Best Ranges of 2021
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The cooking-appliance experts at Consumer Reports test everything from inexpensive coil-tops to decked-out pro-style ranges, and you’ll need that breadth of insight when you walk into an appliance showroom.
“If you shop at the biggest retailers, like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Best Buy, you’ll never see fewer than 25 models on the showroom floor,” says Antonella Pomilla, a CR senior market analyst who oversees ranges. “And it’s not uncommon to see 50 or more.”
Here, we highlight the best ranges, or stoves, we’ve tested in our labs. If you’re unsure of where to start, our range buying guide will tell you more about types and features. CR members can also access our range ratings, which currently feature more than 150 models.
To put a range through its paces, our experts use a combination of calibrated time and temperature measurements to size up how evenly an oven distributes heat and how quickly a cooktop heats water.
We also cook food to see what results you’ll get at home: tomato sauce and chocolate to test simmer functions, and burger patties in the broiler to see whether they emerge uniformly browned. Over the course of a year, our test engineers bake more than 2,400 cookies and 400 cakes.
We test models from mainstream brands such as Amana, GE, Kenmore, LG, Maytag, Samsung, and Whirlpool, and from pro-style manufacturers including GE Monogram, KitchenAid, Thermador, Viking, and Wolf. Their prices range from $400 to almost $8,000.
“We often find that price is no indicator of performance,” says Tara Casaregola, who heads CR’s testing of ranges, cooktops, and wall ovens. “We have some in the mix for $1,000 that perform better than models costing $5,000.”
The models featured here are the best ranges based on CR’s latest testing.
Best Gas Ranges
The best gas ranges blend quick heating, even baking, and reliability. Gas models tend not to broil as well as electrics, but they often make up for it with instant response after making adjustments to a burner. Here are three of the best gas ranges from our tests: a double-oven range followed by two stellar single-oven options.
Best Electric Ranges
The best electric ranges tend to heat faster than gas models, and as a group they bake more evenly and broil better. Of course, nothing matches the sensory experience of cooking on gas; electrics have no visible flame to help you approximate heat. Here are three of the best electric ranges to consider: a double-oven model followed by two single-oven models.
