The range of ranges.(gas and electric stoves)(Buyers Guide)

Start with the kitchen's ongoing elevation to showplace status. Throw in America's fascination with cooking-show celebrities like Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay, and you have the recipe for climbing sales of pricey appliances. Indeed, the popularity of $1,000-plus ranges has roughly doubled in the past five years. But those sizzling sales encompass two parallel product trends among the latest gas and electric ranges.

On the one hand, professional-style ranges like the ones shown in decorating magazines and on TV are hotter than ever. These start at about $1,800 and feature lots of stainless steel, heavy grates, and beefy cooktop controls. They also have at least two powerful burners that deliver the high British thermal units (Btu) per hour of energy needed to excel at stir-frying vegetables and quickly reheating large skillets when adding ingredients. The largest stretch 36 inches wide and beyond vs. the usual 30 inches, have six or eight 15,000-Btu burners, and cost more than some used cars. But in our tests, some professional-style ranges of all sizes have been surprisingly mediocre at cooking simple fare like hamburgers. Some are also hard to install and lack basic cleaning conveniences.

On the other hand, more and more of the conventional stoves most people buy have features aimed at cooking everyday foods faster--and making cleanup easier. Ranges like the electric Maytag Accellis 2X MER6750AA cut roasting and baking times using microwaves and other technology. One twin-oven model, the Maytag Gemini MER6770AA, can bake two dishes at two different temperatures.

Best of all, you don't have to spend thousands for convenience and performance. Some of the highest-rated gas and electric ranges in this test cost about $750. For this report, we focused on 30-inch-wide gas and electric ranges, the size found in most kitchens. Three of the 30-inch gas units--the Viking, Dynamic Cooking System, and Dacor--are pro-style stoves. Most of the electric ranges are smoothtop models, which have their burners beneath a glass surface that's sleek-looking and relatively easy to wipe clean. We also tested lower-priced electrics with coils, along with a dual-fuel, pro-style KitchenAid that combines a gas cooktop with an electric oven.

Thinking about investing in a larger, 36-inch-wide pro-style range? You'll find separate Ratings of four of them on page 40.

GAS VS. ELECTRIC

Nearly all of these ranges should be fine for most needs. But several performance and convenience features stand out.