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Gas or electric oven? What's everyone's preference if you could choose.


avguytx

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A curious question to those who have owned both cooking types:  In our new house, I'm having a gas line ran to the oven area and to the fireplace and will be set up for a tank outside.  Given a choice over what you guys have worked with, or own now, what do you like better?  What are your own personal pros and cons to either?  I'll be buying new appliances before the big 4th of July sale goes off at Lowes on the 11th and take advantage of the deal.  I'm also going to have our electrical box wired with a switch for the generator where the fridge, oven, and some lights work in the central part of the house in case of power failure.  I've used both kinds in the past and do like cooking on gas but can work with either.  This will be a standard 30" width slide in range and I'm going with front controls instead of in the rear.  Not really looking for brand preferences....just the cooking preference of the two.  Induction is out as they are too expensive for what we're doing.

 

Thanks!

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Absolutely, without question, gas, gas, gas.

 

I do a lot on the cooktop, so I certainly prefer the instant on, and the variability of gas, but my wife is a very serious baker, and she loves the complete envelopment, if you will, of gas heat within the oven.  We have two commercial gas ranges, and I would never give them up.

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I have gas at my house but it's on a slab and the range is on an interior wall of the first floor or a true 2 story house, so I could have gotten a gas line over there but wasn't in to that drama. A couple of weeks ago I scored a great deal on a Viking electric range (VISC 530) with induction cooktop and so far it has exceeded our expectations. It will boil a pot of water in the 4 minute range and is very precise in terms of simmering, control, etc.  I'd say it's the next best thing to gas and really does behave very similarly.  The oven is pretty slick too, with concealed elements underneath, on top and in the back for true convection baking (no heat source above or below the cookies). The top element is infrared behind glass. 

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I prefer gas because I am so much better at gauging the heat by looking at the flame than the little dial marks. Also, I think it distributes the heat more evenly and consistently on the stove top and in the oven. Only time I prefer electric is for broiling or toasting but that may have just been because I had a cheap gas oven...for some reason I don't recall there being a heating element on top. Not sure if that's a standard thing or correct at all.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

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Nothing like convection. It was always gas over electric for me, until induction cooktops and convection ovens. Both are much faster, cheaper, and more efficient than their gas counterparts. 20 to 40 percent reduction in cook time for convection ovens, and I never wait for warmup. Induction cookers are about a tenth of their gas or electric counterparts and respond far faster. 

 

I may be an old dog, but I am into improved tech.  

 

Dave

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9 hours ago, Mallette said:

Nothing like convection. It was always gas over electric for me, until induction cooktops and convection ovens. Both are much faster, cheaper, and more efficient than their gas counterparts. 20 to 40 percent reduction in cook time for convection ovens, and I never wait for warmup. Induction cookers are about a tenth of their gas or electric counterparts and respond far faster. 

 

I may be an old dog, but I am into improved tech.  

 

Dave

I was a bit surprised by the performance of the induction. I was definitely skeptical at first. Another plus (over standard electric, not gas) is if something spills on the top it doesn't get "cooked" since the heat is produced by the pan/pot itself, not the "burner". It's not all raw horsepower either. It will do precise, delicate work. It's definitely a great option for those who love gas but can't get it for whatever reason.

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13 hours ago, avguytx said:

I'm having a gas line ran to the oven area and to the fireplace and will be set up for a tank outside.

 

Having never seen a natural gas tank....I'm wondering if you mean propane?

 

I'm also a fan of natural gas however, don't have it local to me so went with normal oven and full induction top.  Personally, I like it (though I would have loved a gas oven)

 

I'm ok with induction top over gas top.

 

I think there are differences between NG and LP.  I'm not an expert on them though.

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Doesn't NG have a higher BTU rating than LP or do the different orafices adjust for that?

 

Also....can NG be used at home in tank form like LP can?  (I've never seen it and would have loved to bring it in if it were available)

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Coytee said:

 

Having never seen a natural gas tank....I'm wondering if you mean propane?

 

I'm also a fan of natural gas however, don't have it local to me so went with normal oven and full induction top.  Personally, I like it (though I would have loved a gas oven)

 

I'm ok with induction top over gas top.

 

I think there are differences between NG and LP.  I'm not an expert on them though.

Propane contains more energy, like twice the btu's as natural gas per cu. ft. so it's more efficient.  The thing that I don't like about it is that it's heavier than air and natural gas is lighter. When you get a propane leak it likes to hang around near the floor vs natural will "fly away". LP scares me just a bit.

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3 minutes ago, Coytee said:

Doesn't NG have a higher BTU rating than LP or do the different orafices adjust for that?

 

Also....can NG be used at home in tank form like LP can?  (I've never seen it and would have loved to bring it in if it were available)

 

 

we were typing at the same time. Lp contains about 2,000 btu per cubic ft vs about 1000 btu per cu. ft for natural gas. It's more efficient, I just don't like that it doesn't dissipate very fast. One of my guys was firing up a water heater and purged the line. When he lit the pilot he had a problem. He was used to natural gas. Rookie error but that stuff just lays on the floor for a while.

 

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I prefer gas.  Propane doesn't count ... for safety reasons mentioned above.

that being said, we pulled all the gas outa here. All we can get is propane

 

There are differences between electric and gas heat for cooking.  Electric heat is dry.

not pertaining to ovens ... but, I dislike the pulsing electric burners intensely.

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