Range cookers - what a price range!

[NKF]

What, in essence, is the difference between the £700 and the £3,000 ones? Does anyone know? Is a £700 one a false economy? Do the Smeg ones come with diamond earrings to justify that price tag?

Thanks AM. Scandinavian style worth looking at. All that Northern light. But wood worktops! Don't you have to oil them and use trivets? I just wouldn't, I know I wouldn't.

Thanks AM. Scandinavian style worth looking at. All that Northern light. But wood worktops! Don't you have to oil them and use trivets? I just wouldn't, I know I wouldn't.

I wish I knew how to CAT. I don't even know what it is.
We would like not to spend a fortune. Would love to see your ktichen. We won't be moving so it's important to get it right.

Will do. Thanks.

NKF, I feel your pain!!! We are currently doing a kitchen completely from scratch and I am SO with you on the 'head about to explode' feeling!!! Having to choose everything from scratch is so hard - and I'm the sort of person who finds it really hard to imagine what will go with what - I need to see it all there before I can tell whether I like it or not. We've gone for the Farmhouse range of units from MFI (lovely solid oak, sort of rustic look) but I don't like the worktops we've chosen (a top-quality laminate - I'm with you on knowing that I'd never getting round to maintaining real wood). I'd have had quartz (not granite) if we could have afforded it, but our kitchen is pretty big, so it was way too expensive. I'm now in floor-tile hell - can't see anything I like. Anniemac, are your tiles plain cream? I am looking at some which are a sort of mottled cream and I was hoping that they wouldn't show the dirt as much? Also, do you think floor tiles have to match splashback tiles? Anyway, good luck in choosing everything, NKF!

Thanks. We should set up a support group. I've got to think about a shower room too.

Re: floor tiles - I don't see a a reason why they should be the same as wall tiles. Floor and wall tiles are a different quality.

I wanted a light floor (this was yesterday) and then I thought perhaps I'm just asking for trouble.

What's quartz?

i am selling this if you can collect b4 friday here

Quartz is a solid surface, like granite - but it doesn't stain like granite does (apparently things like lemon juice can stain granite). It's more hardwearing than granite too...

I think a light floor would be ok as long as it wasn't very plain. The cream tiles I'm looking at have a very rustic feel to them, sort of look like they've got dirt ground in to them anyway

We have a shower room to do as well but that's going to have to wait. We also have a dining room and two bedrooms to decorate. Oh and did I mention that I'm having a baby in 6 weeks? I must be mad

In six weeks. Yes, I guess some things will just have to wait!

Six weeks! The more I think about it....
You sound remarkably calm. Good luck.

You wouldn't say that if you saw me at 3am looking through flooring brochures

not read the rest of the thread so just in answer to the original post.

As far as I can tell - build quality is the difference. We looked at the Rangemaster series - but even though they cost in excess of £1000 they seemed really flimsy.

In the end we went for a falcon - cost a lot more but it feels really solid and seems more likely to last a long time.

Falcon? That's a new name for me. Thank you. I'm not googling quartz. I seemed to have turned into a mad woman.

here - we went for this one is black.

Cost an arm and a leg - but much better quality than all the other ones we looked at (it drove me mental looking at them all - especially with 3 bored under 5s in tow). We did this last year (all kitchen stuff - worktops, appliances, and bathroom stuff as well - I was sick of it before we were even halfway decided !

Can I ask - how much does an arm and a leg go for these days? That is to say what was the damage?

Have been using a Stoves cooker (Sterling 100G) for around 3 months now and very happy with that, in terms of build quality and performance.

Second the earlier comment about Ebay - no way we could have afforded one at full retail price, but you can routinely get £300 - 400 off some less fashionable models on Ebay.

to be honest I have blanked it from my memory . It was last year.

But this place has them for £1900)

The thing I really didn't like about the rangemanster was the welded across the top - it looked really tacky, and the doors seems "floppy" for want of a better word.

The falcon seemed really well made and strong - similar build quality to the Britannia ones which cost even more arms and legs !

another thing that drove me mental with the range cookers was the combination of fuels - it would have been good to have a gas hob and one electric and one gas oven but none of the affordable ones seemed to do that.

We would have had to have bottled gas which was an additional headache - so finally went for the all electric with ceramic hob.