/Viking/DCR etc.</p>
<p>We got the GE Cafe line - which is not cheap but cheaper than those alternatives. So far so good. It has a second (electric) oven(drawer, but not just a warming drawer - a real oven) below the main one. There are 5 burners, with lots of range between Power Boil ( high BTU) and one that works very well for low simmer (lots of ranges with high BTU burners can’t be set low enough to simmer). The central burner is “front-to-back” oval shape and there is a griddle that you can change out the regular grate.</p>
<p>It’s cool looking. I went through all the reviews and find that there are pluses and minuses to pretty much every option - you won’t find wholly positive reviews out there, in my experience. Some of the negatives in earlier reviews on this one have been addressed (eg, the knobs are now true stainless steel; we don’t find it noisy - which some people complained about). I also like that the Self Clean option on this one allows you to leave the oven racks inside.</p>
<p>One thing that I hate hate hate about most new options is that they have a lot of electronics - this is what failed (taken over by poltergeist) on our old oven. Lots that can go wrong with electronics that you set for “chicken nuggets” or whatever. I like just a plain old analog turn the dial system, but they are pretty hard to find.</p>
<p>As you are looking for the new stove pay attention to height as they can vary +/- a full inch.</p>
<p>I go to the [Appliances</a>, Home and Kitchen Appliances | ajmadison.com](<a href=“http://www.ajmadison.com%5DAppliances”>http://www.ajmadison.com) website and “pre shop” before I go out and look for appliances. After you select your appliance across the top, use the column on the left to narrow your criteria. Each appliance has specifications that you can look at.</p>
<p>I guess you probably don’t want me to tell you that replacing the heating element in the oven is usually inexpensive and quick and easy and something any moderately handy person can do themself - so I won’t.</p>
<p>I have a Thermador cook top that I put in when we remodeled the kitchen 13 years ago. It’s been great and I have no complaints other than the way the stainless steel has scratched over the years. The reason I’m chiming in here is that one of the main things I really like about my cook top is the “continuous grate” on the top. Rather than grates over each burner, there is a three part (for 6 burners) big heavy grate system. That means I can slide pots around the top without lifting them. I also use the cooktop as a cooling rack for pans that come out of the oven.</p>
<p>I have a GE gas range that I like but if I had it to do over again, I would choose a dual-fuel range though they are more pricey. I love the gas cook top but gas ovens tend to not cook as evenly as electric.</p>
<p>Like jmmom’s, my GE gas range has the gas burner down the middle which you can use as a griddle or put a rack on it and use as a 5th burner. It also converts it to a continuous grate. Honestly, we keep the griddle on it all the time and use it as a spoon rest :). It also have 1 designated ‘power’ burner and one ‘simmer’ burner - I use those a lot. It also has a warming drawer that I rarely use.</p>
<p>I have a lovely bone GE gas range with beautiful gray porceline grates. Beautiful in the showroom. No spill top, self cleaning inside. But I HATE it. Don’t buy anything other than BLACK grates!!! My grates are disgusting, covered with burned on black goo that I can’t get off. Of course according to the instructions all I have to do is soak them in hot soapy water - please don’t use abrasives. The only thing that gets them remotely clean is an SOS pad and massive amounts of elbow-grease. I tried to find replacement grates that were black, couldn’t find any. </p>
<p>Never, ever, ever buy anything with beautiful gray grates.</p>
<p>I have the black grates that also got disgusting over time (black hides it a little but it’s still there). I tried every thing I could think of from easy-off oven cleaner to brillo to ammonia. Finally, I stumbled across a suggestion on a forum. Use a straight-edge razor to scrap it off. Works like a charm and was relatively easy to do. My grates almost look like new.</p>
<p>Check the appliance forum on That Home Site on Garden Web. There is lots of information on appliances there. Of course there are the usual “high end” snobs, but people there do lots of research, and can give some real life experiences with the stove. It is an interesting resource.</p>
<p>If you need a standard 30" range, I would recommend the Maytag Gemini. It has 5 burners on the cooktop and a double oven. I’ve had mine for 5-6 years and love it. We primarily use the upper oven and it heats very quickly. Full disclosure, we needed to replace the ignitor earlier this year, but luckily my husband is handy, so we ordered the part on-line and he installed it himself. (it wasn’t a huge deal, since the lower oven worked). I bought the top of the line one with the convection oven, however I have found I don’t use it very much. I shopped around on-line and bought it from Homedepot.com during a free shipping special, plus they priced matched a price I found from another website. </p>
<p>regarding manual clean ovens, the person who fixed my washer was talking to me about fixing ovens and they told me that using the self clean feature is the thing that most frequently breaks an oven and that she always suggests manually cleaning your oven the old fashioned way. She said when the oven cleans itself it gets so unnaturally hot beyond normal and that’s the thing that breaks most frequently on an oven. Dunno if anyone ever has had any experience with that or not.</p>
<p>I have the electric glass top and it cooks very nicely and is extremely easy to clean, however I have heard stories about not being able to use cast iron on it. Something about scratching it or fusing to it or something. I don’t know how true that is.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not gonna manually clean my oven. Have to do that at our lake cabin - and that’s already too much, lol.</p>
<p>A technician did once tell me that it is better to run the self clean cycle for the shortest time period - if you have that option. Your oven might “default” to 4 hours, but allow you to select 3 or even 2. He recommended that, I’m sure for the same reasons fendergirl says.</p>
<p>I have a GE Profile cooktop. I do like the continuous grates and I love my power burner. However, the simmer burner burns too hot at the lowest setting. The shiny black, mirror like finish on the cooktop is gorgeous…well, it is the instant after you windex and dry it. After that you can see every speck of dust. Shiny black grates aren’t the answer either. They look bad fast too. It’s not like I have high cleaning standards, either :)</p>
<p>The ABC evening news has been doing a special about American made products-Viking products were featured. I know nothing about them other than I have always heard they were top of the line…you might check on Viking-there might be something affordable.</p>
<p>When we remodeled–can’t imagine it’s been 15 years!–I put in a gas cooktop and an electric wall oven underneath the cooktop so it looks like a range and I have duel fuels. Hate baking with gas and hate the inevitable residual heat of electric cooktops. This the best of both worlds! I bought Jenn-Air. Not a huge fan of the brand but am very proud of the configuration.</p>
<p>I used to do that and then I read somewhere that most people only use their second oven a couple of times a year. I started using the bottom oven just to be contrary. </p>
<p>Then the knob broke for the top oven and it was a pain to replace it (had to replace them all to have matching ones). I decided that it was dumb to only use one oven since it would wear out and I’d have to buy a new double oven. So now for a couple of years, I’ve been using mostly the bottom oven to even things out.</p>