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  • Rangetop

  • Oven & Broiler

  • Warranty

  • A Matter of Preference

  • Related Video

  • From the Lab

  • Oven & Broiler Performance

  • Rangetop Performance

  • Rangetop
  • Oven & Broiler
  • Warranty
  • A Matter of Preference
  • Related Video
  • From the Lab
  • Oven & Broiler Performance
  • Rangetop Performance

The affordable 24-inch range is part of Haier’s kitchen suite targeted at a niche of consumers with smaller kitchens, and marks the Chinese company’s first big push into the American cooking appliance market.

Unfortunately, despite some higher-end extras like true convection, a wok ring, and a baking tray, the range doesn’t have the versatility most home cooks expect: The rangetop can get hot, but not mild, and the oven doesn’t bake particularly evenly.

It’s not a bad choice if you’re tight on space (and cash)—so long as you’re prepared to come up against some limitations.

Rangetop

Impressive heat, but struggles to simmer down

Despite its narrow width, the rangetop houses 4 gas burners beneath continuous cast iron grates. We were surprised to find the burners could reach scorching high temperatures with an ease unusual among gas rangetops. We measured maximum temperatures hovering around 500°F on every burner.

When it came to low temps, on the other hand, the HCR2250ADS just didn’t make the grade. The right front burner dipped to 172°F—by far the lowest of any burner—but in order to perform tasks like simmering soup or melting butter, you’ll want to be able to turn the heat down below 150°F. This rangetop simply cannot do that.

Only the left front burner could bring six cups of water to a boil in under ten minutes. You’ll be waiting a long time if you try to cook pasta on any other burner.

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Oven & Broiler

Adjust for small capacity

{{amazon name="Wilton Recipe Right Small Cookie Pan", asin="B000FSZF8E", align="right"}} With a capacity of just 2 cubic ft., there’s no denying that the HCR2250ADS has an extremely small oven cavity—which means you’re going to have to adjust your use patterns accordingly.

For example, we usually bake a sheet of 12 test cookies in every oven, but had to reduce the number in order to fit the tray into the oven. The single-layer cakes we always bake side-by-side had to be baked on separate oven racks, switching positions halfway through baking. It’s not ideal, but these kinds of adjustments come with the territory of a smaller oven.

Baking in the oven wasn’t entirely successful, with browning varying throughout the cavity, but we saw the most success with use of the true convection setting. On the bright side, preheats for both the oven and broiler were cheeringly speedy.

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Warranty

For 2 years from the date of purchase Haier will repair or replace any parts that fail due to defects in materials or workmanship. That's a year longer than most manufacturers. For more information, see the manual.

A Matter of Preference

Nothing’s perfect, right?

In the end, it’s all about what you value most in an oven. The HCR2250ADS should fit in the most cramped city apartment, it’s inexpensive, quick to preheat, and the rangetop packs some impressive heat. Where it falls short is low temperature cooking, boiling speeds, and evenness of baking.

The choice is yours.

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From the Lab

We ran the Haier HCR2250ADS dual fuel range through a slew of lab-based cooking tests, recording data on preheat and boil speeds and baking batches of test cookies and cakes. The verdict: This small range is a mixed bag—with unusually high rangetop temps (to the detriment of low temp cooking), mediocre evenness in the oven cavity, and a speedy broiler.

Oven & Broiler Performance

In our oven testing, we typically bake a sheet of 12 cookies and then 2 cakes side by side. In the case of the HCR2250ADS, we had to make adjustments for the 2 cubic-foot oven cavity the way anyone working with a smaller range would have to. 12 cookies didn’t fit, but a sheet of 8 cookies did. We baked the cakes on separate racks, swapping their locations halfway through.

oven cavity
Credit: Reviewed.com

The cavity comes with two standard racks and one baking tray.

Afterwards, as always, we used a photospectrometer to measure any variations in browning that might indicate temperature regulation issues. The results were underwhelming using standard bake, but the true convection setting helped the fluctuations in doneness inch closer to average.

Both the oven and broiler preheated quickly—which isn't surprising for such a small oven. The oven took 9 minutes, 49 seconds to reach 350°F at the standard setting, while convection was slightly faster at 9 minutes, 13 seconds. The broiler took just 4 minutes, 27 seconds to heat the area below the element to 606°F.

Rangetop Performance

Typically, gas rangetops don’t get as hot as electric or induction rangetops, but often excel at low temperature reach. The Haier HCR2250ADS, however, breaks the mold. All of the four burners got surprisingly hot, with the hottest right rear burner maxing out at an astounding 527°F. The lowest maximum temp we measured was 479°F on the left front burner—still scalding.

rangetop, burners, grates
Credit: Reviewed.com

The 24-inch rangetop is topped by continuous cast iron grates.

Low temperatures were another story, with not a single burner dipping below 150°F. The right front burner gave us the lowest temperature on the rangetop: 172°F. All other burners failed to drop below 200°F, with the left rear burner bottoming out at a too-hot 318°F. We expect gas ranges to dip to at least 150ºF, so this was unfortunate.

Despite those high heats, boil speeds were also disappointing—a sign that the Haier doesn't direct its gas flames effectively. The left front burner boiled six cups of water in a respectable 3 minutes, 44 seconds. However, not a single other burner boiled water in under 11 minutes. That’s inconveniently slow.

Meet the tester

Kori Perten

Kori Perten

Former Editor, Home & Outdoors

@Reviewedhome

Kori began her journalism career as a teenage fashion blogger and has enjoyed covering a wide variety of topics ever since. In her spare time, she’s an amateur poet, avid reader, and gluten-free cake baker extraordinaire.

See all of Kori Perten's reviews

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