Choosing the Right Cooker Fuel Type

Choosing the correct fuel type is often the first decision when deciding on a range cooker. Factors like cost, location (many rural areas have no mains gas supply) and cooking style all have a part to play in shaping your decision. The summaries below detail the main benefits of each fuel.

Dual fuel cookers
Dual fuel cookers offer the best of both worlds - highly efficient electric ovens topped by an ultra responsive gas hob area. The ovens used on dual fuel range cookers are usually fanned or multifunction, or can indeed be a combination of both on models with more than one oven. This is the most popular and widely available fuel type - the vast majority of range cooker manufacturers offer a wide selection of dual fuel cookers.

Electric cookers
As their name suggests, electric cookers are powered by electricity - ceramic or induction hobs paired with electric ovens. These are ideal for properties without a mains gas supply. The ovens are usually fanned or multifunction, multifunction giving the user a choice of preset cooking functions (fanned, conventional, top heat only etc). Ceramic hobs are a descendant of the nearly obselete sealed plate technology and have now been overtaken by the newer induction hob technology in terms of efficiency and cooking features.

Induction Explained
Induction works by using a powerful electromagnet under the hob surface to agitate the molecules of the pan to produce heat. The heat is controlled by the rate with which the magnet agitates, making any adjustments immediately effective. Induction hobs have the advantages of being a lot more energy efficient due to the heat being transferred directly to the pan, so no heat energy is lost to the surrounding environment. They are also safer because of the lack of residual heat on the hob once it is turned off.

Gas Cookers
Gas cookers are a combination of a gas hob area - usually four or five gas burners - and either one, two or three gas ovens depending on the width of the cooker. The cookers usually run on mains gas, but some gas cookers can be converted to run on lpg (bottled) gas which is particularly useful for rural areas. The immediate response of a gas hob paired with the gradient heat distribution of the gas oven (hotter at the top, cooler at the bottom) make gas a favourite of the professional chef as well as the home cook.