Take Your Cooking to the Next Level with the Right Kitchen Range
The right stove makes a huge difference for life in the kitchen. It shortens your meal prep time, makes cleanup and maintenance a breeze, and above all, allows you to consistently create amazing and delicious meals with ease. It has the power to truly add another level of enjoyment to your cooking experience. Since it’s such a big part of your kitchen, it’s important to take the time to find the right one for you.
Types of Kitchen Ranges
The first thing you’ll want to do is decide what kind of range to get for your kitchen: gas, electric, or dual-fuel. When evaluating options, be sure to check which types of ranges your kitchen can support.
Gas ranges
If you already have a gas line installed, you’ll definitely want to explore the possibility of a gas range. Gas ranges heat up food quickly and give you the convenience of precise heat control. Look for models that have super handy features such as sealed burners and upswept cooktops for easy cleaning, pilotless ignition for fast and simple startup, and special simmer and high-heat burners so you can easily prepare a dish and a sauce at the same time.
Electric ranges
Available with coil or radiant cooktops, electric ranges provide you with consistent, high-quality heat, making them very suitable for everything from roasting a turkey to baking apple pie. Coil cooktops feature traditional coil elements that convert electricity into heat, making them economical, fast-heating, and usually fairly easy to clean. Radiant cooktops are equipped with radiant elements located directly underneath a flat, smooth surface of ceramic glass. They're not only super easy to clean, but also tend to boast useful features like expandable elements for larger cookware and warming zones to keep your dishes at the desired temperature.
Dual-fuel ranges
Dual-fuel ranges use more than one fuel type, typically sporting a gas cooktop and an electric oven. They offer the best of both worlds, making them a popular choice for those who do a lot of cooking and baking. The electric oven generally delivers superior heat distribution, while the gas cooktop burners provide more precise heat control. If you’re considering a dual-fuel range, you’ll need a natural gas line for the gas cooktop and a 220-240V electrical outlet for the electric oven.
Kitchen Range Features to Consider
Now that you know what type of range works best for your kitchen, it’s time to look at some important features that will also factor into your decision.
Built-in ovens and slide-in or free-standing ranges
The space and setup of your kitchen will largely dictate whether you opt for a built-in oven or slide-in or free-standing range. Designed to fit nicely between cabinets, slide-in ranges have unfinished sides, generally come without a backsplash, and have all the controls located at the front. Built-in ovens are conveniently integrated into the wall and generally have a separate cooktop built into the counter. Free-standing ranges, with finished sides and a backsplash with all the controls, give you the freedom of placing them wherever you like.
Convection oven
Convection ovens are equipped with one or more fans that circulate the hot air throughout the oven to speed up cooking time and provide more even heat distribution. This gives you even better results for your baking and roasting.
Induction cooktop
Induction cooktops are popular because they’re safer, more energy-efficient, and easy to clean. Like smooth top ranges, they have a flat continuous surface; however, they also feature induction coils that create magnetic fields and transfer energy to your steel-based pots and pans to heat them up. The result is a faster cooking time with very precise heat control.
Capacity, style, and self-cleaning features
When shopping for a kitchen range, you’ll also want to decide on capacity. Take into account the space you have to work with and the amount of people who will be using the range. What’s more, keep in mind your kitchen’s décor when choosing a range, as you’ll want to make sure it goes with the general theme, whether it be stainless steel, black or white. Finally, it’s a good idea to consider ranges with self-cleaning features, as they can save you quite a bit of elbow grease.
Whatever direction you decide to go in, Best Buy can help you find exactly what you’re looking for thanks to its wide selection of ranges and ovens from great brands like GE, Samsung, and Frigidaire.