The Best Electric Ranges of 2020

Credit: Electrolux

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How We Tested

The Testers

Hi there! We're Cassidy Olsen and Valerie Li, Reviewed's cooking product testers. As passionate food and beverage aficionados who have covered topics like meal kits, espresso machines, pressure cookers, microwaves, sous-vide immersion circulators, pod coffee makers, and popcorn poppers, we know what it takes to make a good kitchen appliance. Whether you’re finally replacing an old range or have always wanted to add a wall oven while renovating your kitchen, we've got your back.

Not only do we perform repeatable, lab-based tests on ovens, ranges, and cooktops, but we also do real-world evaluations. That means we can tell you which products will perform the best, will give you the most bang for your buck, or have the sleekest looks. For more information on how we test ovens, ranges, and cooktops, read on.

Burner Maximum/Minimum Temperature

For products with burners, we measure the maximum and minimum temperature of each burner. Once the burner is set to its minimum or maximum setting, we let it sit for five minutes. At the end of five minutes, we measure the temperature of each burner. Knowledge of the maximum and minimum temperatures of a burner can help consumers to identify which burners are ideal for simmering soup, and which burner can get hot enough to properly sear a steak.

A range or cooktop with multiple burners that can reach very high and/or very low temperatures will score well. If burners cannot reach very high or low temperatures—or if only one burner can do each task—scores will be lower.

Water Boil

Credit: Reviewed / Julia MacDougall

One of the most common tasks for a range or cooktop is to boil a pot of water. For each burner, we take an appropriately sized pot, and fill it up halfway with distilled water. Then, we position a thermometer horizontally in the middle of the pot, and vertically in the middle of the water column. We monitor the thermocouple and record the time it takes for the temperature of the water to reach 212°F.

If the water hasn’t reached 212°F after 35 minutes, then we stop the test. Because the water volume is different for varying burner sizes, we score the water boil test on the rate of water boiling: Faster water boiling will result in higher scores, while slower water boiling will result in lower scores.

Preheating

Using a stopwatch, we measure how long it takes for the oven to achieve a preheating temperature of 350°F. We stop the clock when the oven’s preheat indicator beeps.

Because no one wants to wait around forever, shorter preheating times result in higher scores, while longer preheating times result in lower scores.

Cookies

Credit: Reviewed / Julia MacDougall

One happy side effect of testing ovens is that there are always extra cookies lying around. In addition to being delicious, cookies double as a cooking/baking proxy for other thin food items, such as brownies or vegetables.

Those cookies started as twelve chunks of Pillsbury ready-to-bake sugar cookies, which we place on an ungreased cookie sheet in a grid formation. After preheating the oven to 350°F for 15 minutes, we place the cookie sheet in the oven on rack recommended by the manufacturer (or, if there is no recommendation, the middle rack) to bake for 15 minutes. We remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool for 2 minutes.

We repeat the process if there’s a second oven, or if the range or oven comes with a convection option. Because convection is commonly used to bake or cook multiple food items simultaneously, we place two trays of cookies on the two racks recommended by the manufacturer.

After looking the cookies over, we determine how evenly baked they are, both within a baking sheet (regular baking mode and second oven baking mode) and between multiple baking sheets (convection bake mode). Because convection is generally a more efficient way of cooking or baking something, it is important that the multiple food items on different racks be cooked or baked to the same degree.

For all of our cookie tests, the more evenly baked the cookies are, the higher the score will be. If the product has a second oven and/or convection capabilities, then the cookie scores for those tests and the main oven test are weighted and combined to arrive at a final cookie score. This way, products with just a single, conventional oven are not penalized for their lack of a second oven or convection capabilities.

Pork

Credit: Reviewed / Julia MacDougall

To understand how each product cooks meat products, we also use fresh, never-frozen pork loins in our testing. While we recognize that all natural products have variations that can affect test results, pork is exceptionally uniform. After placing the 3-4 lb boneless pork loin in a roasting pan, we place a temperature probe is placed in the middle of the pork loin. After preheating the oven to 325°F, the pork is placed on the rack recommended by the manufacturer, and cooks until the internal temperature probe reads 160°F, which is the minimum safe temperature for cooking most meat products.

We then remove the pork loin, let it sit for 10 minutes, and cut it into thirds so we can see how evenly cooked the pork loin is. An identical test is conducted if the oven has convection capabilities, using the Convection Roast option if available, or the standard convection mode if not.

Pizza

Credit: Reviewed / Julia MacDougall

One of the most common reader questions we get is whether a specific oven can get hot enough to actually cook a pizza. To answer this question, we place a batch of Pillsbury Classic pizza dough on a lightly oiled baking sheet, place a temperature probe in the dough, cover it with tomato sauce and cheese, and bake it at 500°F for 10 minutes. Between the temperature data and our own subjective assessment, we determine whether the oven is capable of cooking a pizza all the way through or not.

Overall Experience

While we obviously go to great lengths to test the cooking/baking abilities of these cooking appliances, we also incorporate more subjective information into our overall assessment. For example, how easily can the cooktop surface accommodate multiple pots and pans? How easy is it to understand the control panel? How nice are the burner knobs or buttons? How loud is the preheat notification noise? We answer all of these questions and more in order to determine if there are any major drawbacks to the product that might not make it a good fit for most households.

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Things to Consider When Buying a Range

Whether you're tired of long boiling times or if you pilot light won't ignite, here are a few things you should keep in mind when deciding which style range to purchase:

Fuel Type

We realize you probably have made up your mind to purchase an electric stove, but just in case you're still deciding which fuel type, here's a short primer on the philosophical differences between fuel types on ranges.

• Gas — Lower cooktop temperatures, faster water boiling, potential for uneven cooking/baking because of central flame location.

• Electric — Higher cooktop temperatures, slower water boiling, more even cooking/baking because of heat distribution over coil.

• Dual-fuel — Faster water boiling, more even cooking/baking because of heat distribution over coil.

• Induction — Super fast water boiling, very high and low cooktop temperatures, requires special cookware, may require recipe modification.

Depending on your cooking and baking priorities, as well as the way you learned to cook, one of these fuel types might be more appealing than the rest. One more thing to consider: dual-fuel and induction ranges are typically more expensive than gas and electric stoves.

Convection vs. True Convection

True Convection is an oven setting that includes installing an extra heating element and a fan in the oven. By adding an additional heating unit and fan that circulates the hot air, True Convection is great for ensuring that cookies or cakes baked on different racks will bake through at the same rate, rather than the cookies closest to the bottom heat source cooking faster than those on the rack higher up. If you don't see mention of "True Convection" or "European Convection", but do see the word "convection" in a range's specs, it means that the unit lacks an additional heating element, but does have a fan to circulate the hot air. While you don't get the full baking and cooking effect that you would with True Convection, the added heat circulation can cook or bake food more evenly than it would without a fan.

There are also ranges out there that do not offer convection options at all; these ovens aren't bad, it will just take more time to cook and bake food all the way through. If you're a frequent baker or cook, convection can be a great time saver, but your dinners won't suffer unduly without it.

Slide-in vs. Free-standing

While slide-in ranges are meant to sit flush with your countertops, free-standing ranges can stand alone in your kitchen. While the difference may seem trivial, it has ramifications for two aspects of using the range: finish and ease of cleaning. Because free-standing ranges are visible from all slides, they have a more finished look on the sides of the range; slide-in ranges are meant to have their sides hidden by the cabinetry, so the finish typically isn't as pretty on the sides.

Additionally, because slide-in ranges sit flush with your countertop, they're a bit easier to clean because they do not have a large lip around the edge. Free-standing ranges often have larger lips around the edge of the cooktop to cut down on crumbs decorating your floor. Free-standing ranges also typically have a back-mounted control panel for the same reason. While slide-in ranges will do fine in a free-standing arrangement, the reverse is less true. If your current cooking setup has the range sitting in a cabinet or countertop cutout, we recommend replacing that range with another slide-in range. Conversely, if your range stands alone in your kitchen, we'd recommend replacing it with another free-standing range to cut down on food debris spilling everywhere.

Front-mounted Control Panel vs. Back-mounted Control Panel

As we mentioned earlier, most free-standing ranges have back-mounted controls, but some slide-in ranges do as well. Both arrangements have pros and cons; on the one hand, having back-mounted controls means you may have to reach over hot food to adjust the oven temperature, the controls are also far enough away that you would have difficulty hitting something on the control panel by accident. On the other hand, front-mounted controls are easier to reach, but that convenience can turn against you if you brush up against a knob accidentally. Consider the ergonomics of using the range when it comes to picking a front- or back-mounted control panel.

Dimensions

If you need a slide-in range, be sure to double check both the dimensions of your cutout and the listed height/width/depth dimensions listed on the range's spec sheet. There are three dimensions listed for each range:

• Depth — The depth is the distance from the front of the range to the back of the range; this number typically varies from 26 inches to 30 inches because it's trying to sit flush with your cabinetry.

• Height — The height is the distance from the bottom of the range to the top of the range; this number typically varies from 36 inches to 38 inches because it's trying to get the cooking surface level with your countertops (Note: if you see product heights on the order of 46-48 inches, that number is measuring to the top of the back-mounted controls, rather than the top of the cooking surface.).

• Width — The width is the distance from the left side of the range to the right side of the range; this number can vary widely, but the typical value is 30 inches (often, this is the dimension number you'll see when you first look at the range). Additional sizes include 36 inches, 48 inches, and 60 inches. While larger range widths are nice because it can translate into more burners and/or more space for your cookware, wider ranges always come with a higher price tag.

If you're getting a free-standing range, it's still worth it to check the product dimensions to ensure that the range will fit in your allotted range space in the kitchen, as well as that you can fit the range in through any narrow doorways on the way to the kitchen.

Additional Cooktop Options

Depending on how much time you spend in the kitchen, it might be worth it to investigate in some extra options for your range. When it comes to the cooktop, anything above the standard four-burner setup is a bonus. Some ranges can have five, or even six burners; however, the more burners a rangetop has, the more difficult it becomes to fit large pieces of cookware, such as a spaghetti pot and a frying pan, on their respective burners at the same time. Sometimes, those extra burners are specialty burners are designed to accommodate special cookware such as a griddle or a wok; other burners are bridge burners that are meant to keep food warm without continuing to cook it. Another possibility is to have a dual-ring burner, or a burner that includes a stronger heat source wrapped around a weaker heat source. That way, on a single burner, you can choose to use just the smaller heat source for lower temperatures, but you can add the stronger heat source if you need higher temperatures.

Additional Oven Options

As for extra oven features, they can include everything from accessories like special oven racks or a temperature probe to special cooking features like the aforementioned convection settings, fast preheat (which expedites the preheating process), bread proofing (where the oven settings are customized to activate yeast and make bread rise), steam cooking (where you pour water into a reservoir and gently cook something with the resulting steam), air fry mode (where you can expeditiously fry frozen and fresh foods, similar to an air fryer) and many, many more options. With some of the higher-end ranges, you can even choose to cook your food in one smaller oven or a larger oven, as needed. Lastly, it is possible to get a double-oven range, if you need the flexibility of two ovens, but still want a cooktop included in the same unit.

Fit and Finish

While black and white ranges finishes are still available, most ranges these days come in some variation of stainless steel options. You should be able to find a range that matches your kitchen setup and your other appliances, but be ready to pay more money for any finish more sophisticated than black, white, or basic stainless steel.

Price

Don't worry: Whether you're on a budget or have a blank check, you can find a range that will cook, bake, and boil. Mostly, the price difference between high-end ranges and more affordable ranges is usually down to the number of cooktop burners, available features, storage options, and finishes.

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