As a kid it was a "stove". Later years, "range" became the name, why, I don't know. Every home had one (has one?). My Mother's stove was a 4-burner gas unit, make I forget, but possibly Frigidaire. Actually, some 50 years later, my wife spied an old Frigidaire stove at a barn sale in Salem, Missouri, to which we had recently moved from Phoenix. Our old farmhouse had a gas stove, fed by an outside propane tank, when we moved in. The tank had been leased, and disappeared as we were in the process of moving. The stove she admired was electric, just what we needed. $35. SOLD! Following that little movement, I was faced with running power to it in our 100 year old farmhouse, not much of a challenge, given my background. Main point: that old stove was dated on it's back: 1942. Mostly, that's why she wanted it. My birth year! Anyway, having moved for the LAST time from Missouri to my final reside in AZ in 2012, the house had a gas stove and big propane tank out back. Soon, I endeavored to change to electric. I like gas cooking best, don't get me wrong, (after Microwave!), but keeping a tank filled with propane just doesn't move me. So, I figured out a way to provide adequate wiring to our new electric stove (bought used, of course), installed the necessary wiring, and we were "burning 'lectric"! The thread? Curious about kitchen stove preferences. Have you gas or electric? Have you used both, over the years? Preference? Frank
We have mains Gas... almost always had Gas... for our cooker.. . When I was a child we had a Range and then a cooker.. I've had Electric in the past in different houses..and although I find it cleaner than gas it's much less controllable.. I also have Calor Gas in a bottle...which is how my Cooker in my second home in Spain is run....it sounds archaic in a 20 year old 4 story modern brick house on a gated community, but there's no mains gas run to the village... The Gas bottle is well hidden of course, and no-one would guess in my relativelymodern kitchen , but it's how most cookers, and heating devices are run in southern Spain.. Out of them all now, I think I would prefer Electric just so there's less cleaning to do ...
We have an electric 'range', was in the house when we moved in, so just kept it. I prefer a natural gas range, but I'd have to run a new line under the house. This is a job I can handle, I've just been a tad bit lazy about it. The wife hasn't complained, so I'll just see how long I can go... ( you never know what you're gonna run into, crawling around under a house! )
I have had both. When we were first married, we lived in a apartment that had a gas stove. The pilot light was a always a problem. Once in a while it would light with a big POOF! It scared the %@*&^%! out of me. Give me my safe, reliable electric stove any day.
I’ve just had what’s called a ceramic cooktop installed it’s smooth black glass ...( electric ) it’s a breeze to clean compaired to my 10 year old cook top which had solid hot plates ...my oven is electric as well it’s built in right below the cooktop. Any homes in our area that have gas for cooking or hot water have to rely on bottled gas as we don’t have any mains gas in the area Same here for gas stoves @Shirley Martin the old ones went POOF and scared the crap outta me as well as I grew up using a wood burning stove summer and winter . Interesting I used a 5 year old gas top for cooking while away housesitting over Christmas and it was easy to use instant light up ...but I was still wary of it
Those cooktops seem to be the going thing nowadays. My son and his DW have one and my DGD has one. The only drawback I see with them is that you can't use cast iron frying pans on them. But they sure are purdy.
@Shirley Martin The pilot light type was pretty much done away with quite awhile back, replaced by electric spark ignition, which is very fast and silent. My Mother's old gas stove when I was a kid, had one pilot light centrally-located on the cook-top, under the lid. 4 small tubes led to each of the 4 burners, sloping very slightly uphill. Turning on sa burner valve resulted in escaping gas flowing slowly up the tube, until it reached the little pilot light, whereupon the gas in the tube was ignited, in turn firing up the burner. With drafts present in the room, sometimes lighting took longer than usual, then, whump, the extra gas present sort of exploded, a delight for me, not so much my Mother. The oven below was another story! Had a "touch-hole", no pilot, into which a lit match was thrust by hand, to light the big oven burner. BIG whump, on that one! Frank
That fits the description of the stove. I can't remember if the oven in that one had a pilot light or not. Probably because I didn't use it much.
Yes my gas cooker has an electronic ignition. ...But I do remember when I was a kid we had to light the gas cooker with a match or an electronic gas lighter..and it always went ''poof''..like you say @Shirley Martin and I'd jump back thinking it was going to explode...but that doesn't happen these days with modern Gas cookers.