range cooker dilemma

[FireGirl27]

Looking for 90cm stainless steel dual fuel range cooker. Torn between rangemaster or stoves options (£1200-1400) and a discounted Britannia or SMEG (down from £2k to £1500). Sales people pushing better quality of Britannia but there are some negative reviews out there! I want a great hob and ovens for baking and pizzas. Any recommendations or warnings what to stay away from? Thanks!

By the way - do you find it works OK not having a separate grill? Sorry to keep bombarding you with questions!

We used to have a range style cooker with one big oven and no separate grill and it was awful, such a pain. I used to avoid grilling unless I absolutely had to because it meant having this massive door open the whole time which was dangerous and cumbersome. Also it took ages to warm up. I love the grill on my new cooker now!

Thanks BB - I wondered about that. I guess it also depends on the oven. My current small grill is not very quick but the one on my main oven in a previous house was great! I think we will go for a 100cm model as the chimney breast space where we want it is 104cm and I think it might look odd with 6 or 7cm of work top to fill the gaps! This doesn't leave many rangemaster options in stainless...Will be glad when we have finally decided!

I don't particularly find it a problem, but I can see how some people would . It's quite quick to warm up , but I have to say I wish I'd bought the oven liners . That said, I'm getting someone in to clean it anyway! At least I haven't managed to set fire to the kitchen with this one , like I did the Belling .Oops .

I have a Rangemasfer Toledo and it is okay. I have had some problems with it overheating and various elements melting. I'm just about to get it replaced after several complaints to Rangemaster. The knobs are plastic and although mine haven't melted some of the paint has peeled. I do believe though that the handles are different now so this might not happen on newer models. Apart from the problems I've had with mine which I do think are rare I actually like the oven.

We've just replaced a 80cm smeg range cooker with a 90cm Rangemaster with two ovens and a grill - there's no additional oven space. However, its wonderful!!! The oven heats up quickly and stays to heat (and doesn't take 30 mins to get up to 180 degrees) and we would never contemplate a smeg cooker again (we only got this one as we bought it from the previous owners) and love the degree of control possible with the rings (gas) which wasn't there on the smeg... it was fairly old I agree - but it had never worked well for us.

Your cooking regime sounds very exciting Plomino! Thanks KaeKae for the Toldeo info too. These plastic controls are tricky - my friend's Belling has been through several replacement control knobs in just 2 yrs!
£1800 for the Britannia L Line, £1400 for the Rangemaster kitchener 90, £1540 the professional+ 90, £850 Fisher & Paykel 90...The L line is a big saving, but maybe the F&P is good enough? I think I have some kind of rangecooker choice madness!!

Thanks mistlethrush - have crossed Smeg off my list as there are a lot of bad reviews. Rangemasters seem to be very solid and hardly any negative comments! Which model do you have?

Have a look at John Lewis own brand. They are AEG and you'll get a 3 year guarantee with it.

Thanks SwedishEdith. I know they sued to be made by Smeg, so not well reviewed. I think AEG is now in with Electrolux...? Do you have a JL one?

They did use to be Smeg but changed to AEG a few years ago. Yes, have no problems with it (after getting used to fan oven etc) but dp does most of the cooking here. Feels solid.

It does look remarkably similar to the Britannia actually! Are the control knobs metal or plastic? (Am perplexed by beasts of cooking machines with flimsy plastic knobs where control markings rub off - or they melt!)

Pretty sure metal? Mine's 2 or 3 years old though, not the latest model.

I've got the classic and love it - and it seems very solidly constructed etc - I went to look at them in a gas showroom where they had several models - but bought from a cheaper on-line deal - I think it was Curries. They also did a good hood (we didn't get matching and are really pleased with the glass / chrome one we got that's not as expensive or looming as a rangemaster one.