August 2008
How to choose
You don’t have to pay top dollar to get kitchen appliances that cook with style and excellent performance. See Types to decide whether you prefer a stand-alone range or a cooktop and wall oven. Also decide whether the space an over-the-range
microwave saves on your countertop is worth more than the better venting of a range hood, especially if you use your range often. Then follow these tips:
Consider your cooking. Convection ovens can speed roasting, but you’ll typically pay $250 extra to save only a few minutes. Cooking for a crowd? Look for at least one high-powered burner or element, expandable range or cooktop elements, and a large oven. For baking, look for high scores in our evenness tests—and ignore all the hype about dual-fuel ranges, which haven’t delivered any notable advantages in our cooking tests.
Think twice about pro-style ranges. Our latest survey of about 1,700 online subscribers shows that owning a pro-style model is a mixed bag. While our readers liked the high-heat burners and the broiling and searing of their pro-style ranges, they also reported more and pricier repairs. Almost half of the pro-style models bought during the 8-year survey were repaired—some of them three times—compared with only 17 percent for regular ranges. And repairs to pro-style ranges were more than twice as likely to cost more than $300.
Choose the right hood. If you’re an avid cook, you’ll need an effective range hood to handle all of the heat and steam. Be sure the hood you choose is at least as wide as the cooking surface it’s over. Two CR Best Buys to consider are the under-cabinet Kenmore 5234, $225, and the wall-chimney Kenmore 5030, $550. If you’re venting a kitchen-island cooktop, consider the Jenn-Air JXT8142AD, $1,900, and the GE Monogram ZV1050SF, $2,400. Both tested models mount to and vent through the ceiling.
Consider your cooking. Convection ovens can speed roasting, but you’ll typically pay $250 extra to save only a few minutes. Cooking for a crowd? Look for at least one high-powered burner or element, expandable range or cooktop elements, and a large oven. For baking, look for high scores in our evenness tests—and ignore all the hype about dual-fuel ranges, which haven’t delivered any notable advantages in our cooking tests.
Think twice about pro-style ranges. Our latest survey of about 1,700 online subscribers shows that owning a pro-style model is a mixed bag. While our readers liked the high-heat burners and the broiling and searing of their pro-style ranges, they also reported more and pricier repairs. Almost half of the pro-style models bought during the 8-year survey were repaired—some of them three times—compared with only 17 percent for regular ranges. And repairs to pro-style ranges were more than twice as likely to cost more than $300.
Choose the right hood. If you’re an avid cook, you’ll need an effective range hood to handle all of the heat and steam. Be sure the hood you choose is at least as wide as the cooking surface it’s over. Two CR Best Buys to consider are the under-cabinet Kenmore 5234, $225, and the wall-chimney Kenmore 5030, $550. If you’re venting a kitchen-island cooktop, consider the Jenn-Air JXT8142AD, $1,900, and the GE Monogram ZV1050SF, $2,400. Both tested models mount to and vent through the ceiling.
