Buying guide: Ovens, cooktops and freestanding cookers (upright ranges)

We explain how to buy a new oven for your kitchen

GoodGearGuide Staff (Good Gear Guide)
— 24 August, 2010 12:30

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Comments 21

Image Credit: agit on stock.xchng (http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=457757)

Jargon-busters: Ovens

Dual-fuel: A cooking appliance that has both gas burners and electric elements. Commonly applied to freestanding cookers that have gas burners and an electric oven. Sometimes used to refer to a cooktop or hob that has both gas burners and electric hotplates.

Electric ignition: Lights the gas burners electrically without matches or lighter.

Flame failure cut-out: If the flame goes out on a gas burner, flame failure cut-out will stop the gas to that burner for safety. Some electric ovens also have an automatic safety switch-off, which will turn off the oven after an extended period of time.

Induction cooking: A type of cooking that uses an electromagnetic process to heat the pots rather than a heating element or burner. Cookware suitable for induction cooking must be used.

Litres (Oven): This measurement is the capacity or volume of the oven in litres.

MJ/h: Used to provide the heat output of gas burners. The higher the MJ/h, the more heat the burner will give out to heat the pots and pans. Look for cooktops with burners at different MJ/h for simmering, medium cooking and high-speed wok cooking.

Pyrolytic oven / Catalytic liners: A self-cleaning oven. Fat and grease is turned to ash under a high-heat cleaning process. The ash can then be wiped away. Catalytic liners work in a similar way with debris collecting on the liners and burning off. With liners look at how much of the oven is covered.

Residual heat indicators: Indicate when the hotplates of a ceramic cooktop are still hot or warm.

Roast probe: A spike that can be inserted into roasts to determine when the roast is cooked.

Telescopic shelf holders: Provides extra support for oven shelves to slide out of the oven.

Watts (W) — electric cooktops: While gas burners are rated by MJ/h, metal, ceramic and induction cooktop hotplates are rated in Watts.

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GoodGearGuide Staff

Good Gear Guide

Topics: cooking appliances, kitchens, cook tops, ovens, kitchen appliances

Comments

Anonymous

Tue 08/09/2009 - 07:20

Thanks!

Thanks for a great article; really appreciated it!

OttoAu

Tue 03/08/2010 - 14:13

You need to mention that if you buy a dual fuel freestanding, make sure its 10AMP plug otherwise if its 15AMP you will need to have your house rewired, adding $100's to the cost.....

David

Thu 05/08/2010 - 22:13

Excellent article..right information..

child-friendly kitchen needed

Sun 29/08/2010 - 14:55

Thanks for this article. I have just started looking for what I want in a kitchen, and this article seems to have covered lots of info I hadn't even been aware to look for.
I also appreciate the honesty when identifying features that are not necessarily a need, such as a self-cleaning oven, when cost is such a big fator in so many consumers minds.

Paul

Sun 19/09/2010 - 15:30

Question, rather than comment, re flame failure cut-outs (ffd):
Is it true that, should there be an electricity black-out, the gas cooker ffd, allegedly electronically steered, will prevent lighting a burner by whatever other means available?

EMurf

Thu 16/06/2011 - 07:49

One thing you have to look our for when replacing an existing cooker in a corner, is whether the door opens left to right or right to left. I just bought a Zanussi freestanding cooker which is absolutely useless to me, as the thickness of the oven door and the ridiculously thick external handle means you have to have at least 135 degrees available to you if you ever want to take out the grill pan or shelves. Mad.

cab maker

Tue 21/06/2011 - 16:27

Looking for depth size as well overall?

Jo

Mon 05/09/2011 - 20:56

Very useful. Thanks heaps.

vanessa schofield

Mon 10/10/2011 - 17:38

thanks for the article it helped me a lot

Evelyn Platus

Tue 11/10/2011 - 21:04

I'm looking for a dual fuel 600m cooker with an internal oven measurement of 500mm wide. Any chances??

Lydgatelass

Mon 17/10/2011 - 09:47

Thank you, very informative article......much better than Choice info absolutely hopeless!!

hel

Wed 26/10/2011 - 11:56

Great article and very informative! Now I'm much clear what I want! Thanks heaps!!

Kaz

Sat 21/01/2012 - 16:59

Thanks so much for such a great article. Just what I needed to help me narrow my choices.

Ner

Sun 12/02/2012 - 19:36

Have spent the day oven shopping - using all the above information to help us. But now to make the huge decision!!
Has anyone got any feedback for me regarding Falcon ovens - in particular FXP 90.
Thanks

Retsub

Thu 16/02/2012 - 23:36

reply to OttoAu

If you buy a duel fuel oven it has to be 15amp as the power drawn from an oven element is more than 10 amp (standard power cercuit).
An oven that uses a 10 amp curcuit would be a gas oven using the power curcuit for flame failure, electronic ignition, clock and timer curcuit.

In Response to paul

Yes it is true that flame failure uses the electricity to power the flame failure curcuit therefore if the power does go out that curcuit automatically defaults to close the gas flow. hence no power no gas.