gas oven and electric range?

[Wade Lippman]

We bought a house a year ago. The oven and range are gas. The range is nice, but oven just seems like a mistake. Why on earth would anyone want a gas oven? Never mind... Do they sell oven/ranges with electric ovens and gas ranges? I have seen very expensive dual fuel units, but it never describes what they are. Electric/gas, or something else?

How many amps does a single oven normally require? IIRC the one at my old house was 40a, but that was a double oven.

Thanks.

(I am using "range" to describe the burner on top of the oven; maybe that isn't the right terminology...)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Wade,

They do sell them. The dual-fuel ones I looked at were 240 VAC and Natural Gas. The really expensive ones have an electric convection oven which is different than a standard electric oven. We had a convection oven and my wife didn't want to take the time to learn to use it.

My neighbors bought a gas range with a gas oven. They love the cook top and hate the oven.

[Erik Loza]

I am no chef but my wife is. She says that "gas range" and "electric oven" is the best combination for cooking.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[George Bokros]

First let me say I was a gas range lover until I leaned that an electric cook top is cleaner. A gas range deposits the by-products of combustion on to your walls and ceilings. You are burning fossil fuel and the combustion gases, the sames ones you vent to the outside from your gas water heater, are vented into your kitchen. I experienced this a a teenager. My parents had and always did have a gas range. They always complained about the how the kitchen walls were always greasy, not just the ones near the range. My aunt had switched to an electric range and she proved that the greasy residue on the walls was from the gas range because once she switched to electric she had no greasy residue on her walls.

I think gas cooks better but I do not want the combustion fumes in my house.

George

[Wade Lippman]

I just looked at ranges at BestBuy.com
Gas and electric start at $500 and go to $2,000.
Duo fuel start at $1,200 and go to $5,000.
Am I misunderstanding something? Why are duo fuel so much more expensive that either of the others?

[Shawn Pixley]

Why on earth would anyone want a gas oven?

My neighbor used to have the pilot light style gas oven. He used it as a desicator / jerky dryer. It worked great for that. I don't think they make pilot light version anymore. All electronic ignition.

[Shawn Pixley]

In truth, I have no idea why they are that expensive. I could see them at double the price of a single fuel unit. Is the bottom of the line unit a step up from the bottom of the line single fuel unit?

[Don Morris]

My wife is a cook. We have a top-of-line 6 burner gas range and an electric double oven combination. We don't have the grease situation mentioned. Why? When we installed the "Wolf" gas range, we also installed an 1100 cfm removal fan over the gas range (exits to the roof) with 3 speeds that will suck the chrome off a tail pipe. The pipe going up to the roof is 10" in diameter. There is a filter at the entrance to the fan I occasionally have to put the in the dish washer, but that's no problem. It also has a light which is a nice convenience. On the first speed, it's not very loud but it is very efficient. When she really gets going and has all 6 burners going, she cranks that fan and you can see the steam going right up the fan and surrounding air being pulled in. Without that fan, I'm certain there would be grime on the walls. With it, we just don't have that problem.

[Lee Schierer]

It's all about volume. The less you build of anything the more it costs. Regular gas or electric ranges are made in the millions per year, dual fuel units are probably less than a few thousand annually.

[Ed Aumiller]

George, have had a gas range & oven for over 30 years... no residue at all from it.. love the gas when we lose power, we can still cook...

[Curt Harms]

George, have had a gas range & oven for over 30 years... no residue at all from it.. love the gas when we lose power, we can still cook...

That's the downside of electronic ignition, unless there's a way to light it manually in a pinch. Our gas furnace is electronic ignition but can be lit using a long match or propane torch in a pinch. When the thermostat calls for heat, the gas valve opens then closes after a few seconds if there's no heat (ignition). I learned that one cold night when the electronic ignitor decided it had lived long enough.

[Charles Brown]

I always thought the modern pinnacle of cooking was an induction cooktop (range, hob, whatever). I'm sure there are induction slide in units that include an electric oven to go with the electric (induction) cooktop. I know those cooktops pull some juice (40A breaker) but it will be my cooktop of choice when we renovate our kitchen.

[Dennis Peacock]

George, have had a gas range & oven for over 30 years... no residue at all from it.. love the gas when we lose power, we can still cook...

Same with us....we love our natural gas stove and oven. The LOML has been more than thrilled since we changed the old electric out for the new gas unit.

[Jason Roehl]

Wade,

They do sell them. The dual-fuel ones I looked at were 240 VAC and Natural Gas. The really expensive ones have an electric convection oven which is different than a standard electric oven. We had a convection oven and my wife didn't want to take the time to learn to use it.

My neighbors bought a gas range with a gas oven. They love the cook top and hate the oven.

The time your wife would have taken to learn the convection oven would have been saved in its use the first time--cooking times are about half! (Someday...)


I am no chef but my wife is. She says that "gas range" and "electric oven" is the best combination for cooking.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

I agree. Too bad we have a gas oven, though it does work well.


My neighbor used to have the pilot light style gas oven. He used it as a desicator / jerky dryer. It worked great for that. I don't think they make pilot light version anymore. All electronic ignition.

Commercial gas ovens often still have pilot lights.

[Peter Elliott]

I have a GE dual fuel range.. gas on top, electric convection oven. I would not go another route now that I have time using it. You can buy them at box stores but usually they have to be ordered. The only thing I would like on mine is a grill in the middle instead of a larger burner. While I can use a griddle in the middle burner, I'd probably "Grill" more than making say pancakes, etc.

[Ole Anderson]

We have always had an all electric range, 40+ years now. When I recently remodeled the kitchen with all new appliances, I opted for the dual fuel range. Went with the mid level GE Café series. I love the grill in the middle. Often I just clean it with a paper towel in place. Converts to a 5th elongated burner by just changing out the griddle for the grate. So far I like it. How does the saying go? "Now we are cooking with gas!"? I was not comfortable with a gas oven so that portion needed to be electric. Now we have a dual oven, the smaller one on the bottom is a drawer that can be used for warming or cooking clean things as it is not self cleaning, top is a convection oven I WILL learn how to use. I am practicing now as our microwave in the RV is also a convection oven, and our only oven in the RV. 3 months a year in that requires that we learn how to use it. But I am not used to the combustion products when using the gas cook top so I just leave the range vent on low. We did install a 600 cfm Broam rooftop vented range vent. Considered a convection range, but decided I wanted to do more cooking now that I am retired so I went with gas. I was a bit persuaded as my son's lady friend is in culinary school at midlife and just redid her kitchen with a dual fuel setup and loves it. With fire you have heat in an instant, and when you turn it off, no more heat. Our oven still requires a 40 amp 220 volt service.

[Shawn Pixley]

I always thought the modern pinnacle of cooking was an induction cooktop (range, hob, whatever). I'm sure there are induction slide in units that include an electric oven to go with the electric (induction) cooktop. I know those cooktops pull some juice (40A breaker) but it will be my cooktop of choice when we renovate our kitchen.

We had a house that had an induction cooktop. I didn't care for it much. We couldn't use our stainless steel or copper cookware. Sort of a pain.

[Curt Harms]

We had a house that had an induction cooktop. I didn't care for it much. We couldn't use our stainless steel or copper cookware. Sort of a pain.

That's the downside. I've heard that if a magnet won't stick to the bottom of a pan, it won't work with an induction cook top so no glass type cookware either.

[Charles Brown]

Shawn, controlling for the type of cookware required, do you have any thoughts or comments specifically about the performance of the induction range? I've heard its as responsive as a gas range while being as easy to clean as an electric range without the poor-er performance associated with the common electric cooktop.

[Mike Cutler]

Okay, ya'll have got tell me why you would prefer an electric oven over gas. What exactly Does an electric oven do, that a gas cannot?
I've been living in houses with gas ovens and ranges for most of my life, 54 years. I have a Viking gas cooktop and an American Range gas wall oven. I personally would not want an electric range, or oven.

[Jason Roehl]

Okay, ya'll have got tell me why you would prefer an electric oven over gas. What exactly Does an electric oven do, that a gas cannot?
I've been living in houses with gas ovens and ranges for most of my life, 54 years. I have a Viking gas cooktop and an American Range gas wall oven. I personally would not want an electric range, or oven.

I have a gas oven, it works just fine (my Midwestern-farm-girl-wife does a fair amount of AWESOME baking--that's not just my biased opinion, either), but I believe there are a couple advantages of an electric oven. One is that an electric oven doesn't produce combustion byproducts into the house. Sure, it's mostly water and carbon dioxide, but as we all know, no combustion is perfect, and there's that few seconds from the time the gas valve opens until the igniter gets the whole burner lit. Second is that an electric oven is better able to maintain a constant temperature. Gas ovens cycle, which causes a temperature swing.

[Shawn Pixley]

Charles,

With the right cookware it work fine. The model we had was a first generation (came with the house). It was easy to clean and it did feel safer with younger kids in the house. Ours seemed to take longer to heat than the current models. The control was good although we has the touch controls which seemed over sensitive. It was a bit too easy to modify the setting by brushing against it.

I am told the new models heat much faster (some claim fater than gas with a larger burner).

My biggest frustration was that I couldn't use some of our existing cookware. I had a nice 7.5 gallon stainless steel wort tun for making beer, nice stainless steel skillets / saute pans and a few copperware pieces that we liked a lot.

[Brian Elfert]

I have a gas range with gas oven. It does seem like the oven takes longer than it should to bake things. I haven't checked the actual temperature in the oven to see if the thermostat is working. I only lived briefly in a place that had an electric oven and I don't remember how it worked.

The element in an electric oven cycles on and off just the same as the gas cycles on and off in a gas oven. Gas may cycle less often if it heats faster.

[Jim Becker]

Dual fuel is generally considered the "optimal" design with gas on top for cooking and electric down below for very controlled baking/roasting heat. At the time I was doing my kitchen, I was not willing to dole out the extra (large) chunk of cash for the dual-fuel option on our 48" pro-style range, but in hindsight, I can see why dual-fuel is considered optimal. I don't have the cook time issue that Brian mentions with our oven, but the larger one is also convection equipped.

"Range" is the whole schmegeggie (cooktop and oven), AKA, "stove". :)