Our house included major appliances when we bought it in September of 2002. Since then, I've replaced the washer, dryer, and dishwasher. Last night, I went to bake some garlic bread and my oven stopped working. Figures, because I just paid off my Home Depot CC at the end of August. The only thing left is the fridge.

So I'm in the market for a 30" gas range, with oven, white. I'm not afraid to spend big money on something if it's worth it. I want it to be easy to clean, and not break within at least 10 years, hopefully longer. Recommendations?

PS - I don't want to repair it because the thing was a P O S anyway.

Take out?


Seriously, we've been in the same appliance "boat" recently. After doing tons of research, reading all sorts of reviews, talking to all different kinds of appliance dealers, and having owned the following: Kitchen Aide, Maytag, Whirlpool, Kenmore Elite, Bosch, Samsung, Miele, Sub Zero, Thermador, Fridgidaire, GE Profile, and probably a few others I can't think of, I have come to the conclusion that no matter what, its gonna break or let you down in one way or another, regardless of how much or little you spend. The only exception to my recently drawn conclusion is with dishwashers, but others may disagree. My new approach is to buy whatever looks cool. Image is everything.

Just thought of one other exception: Commercial gas ranges made by Vulcan last forever. The profesional fraternity I advise just sold a 30+ year-old 6 burner gas range with two ovens for $375(!) to someone opening a restaurant. The only reason we sold it was because the fire marshall wasn't too thrilled with it being in a residential structure.

i want to upgrade the appliances in the kitchen but the wife says when the ones that came with the house die, we'll do it. the stove from 1955 and fridge from 1965 are still going stong. both are GE's. they don't build 'em like they used to.

Is an electric range out of the question? I've owned two, and like 'em.

It sounds like you want to replace the oven, but if you like the look and its just broke, ovens and stoves are generally pretty basic in what can go wrong. It may be an appliance that is worth fixing. This assumes it doesn't have a lot of fancy touch pad electronics.

The existing unit is a bargain-basement model from 1992 or 1993 (house construction was completed in Jan 1993). The burners are junk, with 2 settings: Hot and Off. The painted-on numbers of thermostat for the oven wore off a long time ago (and have been subsequently redrawn with Sharpie by both us and the previous owners). It really isn't worth repairing, IMO. Even if it looked good, I wouldn't want to keep it.

An electric range wouldn't necessarily be out of the question for me, but I am not wired for 220 in my kitchen, and I already have the gas hookup. The preference at this point is for gas, mainly because I am lazy.

Bruce, you are a lucky man. They really don't make 'em like they used to. My SIL and her husband have a GE range from the 50s in their house, too. Still runs strong.

New appliances will be more efficient

My idea on purchasing appliances is this. I buy from Sears during thier big sales, and buy either the 3 or 5 year extended warranties, which is usually covered by the sale reduction. I get whatever brand has the features I like. They are all almost made by the same people.

Check craigs list. People are always selling their 1 or 2 year old appliances for new stainless or ones that match better. I bought our basement fridge for 100 dollars looks brand new (Black) but did not match their new kitchen!! Bottom freezer with top fridge almost like our upstairs kitchen fridge. Buy of the year for me!
I would check craigslist first for your new range.

I hadn't thought of Craigslist. I'll give that a look. Thanks!

Last year we bought a Fridgeair gas stove & for the $$ it pretty nice. We didn't want to spend a fortune in our current home and for aprox $600 it is really nice.

So Craigslist was a swing and a miss.

CaptKevin, thanks for the recommendation. I'll take a look at those.

Whatever we end up with, it's going to happen this weekend, so stay tuned....

Just a Thought, We have Sears warehouse by us that sells to the public. Cash and carry type of set up.(must have them throught the states) I always check them first because you never know what you'll find. Someone will order new appliances and when they get to the delivery location they unbox them and if they do not fit or are refused for any reason they go back to the warehouse for resale. No packaging or cardboard but brand new. They also take scratch and dent models back to the warehouse. If it has a scratch in the back of the side panel and its going into a enclosure, who cares.

So me and CJSA just got home from the Despot. We bought a new range and a new fridge, too... Because the old fridge is still good, we're going to move it into the garage for extra storage (which will be really nice to have considering we go through 1 gallon of milk and 1 loaf of bread, daily). Both should be delivered this Wednesday.

Thanks to all for the input.