How much for a new kitchen range?

[pcooley]

It's time to replace our stove. As the frugal member of the family, I've been putting it off for years, but the oven on our current one does smell of gas for a while when you first turn it on, and all the numbers have worn off the dials, and I've never been able to find replacement dials that fit, so, I'm finally throwing in the towel on the "we need a new stove argument."

However, wandering around stores looking for ranges has left me glassy-eyed. I do love to cook, and we do use our stove every day. I can't tell, though, whether a $300 Danby stove is just a piece of you-know-what, or if a $1200 stove is all that much better. It looks like the $500-$800 range contains what we might need, but I thought I'd put it to the list.

Has anyone bought a $500 stove and wished they had gone ahead and spent another $500? Has anyone bought a $300 stove and been well satisfied or have done the same thing and found the stove fell apart?

What's your experience? Any brands with bad or good track records? What's a good price range for finding a good everyday stove for someone who likes to cook but is not a professional chef?

[H-work]

These days, I think even the high-end ones are low quality. Something is going to break. Actually, the simpler the model, the less will break. It's usually the fancy circuit boards that go out, $100-$500 a pop.

Is craigslist an option for you?

[daisy]

We are in the middle of building a home and I have asked everyone I know about their appliances and the overwhelming opinion is that in modern stoves/ranges (and washing machines), the thing that fails is the circuit board. So I would look for one that has few electronic bells and whistles and as much real functionality as possible (i.e., a high output burner and/or a simmer burner, perhaps with a second, small oven).

My SIL has a Whirlpool Gold gas range that I believe was about $1200 new. The 5 year warranty that the local appliance store gives just expired and her control panel failed for the third time a few weeks later. I believe it was around $300 to repair it.

But you might want the advice of someone more rational than I. After looking at the modern stoves, I ended up buying a 1951 Chambers gas range, which my husband completely took apart, cleaned and re-furbished. I've already baked a few things in the oven, even though Betty is still sitting in the shop waiting on her new kitchen to be finished. :)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CPaiTZzVYYo/Tkmdct-rTrI/AAAAAAAADwI/rNGXXs1K2L4/s800/IMG_9444a.JPG

[Aqua Blue]

oh, I love Bette!

[Tradd]

Many people I know have good luck with Kenmore from Sears. I just did some searching on the Sears website and found this basic gas range. While less expensive models have no window in the door, I think it's a good thing to have, especially if you bake a lot.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_02270402000P?prdNo=4

[Rosemary]

Daisy, what a beautiful stove! My grandmother had a similar one in her basement - where she cooked when it was too hot to heat the upstairs with the stove. It was always an adventure to haul everything down to the basement to cook.

re: Ranges... the gas range in our house was relatively new when we moved in and hasn't had any issues. I think it is a mid-price model. It's fine... mostly. I find the oven to be rather nonuniform, but this is the first gas range I've ever had and I suspect that's a characteristic of them. I have solved that issue by leaving my large rectangular pizza stone in the oven all the time. And since we've gone to this really whole foods (no flour!) diet, I have hardly needed the oven, anyway. I suggest you check the ratings in Consumer Reports - your library probably has a paper copy.

[iris lily]

Four years ago we paid $299.99 (on sale) for a Kenmore stove similar to the one Tradd showed BUT ours has no oven window--that's too expensive! ha ha ha ha

Agreed that the fancy-schmancy ones with control panels go bad, and what's even worse, since it is electronics, the "go bad" is on and off and so it's freakin' hard to diagnose. My friend with her high end stove is going through that right now.

So not worth it. We buy all low end appliances and are perfectly happy with them, and we could easily afford top of the line if we chose.

I require gas, but that is my only stove standard. All of the rest I don't care about.

But I do find that 50's stove of daisy's to be splendid! And, when in Shropshire some years ago I wandered into an Aga store, not knowing that those classics were made in the next county, and I learned a bit about a REAL stove. I had always known that Aga was the creme de la creme. Hence, I don't consider the made-in-China stuff to be high end no matter how much you pay, so I'll settle for a $299 version, just as good as the $1200 version.

[rodeosweetheart]

The last two stoves we bought were 299 specials, Frigidaire and Kenmore, two different houses, and have been absolutely thrilled--they even self clean.

[Wildflower]

I have a Whirlpool stove that I bought for $565 at one of those factory discount places. It was alot cheaper to buy it there. So far no problems and I've been happy with it. Had it about 3 years now. I was tempted to buy the convection oven version which was more expensive, but they do cook much faster so you would be saving on energy in the long run. That might be something that would appeal to you or not... Sometimes I could kick myself for not spending the extra and getting it, especially when I'm doing lots of baking around the holidays.

[Blackdog Lin]

We replaced our kitchen stove last year, and opted to go with a low-end model. To me, less bells-n-whistles means less components to break down. All I require in a stove is that the oven bakes and the burners cook.

I did pay extra to get a black one, rather than the basic white, and am very happy with that decision. (And now am dreaming of the day the refrigerator breaks down and I can replace it with a black one too.....)

[Float On]

Betty rocks! A friend has her cousin Maybelle in Aqua Blue and which has served her family well the last 30 years and she expects to pass her along in her will. Very dependable.

Unfortunately my house is all electric, I did replace a low end 4 burner with a smooth top stove 6 years ago and its held up well...so far. But I'm saving my dimes to add a gas line now that gas is finally being put into our area. I think a cousin to Betty or Maybelle would look really nice in my cabin style home.

[daisy]

Thanks for the compliments on Betty! I'm so excited about her and proud of DH for doing all that work that I just have to show her off once in a while. :D

Back on the topic of modern stoves, I had one more thought. In our current living quarters, we have a very basic, low-end GE electric stove. It was there when we bought the place 6 years ago and I've seen the current version of it on sale for $250 here. We haven't had any problems with it in functionality (there are no whiz bang doo-dads on it at all), but the construction of it is a little flimsy. You can never get all parts of it level, so when you're cooking, the food always slides to one side of the pan. That really annoys me, so if I were replacing that one, I would probably pay a little extra to have a more solid feeling stove.

[pcooley]

Thanks for all the advice. There's a scratch and dent GE gas stove at our local appliance store, (I looked at Sears and Lowes, and the local store actually seemed better and only a tad more expensive). I'm hovering between that and a less expensive model with an actual knob for the oven. I, too, am worried about the control panel for the oven. Then again, I still use a manual typewriter that belonged to my granny-in-law. I'd love to buy an old stove like Betty, but my ability to repair it well and cheaply is probably limited. After my last plumbing disaster, my wife told me "no more liberal arts home repairs."

The only problem I saw with the cheapest stoves, (Danby seeming to be the main brand), was the knobs were already beginning to fall off on the showroom floor.

[Aqua Blue]

The other thing to look at is how well made that bottom drawer is. I went stove looking with a friend and some of those bottom drawers wouldn't last a month. Super flimsy. We saw that on lower and mid models.

[Miss Cellane]

My general rule is not to buy the cheapest of anything, as it is usually very poorly made (as opposed to just poorly made). And not to buy at the top of the line, because there are usually too many bells and whistles that I don't want or need and the more bells and whistles, the more likely something will go wrong.

On the old boards, someone once referred to "Kenmore quality," meaning a sturdy, middle-of-the-road quality that tends to work for years without anything major going wrong. That's what I tend to shoot for--not too cheap, not too expensive, with all the features I really need and one or two that I just want. So if you are looking at stoves between $250 and $1200, I'd look seriously at the models ranging from $500 to $700, and pick one.

Then, since your current stove is still working and you aren't in a rush to replace it, wait for it to go on sale. That's one of the benefits of replacing things before they die completely--you can think about the purchase and wait until you get a good buy, instead of having to make a rush decision and pay whatever the list price is.