I think the dual fuel range that I selected might be a good fit for you! The stove is gas and the oven is electric. It is a 36" KitchenAid with four burners and a griddle. I think it is so pretty! It has that professional "look" but is priced much less (I think it was around $5000.) The oven handle and knobs and everything are so substantial feeling...I really love it and can't wait to cook on it.

yeah...$5000 is about $2500 more than I want to spend. Pretty much anything I buy is going to end up being a few hundred more because of where I live.

This is my favorite so far but I can't seem to find any reviews:

http://www.sears.ca/catalog/electrolux/14121-100001129

I spent $2,200 less than what you're looking at but I was and should have looked harder at Premier and I think that's a Canadian product?? I did buy a Kenmore and I can cook on it. I cook and bake like you and this does a good enough job for the $400 I spent. I don't like the power burner and I don't like the simmer burner. I'd like to find all four burners that will adjust with the knob. I want my 1980 stove back!

Here is a link that might be useful: Premier range

Always go for gas, it is so much easier to use the top if you can control exactly the amount of energy going into the pots. Anyway, I know you're remote but I posted this in another thread a few down. I LOVE my bertazzoni 36 inch range. It is so easy to clean and works amazing. I paid about 3200 for it, compared to Wolf/Viking/Thermador for roughly 7-10,000. Maybe search them for a dealer around you somewhere. But if not I have heard good things about the KA unit, my mother owns one and really likes it.

Well before I came on here, I thought my stove was expensive and I needed my head examined - HAH! Now I lust after all things French hmmm. However, for about $2,200 the GE Cafe Range is great for us. We have the AG because we had JUST rewired our house and didn't feel like putting in a 220V after the fact. I really like it and I like that it has the second oven which is electric, but only 110V. Definitely for casseroles not baking! They also have a duel fuel which seems to get good reviews, but I can't speak from experience.

I've been looking for a good gas range also and have been following threads on NXR in this forum. Looks like you can get it for around 2k which is more than enough (and more than I ever thought I'd pay) for a stove unless you're a professional cook. Search this forum and I think you'll find some good info. I'm still undecided but this is a contender.

I second cluelessincolorado's recommendation. I love my GE cafe dual fuel range. Love the second oven - great for cooking or use as warming drawer, 5th burner w/ griddle, power boil burners, and main oven probe (used last night for a perfectly cooked pork tenderloin). Also easy to clean - still looks new after 2 years. A reasonable price for a professional looking range.

Either the GE or Electrolux should be a good stove. The GE has 5 burners (oval in center). I have an old Maytag smoothtop electric with 2 ovens, but my smaller one is on the top. I think I like the smaller one better on the top even though it means the turkey roasts in the lower oven, but very few put the smaller oven on top any more. I use the smaller oven for warming bread and cooking casseroles and pizza rolls. I also use it to keep stuff warm. You can do a fairly decent side-by-side comparison on the AJMadison site.

I have an electrolux duel fuel, but it's only because I bought it used and got a great deal. I had been looking for gas in the 1000-1500 range, and was considering frigidaire (double oven one) and bosch, which gets really high ratings on aj madison.

You might want to check Consumer Reports. In the gas-only (as opposed to dual fuel) category, the models they rate most highly on performance are an Electrolux, a GE Profile, a very inexpensive Hotpoint, and two LG's. None of the top-rated models did splendidly on the self-cleaning oven effectiveness, but their test was a mixture of (shudder) lard, tapioca, cherry pie filling, cheese, eggs, and tomato puree.

In any case, all the models they tested are rated on a half-dozen criteria, so you may look for what is most important to you.

Since you mentioned that you want it to be easy to clean, you might want to consider induction instead of gas. It's also very safe (since it seems that you have kids). But it won't work in a power outage like gas will.

I have the e'lux induction slide-in. Love it.

I ended up purchasing an all gas range from Viking. I was originally looking at a dual fuel but worried about the repair and maintenance. Dual fuel have more working parts and in my opinion more things that could go wrong. I figured with an all gas range, any appliance dealer can fix it after it comes out of warranty (this may be good if you live in rural Canada). Just my 2 cents :)

I thought I would just give the pros and cons for my Bosch.
I love my Bosch Duel Fuel range with warming drawer. I
give it a 97% grade.

Pros:

-Sealed burners. I can not STRESS enough how important this
is. It does not matter the brand just be sure to get a
sealed burner. A sealed burner means if your creamy cheesy
sticky soup boils over it won't clog your burner. It will
just burn off. Trust me my old GE did not have sealed
burners.

-Simmer feature. I have a simmer burner and I love it.
Even if you are just cooking macNcheese the simmer
comes in handy later when you need to cook rice or make
something that cooks slowly like pot roast.

-Fast Super boil is awesome too but gas burns so fast you
really won't need a special feature for this.

-Self clean oven. Hands down this is a dream.

-DW safe grates. My huge heavy black grates can go into
the DW and come out looking perfectly new. Love this.

-Convection speeds up your tukey cooking. Love it.

-continuous grates. This means I can slide my pots without
having to lift them. My pans do not fall off.

-Oven racks pull all the way out and do not tip. This
is fantastic if you are baking a cake or large item.
Oh yes. I fogot NO CAKES for you. You might wind up with
curvy hips like me.

------------------------

Cons:

-Gas on Glass sounds wonderful but trying to clean around
the bumped up glass is a PIA. Glass is easier to keep
looking clean than stainless. SS can scratch when you try
to scape the grease off. Induction is the way to go if you
want easy to clean burner. But since you want Gas. Gas on
Glass is far better than on stainless. With the glass you
can scrape the burnt mac&cheese with a razor blade. My range
came with one and the old weismann white cream liquid
cleaner.

JUST don't leave the Weismann on the burner or it will
ruin the flame output.

-Noise of oven. My oven is louder than I expected. It is
not terrible just louder than my old oven. Bosch is known
for making whisper quiet products so this was a bit of a
surprise.

-electric touch tone controls. I have to use the knob
after each punch of a finger. I sound lazy. I think this
is designed so kids who would be playing can not figure
out how to turn the oven on. I find it annoying. I guess
I have issues with kid proof stuff.

I am one of those moms who needed my 7 year old to open
the Midol bottle.

hth
~boxer

I hate to say this, since I just bought an Electrolux fridge and love it, but if I lived in remote northern Canada, there is no way I would buy an E-lux range (or any of the $800+ GEs, or Maytags, or Frigidaires, or...). The reason is they're too complicated; they're chock full of electronics and computerized parts, which makes them much more prone to failure than a basic, all-mechanical (as opposed to electronic/computerized) range. And while that's something you can deal with easily in a major metropolitan area, it would REALLY not be good in a remote part of northern Canada.

If you want to avoid that, then you need a range whose only electronic part is electronic ignition (my understanding of that is that electronic ignition is safer, because it doesn't have a pilot light that can go out, and also cheaper because it doesn't have a pilot light constantly burning, and if your electricity fails you can still light it the old-fashioned way with a match).

So I second Jgopp's recommendation of the Bertazzoni, and actually before reading it that's what I recommended in this same thread over on the Appliances forum. On the other hand, there is a much less expensive solution... see the last paragraph of this post and the links below.

If you want to go REALLY basic, then you can also avoid electronics to some degree by getting a very, very cheap range--avoid the insanely cheap ones ($300-$400), because they typically have pilot lights instead of electronic ignition, which is a safety issue if the pilot light goes out (although here's a $359 Summit that has electronic ignition: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/R301W.html).

But here's a much cheaper solution that frankly will probably make you just as happy. The link below is to a very basic (but not too basic, i.e. it has electronic ignition instead of a pilot light) GE gas range that is $450-$550 depending on color, but looks like a VERY VERY good deal in that it has continuous grates (very handy for moving things around while cooking), a huge oven, a simmer burner and one burner with 15,000 BTU for fast boiling. However, you can tell by the number of knobs and the way the backsplash is set up that the oven controls are electronic. If that goes out, you have no oven. But that being said, compared to the $2300 Bertazzoni it would be vastly VASTLY less expensive to get this $450-$550 range and a Breville full-sized toaster oven ($249), to be used for snacks and also for baking if/when the GE oven controls go out and you have to wait for a part to arrive. Everyone who has a Breville seems to adore them--literally, there are 456 reviews on Amazon and it gets 4.5 out of 5 stars:

http://www.amazon.com/Breville-BOV800XL-1800-Watt-Convection-Toaster/dp/B001L5TVGW

Here is a link that might be useful: Good basic GE

FWIW we had a very basic gas Fridgaire, looked just like the GE one ideagirl posted. After 3 years the oven part stopped cooking correctly & we had to call out a repair guy who had to buy a part for it to re-calibrate it. He told me gas ovens are just prone to more problems than electric and always recommended the extended warranites.
Perhaps the GE is built better than the fridgare?

Better built or not, I would think an extended warranty on a $500 range would not be expensive. Of course, I don't know whether an extended warranty through AJ Madison works in Canada (maybe yes, maybe no--you'd have to call them). If not, maybe there are freestanding extended warranties that Canadians can buy.

Well this certainly gives me a lot more food for thought!

The premier ranges, I believe are out as I can't find a Canadian distributor (they aren't a Canadian company, btw)

I'm nervous buying anything that I can't buy locally because of dealing with warranties etc. We're not *extremely* remote but we are 5+hours from a major city and an hour from a small city. Lots of dealers up here say oh yes I can get 'xyz' but they don't have a floor model to look at. I will get the extended warranty on all of our appliances as I've had good luck with them. My crappy Maytag fridge has gone through 2 motors in 6 years. One was covered, one wasn't but warranty it paid for itself.

I have a Frigidare Gallery smooth-top that is only 8 years old and works like a dream (other than my gross worn-out timer button) The top is black speckled and honestly looks brand new as I grew up with a smooth top and a very particular mother who still has her original corning ware top.

I can't wait for my parents to get back from snowbirding so we can go look at house stuff without kids in tow! My charming 3 year old thought it was great fun to collect all of the fridge manuals last time we went

Can someone post the GE cafe one? I entered it into Sears website and 16 stoves popped up! We'll likely be buying through Sears as they deliver and service here.

Boxerpups--I knew about the sealed/closed burners and about the stainless steel scratching but the rest was great new info. All the gas stoves I've ever cooked on are enameled.

There seems to be a ton of conflicting information in regards to gas vs dual fuel so I'm still totally confused there. I never had any problem cooking in gas ranges but I'm not sure I've baked in them much. I remember the lovely way they crisped up nachos.... (ugh, again with the damn hip padding!)

thank you all so much!

Hey!
I'm in Canada too.. unfortunately sears doesn't carry the GE Cafe line.. I know because I'm looking for one as well. Stores that carry it are Tasco, Appliance Canada, Goemans. The Brick and Sears don't. I hope this helps!!

HN

Thanks HomeNoobie! I don't think any of those retailers are in northern Alberta but Coast Appliances in Edmonton might.

Your needs sounds similar to mine. We just bought a new range and I had a hard time deciding what to get but I settled on a Frigidaire Gallery gas range with gas oven and warming drawer. We've only had it for a couple of months but so far, we love it! This is the one - http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/FGGS3065K.html

Here's the Sears GE Cafe dual fuel link. We bought ours at Sears in Virginia, so maybe they only carry that line in the US, but not in Canada?

Here is a link that might be useful: GE Cafe Range