Things to consider when buying a kitchen

If you’re considering purchasing a new stove for your kitchen, there are a number of things you’ll need to consider. A quality oven is a vital part of any home and you definitely need to put on your thinking cap before rushing out to make a purchase. After all, a new kitchen is not a cheap item, so you need to make sure you buy the right one.

Part of the problem is that there are so many different brands to choose from. The Ranker website, which allows customers to review and vote for a variety of different appliances, lists no fewer than 72 kitchen brands! These include all the familiar names like Miele, Beko, De’Longhi, Bosch, Ariston, Hotpoint, Zanussi, Breville, and more, and also some names you may never have heard of, like Advance Tabco and Traulsen. Then there are names that you know, but maybe you didn’t know that they make kitchens: Black & Decker, for example.

Electric, gas or dual fuel?

You may want an electric stove or a gas stove. You can also buy dual fuel cookers with a gas hob and an electric oven. You can buy cookers with self-cleaning ovens which is a big plus: with some of these you heat the oven up to 480°C which has the effect of turning all the grease into ash and then all you have to do is wipe it off with a damp cloth . What a time saver! You can also buy pots that have a higher than average wattage, so they can cook faster.

You can get built-in ovens, ovens that sit under the counter, and even smaller ovens that sit above the counter. Then there are the kitchens, which are obviously larger, since they usually incorporate at least two ovens and up to seven different cooking plates. These are ideal for the large family, or someone who entertains a lot, but of course needs a kitchen large enough to accommodate them. They can often be 100 cm wide.

Then there are the different types of plates. There are five types of cooktops: glass-ceramic, solid electric cooktop, induction, gas, and gas-on-glass cooktops.

Ceramic hobs are electric and heat up quickly. However, the heat distribution around the bottom of the pan is not as good as gas.

Solid plate electric hobs take a while to heat up and cool down, so you can’t change heat as quickly as you can with gas. However, they tend to be priced lower than other types of plates.

Induction hobs work by creating a magnetic field between the element on the hob and the pan. This causes the pan to heat up but not the surface of the plate. These are cheap to run because they only use the precise amount of electricity required and they heat up very quickly. However, you may need to change your pans if they are not suitable for an induction hob.

Gas hobs are the easiest to control because you can instantly raise or lower the flame. This is why they are so popular with professional cooks.

Gas cooktops have gas burners that are mounted on the ceramic cooktop. They are easy to clean and look quite stylish.

Then there is the question of cost. If you’re like most people, you’ll have a budget that can leave out some of the more expensive kitchens. Beko has a black ceramic oven hob for just £159, while Neff offers an induction hob with five cooking zones, individual timers, a power boost, a keep-warm zone and a child lock. However, at £829 it may be beyond your budget.

Hotpoint kitchens are available in a wide variety of styles and colours, and many are equipped with self-cleaning ovens, which is always a big plus. They also make some very large ranges with two ovens, warmer ovens, and multiple cooktops. These large stoves are gas-powered and therefore have the ability to alter heat at the touch of a knob.