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  • Introduction

  • Design & Usability

  • Rangetop

  • Oven, Broiler, & Convection

  • Conclusion

  • From the Lab

  • Oven and Broiler Performance

  • Rangetop Performance

  • Introduction
  • Design & Usability
  • Rangetop
  • Oven, Broiler, & Convection
  • Conclusion
  • From the Lab
  • Oven and Broiler Performance
  • Rangetop Performance

Introduction

Design & Usability

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Not a lot here.

The {{product.name}} is a no-nonsense, plain vanilla range, with minimal features or design considerations. It's not necessarily any uglier than other ranges that have come through our testing facility, but let's just say you won't be buying it to make the neighbors jealous.

There's not a whole lot going on here: It's got four burners under a smooth cooktop, a four-pass broil element, and a two-rack, 4.8-cubic-foot oven with a pyrolitic self-cleaning cycle. This is a simple range that's easy to use, but if you're looking for convection, bridge burners, or other extras, you won't find them.

{{photo_gallery "Vanity", "Front", "Rangetop Controls", "Oven Controls", "Burners 1", "Burners 2", "Burners Cleaning", "Upper Oven", "Upper Oven Detail", "Oven Detail", "Lower Oven Detail", "Lower Oven", "Drawer", "Broiler",}}

Rangetop

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Amana knows how to make a good rangetop.

While we've seen inexpensive coil-burner rangetops put out some extraordinary results, we were surprised to find an inexpensive smooth rangetop this good. It can't jump from temperature to temperature as quickly as gas or induction, but the overall power and temperature numbers were great. The two main elements produced especially strong boiling results and all the burners showed a wide temperature range capable of taking care of all your cooking needs from simmering to searing. For $599, that's not bad.

Oven, Broiler, & Convection

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A sloppy oven may wreck recipes.

First, the good news: The Amana's oven and broiler both preheated reasonably quickly. As for the bad news, in every single one of our tests, the oven's temperature rose and fell like a Disney Channel star's career. While a small amount of fluctuation is to be expected, it just doesn't do your food any favors to put it into a 350°F setting that averages 383ºF while swinging between 430°F and 312°F. And whether we set the oven's thermostat to 170ºF for Keep Warm, 350°F for baking, or 550ºF for Maximum, our thermocouples proved the control panel wrong time and again.

Conclusion

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These burners need a new partner.

Just as peanut butter needs jelly, so a good rangetop needs a great oven. Unfortunately, this Amana is more like a peanut butter and mustard sandwich.

Though the AER5830VAW's rangetop was quite good—exceptional, even—for the range's modest $599 MSRP, the oven was just too imprecise and inaccurate. In fact, its performance was poor enough that we can't recommend this range despite its strengths. We know it can be tricky to find an affordable oven that's truly great, but there are certainly more balanced options, like the Whirlpool WFC310S0AW in this price range.

From the Lab

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The {{product.name}}'s rangetop impressed us considerably, but not enough to save an inconsistent oven. Since most of the problems stemmed from terrible temperature regulation, we hope Amana will improve the thermostat, as they could have a truly great bargain range on their hands.

Oven and Broiler Performance

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Uncontrollable: The story of an oven that can't be tamed!

The oven's keep-warm setting of 170°F averaged 182°F, but reached 251°F during the test, which is a shockingly high amount of variance. Keeping with this trend, the 350°F setting managed to operate in a wide-open 113°F window while averaging 383°F. The maximum setting of 525°F more or less hit its average at 533°F but couldn't hold it there, similarly displaying the variance problems that plagued the oven cavity at all other temps. And to make matters worse, there isn't a convection option for a more stable alternative.

The only strength we found in the oven performance was in preheating. The 350°F setting took just seven minutes to preheat. So even if the quality of the setting wasn't great, you won't have to wait too long. The broiler displayed a similarly muscular performance, hitting 600°F in just seven and a half minutes.

{{photo_gallery "Keep Warm", "350F", "Max", "Secondary Oven Convection", "Oven Variance"}}

Rangetop Performance

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Is this really the same machine that has this oven?

If the oven takes after the monstrous Mr. Hyde, the rangetop plays the genius scientist role well. The front two burners boiled six cups of water in just five minutes, and the rear two in around 12 minutes. The maximum temperatures all came in around between 658°F and 686°F, satisfactory searing temperatures that are hot but not dangerously so. The low end of the temperature spectrum—useful for gentle melting or simmering—performed equally well, with the front burners getting all the way down to 94°F and 102°F and the rear burners to 109°F and 116°F.

{{ gallery "Waterboil", "Simmer" }}

Meet the tester

Ethan Wolff-Mann

Ethan Wolff-Mann

Staff Writer

@ethanwolffmann

Ethan writes reviews and articles about science for Reviewed.com, and edits the Science Blog. He's originally from Vermont and thinks the bicycle and guitar are examples of perfected technology. Prior to Reviewed.com, he studied furiously at Middlebury College.

See all of Ethan Wolff-Mann's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

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