Gas or Electric Oven?

[ModernMaterials]

I have noticed that there are many more electric ovens available than gas. Electric ones in the main seem to be cheaper. Can anyone explain to me the benefits (if any) of electric over gas in an oven?

Particularly

1) operating cost

2) operating efficiency

3)self-cleaning options

4)lifespan/ overall satisfaction with product.

 

[JohnD]

a gas oven gives you a better skin on a rice pudding, and seems to smell less if you are cooking fatty meat e.g. lamb (I assume the flames burn the smell away)

A gas oven has a graduated heat (hotter at the top than the bottom). Once you get used to it you can cook e.g. roast potatoes (very hot) on the top shelf and apple pie (less hot) on the bottom at the same time. However, as it is not the same heat all through, you need to adjust your recipes to allow for the variation.

An electric fan oven gives more regular heat top and bottom and cooks a bit faster. You can also use it to cook crispy bacon if you put it on a grill at high heat using the oven element and fan.

Electric fan ovens seem to be better.

You can get Catalytic linings on either (which burn away splashes) but as far as I know only electric ovens are available with pyrolytic cleaning (gets very hot and burns away splashes to ash) It's fatty foods esp roast meat that make an oven dirty.

 

[ModernMaterials]

Thanks for the input John!

I have just had to (or rather have been told to) condemn a 1960's canon free-standing gas cooker with eye level grill. It was, up until recently, a fine piece of kit and i note that it had the graduated heat of which you spoke. I like that cus you can move your spuds above your meat etc and move your victoria sponge down after a while etc...and its all kinda touchy feely.

However, i wouldnt mind the even heat that an electric oven is sposed to give ( i was planning on getting a gas hob anyway so i dont need any advice on that) but my main worry was: if electric ovens are so much better, how come they are so much cheaper...? I've always been a firm believer in 'you get what you pay for' so i just wondered what the crack was.

I hated cleaning the old cooker but it always came up well after a good scrub partly because it was all solid , enamelled, cast iron where it mattered. i dont expect that for the price i want to pay today but i was hoping to get a self cleaner. I just wondered what other people's experiences were like.

 

[davy_owen_88]

We have always had a gas oven but after the last one went t1ts up we went for an electric fan oven instead. All I can say is, you won't be sorry you made the switch. Things cooker faster, you can turn the heat down a little bit which reduces fat spitting everywhere, the temperature setting seems to be more accurate than with the gas oven and you can get 6 slices of bread under the grill instead of the 3 with the old gas grill RESULT!

 

[sandwell]

That Canon cooker which you had was a fine piece of kit. I may have even sold it to you if you live in Leicestershire.
Canon Cookers are still available, with the self-clean linings. Look for the Indesit Graded Centre adverts in the Leicester Mercury, they supply them at very reasonable prices.Personally, I would not buy a cooker without them, they save so much work.
It is true that with a gas oven you can cook dishes requiring different temperatures, and they are particularly good for cake baking, because they give an nice brown finish on the top of a Victoria sandwich for instance.
But, very few people cook a complete meal in the oven nowadays, not many people cook puddings in the oven for instance, so there is not too much difference now.
The hob is a completely different story, the gas hob is much superior in my opinion.
The difference in operating cost is really not very important, because it is the heating appliances that account for the majority of the fuel account.
Gas cookers are still very long lasting, and often outlast all the other appliances in the kitchen.

 

[ModernMaterials]

Thanks for the replies i think i might get a fan oven now.

 

[Space cat]

Our first oven was gas. It took nearly 45 minutes to get hot enough for yorkshire puds. Result: we didn't bother. Our next one was electric without a fan. It wasn't much better. We have an electric fan oven now. Time to reach 180°C is less than 15 minutes. Result: regular yorkshire puds.

I agree with the comments about temperature gradients and I can see how experienced cooks could exploit this - but I'll leave that to Delia!

PS: Unless the cooking instructions say otherwise, I've found that if you reduce the temperature by 20° and leave the cooking time the same you will get the same results from a fan oven as you would from a conventional type.