Every kitchen needs a stove, whether it’s gas or electric. If you’re remodeling your kitchen, choosing a stove that meets your needs and budget is an important step—and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. In fact, the stove is probably one of the most expensive—and most often-used—appliances in your kitchen, so it’s important to understand all of your options before you buy.

Gas versus Electric Stoves

There are a number of advantages and disadvantages for both kinds of kitchen stoves. Weigh these up when considering your kitchen remodel ideas.

Advantages of a kitchen gas stove:

• Easy temperature control
• Instant heat and instant heat adjustments
• No heat is wasted once you turn it off.

Advantages of an electric kitchen stove:

• Elements sized for pots and pans
• Easy to clean
• Offers additional cooking methods, including fans, convection ovens, and microwaves

The Induction Option

Another option when considering kitchen ranges is the induction heating method. Though more expensive than either gas or conventional electric stoves, induction ranges offer many of the benefits of both electric kitchen stoves and gas stoves.

Induction uses magnetism to create heat, and this means less heat goes where it is not needed. Here are some benefits to induction ovens:

• Chefs can adjust cooking heat instantly and with precision.
• Energy goes directly to the cooking utensil, which makes for a cooler kitchen and cooler (and safer) stovetop surface.

Where to Put Your Kitchen Stove

Of course, you want to put your stove someplace accessible. However, an oven should never be put in a high traffic area, where hot surfaces can accidently burn people passing through. A kitchen stove should be placed between counter space and cabinets in order to allow the cook easy access to work and storage areas.

You may also wish to consider an island stove for your kitchen remodel, which allows a cook to be more versatile. Counter space occurs next to the cooking space, making preparation simpler and allowing the cook to mingle with others gathered in the kitchen. This makes for a more interactive cooking environment.

Types of Ranges

There are a number of different types of kitchen ranges, with a wide variation in cost. Kitchen ranges are actually two appliances, incorporating burners on the top for cooking and an oven underneath for baking.

When it comes to electric kitchen stoves, you can get kitchen ranges with standard coils or those with smooth heating surfaces. For obvious reasons, it is much easier to clean spills from smooth heating surfaces than from coils.

With gas kitchen stoves, you can get a freestanding, drop in, or slide in range. The freestanding model offers finished sides and controls on the backsplash. Drop ins have unfinished sides and may need modifying to fit in between cabinets. Slide in gas ranges have a seamless finish and have their controls on the front section.