Range cookers – what do I need to know?

Some new kitchen planning going on here, and Mrs K has decided she wants a range cooker, possible a compact 90cm to get an extra oven for cake baking.

Anything I should be looking for other that Which reviews?

Gas hob with electric ovens (one fan, one normal) gives the most versatile range. Out Leisure 110 Range has been faultless (bar one oven element @ £23) in something like 15 years.

Extra oven rocks rather than one large one. Electric as footflaps says

Brittania here (electric with gas hobs) – 13 years, no faults.

Rangemaster here, just gone on the blink today, shorts house out. Leg of lamb now cooking at MIL’s house. Other than that it’s been great. It does seem to cook very quickly. I hope it as quick to get a repair before Christmas.

At this point we are thinking electric only so an induction hob seems to be the in-thing.

4 oven Esse with induction hob here. Induction hobs are great although you suddenly discover you’ve got loads of aluminium pans that don’t work with it. Definitely go for > 1 oven (one fan and one normal as per above).

Don’t go for two ovens if they are both too narrow to get the turkey in, better a big single or one with a tall slot oven at the side.

Don’t go for two ovens if they are both too narrow to get the turkey in

Well you could always cut the turkey in half…

My replacement 90cm wide rangecooker due this morning; installers removed old Baumatic Range cooker (12 yrs old and not economical to repair, esp. as Baumatic went bankrupt). Fitter tested gas & elec. and went to get new Rangemaster off the truck: “sorry mate, your cookers not on the truck. It appears to be out of stock.” Meh!

My tuppence worth:
1. make sure smaller tall oven is fan assisted as well as larger oven (and you can select fan assist or convection).
2. Dual fuel; gas hob & elec. oven is best (I never get on with induction) especially if you wok cook.
3. Make sure ovens go to near floor level. You’ll see on cheaper cookers (like my Baumatic) space under cooker and a storage ‘drawer’ below ovens. On the more expensive cookers there is no drawer, resulting in a second oven that should be the same size as main oven and a dedicated grill.
4. Make sure doors have vertical hinges (open left & right rather than up or down). My ovens have hinge at the bottom, I think the levered weight has contributed to hinge failure. Also you have to lean over open hot door when loading/unloading oven.

footflaps – Member
Don’t go for two ovens if they are both too narrow to get the turkey in
Well you could always cut the turkey in half…

When I was a kid my Dad bought a 47lb frozen turkey for Christmas from someone in the pub. No way would it fit in the oven. So while still frozen he had someone run the beast through a band saw. We had 1/2 a turkey for Christmas dinner.

I’ve had a Smeg range cooker for about 12 years.

Key points:

Get electric oven and gas hob.

I have two ovens but the smaller one is so narrow it’s rarely used. For 95% of the time a really big main oven would be better.

Find out how much the parts are. I’ve bought a few new elements now and I could have bought a new oven given how much I’ve spent.

I’ve fairly recently moved into a place with a 90cm double oven. We’re going to redo the kitchen and will be replacing it with a top/bottom two oven set up which I much prefer. I find the small oven in the current one too narrow to be useful for what I cook, at least.

Other top tip – if it’s a dual electric make sure you have a suitable electricity supply available. I had a friend order one without checking and then had to have a special supply added after the cooker arrived as what she had was too small.

I’m not sure I would rely on the people you are buying it off to understand the supply options either – I know ours didn’t.

if it’s a dual electric make sure you have a suitable electricity supply available.

Ours is on it’s own fused spur from the box

Long answer:
We had a smeg with two ovens, the element kept blowing in the large ones fan bit.
After 5 we paid smeg more for the next oven up which is now okay.
Short answer:
Avoid Smeg.

We have a big single oven

Pros: it’s great for Sunday lunch, you can fit the meat, roasties and yorkshires etc. in no problem.

Cons: for every other day it takes twice as long to heat up as a normal oven.

It also a rotisserie which seemed like a good idea and it probably was for the 2 times we used it before getting fed up of the faff fitting the thing. I wouldn’t get a single oven again.

Ours has 4 normal burners and a long thin one in the middle, we hardly ever use that, another round burner would be more useful.

1100mm Rangemaster here.

Gas oven/hob (I like gas) and matching extractor hood above.
Outs has two ovens the same size, + a grill.

Couldn’t go back to a standard 600mm cooker now..

To be fair I think we used the 2nd oven about twice in 15 years, it main use is storing casserole dishes…

In-laws have a Rangemaster. It’s 20+ years old I believe. Had the odd bulb go and an oven element but otherwise never broken. They used to do lots of cooking (they did B&B & dinner, many moons ago) and used both regular size ovens a lot.

Theirs has 4 burners, a griddle & platewarmer. I’ve never seen the griddle used. The platewarmer is a bit gimmicky. I reckon 4 burners + wok burner, would be my choice.

I’m not sure I’d get one though, we’ve never out-cooked our 60cm double oven job.

I can’t see how one large oven could ever be preferable over two smaller ones (assuming the smaller ones are of a usable size).

Even with Sunday lunch, I need space *AND* different temperatures (keeping food warm, hotter for Yorkshires etc).

Theirs has 4 burners, a griddle & platewarmer. I’ve never seen the griddle used.

That’s the one we have. Never used Griddle or Platewarmer, just bung plates in the oven with 2mins to go….

got a Rangemaster 90 here.
Induction hob – 5 burners
Two ovens: One large (fan) and one tall one.

I would buy the same again in a heartbeat. The induction is fantastic*. I came from a gas hob and would describe myself as an enthusiastic cook – i do Ok in the kitchen and when I first saw the cooker (came with the house) I was going to replace it with gas. However, i am glad we kept it. Just as versatile and quick to respond like gas, but you can clean it in about 20 seconds.

*You do need steel bottom pans so budget for that if yours are not compatible.