Gas range: Wolf? Thermador? Bluestar? Viking?

[rotuts]

Id also switch to induction if it came w a high quality Combi-Oven

[gfweb]

We struggled with the choice of gas vs induction.

Finally it was the aesthetics of cooking with fire that won.

[rotuts]

I completely understand.

 

the BlueStar is a stunner

 

if they has a BS with a Combi  Id just give up and surrender.

[weinoo]

As I mentioned previously, induction was out of the question for us, as the electrical requirement cannot be met.

[quiet1]

On 9/16/2017 at 10:49 AM, Smithy said:

If you're looking at a double oven, you might consider this Samsung Flex Duo gas oven. It's expensive, but flexible in that it can be two ovens or one.  I have an older electric version of this.  What I like about it is that a partition can be added or removed to allow one to make 2 small oven compartments or a single 5.8 cu. ft. oven.  What I don't like about mine is that it has a single door, so that both oven compartments lose heat when you open the door. Samsung has solved that problem in its later models with a specially articulated door so that you can open only the top or open the entire door as one.  The handle latch seems to be foolproof. There are other pros and cons that I'll explain if anyone asks.

 

My best friend bought the single-chamber version of this oven earlier this year and is delighted with it so far.  The hottest burner is plenty hot for the stir-frying that they commonly do, and theirs came with a wok cradle. (The single-oven version was about $1000 less than this dual-chamber version.  I'd probably have paid the extra grand, considering the baking that I do, but to them it wasn't worth it.) They hated their previous smooth-top stove, and I haven't heard any complaints about cleaning this gas stove top.

 

I'm curious. I can see two ovens working for some of the things we do. Though I'm not thrilled with the burner arrangement, I never feel like I'd use that odd shaped center one. I'd rather have a slightly wider unit and 6 burners.

[Norm Matthews]

I was idly reading this topic a while ago and found that many people thought Blue Star was a great range.   I looked on the internet and found a dealer selling them about 3/4 mile from here. I went to look at it and another place as well.  The upshot of what they said was that it was built for COOKING. It was a restaurant stove built to be acceptable to domestic building codes.  Basically it was a tank.  It reminded me of the Garland I had in the restaurant I had all those years ago.  I also saw some more modest stoves and decided I'd actually prefer a nice pick-up truck instead of a tank.  They told me that GE was doing some really good things with ranges and a double oven appealed to me.  What cinched it was to learn that new technology had drastically brought down the cost of installing a new gas line in my house.  My glass top stove that was not all that old was acting up.  The smooth glass top always needed cleaning and the mess was always cooked on. I spent more time cleaning it than cooking with it.  The left front burner would not turn down sometimes. I never knew when I'd turn back a few minutes later and find it was cooking at top heat even though I'd turned it down.  The other front burner would not heat up very fast. I'd go back after a while thinking it was time to flip whatever was in the pan only to find it had not started cooking yet.  I ordered the stove I wanted and it was installed today.  It has a double oven with steam clean option and convection in the lower one.  The center griddle is replaceable with either a reversible cast iron one or a regular grate.  My first food to cook on it is a hamburger with the buns being toasted on the griddle.  Tomorrow I'll bake some bread in the upper oven.

 

edit PS In a few months I think I will have the range hood replaced with a matching over the range microwave.

 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Norm Matthews (log)

[rotuts]

@Norm Matthews 

 

that looks outstanding

 

would you pass on the exact model as Id like to look it up

 

interesting that the top oven looks larger than the bottom

 

cheers

[Norm Matthews]

@rotuts  Here is the exact model 

GE® 30" Free-Standing Gas Double Oven Convection Range

JGB860EEJES

 

the window in both ovens are the same but the insides are different.

[gfweb]

@Norm Matthews Nice stove.  Really nice. Well played, Norm. 

 

You are right , Blue Star is a beast. Garland in its genes. Built like a tank and no electronics other than pilotless burners, convection and an oven light. 

[Porthos]

@Norm Matthews Nice looking stove.

 

My DD and SIL bought a new house and went with a Samsung package. They also chose a range with the dual-oven. I need to ask my DD how they like it so far.

[Porthos]

@Norm Matthews Also yay for the attached bottle opener. Mine is mounted over the recycle can.

[Norm Matthews]

7 hours ago, Porthos said:

@Norm Matthews Also yay for the attached bottle opener. Mine is mounted over the recycle can.

 

I saw some new Coke bottle openers that had the cap catcher attachment recently. I plan to get one to go below mine which is an old one. 

[Norm Matthews]

Microwave was installed today. It is a little big... or too low... but not so much I can't get used to it, I hope.

[curls]

7 hours ago, Norm Matthews said:

Microwave was installed today. It is a little big... or too low... but not so much I can't get used to it, I hope.

Indeed! There is not much space between the cooktop and the bottom of the microwave. If you can do without the cabinets that are currently above the microwave, you can move it up quite a bit.

[Norm Matthews]

11 hours ago, curls said:

Indeed! There is not much space between the cooktop and the bottom of the microwave. If you can do without the cabinets that are currently above the microwave, you can move it up quite a bit.

My brother-in-law is a contractor. I will ask him about what it will take to move it up.

[rotuts]

@Norm Matthews 

 

how hard or how much work is installing a new micro above a stove ?

 

Ive had nothing but trouble w contractors.

 

my plain vanilla GE seems to no longer work on defrost.

 

its not the end of the world

 

I just do a series of 5 sec regular ' bursts '

 

on my micro defrost involved selecting a lower power level

[Norm Matthews]

@rotutsThe appliance store where I got it, delivered and installed it. It took two guys and about 45 minutes  and involved, in my case, shutting off the electricity, converting direct wiring to a double 110 outlet and installing it in the cabinet over the microwave.  Mine didn't require any venting installation.

 

PS. If you look up a microwave you are interested in, some sites list the installation manual so you can see what is involved in the one you like.

 

Edited October 14, 2017 by Norm Matthews (log)

[weedy]

It's not terribly tricky if you are reasonably "handy". 

The tricky bit is in supporting a large heavy item while you're marking screws and screwing it into place etc. without two  people to hold it. 

 

I put out my Range hood in myself and it was a major pain. 

[quiet1]

On 10/14/2017 at 12:18 PM, weedy said:

It's not terribly tricky if you are reasonably "handy". 

The tricky bit is in supporting a large heavy item while you're marking screws and screwing it into place etc. without two  people to hold it. 

 

I put out my Range hood in myself and it was a major pain. 

 

'When we got our Miele fridge we had like four BIG guys from the store there to move everything. It was very helpful.

 

Back on topic - my mom is making noises about buying me a 36" range for Christmas as we can fit it and our GE 30" 4 burner is making me nuts. From poking at display models at home shows, we aren't thrilled with the feel of Viking or Wolf (the controls feel kind of wobbly and 'cheap' for the cost and prestige of the range.) But there are still a lot of brands out there - I really want 5-6 burners and no weird shaped fish burner because I wouldn't use it. I can go gas or electric for the oven - our current range is all gas and eventually I got used to the gas oven. I think I still moderately prefer electric, but I'll deal if it means an overall better range.

 

Any brands come to mind as things I MUST check out or that people have had really horrible experiences with? (I've read the thread in the past, but with the way things progress maybe there's something new? Or someone no longer makes the products they sell, they just rebadge?) 

 

(We considered induction but honestly gas is just more fun to cook with. Also I've only seen 5 burner induction.)

 

I want multiple burners because due to my health I'm more likely to cook a lot at once when I'm feeling up to it than to cook with 1-2 pans every day, so with 4 burners I frequently find myself cramped for space and juggling things around. Also, we like to try to make larger batches of things to keep some in the freezer, and basically only one of the burners on the current stove really works for the larger pan, and it completely blocks access to the simmer burner, plus crowds the other front burner, so it's hard to cook anything else if you have a big pot on the stove. (I'd like two ovens also, but can't figure out how to fit that in. Kitchen just isn't big enough for a 48" range and there's no good place for an extra wall oven. Bummer.)

 

I had a Smeg range in England and it worked quite well for me, but that was some time ago so I don't know if that brand is still any good - plus they don't seem to have a local distributor which makes me worry about service calls if there is a problem.

[weedy]

i would respectfully suggest that unless you've cooked with induction for a bit,  you don't really know what 'fun' it is or isn't.

 

it takes a bit of getting used to, but it also has its advantages. (e.g. I can lift a pot while it's cooking and do a quick wipe underneath and around for spills) and is just as controllable as gas, if not more so.

 

I also don't think you'll fit 6 eyes in a 36" top. 

the problem, to me, with the 5 eye models is that the centre eye invariably takes up some overlap room once you have a pot on it. I don't think it's a terribly practical layout.

a small grill in the centre, between 4 eyes,  is probably more useful, to me.

 

 

[MelissaH]

47 minutes ago, weedy said:

I also don't think you'll fit 6 eyes in a 36" top. 

the problem, to me, with the 5 eye models is that the centre eye invariably takes up some overlap room once you have a pot on it. I don't think it's a terribly practical layout.

a small grill in the centre, between 4 eyes,  is probably more useful, to me.

 

 

We have a 36" GE Monogram dual-fuel range with 6 burners. We opted for that layout, rather than 4 burners with wither a grill or griddle in the middle. I believe all the other high-end manufacturers offer the same choice of configurations. More than once, we've had all 6 burners going at the same time, with 6 different pots.

[Norm Matthews]

14 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

 

 

 - I really want 5-6 burners and no weird shaped fish burner because I wouldn't use it.

 I am not wishing to talk you into or out of anything but that is exactly what I said about my stove with a griddle in the middle but now that I have it, I find myself using it almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day.  I toast hamburger buns on it and cook sausage and eggs for example.

 

 

[quiet1]

3 hours ago, weedy said:

i would respectfully suggest that unless you've cooked with induction for a bit,  you don't really know what 'fun' it is or isn't.

 

it takes a bit of getting used to, but it also has its advantages. (e.g. I can lift a pot while it's cooking and do a quick wipe underneath and around for spills) and is just as controllable as gas, if not more so.

 

I also don't think you'll fit 6 eyes in a 36" top. 

the problem, to me, with the 5 eye models is that the centre eye invariably takes up some overlap room once you have a pot on it. I don't think it's a terribly practical layout.

a small grill in the centre, between 4 eyes,  is probably more useful, to me.

 

 

 

I've used induction, I'd be happy with it if it was the option, like in an apartment, but general feeling in the household (based on using both) is a preference for gas right now. I'm not sure why my partner prefers gas - he may be more into the 'alternative cooking option' thing than I am, for example. (With induction if your power goes out, you're stuck. With gas you just need to use a match or something to light it.)

 

6 in a 36" is fairly normal as an option. I do plan on taking my big pot with me to try it out and see how much space I actually have - my old Smeg was 36" with 5 with the big one in the middle, and I don't recall having space problems. (It had a round center one, though, not the oblong fish pan thing. I'm deeply skeptical of the oblong shaped burner since I can't see how it'd fit well on any pans I actually own and use. Maybe a roasting pan but that'll fit just as well across two smaller ones if you're just trying to deglaze. I think some companies stick an oblong burner in so they can say it's 5 and appeal to people who don't actually NEED much more than 2-3 burners anyway.)

 

Grill definitely wouldn't get enough use here. I'm willing to consider a griddle since we do a lot of burgers and eggs and pancakes and other griddle-friendly foods, but I do wonder about ease of cleaning. I also wonder if a griddle could be used as a 'burner' to keep pots warm? Not so much for cooking necessarily but if I just want to hold something while I do other stuff?

[quiet1]

1 hour ago, Norm Matthews said:

 I am not wishing to talk you into or out of anything but that is exactly what I said about my stove with a griddle in the middle but now that I have it, I find myself using it almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day.  I toast hamburger buns on it and cook sausage and eggs for example.

 

 

 

How does it clean? Could you put pots on it if you wanted to mostly just keep them warm or at a very low simmer?

[Norm Matthews]

 

2 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

How does it clean? Could you put pots on it if you wanted to mostly just keep them warm or at a very low simmer?

 It lifts off and cleans in the sink quite easily. An extra is one that you could order is made of cast iron and reversible. The standard one is non stick aluminum If you wanted to use it for other pots, (on mine) you could get as an extra, a grate for pots. Mine has 5 burners. One is 1800 btu, one is 1200, that one is 10000 and the other two are 9500 and the simmer one is 5000.