October 7, 2023 - 9:25am
Electric range recommendations?
It looks like my oven is fading away, so I may need to buy a new electric range. I've been reading that new ranges these days tend to fail from high baking temperatures and especially the steam - creating steam is of course a must! I presume that an oven that does "steam baking" would be able to handle the steam for baking bread, though I don't know (yet) if there's a good range that includes such an oven..
By "range" I mean an appliance that has both a cooktop and an oven. I don't have room for a home deck oven or a separate cooktop and oven. I'm in the Eastern US. Does anyone have any experience - good or bad - with recent electric ranges and especially about ones that have failed because of the steam?
TomP
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We have Miele appliances and can recommend them for their reliability; some have steam options they call "Moisture Plus". They have some range options also. Search for Miele range options. They are expensive but will last a lifetime.
Gavin.
Thanks, Gavin, I'd love a Miele but looking at their site online, they only have one electric 30-inch wide range, and it's induction (which I don't think I want to get into yet) and many times over what I'm up to paying.
Look into the Frigidaire professional series. I have a late model that came with my house which is only less than three years old. This is my first time with a electric range. I have to tell you I am loving it. I do not find any issues with the range top power. In fact I have to remember to take things off the burners since the cool down time seems longer than with an gas range. I love the oven, results I am getting. So much easier to keep steam without resorting to all kinds of trouble. The oven cavity is large enough to hold an 18" round pizza. Lastly I am getting such even color, like I rarely did with gas. The newer model, I searched had a few more bells and whistles too. Air fry and more temperature control over the oven temperature. I would call this a high end, of the midrange class. I hope this helps
.King regards,
Will F.
PS
I also would love a high end oven. Maybe a high-end wall oven? However not in the cards right now.
Thanks, Will. A Frigidaire would be a possibility for sure. My current range is a very old Frigidaire, an old unusual style they called Euro-Flaire because of the style of hobs on the cooktop. Basically, the hobs are thick cast-iron disks so they have some of the properties of an old-style cast iron skillet, for better or for worse.
One of my concerns is that, although Consumer Reports rates Frigidaires in the top bracket for expected reliability, they have them low in terms of customer satisfaction. So it's good to hear your experience. Maybe CR hasn't rated the professional series. I'll look it up on line.
I'd like a wall oven or two but we don't really have a place to put one. My bread-making station is already in a weird location.
TomP
I don;t know abut its availability in a range combination, but we’ve had a kitchen aid electric/steam oven for many years that we love. We have small problems with pitting in the bottom pan, due, I think, to running the clean function (I recommend against it), but otherwise it’s amazing for breads. For smaller round loaves, I’ll often pop them in a Dutch oven, but for baguettes and larger loaves, I use the steam function and it’s great! Steam is also great for heating up food (10-15 minutes, and the absence of that weird microwaved taste).
Thanks, Jazz. It seems that KitchenAids are no longer what they were. It used to be that if an appliance was a KA, you could count on it being very satisfactory.
Consumer Reports has the expected reliability of KA electric ranges as only 3 out of 5, and user satisfaction at 2/5. I looked through reviews on the KA site, and there were a lot of owners of the current (apparently fairly new) design who where very unhappy with many of the design features. On the plus side these ovens do include some kind of steam tray feature. I'm glad you have a great oven!
Ours is three years old. It's the electric ovens / gas cook-top model. We enjoy the responsiveness and control of the gas burners, along with having two electric ovens that are more manageable than gas oven equivalents. I like the steam tray in the large oven; it frees up another shelf for baking instead of having to have a space for a steam pan.
I see that KA currently offers a similar range with an electric cook-top. The top is a ceramic type. While that does not appeal to me, perhaps it would be to your liking.
Picking a range is an exercise in finding the balance of features and reliability that fit your needs. I'd suggest that, in addition to getting input here, you visit some appliance stores (not necessarily the big-box stores) and talk to their staff to get a sense of what's available. We found that was very helpful to us when we last had to shop for new appliances.
Paul