Has anyone regretted buying a Range Cooker?

Deladuro

We're in a bit of a quandary and wanted to know what others' experiences were.

The builders are in moving walls to create a slightly bigger kitchen for us. It's still going to be on the bijou side with a door at either end, so we need to be thinking galley style. The total length will be about 3.3m (about 2.6 wide).
We've explored various options regarding what cooker/hob + built under/range would best fit the needs of us and the 2 kids.
I had originally thought about a 5 burner gas hob & built under double oven - but when we checked out these ovens, they're just too small.
We don't have anywhere to put a built in oven that's not near a door (don't really want to plonk a tall unit in the middle of the kitchen).

The way I see it at the moment, we have 2 options. A 60cm free-standing dual fuel cooker - or a 90 cm range-type thingy.

Pros for the 60cm cooker are - more work surface, more base unit space, built-in 60 extractor meaning more wall unit space and cost of around £850 for cooker & extractor.
The only con I can see at the moment is size of hob - 2 ovens would be plenty for all but the rarest of occasions (but this may change as the toddlers grow?)

Pros for the Range would be plenty of hob space and plenty of oven space for those rare occasions. And seeing them in situ in magazines, they don't look quite as voluminous as I'd feared.
Cons would be the amount of storage/worktop space we're losing.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts and what influenced your decisions - and did you make the right choice in retrospect?

Gloomendoom

The only reservation I have is about the colour. Black shows every speck of dust when the sun shines on it.

Other than that no, no regrets.

Meepster

Thinking out of the box - instead of having a built under double oven, why don't you have 2 x built under single ovens? This way you can still have your 5 burner hob and retain the optimal amount of worktop space...

Deladuro

Thanks, Gloomendoom - the one we're considering is a cream rangemaster so hopefully no problem with the dusty side of things.

Meepster - believe me, we had considered that - but that would take up more base unit space (60cm x 2) than the range.

Meepster

I know it would take up more base unit space, but you also get extra cooking space, whilst retaining the worktop space.

I certainly wouldn't go down the 60cm free standing cooker option, as your oven and hob space would be compromised.

If you are looking at a 90cm range, then it's worth paying a little bit more and going for something from Rangemaster. Avoid the likes of Stoves, Cannon, Belling, Baumatic etc etc.

lin473

The 90cm type might be different - it may be useful having a small oven ,but otherwise as an owner as a rangemaster 120cm one I definately don't think it's worth it.
The hob is always dirty - even if you only use one ring the whole hob needs cleaning and despite regularly cooking for 10 on Sundays,I rarely need the second oven on.
Even when I'm doing big batches of baking ,I'm so geared up to rotating the food and economy considerations,I never heat up both ovens!
I have a big kitchen,and my elan looks great in it,but if you have a smallish kitchen I would definately go for a good size freestanding cooker with a separate grill / double oven .

f11

lin - can I ask if / why the hob on a range is worse than a normal cooker? Also weighing up the pros and cons of ranges - thinking more of a 90 or 100, but also aware that I may not use that very narrow 2nd oven and when they're just a single oven they feel very wasteful.

lin473

I suppose it's worse because a double size hob is quite an extensive area - any spitting / spillage from pans on a small cooker hob you can hardly see without coming up close and looking down on the hob but mine you seem to see it all as soon as you come through the kitchen door - especially as it catches the sunlight from 3 windows!
My cooker has 6 rings and a wok burner / griddle thingy.

I'm not especially house-proud ,but it bugs me!