New Electric Range Suggestions
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How has your stove earned your disrespect?
Against what standard are you measuring? What is your current stove, and why do you hate it? There are many on the market new, and many available that are vintage. Perhaps a high-quality vintage stove may be more to your liking. Just be aware that in the past, just as today, while many products are good, there is also a lot of junk. Don't get junk again!
Good luck,
Dave
Against what standard are you measuring? What is your current stove, and why do you hate it? There are many on the market new, and many available that are vintage. Perhaps a high-quality vintage stove may be more to your liking. Just be aware that in the past, just as today, while many products are good, there is also a lot of junk. Don't get junk again!
Good luck,
Dave
Here are three electric ranges which are highly-rated by Consumer Reports. They are also moderatly priced. Let us know what you wind up getting; we're curious that way. Welcome to AW.ORG, by the way.
Here's a Frigidaire. I have two Frigidaire ranges, one gas and one electric. I like them both a lot.
And finally, here's a Maytag.
Stoves
I prefer Electric. Coil burners are faster. If you can, boil in large stock pots or are into a lot of frying, I would recommend the coil.
If you like slow gentle all day simmer, custard and candy making, the smooth top is an excellent choice. It is a breeze to clean, as long as you WIPE OFF the entire stove top before using. If you cook on one burner and it splatters to the next, when you fire it up it will burn on the affronting food particles. I do barbaric cooking outside on the grill burner, I do all frying in an electric skillet. I am sold on smooth top for sure.
I bake a lot. I was addicted to GM Frigidaire. When it became impractical to source and keep them going, I switched to GE, a classic performer. Then GE added a second return on the heating element to speed heat up and it over browned everything. I now have a Maytag and everything about it is more user friendly than the GE. If you spend the extra money you can get an oven with a covered heating element. It smooths out heat distribution, reduces radiant browning and makes clean up easier.
Unless you really want to take the time to learn how to use convection bake, like the professionals, I would spend the extra money.
Kelly
I prefer Electric. Coil burners are faster. If you can, boil in large stock pots or are into a lot of frying, I would recommend the coil.
If you like slow gentle all day simmer, custard and candy making, the smooth top is an excellent choice. It is a breeze to clean, as long as you WIPE OFF the entire stove top before using. If you cook on one burner and it splatters to the next, when you fire it up it will burn on the affronting food particles. I do barbaric cooking outside on the grill burner, I do all frying in an electric skillet. I am sold on smooth top for sure.
I bake a lot. I was addicted to GM Frigidaire. When it became impractical to source and keep them going, I switched to GE, a classic performer. Then GE added a second return on the heating element to speed heat up and it over browned everything. I now have a Maytag and everything about it is more user friendly than the GE. If you spend the extra money you can get an oven with a covered heating element. It smooths out heat distribution, reduces radiant browning and makes clean up easier.
Unless you really want to take the time to learn how to use convection bake, like the professionals, I would spend the extra money.
Kelly
I do not love
electric cooktops, but do like electric ovens.
But only if they are self-cleaning!
Best electric stoves I have used were two coil Hotpoints. These were the ones that retail (around here, anyway,) for about 399.
I hope, eventually, to have gas cooktop and electric ovens, built ins, or dual fuel. Maybe someday.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
electric cooktops, but do like electric ovens.
But only if they are self-cleaning!
Best electric stoves I have used were two coil Hotpoints. These were the ones that retail (around here, anyway,) for about 399.
I hope, eventually, to have gas cooktop and electric ovens, built ins, or dual fuel. Maybe someday.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
jasonl
New member
Aren't they all the same now????
I have the Kenmore 9611 with the "smiling window" and I can attest that it's a very good stove for the money.
All those stoves and OTR microwaves are pretty much ALL the same now. My KM stove works and almost looks like my mom's Maytag stove. My KM micro almost looks and sounds JUST LIKE my mom's Maytag micro.
Aren't these all Samsung or some chinese made products?
I have the Kenmore 9611 with the "smiling window" and I can attest that it's a very good stove for the money.
All those stoves and OTR microwaves are pretty much ALL the same now. My KM stove works and almost looks like my mom's Maytag stove. My KM micro almost looks and sounds JUST LIKE my mom's Maytag micro.
Aren't these all Samsung or some chinese made products?
Coil elements are more efficient and you don't have that hot glass warming the air afterwards. With energy rates only going up, efficiency will become more and more important. With any electric cooktop you need pans with good flat bases. No large part of a coil element should be glowing orange while the pan is on an element that is on high.
Whirlpool makes some nice coil top ranges. With plug out elements on the stove top, if you make a big mess while cooking, just put the pans and rings in the dishwasher and they will not be too hard to keep clean.
One word of warning about ovens with concealed bake elements: They are slower to preheat since the heat has to come through the porcelain and the intense heat under the bottom of the oven causes damage to the porcelain. Any fruit juice which is acidic like juice from a pie that drips on the very hot porcelain etches it. Even after you clean it, it will be a dull patch in the porcelain. Maybe you won't have the stove long enough for the bottom to rust through, but that is the final chapter in the story of putting the bake element under the porcelain oven bottom. It was tried in the late 40s and very early 50s by some manufacturers and that is what happened then. KitchenAid said that would not happen with porcelain that was designed for self-cleaning ovens, but they are wrong. First of all, you do not self-clean an oven every time you use it. Second, when you bake in an oven with the bake element in the cavity, the oven floor is not hotter than the rest of the oven like it is when the heat from a 3000 watt bake element has to go through the porcelain to heat up the oven. Third: heat that radiates down from a glowing bake element in an oven is partially absorbed by the oven which helps heat the air inside it and is partially reflected back into the oven. In spite of all the insulation that is put under the bake element when it is under the oven, the heat that radiates down is traveling away from the oven instead of into it. The heat does not all escape, but it is slower to be used in heating the oven and the design is therefore less efficient. Finally, when you have a bake element in the oven cavity, you can put a piece of foil on the floor of the oven UNDER THE ELEMENT to catch drips. You can't do that with the concealed bake element because the oven floor runs so hot that there is the possibility of fusing the foil to the porcelain.
Enjoy your new electric range.
Whirlpool makes some nice coil top ranges. With plug out elements on the stove top, if you make a big mess while cooking, just put the pans and rings in the dishwasher and they will not be too hard to keep clean.
One word of warning about ovens with concealed bake elements: They are slower to preheat since the heat has to come through the porcelain and the intense heat under the bottom of the oven causes damage to the porcelain. Any fruit juice which is acidic like juice from a pie that drips on the very hot porcelain etches it. Even after you clean it, it will be a dull patch in the porcelain. Maybe you won't have the stove long enough for the bottom to rust through, but that is the final chapter in the story of putting the bake element under the porcelain oven bottom. It was tried in the late 40s and very early 50s by some manufacturers and that is what happened then. KitchenAid said that would not happen with porcelain that was designed for self-cleaning ovens, but they are wrong. First of all, you do not self-clean an oven every time you use it. Second, when you bake in an oven with the bake element in the cavity, the oven floor is not hotter than the rest of the oven like it is when the heat from a 3000 watt bake element has to go through the porcelain to heat up the oven. Third: heat that radiates down from a glowing bake element in an oven is partially absorbed by the oven which helps heat the air inside it and is partially reflected back into the oven. In spite of all the insulation that is put under the bake element when it is under the oven, the heat that radiates down is traveling away from the oven instead of into it. The heat does not all escape, but it is slower to be used in heating the oven and the design is therefore less efficient. Finally, when you have a bake element in the oven cavity, you can put a piece of foil on the floor of the oven UNDER THE ELEMENT to catch drips. You can't do that with the concealed bake element because the oven floor runs so hot that there is the possibility of fusing the foil to the porcelain.
Enjoy your new electric range.
Mes deux centimes:
Frequently there are the last of the GM Frigidaire 30" electric ranges up for sale on ebay. Somebody did a thread recently with a Poppy colored stove and fridge for sale. If I were in the market for a "new" unit, I'd hold off for one of those, nothing on earth got as hot as fast as those thick coiled Frigidaire burners. Their ovens were huge, also, and very easy to clean, even if you didn't have the self-clean feature. IIRC Consumer's Reports always gave them top ratings.
Frequently there are the last of the GM Frigidaire 30" electric ranges up for sale on ebay. Somebody did a thread recently with a Poppy colored stove and fridge for sale. If I were in the market for a "new" unit, I'd hold off for one of those, nothing on earth got as hot as fast as those thick coiled Frigidaire burners. Their ovens were huge, also, and very easy to clean, even if you didn't have the self-clean feature. IIRC Consumer's Reports always gave them top ratings.
I don't use the convection feature on my two ranges very often, but it's great for certain things.
Convection does a fantastic job on frozen, breaded items which are usually deep-fried if you get them at a restaurant---chicken patties and chicken strips and battered fish portions, for instance. It's also great for things like frozen egg rolls, frozen french fries and frozen pizzas.
I use the convection feature if I'm baking 2 or 3 sheets of cookies at a time (although I still rotate the pans halfway through baking for more even baking).
I switch to convection mode for the last 30 minutes of roasting a turkey or chicken, too, to help brown and crisp the skin.
Convection does a fantastic job on frozen, breaded items which are usually deep-fried if you get them at a restaurant---chicken patties and chicken strips and battered fish portions, for instance. It's also great for things like frozen egg rolls, frozen french fries and frozen pizzas.
I use the convection feature if I'm baking 2 or 3 sheets of cookies at a time (although I still rotate the pans halfway through baking for more even baking).
I switch to convection mode for the last 30 minutes of roasting a turkey or chicken, too, to help brown and crisp the skin.
