All about my new stove
Since you all have been along for my whole stove saga, I figured a little post about my new one would be in order.
In case you're new, or you're coming across this post in the archives one day: I broke my cooktop by doing something stupid with a lid that got stuck.
You can read the whole story here and see lots of photos of the destruction.
We decided to replace the whole thing, since a new top was quite expensive in comparison to cost of a new range.
Unfortunately, because of current supply issues, it took two months for a new one to arrive.
I limped a bit in the kitchen, but I did get along with half a stove. Luckily, my oven was still working great, so it could have been worse.
Getting rid of the old stove
I really did not want to throw my old range into the landfill, so I listed it for free on Facebook Marketplace, disclosing the damage, of course.
I got tons of inquiries, but the person who ultimately picked it up was a young guy who was on the hunt for a cheap oven to use for powder-coating auto parts.
So, he didn't care in the slightest that the stovetop was broken; he just needed an oven.
I am delighted that my old range is going to have an extended and useful life!
Also, I am pleased that we did not have to haul it to the landfill. Giving it away was less work; I just had to help the guy carry it out of the house and lift it into his truck.
The new stove details!
I looked at multiple models and ultimately chose a GE range, which hopefully will be a good choice long-term.
(Here's a CNET review of the model we chose.)
The stove is just a basic glass cooktop like I had before, but the oven has a convection setting, which is brand new to me.
I'll have to let you know how I like it down the road.
Why not an induction stove?
I have heard great things about induction cooktops, but I just could not bring myself to pay that much for a cooktop.
Ranges with induction cooktops are way, way more expensive. And I figured that if I have been happy for two decades with a regular cooktop, I could probably be content for several more decades with another one.
How do I feel about the new range?
Well.
I am extremely delighted to have a non-broken cooktop.
It was difficult to work around the broken glass, and it was treacherous to try to clean the stovetop.
It was also frustrating to have the two working burners so close together.
I kept running into situations where I wanted to use a frying pan and a regular saucepan, and there just wasn't room on the stovetop for both.
The first night I used my new range, I made a pot of rice and a skillet of chili, and I sent a a photo and a delighted text to my parents so they could share in my joy. 😉
I feel a significant level of happiness just because this stove isn't broken, but I also think the cooktop is a little roomier, since the outer edge of the stovetop is thinner.
I love that the oven tells me what the temperature is as it preheats; with my other one, you got no information until it was fully preheated.
And on an appearance-oriented note, because this one has some stainless instead of being all black, it makes that area of the kitchen look more spacious.
I think it looks really pretty with the gray subway tile, and I feel seriously fancy now.
Time will tell
I'll have to cook and bake with my new cooktop and oven for a while before I can form a very accurate opinion, so I'll try to remember to do a follow-up post in a year or so.
For now, though, I feel really happy about this purchase. I cook and bake a lot, so I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of this range. It is certainly not going to sit unused.
And I can tell you that I will never, ever put a hot lid down on my glass cooktop again. Ha.
Those of you with convection oven experience: help me out with tips, please!
Looks good! We have had convection for 4 years. It is great. Use 25 degrees lower setting on bake/roast, and 25% less time. Pre-heat for longer to bake cake, pie. It took me a while to get this right.
I hope you enjoy your new oven and stove. Some of us do get excited about appliances! My sister-in-law was appalled at. my husband's anniversary gift to me decades ago of a new vacuum cleaner, but I could not have been happier.
I have that exact stove and I LOVE it. The convection setting is amazing and has really upped my baking game. It's also pretty easy to repair - I've had to replace one of the stove elements (it just poof! burned out one night in the middle of cooking) and the bottom oven element. Both were super simple to do myself and made the repairs super cheap.
So, tell me about the convection! Do you use it every time you bake, no matter what you're baking? Or do you only use it for particular items?
Don’t use your convection for pizza, but awesome for just about everything else.
Love my GE range! My only issue is, I do feel I have to rotate pans in the oven halfway through baking, but I see that recommended in lots of recipes so it must not just be my oven. I do not use the convection that often, but it is lovely for something that isn’t browning quick enough.
I have a convection oven although I don't use it all the time. When I use it is when I bake in multiple pans or when I want to be sure of even browning. With it, I can bake a sheet pan of cut up veggies on the bottom rack and a couple of smaller pans of meat/other veggies or whatever on the top rack and get even cooking and browning for all. I use it to evenly cook and brown breads and multiple cake layers. I tried the reduce by 25 rule, but it didn't work that well in my oven -- there will be some experimenting for you, probably. I reduce my temperature by 10-15 degrees and set the timer for slightly less time (usually 5-10 minutes) and check when the timer is up. I'd advise trying it on something not-finicky the first few times - definitely not cake. Cut up potatoes, chicken thighs, roasted broccoli or cauliflower -- something that is forgiving if you have to cook it longer or it gets a little browner than you expected.
I know you are so glad to have a fully working stove, and that was really lucky to find someone who wanted it. I thought I had someone who wanted my old stove for parts, but he ended up not taking it. Luckily, we have a little privately owned recycling yard in our small town, and they bought it from us for maybe $5 or $10, but since it didn't work at all, that price was fine with me, and it kept it from going straight to a landfill.
Your post about breaking your stove top reminded me to warn my daughter about her new smoothtop stove, since she'd never had a smoothtop before. It is second nature to me not to set a lid on my stovetop, so I had not thought to warn her. So you may have saved her stove from possible breakage.
In addition to the other things I mentioned re convection cooking, I forgot that if you roast a turkey, do use a V-rack in a shallow pan. Timely.
Got a new convection oven 2 years ago and LOVE it! I honestly use the convection setting for almost everything at this point, unless I'm specifically looking for that bottom heat for something like Pizza. I hope you love yours as much as I love mine!
I currently have a coiltop stove myself and honestly I dislike it but I get by.
Part of me has been thinking about buying an induction burner to see if it's really worth the upgrade. Of course I can't imagine dropping thousands on a new stove and pans but I can consider it on a small scale.
I drool over the idea of an induction stove, even though it means I couldn't use my family's copper pots. OTOH, maybe a single burner will meet the need? Thanks for sparking that idea.
No problem. I've heard decent things about the IKEA one.
Also you can get a paddle shaped thing which can go under your old pans but it doesn't work *quite* as well.
Use convection for everything, and check timing since things cook/bake faster
I have had convection ovens for many years now - even the Breville countertop oven is convection - and I can't imagine using the regular setting for anything other than broiling. You will need to experiment with how to adjust for the airflow: my old oven didn't need any temperature adjustment at all, my new one needs about the textbook 25F. I couldn't tell you about timing though, I cook "till done."
Well, looks like I need to do some experimenting, then!
I have nothing to offer, information-wise, but am thrilled for you--two good things have happened lately--your window and your new range!
I am wondering, though ... did you find any interesting "treasures" after you moved your old oven? 😉
Beautiful! But man you would think a stovetop of any kind could handle a hot lid, right? but yay for you new one!
I found the convection setting cooked about 30% faster than I was used to. It took time to adjust and now I use it exclusively for baking and roasting. Crispier crusts, skins and outer muffin-tops.
Mine is gas tho and idk if it makes difference in ovens. My cooking takes a nose-dive on electric ranges bcz I am just used to gas. (Electric when we bought house 8years ago. So many burned meals! Had guy out to route a gas line in a month. Sister-in-law only likes electric so we gave her the stove).
I love glass cooktops. We've moved quite a bit, and I've gotten to choose my range twice now, and I've always ended up choosing a glass-top GE range.
My sister worked for GE appliances as a mechanical engineer for 5+ years, and part of her job involved testing ovens for safety, both GE's and competitors' models.
GE ovens are super-safe - out of the available options, they are the least likely to set your house on fire. 😉
I like the convection feature more because it helps to even out the oven temperature. I haven't really noticed a distinct decrease in baking time - it just tends to make things bake a bit more evenly.
Is your oven a little bigger? One big change I noticed when we went from an old to a new range in one of our homes was how much bigger the oven interior was compared to the (very) old range. Insulation has gotten a lot better, so even with the same "envelope" (the outer dimensions of the range), they're able to make the oven interior a little bigger.
On a related note, the home we moved into in May came with a very high-end gas range (a Jenn-Air model that is about 10 years old, and as far as I can tell, was probably up around $4,000-$5,000 brand-spankin'-new).
And it is not my favorite. Cooking on a gas range seriously messes with the bottoms of my cast-iron skillets, which I heavily dislike, and there's no "carry over heat" when you turn off the burner (I can't just shut off the burner and know it will keep the food hot while I finish some other aspect of the meal).
The gas oven is great for bread (because burning gas puts water vapor into the air inside the oven, yay combustion!), but it has to circulate more air through it than an electric oven, so it tends to dump a lot of heat into the kitchen. Fortunately, the previous owners also installed a (ridiculously) powerful vent above the stove that vents straight up through the roof, as our kitchen is in a a part of the house that doesn't have a second floor, so the "dumping heat into the kitchen" part isn't as bad as it is at my in-law's house where any kind of cooking makes the temp in the kitchen jump 10 degrees.
It's not a terrible stove as gas stoves go - the burners seem to be well-sized to cooking with normal pots/pans (a lot of gas stoves have burners that are too big, both in diameter and heat production), and I am grateful for something that seems to be a workhorse and capable of surviving another 10 years easily. But to anyone who is planning a kitchen remodel - don't buy a really expensive stove! Even repairs on it are *that* much more expensive.
I think maybe the oven is a little bigger? Nothing super noticeable, though.
Good to know that our oven is not likely to burst into flames. Yay!
Hi, I love the new stove. You were talking about induction hobs, the information about these hobs that is seldom mentioned is that the magnetic field interferes with heart pace makers and DBS inplants for Parkinsons and other neurological disorders. So these hobs are not suitable for people with these conditions. When we had a holiday ad found the hob was induction we had to make sure hubby was in a different room.
Wow, that would never have occurred to me.
We have the same stove! Have had it for four years and its still treating us well, we love it!
Well, that's very encouraging. Yay!
Congrats on the new stove! When we moved last year, our new home has a stove very much like your new one, ours being only a year old. I LOVE the convection. That's all I use to bake now as it evens out the bakes and makes cooking meat in a dutchoven ridiculously easy and scrumptious. I'm not sure I'll ever be a fan of the glass top, but I'm thankful for this oven the we do have.
Well, now I need to bake something just so I can try the convection setting!
Do you not have gas stoves in your area? I love my gas stove so, so much.
It depends on the neighborhood. There are some in my area that have gas and others don't. In the four homes I've lived in here, none of them have had gas, though!