Choosing your range cooker

With so many Range Cooker brands and models on the market it can become overwhelming trying to choose the right cooker for you. We’ve provided a little bit of information in advance of your visit to us to help guide you in selecting the right cooker.

Size is important

Range cookers generally come in sizes 90cm, 100cm or 110cm, so first of all it is worth considering what size gap you want to create in your new kitchen, or even what size gap you have to fill in your existing kitchen. There are some range cooker brands which also offer smaller cookers at 60cm such as Bertazzoni. If you require a bigger range cooker, brands such as Lacanche, Everhot and Heritage offer cookers up to a size of 2.2m and will certainly create a wow factor focal point in any kitchen.

A question of taste

Most range cookers are either contemporary in style or traditional. Traditional range cookers tend to take their inspiration from Aga’s and other such brands, where they scream out warmth and coziness, with a towel rail, glossy enamelled doors, chunky control knobs and up stands. They tend to come in a more traditional colour palette of creams, greys, blues and greens. The more contemporary looking range cookers tend to come in a funkier colour palette, looking sleek with brushed stainless steel, clean lines and large glass doors.

Fuel type

In addition to choosing the size and style you also need to choose the fuel type including all gas, so this means a gas hob and gas ovens, which is a less popular choice, duel fuel, so gas hobs and electric ovens or all electric, so induction or ceramic hob and electric ovens.

The gas cookers can run off mains gas or if you are in countryside (like we are!) they can run off bottled LPG, we just need to know at point of order so we can order the conversion kit. Duel fuel cookers are perfect for those living in areas with a mains gas supply. The gas hobs are very responsive and are the main choice for skilled old school chefs who require more traditional cooking methods. The downside is the cleaning!

The electric induction hob is becoming ever more popular with it becoming the main choice on all electric range cookers that we sell. The other choice is ceramic but this is a fairly out of date technology with poor efficiencies and heat up times. Although there is still a need for this especially where power supply or health issues such as a pacemaker are an issue.

The induction hob is extremely efficient and fast at heating up, with responsiveness equal to gas. The induction hob is also extremely safe, with the pan only conducting the heat when it is placed onto a turned on zone. Remove the pan and the zone is turned off instantly, which means no more accidents of leaving the hob on! The downside is not all pans and cookware will work on the hob, it needs to have a flat stainless steel bottom and be of a good quality. There are some cheap ‘induction’ friendly pans on the market now, but these are not kind to the hob. Unfortunately copper and aluminium does not work on an induction hob.

Power supply

The supply required for your cooker will greatly depend on model and brand, but typically a duel fuel cooker requires a hard wired 32amp supply, induction all electric a hard wired 45amp supply and a new generation electric cast iron cooker 1 or 2 13 amp plug in supply.

Heat your home or just to cook

At Diss Ironworks we offer both steel bodied range cookers which would be used for cooking only or cast iron range cookers which can be used for heating domestic hot water and central heating as well as cooking. The first question we usually ask is what do you want your new cooker to do/offer. If you do not need a heat source cooker, we would move straight onto the steel bodied cookers and start from there. If you are interested in a cast iron range cooker, there are now several models and fuel types to choose from including electric, which can run simply off 13 amp plug sockets, oil, gas or solid fuel. The next step would be to establish if you need cooking only, which would probably mean looking at the newer generation and extremely efficient electric range cookers from Everhot, Esse or Heritage or heating your home via oil/gas/solid fuel and looking at brands such as Heritage or Rayburn. These heat source cookers are available in sizes 60cm, 84cm, 90cm, 100cm, 110cm, 120cm and 150cm.

Budget – what will you get for your money?

Range cookers vary in price quite dramatically with our cookers from Rangemaster starting at around £1500. There are cheaper range cooker brands on the market but these tend to be of a poorer build quality with a shorter life expectancy. Rangemaster sits mid entry in the range cooker market. Moving up a step from Rangemaster would include brands such as Smeg, Mercury, Ilve, Bertazzoni and Falcon, all of which start to bridge the gap between a domestic and a commercial range cooker. This is evident in the build quality and functions such as rotisseries and top griddles.

At the top end of the market brands such as Lacanche, Aga, Everhot and Heritage offer a wealth of features such as a plancha, fryer, bain marie and the ability to warmth your kitchen. These cookers are the best of the best, using fine quality materials and built by hand to order. A 100cm wide Lacanche starts at around £4,500 whilst an Everhot or Heritage start at around £5,000.

Feel & touch

A large number of cookers especially the less expensive brands are readily available online, but who wants to spend upwards of £2000 on a cooker without seeing it, feeling it and touching it. Here at Diss Ironworks we have a large range on display of 35 cookers all of which are available for you to touch, open doors, twist knobs or even put your oven trays in if you need to check they fit. An experience which is not available online!

We are also here to offer our expert advice, having dealt in the range cooker industry for over 40 years, there isn’t much we don’t know. Plus you might find some hidden extras that you like to complete the look such as extraction hoods and enamelled or antique mirrored splash backs.