advice on gas cooking stoves?

[dswitham]

Just to add a little more info to think about. If you go with gas, don't go with the cheapest you can find. My husband and I cook for a crowd once in awhile that has two cheap, and I mean cheap, gas stoves. You can't turn the burners down at all. We cook for two weeks each summer at a youth camp and the commercial stove they have there can be adjusted better than the cheap ones. The cheap ones have one temp and that's it. Now I cook all the food at home on my gas stove and bring it over there. I have a Bosch gas stove and love it. If you do a lot of baking you might want to consider a convection oven for the oven part. They are becoming more common in residential ovens and are great when you have to cook for a crowd, a frequent occurrence at our house. I love the fact that I can fill all three racks in my oven with pizza and bake them all at once. We finish off our maple syrup inside and having a stove that can handle large kettles is great. The grates cover the top and it is has what is called a sealed top, which is wonderful for cleanup time. It has been in use for about 5 years and still going strong. Also it has one burner that is for large kettles and skillets and it handles my 12" cast iron skillet with no problem.

 

[LLigetfa]

Gas stoves do have their drawbacks; like odors and introduction of water vapor to the house...

The additional moisture is a BIG bonus inside the oven as it helps reduce how much the food you're baking dries out.

I have a gas range and gas oven and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[pybyr]

One drawback to modern gas ovens is that they use a "hot surface ignitor" as a way of eliminating a pilot light.

It's good to save the energy and avoid the combustion byproducts from a pilot light...

BUT-

-the hot surface ignitors are a finite-life part- they sit in the flame even after it has been ignited, and the flame gradually 'cooks away' some of the ignitor, until it gets to the point that the ignitor can't send the proper signal (current flow) to open the gas solenoid valve in response to the oven thermostat's call for heat.

Net result- if you use your oven much, you can count on needing to replace these ignitors periodically- perhaps as often as every several years. The ignitors themselves are not cheap (varies by stove make and model- but often some considerably tens of $ per ignitor and many ovens use several) and if you are having to pay a service tech to come change them out, it'll get expensive.

Ridiculously, any modern gas oven that I've seen does _not_ have provisions to make it simple to change this part- they are hard-wired in and you've got to disassemble a fair amount of stuff to get to them. Seems to me that when the manufacturers have reason to know that this will be a part that'll need periodic replacement during the life of the appliance, they ought to plan for accessibility and easily-changeable connections/ mounts.

If I knew what I know now about the ignitors, I am not sure I'd have gone for a gas range (even though I like the way that they cook) or might've most likely gone with a "dual fuel" gas burner/ electric oven.

 

[begreen]

Very good point on the oven ignitors Trevor. We have a friend that has an expensive Viking commercial range. They have gone through a few ignitors in the past 15 years and they are very expensive. Now they always have a spare. They love the stove, but the ignitor is a sore point.

 

[pybyr]

Very good point on the oven ignitors Trevor. We have a friend that has an expensive Viking commercial range. They have gone through a few ignitors in the past 15 years and they are very expensive. Now they always have a spare. They love the stove, but the ignitor is a sore point.

I've got one of those V- brand things myself (bought during some brief high earning years in the late 90s- never could think of buying one now). At least in mine, changing the ignitors is a moderately involved task involving cutting and reconnecting wiring.

I'm a pretty hard core DIY-er and while I am completely capable of changing the ignitors and won't pay service call rates to have them changed, it annoys the $#%& out of me that it is built in such a way that it's not only expensive for the part, but a needlessly troublesome chore (that the average oven owner couldn't and shouldn't do themselves).

I've known of people having the same issues with regular-household brand gas ovens, too- expensive part/ inaccessible location.

Why on earth are these ovens not _all_ set up with a little access panel, and some connectors on the ignitor so you could pop the old one out and new one in? Simple neglectful design and non-consideration of serviceability.

 

[pyper]

We've had our GE oven about a decade and the ignitor hasn't been a problem yet. Knock on wood.

But one issue we have needed to contend with is that you cannot use the oven when the power is out.