When you’re putting in a new kitchen, one of the most important decisions is the type of stove. Do you want a free-standing model, or one integrated into your work surface? Four burners or six? Electric, gas, or dual fuel? There are many questions to be answered.
So what’s the big difference between electric and gas? There are two factors at play here: evenness of heat distribution and controllability. For cooktops, most people prefer gas, since it allows you to control the amount of heat supplied to the pans quickly and accurately – you turn down the gas, and the water quickly drops from a boil to a simmer. Electric cooktops change temperature relatively slowly, giving you less control. With ovens, as opposed to cooktops, electricity is the preferred choice, since it gives a more uniform heat – things at the back of the oven cook at the same speed as things at the front.
Although the norm is to have a gas cooktop and a gas oven or an electric cooktop and an electric oven, some stoves are so-called “dual fuel” models, whereby the oven is electric and the cooktop uses gas, giving the best of both worlds.
The other considerations largely relate to the style and size of your kitchen. Some larger kitchens suit free standing range-style units with as many as eight gas burners and four separate oven chambers. Smaller kitchens might only have space for a four-burner cooktop with just an oven and a grill. You can even buy two-pan hotplates that stand freely on a bench in very small or basic kitchens.
The choice is all yours, but it pays to be informed. Read more articles on different types of cooktops and ranges by following the links in this article.