Kitchen Range Cooking Capacity and Size

Most ranges offer four to six burners with some offering other options such as grills and griddles (other less common accessories include steamers, fryers, rotisseries and woks). Burners can be electric coil, electric smoothtop, gas, or induction and most are made of porcelain-coated steel or glass ceramic.

Advanced technologies such as induction cooking, which generates magnetic fields to heat cookware, are also coming available, albeit at a higher price.

The most common electric range size is 30" wide with four to six burners and one oven. The most common gas range sizes are 30" and 36" wide with four to six burners and one oven. Gas ranges also come 40" wide, up to 60" wide, and can have up to ten burners with two ovens. For small or secondary kitchens, compact ranges are available in 24" wide with four burners and a small oven.

Pay attention to the heat output your new range exerts: Btus for gas ranges and Watts for electric ranges.

For gas ranges, the most common configuration includes two medium-sized medium-output burners (about 9,000 Btu/hr.), a small low-output burner (about 5,000 Btu/hr.), and a large high-output burner (about 12,500 Btu/hr.). The higher the Btu, the more heat exerted quickly, the quicker your water boils and your steaks sear.

For electric ranges, the most common configuration includes two larger, high-output elements (2,000+ Watts) and two smaller, low-output elements (1,200+ Watts). For smoothtop cooktops, different models have different combinations of elements.