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Gas Range - Simmer/Warming Burner = Useless???

14 years ago

We've recently been looking at new appliances for a kitchen remodel and are having problems making decisions. We're in the low to mid range of budget - Whirlpool Gold, low end KA, low end GE Profile, etc. We're not big or fancy cooks.

One of the things that's been bugging us about the ranges that we've seen is that all of them have at least one warming burners. Seems like a waste of a burner. With gas, can't you just turn it down? One of the ranges has 2 of the 4 burners at 6,000 BTUs, which I assume are lower than old school gas burners. Will we grow to love these? Maybe we just don't understand. Or does 4 burner range with 2 simmer burners mean that we'll only have 2 cooking burners?

Also, pretty much every salesperson that I've spoken with has suggested that we steer clear of Frigidaire. Are they all biased somehow, or is that common knowledge here on the forum?

Sorry to repost this from a different thread, but my post was pretty far down and it seemed nearly dead.

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Comments (4)

John Liu
14 years ago
I have a Frigidaire Gallery range 30" with two large burners and two small.

The burner arrangement is irritating. I sometimes actually need high heat from >2 burners at once. More often, the irritant is having to move pots around to get to one of the large burners. It is not a huge issue but I won't have this arrangement in my next range. (This one came with the house.)

The range has been bulletproof, though. Nothing has ever failed to work exactly as it was meant to. This range is circa about 2000, I think, and I don't know if current Frigidaires are similar.
annettequilts
14 years ago
I have a professional gas rangetop (thermador) and I too thought the simmer/warmer burner was silly. I was mistaken! On mine the other burners won't turn down as low as this one...it actually cycles on and off w/o my attention....I can keep a pot of spaghetti sauce really warm w/o it burning for a very long time. I find this extraordinarily helpful when dinner gets postponed for half and hour for some reason. OR I use it alot to simmer soups and stews all afternoon long. I have grown to love it and don't think I could do w/o it anymore. Hope this helps.
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I spent quite some time considering a Fretelli Onofri but decided against it ultimately. It is a really cool looking range, and has a lot of features for the money, but the max burner is only 12,000 BTU (11 on propane) and I just couldn't see paying the money to upgrade my range to something no more powerful than what I already had in my $500 GE. It's smallest burner is 3500 BTU, so I am guessing that it should easily get low enough to simmer satisfactorily. I'm not sure if these burners have low flame controls, but I think most do. With this you can adjust how low the flame goes with a screwdriver. Bluestar has it and it works great (That's what I bought). Download the owners manual from FO and see if it's mentioned.
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maire_cate and Wekick Thanks both. I think I've watched Trevor's video before. the simplicity of the BS is very similar to my Russell range except everything in the Russell is stainless. (which I do like) I'm not terribly concerned about service as there is little that can go wrong. Having a high BTU kiln I'm used to taking he venturis apart and cleaning the burners. So I'm comfortable working with burners, cleaning adjusting. Unfortunately, there is no BS dealer close. I've watched all of the BS videos to ad nauseam drove to Las Vegas some months ago as I was told I could see one and try it out. They had a range which I would think is similar to a range top. They knew nothing about it. It was not live, disappointing to make a 5.5 hr trip for nothing. Next closest is Salt Lake city a 8- 9 hour round trip. Maybe when I get close to actually buying I'll make the trip and spend the night.. Trevor wrote his phone number on one of my posts suggesting I call him. Haven't done it yet and of course the paper I had has disappeared from my desk. Sales person also told me how wonderful Wolf ovens were. Yikes, I remember reading about your pain Wekick. When I mentioned the blue enamel chipping there was just a blank stare. I told him I plan on getting the GE French door wall oven as I have one in the FL house and like it. . When I asked if he can give me a deal on SZ (side by side and wine cooler) if I buy all of my appliances he said no they are sold at full price unless I purchse a suite of SZ/Wolf, which isn't going to happen.::(( There is a Ferguson in town as well. I don't think their set up is nearly as large but will head there one of these days. The only thing I'm still on the fence about is the dishwasher. Do I get another Bosch which cleans really well but doesn't load very well with my handmade dishes. Maybe by the time I actually get to remodel, Bosch will have improved their interior set up...I'm hoping. Inga
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lagrant
14 years ago
I have had the exact experience as Annettequilts. The X-Low burner was a nice feature, but not something I sought out when shopping for my gas range. Ended up picking the Thermador for a variety of other reasons. But WOW, I LOVE that warming/extra-low burner and could not live without it now. Sure, without it I did a lot of the same things - melted chocolate in the microwave, etc... but the convenience of keeping stove-top food warm without worry, melting butter easily and effortlessly, etc... is priceless for me and the way I cook. I have 5 teenagers, so meal time is happy chaos for us :).

HTH!!!
pinch_me
14 years ago
I came here looking for this exact information. I'm looking at Hotpoint. All I want is a white, LP, self clean. I, too, got confused on the burner terms. In the olden days you bought a stove. It had 4 burners. You turned them up or down depending on how hot you wanted it. I don't cook any more so I don't need a fancy stove. And I'm old and don't need a NASA instrument panel. On. Off. That's all I need. I've found a couple that meet my criteria. I won't buy Amana. Probably don't want Maytag, Whirlpool, or Jennair. What does that leave me for under $600? The ones I've thought would be OK are running just over $500.

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