Kitchen Appliances: Electric Ranges Ain’t So Bad After All!
I’ve always had a serious prejudice when it came to electric ranges- call me a gas elitist. However I recently moved into a new loft development and gas was not an option. After six months of cooking on a glass top electric range, I’m not as deadset against these things as I used to be.
My range is pretty basic (Whirlpool, glass top with stainless veneer surfaces to make it look pricier). It has four burners under one smooth glass top that is super easy to clean- just give it a spritz and a wipe and you’re done. No shuffling cast iron burner rings or those removable element covers. Being a single male, I now have a much cleaner kitchen than in the past because of this feature. Score ten points.
There’s one extra hot burner (I don’t actually know the BTUs but it’s bigger and redder when on) that boils water a lot faster than my last gas stove. And it works great with my wok which I never seemed to be able to get hot enough unless I threw it on the charcoal grill (seriously, try using your wok directly on the coals in the ole Weber- it works great!). Ten more points.
The oven has a digital temp control. You punch in the temp you want and the timer tells you how long it will take to reach your selection. It then counts down the time and an alarm tone goes off when the oven reaches the heat setting. I checked it with a thermometer and it was pretty close. This has proven to be very useful as I had a tendency to not wait till the oven was full blast before throwing my pizza in. Now I wait and the results are better. Another ten.
The oven is self-cleaning. Haven’t done it yet but assume it works. 5 pts.
On the downside, it is tricky to know how hot a burner is. With gas you can take a peek and guesstimate. With this you have to have used the stove enough to know what dial setting produces what results. Once I got used to it this wasn’t a problem. On the plus side, you can hold a low simmer by sliding the pot half off the burner at its lowest setting (stir occasionally). Five big ones.
You could burn yourself and if I had kids I’d think about this aspect. It has four glowing dots on the front of the top that indicate that burners are hot. They stay lit until the burner is cool which can take a while after it is turned off. The burners glow red when on but go black when off even if they are still hot. No points here.
I cook a lot and consider myself a serious cook. If I had the option to go gas I probably would. However this electric range is proof that low budget (around $600) does not mean low quality or too much compromise in features. This fits in with my theory that unless you cook a lot and for a lot of people, that $4000 restaurant range option might be a place to save money. Spend $1500 and buy a set of copper pans with the difference!