Range cookers

[dynevoran]

I have an old range cooker we purchased with the house. Its 1m wide with 8 gas burners and gas grill and two gas ovens plus storage. Its clearly old and the ovens only work for whatever is on the top shelf and is generally a bit grimey from when we bought the house so I'm delighted to be able to buy a new one.

My dilemma is that I refitted the kitchen around the old one (cheap Ikea kitchen but I love it) and looking at new ranges, all the 1m wide ones like ours have 8 burners. I have never used more than 4 at a time so I'm much more keen on getting a 5 burner too - which tends to be 90cm. Is it going to look bad to have 5cm gaps either side of the range?

Also, I currently only use both ovens due to the small size and ineffective heating of the oven cavities so am tempted to just go for one big oven - but keep second guessing myself that I will regret removing that option. Does anyone use both ovens simultaneously? Regularly?

Can anyone recommend their range as a good one?.

Thanks and apologies as I know there is a products talk page but hardly any threads appear to have replies.

I'm looking at getting a range cooker for the first time when we have our kitchen re-fitted later in the year. I've looked at lots of reviews and the ones with very large single ovens seem to have very bad marks for economy - the ovens take a while to heat up and then use lots of fuel.
Could you get a 90com one and add one of those fillying in slot type units to go with your kitchen? It might not cost much to get a new bit of worktop to cover it over.

I only use one oven but the other oven is full of cooking trays so I do use it just not for its original purpose. I have the meter length with seven burner one being a large wok one. I try not to use the outer burners to save cleaning splatter. Have to admit whilst I love the wok burner I am tempted by an induction next time (hate cleaning, probably why I only use one oven). Stuck with range style as was installed by previous owners with granite worktop, even when we changed kitchen units we worked around worktop.

I am afraid I just would not get this type of cooker due to the cleaning. I have two separate ovens but use the small one more because DH and I are now on our own. My other oven is 900 wide with an induction hob on the top and this is brilliant for family get togethers or big baking sessions. In our London flat we have a gas hob and the cleaning of it is a nuisance. If you only need 5 cooking zones buy a hob with 5 cooking zones. If you only use one oven, but one oven. I have to say I don't "get" range cookers. My DSis's one is filthy! My induction hob is pristine!!! In your situation I would have two single ovens, one above the other. Have a 400mm cupboard installed in the gap and have a separate hob installed with ventilation over it. Yes, it will mean changing the kitchen a bit, but a much better solution, in my humble opinion.

Thanks for opinions. Been looking at induction ones today and they look amazing. Seeing if I can stretch the budget to one. That would also mean I could change my cutlery drawer for a larger one which would be great I think you're all right about the large oven being a money pit long term. Thanks for all the advice!

Induction will cut the shitty sticky residue you get on extractor and cupboards as that's a by product of burning gas.

Two ovens mean you don't hear up a huge oven to cook one thing thereby more economical.

Get one that cleans itself too. Fucking liberating!!!

IMO Self cleaning ovens are a myth, in catalytic ovens its only the liners that clean themselves, and the oven needs to be heated at maximum power for at least an hour to clean. This is bad for the seals and your electricity bill. Self Cleaning Ovens are frankly only a marketing pitch and rarely live up to the hype. Under the panels, the fan and roof of the oven are usually still minging.

Pyrolytic self cleaning ovens are worse and need to heat up to a staggering 500c for up to three hours to "self clean" to convert food residue and fat splashes into ash.

Induction hobs are great and I would never go back to gas, in my experience the only downside is the expense and weight of the pans. Though recently some brands have been bringing down the cost of the pans.

Range ovens are a good idea, if you go for one with more than one compartment, for two reasons, if you expect to keep for a long time, then at some stage a bulb and/or element will blow, if you share the cooking duties between two compartments the load is shared and a failure will be statistically likely to take longer. If you use one over the other you have a spare oven compartment to use to cook while you await repair.

Also one oven compartment is often smaller than another, and the smaller oven will require less energy to cook in. Even if both compartments are the same size, a single compartment range oven will always need heating in its entirety to cook food, having two and only using the one you need also allows for energy savings but provides flexibility at times like Christmas when you need the extra capacity.

could you squeeze in a single oven plus an oven/microwave? I have them as built in appliances with an induction hob. Love not having a microwave on the counter. its used 99.9% as a microwave, but its great to have the extra oven space when needed. Would Ikea still have the additional bits and pieces available to create a built in arrangement/

I had the same dilema, particularly over the hob. I went for a 1m again in the end as it looked better with no gap, and yes, it's an 8 burner, but what I do is have a lovely granite board over the side of the hob that I barely use (it's the side with two burners and a griddle/wok burner) which I can take off when I need to. It's handy to put stuff on straight out of the oven too. I have a big oven, a warmer, a grill and a slightly smaller oven. I do a lot of baking and cooking and wouldn't be without it, it was 700 (it's a new world one).