Dual Fuel Range Cookers

The most common fuels for dual fuel range cookers are gas, electric and solid fuel. Dual fuel range cookers will have a combination of cooking methods of two out of these three. However, by far the most popular dual fuel range cookers use either gas and electric or sometimes gas and solid fuel.

There can be several reasons why you would want one of these beautiful dual fuel range cookers. Perhaps your gas or electricity supplies are unreliable or you may prefer to use gas burners on the hob, but an electric oven for baking.

Dual Fuel Range Cookers

These days dual fuel range cookers are by far the home cook's most popular choice, despite the fact that all electric cookers have improved a lot over the last decade. The overwhelming majority of dual fuel range cookers use a combination of a gas hob and an electric oven. This combination provides a very versatile range of cooking styles.

Home cooks and chefs alike prefer to use a gas hob, because the heat is easily and quickly controllable whereas a traditional electric hot plate remains hot for quite some time after you turn it down or off. This is inconvenient if something needs to boil and then simmer, but it is also dangerous for children and cats that do not realize that it is hot until too late.

Furthermore, gas burners have a cradle on or even in which to rest the pan. This makes cooking in a wok a cinch whereas you have to use flat-bottomed pans on an electric cooker.

The oven of typical dual fuel range cookers runs on electric. In many ways, heat is more easily controllable with an electric cooker especially if it is fan or multi fan assisted. In a traditional gas oven, you could bake small cakes on only one shelf out of three, but in a fan-assisted oven, you can bake on all three.

This obviously makes cooking and baking cheaper and faster. Furthermore, you can cook several degrees lower in a fan-assisted oven than in a conventional oven, thus saving more on electricity. It is wise to work out what level of complexity you require in your dual fuel range cooker before you buy, because some dual fuel range cookers may be more complex than you need. You may end up paying for functions and multiple fans that you will never use.

The electric ovens of some dual fuel range cookers have up to nine different cooking styles, all controlled by fans built in to them. This is fantastic for the enthusiastic cook, but an unwanted complexity for many busy people.

A further consideration you have to make before coming to your final decision on dual fuel range cookers, is the grill. Some dual fuel range cookers will have an over-head gas grill, but the vast majority will have an electric grill built into the oven, which means that it is slower to start up, but it may be fan-assisted,

Last, but not least, will the gas section of the dual fuel range cookers you like convert to bottled gas, if you need it?