Purchasing The Right Range For You [Part 1]
7.12.18
Purchasing The Right Range For You [Part 1]
Whether you’re remodeling your kitchen or simply ready to upgrade your dingy old range, selecting the perfect range for your space comes with a lot of decisions. Freestanding or slide-in? Gas or electric – or both?! With all the new technologies and features available today, it can be difficult to wade through all of the information on your own. Below we lay out the basics to choosing between freestanding and slide-in, and gas and electric ranges so you can make an informed decision.
Freestanding Versus Slide-In
Both the freestanding and slide-in ranges have their own pros and cons. The freestanding range, the more popular choice of the two, includes finished sides so it can be placed anywhere in the kitchen – between cabinets, at the end of cabinetry, or standing alone.
It usually features a backguard to protect the backsplash behind it. Freestanding ranges usually feature the knobs behind the burners, a warming drawer, and a full capacity oven.
The slide-in oven offers a built-in look by seamlessly sitting flush with surrounding cabinetry.
With unfinished sides, the slide-in range is more limited to being placed in between kitchen cabinets. It also doesn’t include abackguard so you don’t have to reach over hot burners to adjust temperatures and your beautiful backsplash pattern remains undisturbed. However, the slide-in range is usually easier to clean since the top of the cooktop overlaps the countertop to prevent spills from dripping down the sides.
Whether you choose freestanding or slide-in, both ranges offer full capacity ovens, warming or baking drawers, your choice ofcooktop, and come in gas, electric, and even dual fuel.
Gas Versus Electric – Or Both
Whether you choose gas or electric depends on your personal cooking preferences (or whether or not you have a gas hookup). As gas is directly turned into heat, a gas cooktop is able to offer more precision, responsiveness, and efficiency. While it is much quicker at heating the oven cavity, it is less efficient when it comes to maintaining the heat in the oven cavity. To keep an oven at 350 degrees, the gas must continuously turn on and off which means using more energy and not keeping a consistent temperature.
On the other hand, an electric range is more efficient at maintaining the oven’s heat, practically guaranteeing your food will cook at the exact oven temperature you set, which also means consistent results.
There are also other options to get the best of both gas and electric worlds. A dual fuel range offers both fuels; a gas cooktop with an electric oven. Another option is an electric range with an induction cooktop which offers the same advantages of a gas cooktop without requiring a gas hookup. An induction cooktop uses electromagnetic technology to directly heat your cookware, offering the same precision, responsiveness, and efficiency of a gas cooktop but with a glass cooktop that never gets hot so it’s much easier to clean.
Check back next week to learn more about downdraft versus updraft ventilation, pro-style versus standard ranges, and convection versus conventional ovens.
