Best electric ranges from Consumer Reports' tests

Electric or gas? If you're lucky you have a choice. Cooking with gas has its fans, but electric smoothtop ranges remain the big sellers and induction ranges are slowly catching on. Many electric ranges earned excellent overall scores in Consumer Reports' tests, while none of the gas ranges did. Mostly that's because the high-powered gas burners aren't as fast as the fastest electric elements and broiling isn't as good. Here’s a look at some of the best electric ranges Consumer Reports has tested. All are top picks.

Smoothtop single oven

LG LRE3083SW, $800
Here's the deal: Superb simmering and fast rangetop heat helped put it near the top. Baking and self-cleaning were impressive, broiling was excellent.
Need to know: There are four rangetop elements, including two high-power that are handy for quickly bringing large pots of water to a boil and good for searing and stir-frying. The rangetop warming element keeps side dishes warm while you do the rest. The large oven has a convection option, which can trim the cooking time of some foods, and the steam-clean feature is meant for light cleaning.

Slide-in smoothtop

Samsung NE58F9500SS, $1,500
Here's the deal: It's expensive, but a lot less than most slide-ins, offering a built-in look since the rangetop is flush with the counters. There are four rangetop elements, including two high power that delivered fast heat. Simmering was superb, baking was impressive, and broiling, excellent. Even self-cleaning was impressive.
Need to know: There's no back panel and controls are on the front of the range. The large oven has convection and a steam-clean function for light cleaning.

Smoothtop double oven

LG LDE3037ST, $1,300
Here's the deal: Pairs a smaller top oven with a larger oven below. It was the only smoothtop range to ace all our tests and is top rated. Superb at simmering, it delivered fast rangetop heat. Baking, broiling, and self-cleaning were excellent and combined capacity of the ovens is excellent.
Consider this: Costs less than most double-oven ranges we've tested and you might be able to get by using the smaller oven for daily dinner and the larger one for hosting holidays and parties.
Need to know: Four rangetop elements, including two high power, and a warming element. The ovens have a steam-clean function for light cleaning and the lower oven has convection. But since there are two ovens there's no drawer to store pots—something had to go.

Induction

Kenmore 95073, $1,530
Here’s the deal: The Kenmore delivers fast rangetop heat and super simmering. The large oven offers impressive baking and broiling, and this is one of the few induction ranges that excelled at self-cleaning.
Consider this: It costs less than the other induction ranges we tested but all induction models require magnetic cookware.
Need to know: It has four cooktop elements, including two high power, convection option, and warming drawer. See the "Pros and cons of induction ranges and cooktops" to learn more about induction.

Coil top

Kenmore 94142, $430
Here’s the deal: It’s a basic range and a CR Best Buy. Will you see Kelly Ripa hawking it on TV? Nope. But it’s the best of the coil ranges and it costs less than $500. Fast heat, superb simmering, and a large oven that was impressive at baking are what you get. This range even aced our tough self-cleaning test.
Consider this: Broiling is so-so, and when we said basic, that’s what we mean. Forget convection.
Need to know: There are four range-top elements, including two high-power. It’s available in stainless.

More choices. There are dozens of electric, gas, and pro-style ranges in our range Ratings. Use them to find the one that fits your space and budget. Narrow your choices with the compare-model tool and click on the features & specs tab to compare models that way too. And be sure to look at the brand reliability data to see what over 100,000 people have to say about their experience with the range brands.

—Kimberly Janeway

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