gas ovens tend to have the best broilers - a few manufacturers make gas wall ovens

The gas broiler has more heat but not as wide. Consider how adjustable the heat might be and where the racks are in relationship to the heat. The intense heat is great for steak.

The electric oven might not be as hot but will cover more of the rack. For more even heat look for the most passes of the element. Great for baking sheets of appetizers or when you are cooking for a crowd.

I'm unlikely to broil steaks, it's warm most of the year here and I prefer to cook them on a grill. Wide, even coverage is more important.
Any specific brands to look at?

This post was edited by saeyedoc on Thu, Nov 7, 13 at 20:02

I like the Electrolux electric-oven broilers because they allow you to do something that's not common anymore: broil with the door open a few inches. This is crucial, because it allows the top of your steaks to get seared without cooking them all the way through before the top gets crispy. With a closed door, it's more like baking. Also, they're somewhat higher wattage than most.

Many manufacturers used to have open-door broilers, but the electronics above the door in modern ovens is sensitive to heat so few allow it anymore.

I'll have to watch out for that, I'm used to leaving the door open so the broiler doesn't overheat and cycle off.

Many of the new ones will automatically shut off if you open the door. Download the owner's manual of anything you're considering and read the broiler operation section.

I like alot of other things on the Electrolux too - nice glide-out racks, good interior lighting from both sides, quiet operation, controls that light up only when needed on the higher-end models. The "Icon" deluxe version also has a full-glass inside door that's easy to keep clean and looks nice. Those are 30"w only though; the others are 30 or 27".

I can say this about the Wolf ovens we have; they require the door to be shut, and the coils at the top are spaced widely and hence radiant flux at the rack on a broiling pan at the highest oven rack setting is not even. Both of these traits annoy my DW.

The latter issue could have been avoided by twice as much heater length using half as much resistance per inch.

On a high-end device, the electronics could have been designed so that air cooling was increased when the door was open. The air in such cases would have to be taken from somewhere other than under the electronics where the door gap would be.

The negative aspect of such cooking is the near impossibility of keeping grease and moisture off of everything above the door gap. The oven(s) would require a separate vent that led to its own filter and duct to the roof. It is bad enough with closed-door broiling just opening the door to turn the meat or remove it. A auxiliary vent such as I have in the ceiling above the ovens is not adequate for such a blast of greasy air.

The cooktop searing followed by oven baking process some cooks argue is best for steaks is certainly best for minimizing un-contained effluent.

kas

The classic Thermador ovens (CT series) made before they were bought out by Bosch were like that, with an (optionally installed) 4" vent leading to the outdoors. It also helped keep the kitchen cool and lessened cooking odors. The gas oven in the house I grew up in had a vented RCA gas oven, worked great.