I am posting here because I’ve started looking at new ranges - and I don’t know what to purchase. Thought I’d follow along to see what people recommend for you.

I currently have a GE profile double oven with electric glass cook top - and it works perfectly fine. I am used to electric - but my SO is pushing gas - I assume that I’d prefer gas if I tried it out. I prefer the look of a slide-in vs. freestanding - this is Houzz’ fault - I never really thought about the controls sticking up along the back - but now they bug me. I also will be gerting rid of my OTR GE profile microwave - it works fine - but I’d like to have a hood. I actually saw a kitchen on here where someone simply moved their OTR microwave to a different spot - hadn’t considered that.

I’ve also have just started some research re: induction. What makes them a ”no go” for you?

I would consider keeping some kind of door out of the laundry room or pantry area so it's not a cul de sac. My kitchen is very small, and it was a big improvement when we added another doorway so there was circulation instead of one way in and one way out. One of the doorways is 28" which is a little narrow but even a 24" would probably be adequate if the other entries were full sized.

A 30" range is a very standard size, and sounds like it will meet your needs well. We just purchased a 30" gas range for our remodel, went with a GE after much research and it's a nice stove, absolutely no complaints. Even not on sale it is $2750 (Black Friday sale price was much less) and that's the GE profile. Our last stove was an entry level range and was not a good value for the money.

You're going to be stuck with lots of bells and whistles because they all come that way. People who want the old fashioned stoves get Blue Star I think which is much bigger and more expensive than I would want. So shop based on reliability and service available in your area.

I would suggest you buy a countertop induction burner (think modern version of a hotplate) for under $100 and take the time to research what you want and wait for it to come in. (Nothing seems to be in stock anymore except the really expensive ones and the ones with terrible reviews.)

I will let someone else advise re freestanding vs slide-in.

@ dani_m08 - I know that many people love induction. I also know that I had a major heart attack at 57 and that my dad and sister both had pacemakers and my sister also had a defibrillator. The manufacturers of my sisters pacemaker recommends that you keep a distance of at least 2' from any induction/magnetic device. When she got the defibrillator they recommend she not be in the same room with an induction cooktop.

Some people argue that it is perfectly safe to use induction with a pacemaker, but I am not going to press my luck. I can live without induction.

Other considerations that are not as impactful, but would make me question getting induction:

1. Before my heart attack I had gotten an induction single burner to try. It interfered with my dog's invisible fence collar and would the collar would shock her if she got too close. I donated the burner to goodwill.

2. Only some of my pots and pans worked with the single burner induction cooktop. I like what I have and don't really want to buy new cookware.

@ palimpsest - I have thought about the circulation and don't know if I will miss the 2nd doorway to the kitchen, but haven't found a way to get the extra counterspace and cabinet space without blocking the doorway.

I have considered placing the fridge on the pantry side and shortening the pantry space and leaving the 2nd opening to the living room. That would also not leave me with a landing area by the fridge.

Thought about moving the doorway into the pantry to the foyer, but who wants a doorway facing the washer and dryer.

@ Jenny - I can make do with all my small appliances until I get a new range. Have an electric frying pan and a toaster oven along with all my other small appliances.

If you're not going to go with an induction range, choose gas -- I think that radiant electric ranges (the "standard" electric) are a horrible type of appliance. I'd rather have electric coils than electric radiant.

Hi Jennifer. I love how you are thinking through choices ahead so you are sure to get the best overall kitchen you can. Smart! I will examine layout later when I have more time. But a few things I know now. Gas range top with total surface grid is my must have. No controls on back side. Dangerous for me. We have moved a lot so I have had just about everything except induction. The new pacemaker technology is able to function with no problems as you mentioned but I am no doctor so solid medical advice from a specialist on that is vital. My hubby has a pacemaker and it is one that he can do anything even get MRI and other testing with no problems. More later. Gotta run right now.

Last month our range experienced some kind of electrical something (loud banging sound while oven was on) and the wiring in control panel of range caught fire. Thankfully it smothered itself and went out before fire department arrived and we had no real damage to kitchen/home. Just a kaput range and an electrical burn smell. So we just went through the range shopping process in light of thinking through a kitchen reno that has now been moved up in importance. (Our kitchen is also small and our main change in layout will be moving fridge, which will require new fridge to be a built-in- and will use the vast majority of our appliance budget. So that impacted our decision about a range- namely we did not want to spend more on induction.)

All that to say, I can tell you what not to buy! We chose a Frigidaire Professional electric radiant top range for a variety of reasons. The fact it was available within days, the price was well within budget, and availability of service/repair were the most important. I think it looks nice, too, which matters, though less significantly. Well, a month on and I am seriously debating if its worth keeping through kitchen reno. The cook top is fine and functions well and slightly faster than the old Samsung it replaced. The oven, however, is inaccurate and unreliable, and has burned a couple things (though I rarely ever had things burn in old oven). I never had to keep an oven thermometer in the old range and it baked (regular and convection) and roasted and broiled evenly and beautifully all 12 years of its life. This oven will say it is up to temperature at least 25-30 degrees before it actually is. If using convection setting the fan and heat don't cycle off until it is 25-40+ degrees beyond the set temperature. The broil function has only one (atomically high) setting. And, adding insult to injury, the storage drawer doesn't hold nearly as much as the old range, so I have several skillets just sitting in the corner of my dining room between uses. I may have to hang some s-hooks from ceiling to store them out of the way. I did re-read the manual and it looks like I can adjust the factory settings up or down to account for the 25-30 degree gap I'm noticing. Will update this if that seems to make a difference for performance.

So if TLDR... think twice about Frigidaire Professional electric radiant range!!

if you are moving thinga around, like to cook in oven and are planning to age in place… I would strongly suggest moving oven to wall and installing a cook top. no bending to get to overn, will be a great thing soon

Like the way you're thinking things through methodically. We are costing out gutting the all-original 1965 kitchen at our island place. For several reasons I am stuck with two blind corners; definitely get rid of yours if possible.

My current thought is to get a single electric wall oven and install it under counter. Many of the new ones incorporate air frying. On the other side of the kitchen I'm thinking a 24" gas cooktop, which is what I had in Europe. I cooked lots of big meals with no problem..

Do you need the laundry sink? Your other one is close by. I love my 30" single sink, and would prefer one bigger sink any day. Would stacking the w/d improve your storage?

My free standing Bosch gas range does not have a back panel. The only downside is it is slow to boil large pots of water. Can't speak to the broiler - I've never turned it on!

Jennifer - Well, that would make the decision an easy one for me also! Thank you for sharing the information!

@latifolia @Jane - good questions and suggestions.

I hate having to make a quick decision. I am questioning everything and feeling the pressure of making a mistake.

Thinking about the way I use my kitchen I am thinking that I will be okay with a range vs wall oven. I don't make large meals anymore. I cook a turkey thigh or a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. I use my oven mainly for baking pastries. I have inherited the baking we did as a family because my sisters and sister in laws can no longer roll the dough due to back and wrist issues.

I wish I could ask my oldest sister her opinion. She had a range and a wall oven before moving to a senior living apartment. In the apartment they only had the range, but I don't know that she ever used the oven. They got 2 meals a day included in the package, so usually only had breakfast in the apartment. When we had Thanksgiving dinner at her home before she moved she used the range for the turkey and the wall oven for the extra dressing and thighs, but my other sister and I were there to help get things in and out of the ovens.

I have never owned a wall oven so it is harder to assess the benefits.

I checked and my Bosch 30" range is listed as a slide-in, but it looks less so than the electric GE it replaced.

The Bosch ranges are well within your budget. A dual fuel might work for you, as it probably requires fewer BTUs. When we switched, the BTU capacity of our gas line was an issue.

I like my Bosch dishwasher. Am leaning toward Bosch or Cafe. Both in my price range.

Jennifer - I have mostly had one piece ranges (gas and electric and dual fuel) and I now have a double wall oven (electric) and a gas cooktop. By far this last kitchen is the easiest. Having the food at the higher level (I don’t alway need the lower oven) definitely makes cooking less stressful on my back.

If there is a way to reconfigure the kitchen to have a cooktop and wall oven, I would strongly work to convince you. And the older I get, the more grateful I am for the wall oven.

Jennifer - My friend bought the high end cafe dishwasher and hates it. Cycles are at least 3 hours and pans with some baked on residue does not come clean even if she has soaked it. She is very disappointed as she came from a house with a thermador (aka bosch) that she loved.

My daughter has the cafe dual fuel range with the double oven and is very happy with it. The larger oven is low so that might now be the best option, but they one oven model has a warming drawer in the botton. She has a bosch dw and like you is very happy with it.,

I hate having to make a quick decision. I am questioning everything and feeling the pressure of making a mistake.

I hear you on that one sister! I'd buy myself some more time by buying two countertop electric burners and a small Breville oven. Not only will it buy you more time to think and shop around, but you will be able to use them to cook with while your kitchen is under renovation.

Everyone on my floor used this combo for ten months while our gas lines in our apartment building were being replaced and none of us could use our ranges. The gas is back on now, yet we've all sheepishly confessed that we miss our little Breville ovens. I made roasted whole chickens, lasagna, meatloaf, and more in mine. My neighbor is a cookie queen and baked cakes and cookies in hers too.

I have the GE Cafe electric range (because no gas in the area) and it's worked very well. GE cooking appliances are very good, their refrigeration and dishwashers not so much. Profile is less expensive than Cafe so if you want to cut costs you would do well with the Profile.

But Kendrah's suggestion is also a very good one, and will buy you time til you do the full reno.

I like your new layout--you might consider moving your dishwasher to the other side of the sink -- I had a similar layout and I found I prepped mostly on the peninsula.

Got another estimate for the gas line. Same guy who put in my HVAC. Gave me an estimate of $1400-$1500 to do the gas line, add an electrical outlet, install the range and while his guys are here they will clean out the AC and Furnace.

I'm not going to get a third estimate. Trusting Tim is treating me right.

Diana, thank you for your input on the Cafe Range and the Profile. Will look at both.

I am within the budget I set if I get the Cafe and I love the look based on the pictures on the internet. What I am questioning is the color.

My last home had all white appliances. This house had all white appliances except for a harvest gold refrigerator. I replaced the Harvest Gold with an LG Stainless French Door fridge from Costco. I hate the stainless doors! I am constantly wiping down the fingerprints on/around the handle and the doggie nose prints on the freezer and fighting the streaks.

When I replaced the dishwasher I got the Bosch in white. It was during Covid and the white was in stock and by then I knew I hated the stainless.

Not sure if the Matte white will look odd with the shinier white of the Bosch dishwasher. They won't be next to each other so it may be just fine, but I have to look at one before knowing if it is too different.

Has anyone else had difficulty with replying to posts. As long as I am not using the at and pasting someone's name and I don't use any links I can post. If I use the copied name or add a link it is not posting when I hit Submit.

Hannah - thank you for the dishwasher placement suggestion. We get used to things working the way they work, so I hadn't thought about placing it on the left instead of the right. I prep on the right of the sink.

Bought the GE Cafe single oven range today. Will get it in two weeks.

Houzz can be very temperamental at times, Jennifer. Sometimes I write a long post and hit submit, and it gets posted, other times it just disappears. And sometimes I think it disappears, and it pops up! Who knows--computer gremlins?

I used to be a huge gas stove fan and since getting my induction cooktop will never go willingly back to gas. And electric is a never for me. Especially as we age, induction is so much easier to keep clean, is safer and is more responsive than gas.

Some people argue that it is perfectly safe to use induction with a pacemaker, but I am not going to press my luck. I can live without induction.

Nothing to press your luck with. Call the number on your card to ask them. My hubby has a pacemaker and when I was considering induction, I called the pacemaker company, gave them his number and they basically told me that as long as his pacemaker was 6" from the hob, he was fine. We are going on 5+ years with induction with no issues.

And hubby's original pacemaker when I asked was almost 20 years old. Since then he's gotten one of the brand new ones and has no restrictions with it. And yes it has a defibrillator in it too.

And a hob is NOTHING like a full stove. No comparison.

Got my new range and the plumber came out and ran the gas line and put in the new outlet. They kept the old outlet hooked up as well, just in case I (or someone else) decides to go back to electric some day.

Café™ 30" Smart Slide-In, Front-Control, Gas Range with Convection Oven

Cafe CGS700P4MW2

Haven't had much opportunity to use it for anything other than simple stove top cooking, but so far it seems to work beautifully. Will have to bake something this coming weekend.

Test a batch of cookies in the convection mode and a batch in bake mode, experiment with the air fryer and test out the griddle. (my sister just sent me a recipe for fluffy pancakes.)

The matte white looks perfect with my sample of Cambria Bentley quartz.

Now I am getting anxious to get the kitchen reno moving, but I have to get some other projects off my plate first.

Fluffy Pancakes

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1¾ cups buttermilk

2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, separated

1. Preheat nonstick pan or griddle to medium-low

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium sized bowl

3. In a separate bowl mix egg yolks, buttermilk, butter and vanilla

4. Whip the egg whites until medium peaks form

5. Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir just enough to combine. Do NOT overmix. It is ok if some small lumps remain

6. Gently fold the egg whites into the mix

7. Immediately begin cooking pancakes on the nonstick pan or griddle.