# sealed burners and to dual or not to dual



## muscat (Nov 28, 2006)

So what is the deal here? Sealed burners on a gas range are presumably beneficial to keeping things clean....it makes sense to me that something "sealed" is impervious to food/liquid getting inside. But somewhere I saw a recommendation against them. Can anyone clear this up for me?

Also, I plan on a gas range/oven, and am trying to decide if the extra cost of the dual fuel for the oven in worth it. My parents recently purchased a Bosch 700 series dual fuel range, and swear by it. But is gas, with the help of convetion, really going to provide less even heating than electric? 

Somehow I though that DOING the kitchen was going to be the hard part. It'll be easy once its planned! (Or I sure hope so....)


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

If a pot boils over and liquid crud gets into the burner orifices, you'll have a fine time with a bobby-pin cleaning the crud out. With restaurant ranges, we just pull the whole burner out, rest it on top of another burner and let 'er rip, burning out the crud inside the dirty burner, but you can't do this with residential ranges. Open burners you can pull the tops off and get the crud with a rag pretty fast.

Dual fuel....Geez, sounds like a farmer's F-150 with hay bales and dual fuel tanks. Don't know why all the marketing hype, it just means that you now need 220V wiring as well as a gas hook-up. Gas or electric, which is better? Who knows? They both have pros and cons. But it is true that a convection oven does consume less energy, about 10% less, and uses about 10% less cooking time. For alot of commercial applications this means some serious savings, for residential, I dunno. Basically convection is just a fan that blows around the air. Now a true convection oven has a "halo" of heating elements ('lectric) arranged around the fan, so the fan sucks cooler air from the bottom of the oven and blows out super-heated air. A mickey-mouse convection oven has a fan at the back of the oven blowing around air. Usually these are gas models which are heated by one element at the bottom of the oven, far, far away from the fan. For most residential convection ovens, the electric models are far more effective, hence the hype, I guess. 

Do you need a convection oven? Is it worth the bucks? To tell you the truth, in my biz, I have a fancy commercial convection oven and a plain-jane commercial Garland range/ oven. The Garland gets roasting duty because it doesn't dry out the meat like a convection will, and does alot of pies and quiches where I want a strong bottom heat for a crispy bottom crust, I can and sometimes do bread in there too, not a bad bake, but just takes longer. The convection oven gets alot of duty baking bread, cookies, muffins, etc. Any baker will tell you, there is no perfect oven, each one has it's quirks and strong points.


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

I have had sealed burners for the last 10 or 12 years and I hate them. Precisely for the reason foodpump mentions at the start. I cannot take the stove apart to clean the pieces. Worse yet (to me), I have "electronic ignition" that soon stopped working on most of the burners. I would just as soon have no pilot, no ignition and use a lighter whenever I need to turn on a burner.

I'm hoping to redo my kitchen in the near future, and will NOT get sealed burners again. But I don't know yet about the dual fuel thing, so I'm interest to read what people say.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

Until a couple of years ago, I had an AGA. I now have stainless steel gas Neff hob, with four burners and a large burner in the middle for wok or griddle cooking and a double oven.


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## muscat (Nov 28, 2006)

Good info on convection. Here's a simpler question: are good quality gas ovens these days even enough and consistent enough in their cooking that an average highly-functioning but far-from-professional cook would not miss an electric oven? I love gas stovetops, but have never used a gas oven.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Like I said, there is no perfect oven. Heat always rises, so you have to acknowledge this law and use it to your advantage. If you want a fast bake, place the item on the upper middle shelf, if you want a slow bake, put it on the lower shelf, if you want a crispy bottom, place it on the lowest shelf. Many restaurant cooks make do with plain-jane gas ovens like I've described in the post above, and this is very similar to the residential gas oven which is just a box with a 25,000 btu burner on the bottom. 

Electric regular residential ovens are no different, just a box with an element on the bottom, the top element never kicks in until you set the oven for "broil".


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## nofifi (Jan 14, 2007)

Again, group...thanks again for more information on my near future purchase, especially to you Foodpump for taking so much time in explaining the differences to us, your knowledge has been extremely helpful.


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## muscat (Nov 28, 2006)

Yes, thanks!


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