GE Profile PGS920SEFSS Slide-in Gas Range Review

However, good looks and cool features aren't enough to justify a price tag just shy of three grand. For instance, the PGS920SEFSS's tri-ring burner was good for a fast boil, but the rest of the rangetop didn't impress. Our baking tests weren't stellar, either, and that makes this range a tough sell.

Design & Usability

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Good looks and cool features.

The sleek, stainless steel PGS920SEFSS is a particularly good-looking specimen. Unless your kitchen belongs in a museum, this range's transitional design should fit your decor as neatly as it fits your counter space.

Controls are smartly designed, from the well-thought-out oven control panel to the dishwasher-safe burner dials. Unfortunately, on our test unit those dials tended to stick, making more minute adjustments a bit difficult.

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The rangetop is covered by a continuous cast iron grate, which makes it a breeze to move heavy pots from burner to burner. The oven also features a roller rack in addition to two standard racks. The roller rack easily slides out of the oven, which can be undeniably useful when you're struggling under the weight of a steaming pan of lasagna. However, it does add a bit of time to a preheat.

Rangetop

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Linguini with clams? You're out of luck.

The PGS920SEF features a total of five burners: a front left tri-ring burner, two standard burners, a simmer burner, and a center burner. The front left tri-ring burner offers a versatile mix of simmer and searing temperatures, while the center burner, with an included griddle pan, is great for cooking items like fish or pancakes.

For the most part, the five burners performed well in our tests. However, the rangetop displayed many of the shortcomings that are inherent when you're cooking with gas, including a narrow range of temperatures—from 118ºF on the simmer burner to 417ºF on the tri-ring, to be precise.

With the exception of the front left tri-ring burner, which managed to boil six cups of water in six minutes, water boiling speeds were unremarkable. Unfortunately, that means you'll likely use that superb tri-ring burner for boiling water. If you've got to reduce a sauce and you've already got pasta boiling, you'll have to ask one of the slower burners to do the job, and plan your recipe accordingly.

Oven, Broiler, & Convection

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It'll do the job, for the most part.

The PGS920SEFSS's gas oven didn't perform poorly, but it didn't wow us, either.

The broiler took a tedious ten minutes to reach 598°F, which didn't win it any points. The oven itself raced ahead with an eight-minute preheat, but things went downhill from there as the oven struggled with doneness and evenness in our tests of baking cookies and cakes.

When we made cookies, they were overdone on the bottoms and unevenly cooked across the baking sheet. That means this oven has hot and cold spots and some temperature inconsistencies. On the plus side, however, air circulation was top notch—as indicated by perfectly-baked cakes.

Before You Buy

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A tough sell

The GE PGS920SEFSS is a competent range, but we can't imagine paying anywhere near its $2,899 MSRP—especially when products like the Electrolux EI30GS55JS offer similar performance for considerably less. Sales won't help you, either, as the lowest price we found was just north of $2,700.

Sure, the PGS920SEFSS looks great, and the appliance has a number of convenient features, but its so-so oven and poorly-designed rangetop keeps this GE from earning our approval. We like products that make cooking easier—not ones that force you to rethink your recipes due to an odd burner layout.

If you want a good-looking, easy-to-use range you could do worse than the PGS920SEFSS — just be aware that its shortcomings may leave you more frustrated than fulfilled.

From the Lab

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We subject the ovens and rangetops we review to a barrage of tests, scrutinizing everything from water boiling speeds to baking performance. While the GE PGS920SEFSS had some stellar individual results, the product looks less appealing in its entirety.

Oven & Broiler Performance

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When looking at the cookies we baked in the cavity, we noticed a significant difference in doneness between individual cookies. Additionally, there was a large discrepancy in between the tops and bottoms when it came to browning. This tells us that the oven cavity has several hot and cold spots, and that its air circulation may be insufficient when one is cooking for short periods of time.

Our cake tests indicated that the oven has no issues with air circulation when cooking over longer periods of time, as there was a very small difference in color between the tops and bottoms of our test cakes.

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Meanwhile, we found the broiler sluggish at best. It took 10 minutes to reach 598°F. The oven itself took only 8 minutes to reach 350°F, which is a plus.

Rangetop Performance

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While gas rangetops lack the wide range of temperatures of their electric counterparts, they make up for it with responsiveness and visual feedback. The PGS920SEFSS confirmed the stereotype by exhibiting average boiling performance from the three standard burners. However, the tri-ring burner impressed somewhat: It brought 6 cups of water to boil in 6 minutes.

Predictably, the PGS920SEFSS suffers from a narrow range of temperatures. The tri-ring burner a perfectly respectable maximum of 417°F, while the remaining burners averaged 395°F. The left rear simmer burner got as low as 118°F, with the remaining burners averaging 121°F. That's a pretty good result for gas—but we wish that more burners did a better job at boiling. Otherwise, you might have to plan your recipes differently.

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