Preference of Gas or Electric ranges?

[NYCWriter]

If I had a choice ...

... I'd go with electric. I grew up with electric and always thought it took so long for the coils to heat up.

But now after years of living in very old buildings with limited electric service to the kitchens (which is why most prewar apartment buildings tend to have gas ranges in all the apartments, despite the greater risk of gas leaks and explosions), I realize now there is a cost for that "instant hot" flame: lack of precision.

I really miss the ability to TRULY keep things at a warm simmer on the stove (I've burned so many things during dinners, assuming "low" on the gas range was the same as "simmer" on the electric range).

And I've noticed BAKING is a challenge in the gas stove versus the electric. Electric is much more even and precise in the oven, too.

 

[jerrod6]

I grew up with gas then electric. I've had Electric and gas ranges in condos and homes and now I have a gas cook top with electric oven that has a convection mode with a fan blowing heat out of the back.

I think I would go Electric induction cooktop with my current oven setup

What I don't like about gas is the amount of heat that gets generated while cooking. You've got this flame jumping around and a pot on top of it. The problem is that while the heat is going into the pot some of it as soon as you turn it on, is also escaping into the surrounding area. To me this makes for a very hot kitchen.

Then unless you are using an exhaust hood directly over the stove, there are the left over by-products of combustion that, with a gas furnace, would go up the chimney but with a kitchen stove they just go waffling through the air inside the house.

 

[norgeway]

Maybe im not

The normal cook, but I sure have been able to turn out better baked goods on a gas range, the browning is more delicate and even and cakes as a rule rise at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch more.

 

[retromania]

Gas

Gas, gas....GAS!!!

 

[norgeway]

By the way...

How is the OKeefe doing????

 

[revvinkevin]

Growing up in Southern California everything - stove, water heater, furnace, dryer etc, is gas because it was and still is, less costly to operate here.

I've had the opportunity to cook on electric a couple times. There is of course a learning curve when it comes to cooking on electric. I would imagine it's just a matter of getting used to it, but I MUCH prefer gas.

Except when it comes to an oven, then I'd rather have electric. Mostly because (new) gas ovens are getting harder and harder to find AND they are only 24" wide when you do find them. Too small for me. I prefer a 27" or 30" oven, ideally convection.

Kevin

 

[whirlcool]

This question has been asked before and usually the preference here is electric. Lots of members have stated that gas is dirty, it sucks the oxygen out of the air and makes it hard to breathe, it poisons your house, etc.

I grew up with gas, but had electric for the past 20 years or so. In 2008 we bought a Maytag gas stove. We love it for many of the reasons people above this post have stated. When you turn off the heat, it's really off. Instantly.

The gas oven is ok for baking and broiling, which we use every so often. The GE P7 TOL double wall oven we had in our last house was so much better than the Maytag gas oven.

 

[zipdang]

Broiling

On the subject of broiling, my gas oven has an infrared broiler in the top of the oven cavity, as opposed to the the type of oven with a broiler in a drawer beneath the oven cavity. My oven does not have a drawer under it and I have no personal experience with that design. Mine is a "commerical style" residential unit. That said, I've only ever used the broiler once, and it seemed to work just fine. But out of curiosity, what do most of you use the broiler for? I'm just not accustomed to broiling anything. Am I missing out? Should I be taking advantage of the broiler more frequently?

 

[danemodsandy]

Devil's Advocate Here:

A couple of people have noted the "instant off" aspect of gas burners here in this thread. While I feel that's true as far as it goes, there's another side to it, I think:

When you turn a gas burner off, the flame disappears, but the grate stays hot. As in good and hot, but it doesn't radiate the heat; just the grate itself is hot. You also don't have the little bit of a visual you have with a hot electric burner, which continues to glow red for just a minute. Even after an electric burner darkens, it continues to radiate some stored heat which also alerts you to the fact it's still hot.

It is, therefore, possible to forget a gas burner's grate can still be quite hot, and accidentally touch it, because a hot grate looks exactly like a cool one, and doesn't give off much heat as a warning, either.

Ask Mr. Clean-As-You-Go here if you doubt me.

 

[retromania]

The O'Keefe is doing great!!!

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">First I want to want to say these comments are not directed to Allen (Whirlcool) only to those who may say something like this below.   So</span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span>

 let's look at this for a minute.



 

 

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span>

Lots of members have stated that gas is dirty, it sucks the oxygen out of the air and makes it hard to breathe, it poisons your house, etc. 




1.  gas is dirty

Natural gas anyway, is very clean when it burns, unless there is something wrong with the gas / air mixing chamber, causing it to burn way to rich.

 

<span style="color: #000000;">2. it sucks the oxygen out of the air and makes it hard to breathe</span>
Yes anything that burns uses/requires oxygen to burn, and YOU use oxygen when you BREATH... are YOU living in a hermetically sealed house?   Come on, it's all in your mind!

 

<span style="color: #000000;">3.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">it poisons your house.</span></span>[COLOR=#222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-weight: normal]
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oh?   And how does it do that?   Is your house a living breathing creature like yourself?   I suggest you get a canary or two and keep them in your house.... if they are STILL alive, singing and tweeting, the air is fine and so are you.[/COLOR]</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Kevin</span></span>

</span>

 

 

[danemodsandy]

Kevin:

The smell of combustion byproducts from gas is objectionable to many of us.

With all due respect to your canary, one would live through a fart, too. Doesn't mean I want to smell it in my house.

 

[zipdang]

I have to agree with Kevin on this. All of the gas cooking appliances I've used have been of modern origin (1970s onward), and I've never seen any indication of filmy residue or off-putting smells in the air. That may or may not be true of older, vintage gas cookers; I have no experience with them. In my area an "old" house is one that was constructed before 1960 or so, so most of the appliances around here are fairly modern. Once I had neighbors who moved here from New Hampshire, and they laughed when their real estate agent referred to their 1970s house as old, as they'd moved from a house built in the 1700s. On the west coast that kind of history just doesn't exist.

 

[dustin92]

I have to say, there is a definite smell from a gas range, whether working properly or not. I have never noticed any real film on things that would *definitely* be caused by a gas range, but there is a certain "heaviness" in the air when a gas range or oven is being used. That being said, even electric isn't perfect. Not trying to offend anyone, but probably most issues are user error. I was cooking dinner tonight (Spaghetti and garlic bread), and I had the sauce at a perfect low simmer, the spaghetti boiling perfectly, and I put the garlic bread under the broiler to toast. I sat down at the table, picked up a book and completely forgot about the garlic bread... Until I smelled it burning. I managed to salvage most of it, but 2 1/2 slices were cremated and went in the garbage disposal. The sauce and spaghetti were fine, I had set a timer. That would have happened with any fuel, just user error. I personally would have burned the spaghetti sauce on a gas burner, it is just harder to keep an even, low simmer on gas.

 

[e2l-arry]

I've used both.

Our house growing up had electric. So that's what I had experience with early on. Then after college my first 10 years on the places I rented in the late 70's and early 80's had older gas stoves. By that I mean the burners had a pilot but for some reason the oven's didn't. There was a hole in the oven bottom near the front that said "LIGHT HERE" You slowly turned on the gas while you held a lit match until the oven lit. That usually blew out the match. There were old time stories of stoves blowing up with too much gas, to late with the match. Chalk that up to OPERATOR ERROR. But they could be dangerous. Since the oven didn't have a pilot, once the oven reached temp. the oven burner would go down but couldn't shut off or it wouldn't have been able to crank back up when the oven called for more heat. You wouldn't want to use those old gas ovens in the summer. It put our WAY more heat into the kitchen than the electric oven. Does anyone know why they had pilots for the burners but not the ovens until the later 50's or so models? I could never figure that out.

So later I moved to Colorado in the mid 80's and gas stoves were scarce. I was told that was because at the higher altitudes they used to have problems with the pilots going out a lot. So for the last 28 years I've been back to electric. I like to think I can cook equally well on either. And I really don't have a preference. I will say for the self cleaning cycle I feel more comfortable with electric. Just something about 800 degrees around a gas source makes me nervous. KA BOOM!!! But that's just a phobia of mine I guess.

I do think in the "old days" it just depended on where you lived. In the county with no gas lines, people had electric stoves and oil heat. My grandparents in rural upstate New York went from a wood cook stove to an electric Westinghouse in 1952. No gas supply there. In the city people had gas heat and whatever stove they preferred. Gas was touted as cheaper. In Chicago I remember TV commercials with the slogan "Gas does the big jobs better, for less!" And electrics were claimed as "cleaner and more reliable."

 

[laundromat]

I grew up in a small three bedroom house no upstairs,no horsepower. We had a cheap thirty six inch wide Magic Chef gas stove. No panel light,no oven light. Our furnace and water heater were also gas. I hated the smell and the inability to melt anything without burning or scorching it. I'd used electric before but,it wasn't until one of the members here came to visit and brought a gorgeous GE Americana forty inch double oven range in copperyone along with Westinghouse roaster with the base!!!! My apartment had a hopk up (220) and I fell in love with both! Once
I learned.(using thr Sensi-Temp) what to set each burner to for best stove top results. Results I NEVER got from any gas stove.No smells other then the fabulous aroma from what was cookinh. Here , I currently am using a nice Frigidaire thirty i.ch ceramic top model with a self cleaning oven. We have two of the portable induction cooktops and use them more often then not. Im saving up for a twin oven FRIGKDAIRE range with both convection self cleaning ovens and an induction cooktlp. Should e ready for it by 3/20/2014.

 

[whirlcool]

Oh, and others have also said that gas stoves put carbon monoxide into the air too.

I agree with you Kevin on all of the points you made. Sure you may notice a gas odor for a few seconds when you first light a burner up, but that goes away quickly. As for a hot burner, we leave whatever was cooked on that burner after we shut it off until it cools down. Then into the dishwasher the pan goes.

Everything we have here is electronic ignition, even the furnace so we don't have any pilot lights to worry about.

 

[ptcruiser51]

GAS!

Here in SoFL electric ranges are de regeur. If they ran gas mains down my street I would be at THD tomorrow to order a gas range. When it's "on" it's on; when it's "off" it's off. And my gas range in NJ never asphyxiated my cat, my parakeet, me or my guests. Have a nice day.

 

[norgeway]

Re Pilot Lights

I dont want a gas stove UNLESS it has pilot lights....best oven in the world to raise yeast bread in, the perfect temp, and no aggravating click click click!

 

[iheartmaytag]

Have had both

Prefer Electric.