Kitchen range-switching from gas to electric 240v ?

HI:

While cooking dinner tonight our 14 year old gas range made a sudden, LOUD,

**Crack** Bang ** sound like a light bulb exploding. Looking it over it seems that something electrical is fried- the clock is dead, and the gas igniters won't work.

I'm thinking of replacing the gas range with an electric model. Our home (1973) has always had a gas range. I'm guessing/assuming that the electric supply to the stove is just 120v, and that a new electric model requires

240v? My question is if I want to go electric would I need to call in an electrician to convert the outlet? What's involved?

Thanks, Phil

Reply to
Phil
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Unless the house was built with 240V wiring to the range, you will need a new wire installed.

Reply to
Bob F

You cannot convert the existing receptacle. A new line must be run to carry the load, probably #6 or #8 wire and a proper sized breaker. If you have to ask, you don't have the skills, so yes, an electrician is needed.

Don't be so quick to convert. Serious cooks usually prefer gas to electric and would consider this a downgrade. When we moved to th is house it had electric and we hated it. YMMV though.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I don't like electric, because it doesn't seem hot enough to broil well, and with a flame, it's easy to tell how hot it is. Plus the burner cools off quickly when the gas is turned off, compared to an electric burner.

But I can't change because there is no gas in the n'hood.

Reply to
mm

I'll second that. This place came with a near-new electric in good condition, otherwise I would serious consider installing a gas stove. There is a gas feed available very close by in the basement ceiling, so it would be a trivial install job for a licensed pipefitter. If I actually used the stove more than once every few months (I live alone, so seldom cook 'real' meals), I'd be tempted do it anyway.

Reply to
aemeijers

*You would need a new 40 or 50 amp circuit run from your electrical panel according to the stove specifications. Depending on the location of your panel, this may entail cutting holes in ceilings and walls. An electrical permit may be required. You will probably pay more for cooking with electric and be less satisfied with the stove.
Reply to
John Grabowski

Ng is Half the price of electric for most of the US now, no resteruant uses electric because of cost to run and controll of heat gas gives, you will need new wire run, but maybe its something simple to fix like the wire shorted open it and look see.

Reply to
ransley

We just made decision to repair our 15 year old electric range rather than buy new. As with your gas stove, it was the electrical control panel that malfunctioned. New stoves are expensive. Wife is happy with repair.

My wife likes electric but I prefer gas but we had no choice years ago as gas company was not taking new customers. If you convert, as others say, you will need to rewire and probably upgrade your electrical panel too. Since you most likely use gas for heat and hot water you might as well continue to use it for the stove.

Reply to
Frank

"mm" wrote

Sure you can. Propane. I've been using it for 20+ years now.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Why would you want to convert from gas to electric? As far as I can tell, there is NO advantage in so doing and you have to give up several plusses.

  • Electric is more expensive heat
  • You do not have the range of temperatures (gas can get MUCH hotter)
  • With electric, you do not have the gradations of temperature you do with gas (although, Low, Medium, High may be enough for you)
  • Gas heats up quicker and cools down faster than electric
  • You can't burn the pin-feathers off a freshly-plucked chicken with electric
Reply to
HeyBub

"Frank" wrote

Many factors come with that decision. If you are a serious cook, stoves are expensive and worth the cost for better features and better cooking oven.

The controls panel can be expensive by itself, plus a service call of $100 or more. A low end range can be had as low as $400 or so for the base models. If all you do if fry an egg for breakfast and make mac'n'cheese for dinner, it is a great value. If you want superior results from the oven and high powered burners, expect to pay $2000+.

I was under the impression that an oven was merely a hot box to cook in. I was pleasantly surprised when we started roasting in out Bertazzoni range and everything came out so much better than our old range.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

On top of that, why would he consider replacing the range instead of repairing it?

Reply to
Doug Miller

If cost is a issue try craiglist and just pick up a used gas range.

If you fear gas from the crack BANG description..............

You havent heard anything like the BANG caused by a electric stove elements wire frying off. They can sound like a explosion.With lots of sparks, your own mini fireworks display right in your own kitchen:(

converting to electric range will cost you a fortune, they draw high current and you might need a new main panel and guaranteed new 240 volt wiring.

Reply to
hallerb

Hate to say that our repair was close to cost of a new low end range but new would have been about 3X. Wife also got a new cal rod to replace sagging old one.

A few months ago we went through same choice with broken dishwasher but in this case, decided to replace it as there were a lot of other parts that were aging unlike the range where all important parts were replaced.

Reply to
Frank

Probably something shorted -- may well have been a failed light bulb -- and tripped the circuit breaker. Have you reset the breaker? Repair may be as simple as replacing the oven lamp and resetting the breaker. Even if it's more complicated than that, it's cheaper to repair than to replace.

Why would you even consider that? Gas is far superior to electric for cooking:

- it heats up faster

- it cools off faster

- you have much finer control over the temperature

- it's generally much cheaper to operate

"Cools off faster" may not seem at first like an important feature, but consider what happens when a pot starts to boil over. With a gas range, you turn the flame down, and the boilover subsides instantly. Problem over. With an electric range, even if you turn the burner completely *off* it takes several minutes to cool below the boiling point, during which time the pot boils over anyway. The *only* way to stop a boilover on an electric range is to grab the pot and move it to a different burner -- not something you really want to do when boiling water is spilling over the top of it. Or consider what happens when a sauce you're making gets a bit too hot. With a gas range, just turn the heat down, no problem. With an electric range, again, you need to move the pan to a different burner. If you're in the middle of preparing a big meal and have all four burners in use, tough luck: you just burned your sauce.

Electric ranges suck.

For baking, it doesn't make much difference. Electric ovens and gas ovens cook about the same.

If you've been cooking with a gas range for thirty-seven years, you're going to absolutely *hate* using an electric one.

Correct on both counts.

You would need to call an electrician to run a completely new circuit. There is no "convert" here. The existing circuit is either 15A or 20A, and consists of two wires plus ground. An electric range will require a minimum of

30A, probably 40A, and maybe 50A, consisting of *three* wires plus ground -- which means the existing wiring *cannot* be used. Neither can the existing breaker.

Furthermore, a new 240V circuit will require two spaces in your electrical panel, whereas the existing 120V circuit requires only one. You may or may not have enough space available in the panel to do this.

Bottom line: you can buy a brand-new gas stove for less money than you'd spend hiring an electrician [*] to install a new 40A 240V circuit to enable you to use an electric stove -- which you'd still have to buy afterwards. You have three options: repair the existing range, replace it with a new gas range, or replace it with a new electric range. The last option is the most expensive, and offers by far the worst cooking performance. I see no point in it at all.

[*] No offense intended, but the fact that you had to ask the questions you asked shows that you don't have the knowledge required to safely install this circuit yourself, thus the necessity of hiring it done.
Reply to
Doug Miller

"Doug Miller" wrote

Probably the same reason we did not repair ours. The cost of repair get high depending on what is needed. Cost of repair can equal the cost of a new low end range. New stoves have better features and can cook better in many cases. The convection oven on the new range is far superior to the old oven. Roasts come out much better, chickens are juicier, etc. It really does make a difference.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Don't know if this was mentioned already, but if you have a power failure, you can still use a gas stove. Not the oven, but the top burners.

Reply to
Mikepier

Mikepier wrote in news:cb50298f-ce8a-495d-af40- snipped-for-privacy@j27g2000vbp.googlegroups.com:

We found out, when the power was off for too long here in Jersey a few weeks back. Gas stove worked fine...

Reply to
Han

We bought a new house 18 months ago and will likely replace the basic (read: contractors) stove by the end of the year (just upgraded the refrigerator, and the dishwasher last year). We put in gas logs this spring but the LP tank is at the opposite end of the house, so it'll cost about $1K to bring the pipe around the house to the kitchen. It still looks like the way to go.

Reply to
krw

Ideally you want a dual fuel range, or separate gas cooktop and electric oven. Electric ovens are superior to gas ovens and have better controls. Not sure on the broil comment, but the broil elements in the electric ovens of my dual fuel range get plenty hot. Possibly mm used a crappy electric oven or one that had an inadequate power supply. The 5 burners on my dual fuel range are LP and work great.

Reply to
Pete C.

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