Range cookers... Tell me about them

[tostaky]

I'm planning our new kitchen and I was going for a stoves oven and a smeg burner.
However I saw my dream kitchen on houzz and it has a range cooker in it.
Are they any good? What would I look in one if I decided to go for one? Can you program the oven?
Tell me, tell me...!!
(And if you can recommend a good one too, not too expensive then all the better!)

If you like Smeg check out the Smeg A5-8. Electric ovens, gas hobs best of both

What brand of range was it? I have a Rangemaster and it is a fantastic oven. Seven years later it is still going strong and I have nothing bad to say about it.

We have a teknik. Not too expensive (but it wouldnt last you 30 years, ours is nine years and needed repairs to the element and drawers and one door is elderly) however, it's got a fab delay-cooking feature, the 5 hobs are great, and its v reliable in terms of temperature. One fan an one conventional oven gives good flexibility and I would buy one again.

I hate my Rangemaster Toledo. Posted about it in kitchen thread last week.

Which kitchen thread, Marrian? We are about to get one so I'd be interested to read your experience.

We've got a belling classic range. It's absolutely great.

Can't find it, but this is why I dislike the cooker:

There are vents at the back which are far too easy for food to fall down, must be pretty rank already!

The oven door has a lovely habit of swinging shut - not handy when hot! Dd and I have special two person putting-the-baking-in-the-scary-oven move

The grill is absolutely rubbish. Unless you wait for ages and ages you just kind of bake stuff in it.

Oh, and the plate warmer thingy is just too hot.

It does look really nice though...

Hmm well while I admire how nice it looks I will be relying on you to post a youtube video of your special two person baking dance, Marian!

I got a rangemaster 90 classic in November in the black and chrome with the cooker hood with chrome bar. I wasn't really sure because Belling did a range at half the price. However, I have had loads of comments about it, they do look so much better in situ than in the shop. It has taken a bit of getting used to but I am getting there. Even our kitchen fitter commented on what a nice range it was.

They tend to be very expensive to order from the bigger stores,but I bought locally and asked them to match the best online price and they did. We then also bought rangemaster integrated fridge, freezer and dishwasher. They were around £250-£300 each and I got another discount.

I did consider a Stoves because they looked good in the showroom. However, I read a review site and the reviews were generally awful across the board. Rangemaster generally good.

They are owned by Aga and are their bottom of the range cookers - as opposed to £7,000 for some of their Agas.

There was a Rangemaster in our house when we moved in, and I rang their Customer Services as the oven door and the control panel and knobs above it would get really really hot when the oven was on.

I thought it must be a fault, but basically was told 'no, that's what happens'. Not great with small children around, and our old cooker certainly didn't get this hot during use.

Oh, and one of the knobs is always falling off.

And the warming plate takes up a huge amount of space but we never use it.

Wow, I never thought my first Internet rant would be about a poor defenceless cooker.

thank you for your reply... i will try to convince DP that we need the rangemaster pro 90!!!