"HeatMan" wrote:

I wouldn't touch any of the commercial ranges for reasons mentioned by other
people that post here.

Well, I wouldn't touch anything but a commercial range despite (or
because of) the reasons mentioned here and others. A few months ago I
replaced my 50+ year old commercial Garland (6 burner, 3 burner
salamander (broiler), 2' * 2' griddle, 2 large ovens) with two GE
Spectra gas home ranges. What a mistake! If I could relive the last
couple of months as far as the kitchen is concerned I would and I'd
keep the 50+ year old in preference to any domestic range.

Same gas line (3/4), same meter, same range hood (custom SS exhausted
outside). Oh yeah and maybe 1/4 clearance to cabinets on the side and
no heat problem (on the Garland) but then I don't worry about codes
too much.

What I didn't realize, not having cooked on a domestic range for over
20 years, is how anemic the burners are. Probably nanny trying to stop
us burning ourselves. How the vast mass of people cook with the
current domestic ranges is beyond me. Water takes double the time to
boil, searing anything--well, forget about it, and the broilers--first
time I used them I checked to see if they were really lit they took so
long. And the burners are the wrong shape; the flames should be
concentrated into the center. Most pans do a good job of spreading the
heat so why do the domestic ranges make it nearly impossible to heat a
small diameter pan (such as one used to melt butter)? Doing (say) four
large fish fillets in two 12 inch frypans is also very difficult
because of the back to front measure on the domestic models--all of
them. Be careful of Maytag especially; it has an overhanging lip at
the back which restricts the pans even more. Oh yeah and let's not
forget the exhaust for the ovens. At least in the Garland there were
chimneys venting all that grease up into the hood. On the Spectra the
ovens vent over the timer panel. What idiot...oh, never mind.

You'd think at least the current domestic model would be easy to
clean, wouldn't you? After all that's the main reason we changed. Not
on your Nelly! The first thing you notice in the fine print in the
user manual is that you can't put any of the parts (burner tops, pans,
grilles) in the dishwasher. Uh? Wha.... Oh well they must be easy to
clean by hand, eh? If you believe that there's a bridge for sale in my
neck of the woods. Basically you can consider the burners as
disposable--after a couple of years they'll be so crudded up that you
have to buy new ones.

Oh and to the guy who thinks you don't need all that heat. If you boil
water you transfer BTU's from the combustion source to the water It
doesn't matter if you transfer 60,000 BTU's in one minute or 1,000
BTU's in 60 minutes. Sorry that's wrong. It's more efficient (and
hence cheaper) to transfer them all at once because of the heat losses
from the top. Again a commercial range will do better. Then there's
the question of searing steak and other meats under the
broiler/salamander. Frankly you can't do it on the domestic version;
it's just not hot enough.

Only the ovens seem to be equivalent to the Garland and that's not
saying much. One hour at 325 is the same on either range.

My wife, also chastened by the entire horrible experience, says that
the ideal, taking some level of cost to account, would be two domestic
wall ovens separate and a commercial 6 burner range with nothing less
than 20,000 BTU burners--oh, yeah maybe one low heat simmer burner of
about 5000 BTU with a flame like a propane torch (i.e. centered)--and
an eye level salamander with at least 60,000 BTU, and maybe a big oven
for the monster turkey once a year. We saw a Vulcan on the Bowery like
this minus the salamander for $875 unfortunately a week after we
installed the Spectra's. Add a salamander for four or five hundred and
we're not that far away from the $1200 the two Spectra's cost us.

Grrrr!

--
Patrick Riley