You could investigate and tryout an induction range. Frigidaire at a lower price point or Bosch for more are good options. Response is faster than gas. Cleanup is with a mist and wipe. No room heat up. Any magnetic cookware works.

Most appliances are not built to last anymore.
That said, it really depends on what you want. The porcelain and glass tops are not as durable as in the past and scratch easily, but I am a fan, regardless, because of the sliding things around. If you like gas, stick with brands like GE, Whirlpool, and Maytag that are easy to find parts for, because they will need fixed. My mother has a dual fuel (I believe a whirlpool) with the grates you mentioned. She likes it and doesn’t find it challenging to maintain or clean. The grates don’t show dirt, etc too badly, since they are not a smooth or polished surface, and they wipe clean with a scrubby when needed. They lift fairly easily to wipe up spills underneath. I have cleaned it, and it only takes a minute or two. Hot grates are not typically a problem that I have noticed or that she has mentioned. Obviously, the area directly above the flame gets hot, but the rest of the surface doesn’t seem to be a burn hazard. This would be true with anything other than induction, though. You dont have to take the whole thing apart. She has had it 10 years now with no issues. Or you can go with something like an Aga, which are amazing, but expensive and not practical for everyone. I am in Texas, and they put out continuous low levels of heat, so I wouldn’t want one here, no matter how amazing I think they are. My A/C works hard enough!

" Does anyone else find this appalling? "

No........it's been that way for at least 20 years, so it's established as the new normal. Consider 12-15 years as a good lifespan, and don't waste energy bemoaning that today isn't like the past ;) A Toyota today isn't the same as a Toyota of 40 years ago either.

I too suggest you consider an induction range, which will fulfill many of your stated preferences (ease of cleaning, usable cooktop space) and still give you the control of cooking with gas burners. And there's less heat and fire. (The biggest difference will be an electric oven vs a gas oven, but I understand that's not too much of a difference). There are many posts on Houzz of people saying they've switched from gas to induction and love it. I don't recall reading any who've said they regret switching.

i love my cast-iron "Full Motion" grates. They clean very easily, and still look like new. However, I'm very used to cleaning cast-iron as that's what most of my cookware is. I also don't have to worry that I'm going to scratch a grate when I slide or shake my heavy cast-iron pans.

I always had problems keeping porcelain-coated grates looking like new.

I'm right there with you on durability of modern ovens; I've gone through several control boards in several 'modern' ranges in our last three houses. The Thermador double ovens in my current kitchen are original to the 1957 house, and should last another 60 years easily. I didn't even consider replacing them during our renovations.

While they lack a self-cleaning feature, they also aren't going to burn out a control board while self-cleaning. And frankly, using some Easy Off once a month takes about 10 minutes to clean both ovens.

If you're renovating and still love an old range, here's a list of places to buy a restored vintage range.

Why not keep the stove you like so much? I did this when I redid my kitchen. I still have my 1948 O'Keefe & Merritt range (bought it used in 1982). I love it and I could care less that it's not as sleek as the rest of my kitchen. It's a KITCHEN in which I cook, not my LR!

Anglophilia, your stove is beautiful!! The porcelain looks like new. And I bet it's very easy to use and keep clean. Knowing what I know now, I would keep my current stove, but the roof panel of the oven is severely rusted from above. It doesn't look bad if you look inside, but the material has thinned way out to the point you can break pieces off of it like breaking a saltine cracker. I'm still considering either riveting or screwing a stainless steel patch panel onto it if there's enough good metal, or having an antique car restoration shop form a replacement one if it's not spot welded in place. The other thing is color - Harvest Gold, an earth-tone yellow. There are a couple places that do porcelain work, maybe one of them could strip the old porcelain and replace it with a nice sunshiny yellow. I will also look at some restored appliance shops in the area to see what they have.

I was considering BlueStar / Big Chill because they have minimalist electronics seem well made, and are available in any color, but now I'm reading about problems with melting rivets and peeling powder coat, plus they have those giant cast grates, and I'm just not that enthusiastic about them.

I am also in the market for a new range; dual fuel so we can cook on the gas top when we lose power from extreme weather. This post might tell you something you already know - your old stove can be repainted any color by an auto body shop. I painted my high end Bosch dishwasher to match my kitchen cabinets. Much less costly than having a panel made to match. It was a simple flat surface and won't heat up like a range and II'm not suggesting you paint your stove, only that a willing and able body shop might do it.

Have you considered Lacanche?

Instead of a range, why not try a wall oven plus induction cooktop. A range is a combination appliance, and combinations never work as well as separate specialized--besides, when one breaks you will still be able to cook. The wall oven is at a convenient height and the french doors take up less space when open. The induction cooktop is powerful and efficient.

Lacanche is not super expensive, just regularly expensive. LaCornue is super expensive (not to be confused with their regularly expensive LaCornue Fee offerings.)

The Lacanche ranges are very sturdy, well built and have no bells and whistles. I like mine very much (though in truth I prefer my induction cooktop, but my current kitchen was designed around the LC and I could not change that without redoing the kitchen dramatically.)

When we moved 3+ years ago, we reno'd the kitchen in our "new" house. I've always had a gas range, but chose a Kenmore induction this time. Last night was one example of why I like it so much (besides the fact that's it's great for cooking). I was making a chicken dish that needed a lot of attention, while the rice was minding itself on another burner. I had the heat too high on the rice and didn't notice until the water began leaking down the sides of the pot. Easy: turn the pot down (instant response), use the sponge to wipe up the cooktop surface and the pot, all while the now lowered rice was just doing its thing at the new temperature. I even picked up the pot and wiped under it. I didn't have to move the pot off to a different burner or poke paper towels under the grate to absorb excess. i didn't have to dismantle the cooktop later to clean up rice water. 30 seconds and all was fixed and clean and back to the chicken. I recommend it!

The smallest LC is 27 1/2 inches wide and starts at $6,500.

The 36 inch range starts at $10, 600.

Bonjour louisxiiii !

So much fabulous info here, you are in great hands :) A Range choice is truly so personal, and will live in the heart of your home for years to come, so no question is too small.

Let us know if we can help and we wish you very happy cooking :)

Lacanche US

You show someone in Germany a typical US range, and they think you're nuts: Way too much to clean, not to mention the crap that disappears between the cabinets and range, or range and back wall (ask me, I just replaced an igniter, which involved pulling the range out.

It's induction or electric/ceramic, and if no wall oven, the oven is built in under the cooktop.

Bonjour, Mr. Culinaire! I did take a look at the LaCanche website. Do you make any 30" ranges?

Bonjour louisxiiii ! Unfortunately no, our smallest Ranges (Cormatin and Rully) are 27 9/16" wide and the next size up (Bussy / Beane Ranges) jump to a 36". The full collection can be found at frenchranges.com if at all helpful, and please let us know if we can help answer any questions large or small.

Merci !

Blair | Lacanche US

blair@frenchranges.com

I agree that these days, appliances will only last around 10 years. Consequently, when mine goes I will buy a middle-of-the road not-too-expensive GE. I read too many stories about expensive brands like Wolf and Thermador also not having longevity, so why pay out so many thousands. Blue Star would be a good bet due to minimal electronics, which equates to less to break. But I don’t have the powerful exhaust that would be needed for the high btus of the Bluestar, so will not go down that road either.

I dont want to pay an electrician to add the wiring for an induction range. Plus, I have cooked on induction and prefer gas, to the horror of this forum, but there are a few of us, when we can work up the nerve to say so on this forum.

I much prefer cast iron grates to porcelain-coated. It’s what I have now. The cast iron grates are indestructible. Porcelain-coated in my experience get scratched, spotty, and dull pretty quickly. I never put my cast iron grates in the sink; I take a damp green scrubbie, and scrub off burnt bits or grease right on the stove, takes just a couple minutes. One more reason to prefer cast iron grates.

I dunno, my WOLF is still going strong after 20 years. No service, no problems. But then I have the all gas, no dual fuel, and no electronics. High heat and electronics do not play well together. Yes my burners are the heavy cast iron. I do not put them in the sink. If anything gets on them I wait till their cool and use 409 and a sponge. Mine is the 48”. We call it the Buick in the kitchen.

" I dont want to pay an electrician to add the wiring for an induction range. "

If you've got a 40A outlet (like for any electric range), you've got all the wiring you need. I know you don't like induction, but I'm just adding a point that special wiring isn't needed unless you're in a 60+ year old home that's still using the original wiring.

Jalarse - I think the point being made is that today’s ranges don’t last like they used to. If you bought a Wolf range today, it is unlikely it would still be going strong 20 years from now, unlike the Wolf range that you bought 20 years ago.

M Miller, you are probably right. I would dread buying appliances today. 20 years ago I knew that this would be my last house and I went high end. Even my built in microwave is 20 years old, and everything in this kitchen gets used a lot. Today everything is planned obsolescence.

Some fo the points raised are exactly my concerns. I was leaning toward the BlueStar line because fo its minimalist design & smaller grates, and availability of color, but yes, having to buy and install a mega-bucks vent to prevent having a flame-thrower sticking out the side of my house is a concern. At one point, I was leaning towards the sealed burner designs when I saw they were lower power, but I was looking at old literature. It looks like they upped the heat output on their sealed burners a couple years ago, which I find disappointing. I would have to have new electrical run for an induction range because I'm all gas now, and only have 120V 15A available. I'm not even sure I have enough electrical capacity in the kitchen to run a high-output vent.