Recent GE Cafe Range experience or do we go elsewhere?

17 years ago

My wife believes she would like a GE Cafe Dual Fuel Slide In Range. Any comments, suggestions?

First and foremost is a stainless steel top for ease of cleaning. The GE Profile would have been the one except for the strange looking trying to be swoopy, but actually poorly fitting strange grills.

The Bosch would have been the one except for the ceramic glass top. Reading the instructions in the Bosch manual to not use "Glass cleaners which contain ammonia or chlorine bleach. These ingredients may permanently etch or stain the cooktop"; "Exception: Remove dry sugar, sugar syrup, tomato products and milk immediately with the supplied razor blade scraper (See "Cleaning Techniques for Stubborn Soil (Glass Ceramic Cooktop Models)" was enough to kill that one. So fragile a surface!

The Electrolux is not ideal because of the horizontally placed knobs which potentially rob cooking space and will be a disaster to clean with frequent wok cooking.

In the end, the GE Cafe has the stainless steel surface for easy clean, the vertical knobs for more cooking area, easier cleaning (less spatter mess), and third element convection. The fifth burner is not important. The second oven is not that important, though the warming drawer feature is nice to have. The 5.0 cu ft oven is larger than 4.1 or 4.2 cu ft.

We are somewhat concerned about GE quality. I can find a lot of bad comments on both the gas and dual fuel ranges, but you wonder if there are more on the GE, because GE has a larger market share, or if these are just plain bad products. f only we had thousands more, but we don't with the surgery to the kitchen we are planning, without a total remake.

Thanks in advance

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Comments (7)

eandhl
17 years ago
Just FYI, unless things have changed the Cafe is a free standing not a slide in range.
speedlever
17 years ago
Which, best I can tell, just means that it doesn't have the projections on both the top sides that cover the range to cabinet side gap. Otherwise, it sure looks like a slide-in.
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chas2rl
Original Author
17 years ago
Yes, I certainly missed the free standing range part. Maybe that is why it is a little larger oven capacity than the slide ins? Anyway, the point is my wife does not like those rear control panels. Hopefully this will be planned for and handled when the countertops are installed.

Any words of wisdom? Our one recent datapoint has been with GE washers. After several warranty fixes (thank goodness for the extended warranty), GE gave us a new profile washer because of the issues involved. I don't expect that a range can have many problems. Am I wrong?
weissman
17 years ago
Two big differences between a freestanding and slide-in range are the depth of the range and whether the sides are finished. A slide-in range is less deep than a free-standing range and requires a strip of countertop behind the range. A slide-in range also typically has unfinished sides so it has to sit between cabinets whereas a freestanding range has finished sides so it can be placed anywhere.

Many free-standing ranges have their controls on a backsplash but the pro-style free-standing ranges have controls on the front like a slide-in.
dudleycat
17 years ago
I just ordered the Dual Fuel slide in. It does still exist. I also do not like the controls on the back panel of the free standing. The slide in does have an optional accessorary of a solid stainless 5" backsplash. This gives it more of the 'professional'look.
darboydoughboy
17 years ago
Be aware there is a cooling fan (not the convection fan) that is supposed to turn on at 450 degrees. It sounds like a microwave fan on low speed. Can be annoying. My left front burner will not light most times. Construction quality is poor. And yes, you will work to keep that stainless steel clean. Repair man has been here a couple times already. One call was the cooling fan. It did not work and the oven shut itself down in the self-clean mode. Got too hot.
stapleface
16 years ago
Bumping this back up, just curious if anyone else has any experience with these? I've read a few instances online where people who have the OTR microwave have issues with the handle of the microwave getting too hot, and damage to the control panel of the microwave. Now, this could be that the microwave is mounted too low, who knows. Just looking for more pros and cons on this range, if anyone has them.