Look inside any kitchen and you’ll find at least one or two cooking ranges. A cooking range is an entire family of kitchen stoves designed to cook and heat food before consumption, making it one of the most sought-after kitchen appliances everywhere in the world. Who’d want to eat raw turkey for Thanksgiving dinner?

Buying Guide

Here are some tips on the different types of cooking ranges available on the market:

• The truth is that buying a cooking range isn’t as clear cut and simple as it looks—decisions have to be made and the choice is yours. A few things that are worth considering before buying a cooking range are the fuel type, number of burners and cooking preferences.
• Deciding on fuel type determines whether you’ll go for an electric cooking range or a gas cooking range. The name says everything. If gas is available in your area, then consider buying a gas cooking range, either natural gas or propane. Otherwise, you can always go electric, especially if you live in the city.
• Four burners is the usual standard, two small and two large burners, but you can always buy bigger cooking ranges if you feel like you’re going to need the extra burners. Of course, more burners means a higher selling price.
• For cooking preferences, there are two choices: convection ranges and trivection ranges. A convection cooking range uses hot air circulation to cook, though cooking times will vary considerably. A trivection cooking range, meanwhile, uses a combination of microwaves, convection and conventional methods to cook food faster.

The Space Between

These tips should give you a rough idea of which type of cooking range suits your kitchen best. It’s not about which is more expensive or which one has better features; it’s about knowing what your kitchen needs and buying just the right model so that it fits perfectly in the space between the oven and the fridge.