Need oven input

All -

My mom is beginning to redo her kitchen and I am trying to upgrade her into a nicer range.

Can you all provide some thoughts on an electric oven vs a gas oven? Not the actual burners up top, just inside.

Also, are all 36" ranges going to be in a $6000 range? Been looking at some Jenn-air and Kitchenaid and they seem to all be in the $6k range for something with 4 burners and a grille/griddle.

Thanks for any input, guessing some of you have spent some serious time looking into this.

Best,
J.R.

Electric ovens are better for delicate dishes like souffles. They don't require air throughput like a gas oven, which basically creates a draft. Are you sure you want a 36"? Usually 30" have bigger ovens.

We recently redid our kitchen and after deciding on the features that we wanted, we looked at ranges at a variety of price points, the choice came down to either a DCS at the high end and a much lower priced GE Profile. Both had more or less equivalent features, with the slight edge in the burner dept. going to the DCS (in case you're interested in the burners after all). In the end, we settled on the GE. My wife felt the ergonomics of the oven were better for her and, after all, she's the baker so who was I to argue. For us, price wasn't really a deciding issue, but I was glad to save a couple of grand. I'd suggest going up to ABT and looking around. They've got just about every range under the sun and you can kick the tires side by side. I've found the staff to be very knowledgable at ABT.

We did a lot of soul-searching on oven+cooktop vs range in our kitchen addition project. The high-end ranges (Thermador, Wolf, Viking, Kitchen-Aid, etc.) have a few downsides:
1) Cost
2) Reliability -- Consumer Reports is not fond of them, GE, for instance, is much more reliable
3) Ease of cleaning (although the latest Thermador burners are a little nicer than the ones I got 18 months ago)
4) Even the widest versions have limited double ovens
5) Cost

We settled on a gas Thermador 6 burner+griddle cooktop (48" wide), and a GE double electric oven. MrsF was reluctant to get an electric oven, having grown up on gas, but has fallen in love with the convec and proofing features, and it's been a great performer. On wall ovens, there are very, very few gas versions, and we did not see any doubles at all. All in all, the double oven plus the 48" cooktop came to a little more than half the equivalent range cost.

I suffered with an electric stove/oven for the 15 years I rented apartments. I was so sick of roasts not turning out right, and the crappy electric broilers during that time frame. When we built our house, and oufitted the kitchen I was damn sure I was getting a gas stove, and gas convection oven. We purchased a gas convection oven, and I have been very happy with the results. Great for baking, roasting, and broiling.

We went with a 5 burner stainless steel model with the gas convection oven Frigidaire.

Headed to ABT this weekend, is that the best selection in the Chicago land area?

Other than the merch. mart, what is a good place to go look at kitchen models?

jpeac2 wrote:Headed to ABT this weekend, is that the best selection in the Chicago land area?

Other than the merch. mart, what is a good place to go look at kitchen models?

We redid our kitchen about a year and a half ago and after looking far and wide ended up buying at Abt. They gave us the best deal and had the best selection.

The Merchandise Mart is a fun place to visit and get ideas, but unless you want a $200k Snaidero custom kitchen island maybe not the best place to shop for appliances.

There is actually a decent selection to browse at Stone City (3053 W Grand) although I don't know if I'd trust them installing anything. A great place to get granite/marble counters and tile though. Best deals in the city on stone.

Other than that, Expo/Great Indoors have a good selection to browse and sometimes have good floor sample sales.

But in general for overall best price, most reliable delivery, and good installation, I didn't find anything better than Abt.

What would you all suggest if we wanted to look at cabinets/model kitchens (not march. mart).

I think we will head to ABT for appliances.

jpeac2 wrote:What would you all suggest if we wanted to look at cabinets/model kitchens (not march. mart).

Try a KDA, and Home Depot's Thomasville line (that's what we bought).
Look closely at drawer mechanisms and hinges, they make a bigger difference than the finishes in the long run. Full-depth drawers are important. How much width you get out of a drawer is important too. Soft-close glides I didn't find as useful.

Thanks Joel.

I am thinking head to ABT and an EXPO.

I own two GE profile electric ranges, one in KC, one in Montreal. The convection ovens are very nice, altho' both tend to run a bit hot. No problem with either of them in a grand total of 6 user-years.

I had a long talk a couple years ago with the huge appliance guy in downtown Janesville, and he had some words of wisdom for me. According to him--and he sells and services a couple of high-end lines as well as the usual suspects--none of the high-end ovens are to be preferred. The companies don't make enough of them to get their reliability any where near that of, say, GE. And while their service policies are generous, he says that he makes a lot more service trips for the small number of high-end ovens as compared to the huge installed base of regular brands.

Geo

We did a full remodel of our condo four years ago and ended up at ABT (although our architect didn't like them) but they had the best prices for most equipment and a great selection to compare.

We got our faucets (all Grohe) from www.faucet.com and our sink and a couple other pieces from http://www.homeclick.com/default.aspx which had good prices on some appliances, china, and other housewares.

FYI...KDA closed down all location yesterday.

Personally, I always thought KDA was a disaster to deal with. They never really seemed to know what they were doing, and the one time we asked for a quote, their man showed up at our condo reeking of alchohol.

For showrooms, you might check out any Great Indoors, or Expo (do they still exist anywhere?), or ABT (just added a strip mall of designers next door) or Stone City (3053 W Grand). Another nice place to look at is Advantage Plumbing in Niles (7850 N. Milwaukee).

I'd agree on getting appliances at ABT. I looked all around and they had the best deals, inventory, and service. For stone (granite/tile) definitely look into Stone City. Belstone in West loop also good, but you'll need to find your own fabricator to cut and install.

As far as cabinets go, if you find what you need in the Dynasty/Omega line, definitely check out Benz Cabinets on 5649 N. Lincoln. Dave Benz is a great guy to work with, and they priced out our cabinets for perhaps 50% of the price at Great Indoors/Expo. Not much of a showroom, but they really have the cabinet ordering and design down pat as long as you know what you want. Only drawback is that they do not do installations, so you'll need to find a carpenter to do that.