Dacor Review (in bits and pieces over time)
I bought an all gas, Dacor Distinctive 30" gas range. I chose this model partly or perhaps mostly because of its price for its features. It was installed in mid-December 2013, so this is about two months later. I still feel we did pretty well for the $, but I'm still not falling in love with it until next year.
The Dacor replaced an 5 day old NXR (refunded from the manufacturer), which replaced an 8 month old NXR (lemon, replacement by manufacturer), which replaced a 7 year old GE profile all gas slide in which was too much money to fix. The GE profile replaced a 9 month old Kitchenaid (refunded from manufacturer as its grates dripped porcelain when hot) which replaced a fairly horrible 4 year old kenmore (wasn't dead, a neighbor took it - it lasted another 8 months an then died on them) which replaced the generic gas range that came with the house which died within the first 30 days of our ownership. Ranges in this house have not fared well. All sealed burner and mostly self-cleaning which I ran faithfully every 6 months or so.
It's not like I beat them up or anything. I use the oven multiple times per week for cooking and a couple of times per week for warming. I am a decent home cook who cooks often but mostly in low volumes. I have aspirations of grandeur which I occasionally achieve. Cooking is fun and I'll try most things except for feelers, tentacles or heads!
Before living in this house, a.k.a. the range killer, we, or I at times, rented different places for years and years - using a motley collection of ranges from the 20s, 30s, 40s and a couple of ones from the 70s. All open burner, pilot lights except for an electric jenn air with grill which shall never be forgiven. None of them died from my cooking.
Erruppp (sound of brakes being applied). Sorry, internal gps failure, back to the Dacor. There will be NXR comparisons because everything is always seen in light of the last villain. I like the Dacor better than a working NXR and either one is a ton better than the old GE profile.
I like the Dacor burners (with a couple of footnotes). The flame wraps the burner cap providing very even heat across the bottom of pans with very little waste heat filling the kitchen. The same size pan can heat to a higher temperature without the flame wrapping the sides of the pan than on say the NXR burners.
The burners are not all the same - small defect of character. It has 2-15k front and back burners, 1-10k back burner and 1-18k dual ring front burner. In order of frequency of use - front 15k burner, 10k burner, 18k burner and the second 15k.
The 15k burners are perfect for searing or boiling. Even though they have a setting for simmer, it's more a low boil. NXR wins here as all of the burners can simmer. Using heavier cookware produces more boiling. I'm going to get a true simmer plate/heat diffuser to see if they can be tamed. Probably the one from trevor lawson. The diameters of the 15k burners allow even an 8" egg pan to work well cooking a lowly vegiburger.
The 10k has a lot of uses from my small italian coffee pot (4" diameter) up to full bore for a large bottom tea kettle. It is capable of simmering a large pot but is most often used to heat soup or cook eggs.
So far, the best use I've discovered for the two ring 18k simmer-sear burner is flat bottomed wok cooking. It can also simmer even small quantities, or work for larger quantities of high heat - boiling big pots or searing in 12"
diameter pans. The center ring is about 6k and the outer ring is about 12k max. It's defect is the lack of control of output of both rings at the same time.
The outer ring turns down completely and then the inner ring turns down. It's kind of a pita because the burner doesn't really have "low" across the entire pan. "Low" exists at the outer edges, but the center is still going full out. This same problem (inner ring puts out a fair amount of heat in a small area) is what makes a flat bottomed wok the bomb!
I wish they would go back to defendi and get the triple ring burner or at least use a dual burner control so the inner ring and outer ring could be increased or decreased at the same time or separately.
Every pan I've used on it works and is stable. The grids are not too heavy and fairly smooth. The pan immediately underneath the grids is black porcelain. I had expected the black color to show every spec of dust, but its not bad. Possibly that's because its not flat. It has some angles to create some extra depth.
Big boil overs have happened and are easy to wipe off when the range has cooled. I haven't had one reach that insurance area yet and believe me, its not for lack of trying.
So far, both the grids and the porcelain pan are really easy to clean using just sponge and water, sometimes spiffy up with some type of cleaner and a miracle cloth.
Overall, its easier to keep the top clean than the NXR was simply because it has less edges and the top goes across the entire top in one piece.
The grids don't chew up the bottoms of the pots either. The ignitors may need less attention over the life of the unit because they are shielded from spills.
The other cheezy defect is the actual burner heads are uncoated aluminum. This means hand wash only if you want them to keep shiney. I wash them off about once a week and take them out only if I see junk stuck on. Because the visually exposed parts are shiney, I only wash off what comes off easily. I have faith that the rest will burn off with time.
Picture is one of the 15k burners with an oxo tea kettle. It's about 10 inches across the bottom and the burner isn't all the way up. You can see the flame bend straight up and in towards the center a bit. This is really different from sealed burners from US manufacturers which primarily shoot the flame out to the side.
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