I think that GE’s, Whirlpool’s etc all tend to be pretty similar.
One thing: that “power burner” is nice.
But, our stove also has “accu-simmer”. It’s a burner whose entire range goes from low to very low.
I like it more than Power Burner. Especially if you make rice, or sauces that simmer, or polenta, or if you just want to keep something warm without boiling it. Sometimes I wish two of my burners were accu-simmer.
[squeek]
I like electric.
[/squeek]
That sounds neat. I will keep my eyes open for that feature.
There is always one… 
Well here’s more than one!
In our last house, we had a Jenn-Air electric cooktop. I loved the sh!t out of that thing - I could boil water faster than I can on my current gas stove, and it was all modular. So I could take the entire thing apart and really clean it. When the wiring went out in one of the modules, I just took it out, got a new one and plugged it right in. It also came with a plug-in grill and griddle and had downdraft ventilation. It was awesome. It also accomodated very large pans and pots - many gallons of beer, spaghetti sauce, and really big skillets-full of chicken cacciatore were made on it.
Now I have a cheap-ass gas stove and I’ll kill to have that Jenn-Air back. What pisses me off most about it is that they don’t make gas stoves with pilot lights any more - the oven is electric ignition, and so when the power is out, it’s no more good to you than an electric stove. That sucks. You still can use the burners, at least. Unfortunately the burners on mine are too small for my big pots and they don’t heat evenly as a result. I really need to get a better stove …
As for how much gas a gas stove uses - not much at all. We use propane and during the summer months the stove is the only thing that uses the gas and the tank stays full.
:eek:
Man ! It might be called a kitchenappliancestore, but *I *call it highwayrobbery. Please, please consider buying second hand. I’ve always (well, twice, and that was because I moved, not because the stoves gave out) had ancient gas stoves, bought secondhand at under 100 bucks, and they never ever gave me trouble.
You see, there are no moving parts in a gas stove. There is nothing that can get worn, nothing that becomes “unsafe”. The only moving parts are the doors and the knobs, and you can test those for yourself in two seconds. If they work, they work, period. The rubber gas hose at the back might deteriorate with age, but replacing it is a matter of going to a handystore and spending 20 bucks.
I’ve read that using propane rather than NG reduces your BTU output substantially. So much so that the anecdotal advice given was if you wanted the equivalent of 9500 BTUs of Natural Gas, get the next step up for propane, which seems to be 12000 BTUs.
Not necessarily a fact, but something I found researching gas ranges.
I guess I’m a luddite amongst gas stove users, but ours is electricity-free. No electric start, just pilots for the range and oven. Saves a teeny bit on electricity, and we can cook during a power failure.
It is a lot of money, I agree. The stove we are looking at has a fan in the oven for a convection-like cooking experience, which is a plus, but also a moving part.
Do you want to know what the worst part of this whole mess is? About six months ago we were offered a 2 year-old NG range for FREE! But our current, then yet unshattered, stove was in great shape and since I had no place to store the stove we let it pass. :smack:
I’ve no idea - I only know that per BTU, electric power is the most expensive, with propane usually coming next and oil after that. Natural gas is (still) the cheapest, but it typically isn’t measured in BTUs so it’s hard to really compare. That along with the fact that NG has been going up in price so much and the day may come when the cost surpasses other energy sources. But any way you look at it, stoves just don’t use that much energy - it’s not like a residential stove is going to be on all day every day. Usually!
In case it hasn’t been said often enough yet, gas is the best! And I find the cost of gas comprises a very small percentage of my monthly utility bill, despite the fact that I cook on a regular basis.
I’m a little surprised at the folks who say they can’t cook with a gas stove when the power is out. I had the digital clock on my Frigidaire stove go wonky (incessant beeping), and I had to keep the stove unplugged until the repair guy was able to replace it. During that time, I had no problem lighting the stovetop burners with a match. (Admittedly, I didn’t bother trying the oven, but that’s because it was summertime and no way was I going to use the oven then anyway.) Are folks just assuming that no electricity = no cooking with gas, or have some of you actually tried and failed?
Thanks for all your replies!
I am off to do some shopping.
Have a great weekend.
My last stove had an electric thermostat in the oven. If the power went out while I was baking, the gas would either stay on or never start up, depending on which state it was in when the power went out. So, I’d either char-bake whatever was in the oven, or stop cooking it.
The range worked fine, lit by matches.
Am I too late to say that I’ve used both for many years, and I prefer gas?
One advantage that I haven’t seen mentioned is perhaps an odd one: I lived through the only earthquake to cause fatalities in Australia (the Newcastle Earthquake of 1989), and while buildings crumblerd and the electricity went off for a couple of hours, the city’s gas pipe network survived undamaged, which meant that we could still make cups of tea for the elderly neighbours who needed a bit of comfort at the time.
(And I remember shouting at my kids to keep the fridge door closed, because we didn’t know how long the electricity would be off.)
Maybe one or two people. I’ll second (or third?) the recommendation for gas.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and recommend gas. 
It goves much greater control over the heat then electric. And it’s easier to clean. Additionally, if you have an electric stove and no electricity, it’s useless, but as others have said, a gas stove may still work during a power failure. Disadvantages of gas stoves include greater cost and complexity in hookup, another utility bill, and the occasional exploding house.
Can you adapt a gas stove to different types of gas? Natural gas from the mains, propane from a tank, methane from your home sewage-digestion system, hydrogen from your solar cracker?
Of course I’m biased, because Dad worked for the gas company and we always had a gas stove and furnace. Mom was a good cook, too.
I don’t mean to make a pitch for any vendor. just wanted to provide a price comparison. Seems like this would be an equitable gas unit for almost half the price of the one you were referring to.
<3 the accu-simmer. It is the bee’s knees. Indeed, it’s the wasp’s tits.
GAS!! I have to learn to cook all over again when I go visit my mom out there in Electric Land.
Gas all the way. I had a jenn-air glass top downdraft cooktop in our last house, and had nothing but problems with it (it was brand new.) Glass tops look easy to clean, but any time something boils over or splatters (which happens more often than w/gas because you can’t reduce heat instantly like w/gas) the substance burns on to the glass. We often had to use a razor blade to scrap whatever it was off. With gas, you simply take the trays under the burners off and put them in the dishwasher.
We were looking at Maytag models yesterday, there was one at Home Depot that had the large convection oven, accu-simmer and power blaster, for a mere $1,400 CDN :eek: The previous link was also in Canadian dollars, which closes the gap between mine and your links.
I learned on electric, but boy I love my gas stove. One place where electric is better is baking. Gas produces water when it burns. Electric ovens have lower humidity, and therefore bake better. The latest rage for cooks is dual fuel ranges where the oven is electric and the cooktop is gas.