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BTU's on a gas range

12 years ago

Can anyone explain to me the BTUs on a gas range? I am thinking of changing from electric to gas.

I have noticed the burners range 5000BTU to 17000BTU.

I am guessing a 5000 wouldn't get as hot.

I am sorry to sound so dumb.....but when it comes to gas cooktops I am as dumb as a rock.

TIA

Dawn

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Comments (10)

wekick
12 years ago
BTU = British Thermal Unit. A BTU is the amount of energy required to raise one pound of water one degree fahrenheit.

On burners it refers to a rating and the number is a calculated value. The manufacturer determines what their rating is. Some burners are rated by the manufacturer to go to 23K BTUs.

How much heat gets to your food is another issue that is determined by the configuration of the burner, type of cookware and what you are cooking.

Another consideration is how your burners perform at the low end of heat-simmering.
Nunyabiz1
12 years ago
All you basically need to know is that anything 15,000BTU and up is more than ample.
Then whether or not you prefer open or closed burners.

Personally I prefer closed double stack burners where ALL the burners are 15,000BTU AND ALL the burners have a very low simmer so you can use all burners anyway you wish.

Another consideration is the burner configuration, get one wide enough apart to handle large pots next to each other.
So you can use a 12" pan in front and at least a 10" pot in the rear.
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Comments (10)
mem9 OK, thoughts. You are right on. "... not much discussion of wattages of electric wall oven elements. So maybe this is not so important." And there IS endless talk about BTUs on gas ranges/rangetops/cooktops. Back to baking: you saw "Bake: 1450 watts to 2000 to 2100 to 2200 to 2700 to 2800 to 3500." Methinks it's no big deal. If it WERE important to have large Wattage applied to bake, it is numbskull easy to do so, as the coils are already installed and waiting. So, I draw the exact opposite conclusion as yours. fwiw, I ran a wall oven off of 110V (instead of the 220V it needs) for months while awaiting something else. This 110V gives exactly half the heating power of 220V. I cooked anything I wanted. The oven had a slightly longer warmup time. Other than that, nothing was wrong with it. Everything baked well, cooked well, came out good. I don't broil so I can't comment on that one. Hmmm. Do you know that it is possible to cook anything in a toaster oven working off of a 110V circuit? And it isn't even drawing the maximum power off that puny circuit, so it's definitely below 1450W. And it isn't even an insulated oven. Hmmm. An ambitious shoemaker sent two people to study the market in the developing world: one wrote back, this is great, nobody wears shoes, and the other wrote back, this is no good, nobody here wears shoes. Different ways to view reality. Your mental model is definitely one that says Huh, I thought more meant better. I think I'd go web searching on foreign web sites to see what they have there. Everybody has always said that food is good in foreign countries. France and Italy in particular. Do they hanker for more power? I don't think so. In this discussion, antss nailed it, but his description may not please you. I draw the exact opposite conclusion as yours. I conclude that baking needs gentle changes in temperature (not large swings), and that this is most guaranteed to happen when the coils used are not the largest ones available, installed or installable. I conclude that this oven can bake, and bake well. But what do I know? I'm just making another mental model that is ostensibly as valid as the other one I described above. The fact that antss has said all this and more should add more weight to this. The initial thought that wattages of electric wall oven elements might not be important was the best one. Hth.
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Agree with everyone. As a general rule, I want at least 15000-1600 BTU for my high heat burner in order to do any kind of serious searing or stir frying. It's also nice to be able to boil water a little quicker. Burner configuration and distance from burner & flame to grate & pot/pan are also important considerations. A 1200 BTU burner with the most efficient design could become borderline acceptable, and a 15000 BTU burner with low efficiency could be pretty lame. Recommend you look carefully at burner design and go for those extra BTUs if at all possible. Happy cooking!
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Comments (12)
I'd like to offer a little different opinion. It's been awhile since I've posted to the forum here, but I've actually commented on this very issue before. Three years ago, I got the Kenmore Elite all gas, with 5 burners, the lowest being the 5000 BTU. It seems like the general feeling is that this is worthy only of being called a "warming" burner. Having been completely enthralled with getting back into gas cooking (not since college), I also liked having different sizes of burners. I read that the flames on a 5000 burner are just as hot as the flames on a 17000 burner. The difference is just that there is alot more flame! I have experimented quite a bit. I've found the 5000 burner is the perfect size with most 2 qt sauce pans. I like this size for boiling sauce pans full of water to hard boil eggs. I like it for heating food in stainless sauce pans. I also have (just to try) cooked food in a 10" cast iron skillet over the 5000 burner. It took longer than over a 9500 (or 14200, or 16200), but it worked. Obviously, it takes a little while longer. But the size of the flame is perfect for most 2 qt pans, and I've found that heating up some leftovers in a 2 qt stainless sauce pan works so good over the 5000 burner that I now prefer this to using my microwave. I hope this is helpful.
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Comments (18)
You are correct ask about the lower end of the heat range capabilities of a new cooktop. But, most manufacturers will only provide one low burner for simmer. It's been my experience that the one low burner, regardless of brand really isn't low enough to guarantee no scorching. If you want to make and hold Hollandaise, mashed potatoes and a chocolate sauce at the same time, there will only be one very low burner on any unit, regardless of size. My experience is that a really low burner really isn't low enough. Finding a unit that has two low burners may be close to impossible. You could order that custom configuration from BlueStar. That is a lot of money and trouble for something that is easily solved. Instead, you place your Hollandaise, mashed potatoes and chocolate sauce in a hot water bath. In professional kitchens, that's how we hold delicate items, hot water baths. Order the unit that you like the best. Just use a hot water bath.
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eandhl
12 years ago
One more thing. Natural Gas vs Propane. If you have natural gas just ignore this, but if you have propane some ranges have no to minimal loss of BTU's with the propane, others it is more significant. The range that comes from the factory set up for Propane usually has the least if any loss.
brickeyee
12 years ago
"Personally I prefer closed double stack burners ..."

Except the a a real PITA to clean.
jakvis
12 years ago
For comparison BTU's can be converted to Watt hours and watts can be converted to BTU
1 BTU = 0.293 watts
1 Watt = 3.41 BTU's

So if you have an 1500 watt electric surface burner it will equal approximately 5118 BTUs.
However electric burners are generally more efficient at putting their energy directly to the pot
Nunyabiz1
12 years ago
""Personally I prefer closed double stack burners ..."
Except the a a real PITA to clean."

What exactly is hard to clean about them?
They are all brass and pop right off in 2 pieces, couldn't possibly be easier to clean if I ever needed to.
What is a PITA to clean are open burners
Jlahav
12 years ago
Nunyabiz1 - you stated my criteria exactly. I haven't done too much research on cooktops yet, but can you point me in a direction of which brands offer optimal spacing and equal burners? I have space for a 36" cooktop.

Thanks!
Nunyabiz1
12 years ago
I am not very familiar with "Cooktops" actually never really looked at them.
I can check out a few and post back when I think about it but I do not have any first hand experience with them.

As far as range goes I kinda like the NXR ranges because of the value for the money.
misfit
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you everyone.
I never knew there would be so much to consider.
I have decided to go with one that has a 17,000 & 15,500 9,500 & 8,000 with 2- 5,000BTU simmer burners.
I don't cook as much as I used to so this should work for me. I always have my back up electric range in my garage if I need more space. Or if I burn everything learning how to cook with gas.
Thank you for your help.
Dawn
djg1
12 years ago
Dawn, enjoy what you're getting. Every range takes a bit of getting used to, but not that much, and I doubt you'll burn much of anything while getting used to the range you've ordered (unless that's just how you cook). If a pan seems hotter than you'd like, just turn it down -- the dial cuts the output promptly, which reduces the heat promptly. Or shove the pan over to a lower power burner, which takes no time at all to warm up once it's on. Unless your current range is an induction system, I think you'll find gas much more responsive and intuitive that the electric range you're used to.

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