gas cooker installation

Gas Cookers Vs. Electric Cookers

Appliances
Nov-2019 / < 1 min read

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GAS COOKERS VS ELECTRIC COOKERS


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  • You may have decided recently to upgrade your cooker, but you’re not quite sure which direction to take. Perhaps your old model was a gas cooker, and you’re thinking about switching to electric, or vice versa. Of course, both types of cookers come with their advantages and disadvantages, which is why it’s helpful to do your research and work out which one is going to suit your lifestyle best.

    In this article, we look at gas cookers vs. electric cookers what the benefits and drawbacks are for both. We want you to be properly informed so you can find the perfect cooker that’s going to fit into your budget and your kitchen.

    Which is Cheaper?

    One of the first questions on a lot of people’s minds, when they are thinking about upgrading their cooker in the kitchen, is: which is going to cost me less to run? Let’s think about this for a second.

    First, an electric cooker. If you use an electric cooker, you’re going to use less energy when it comes to how many units you use. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to end up being cheaper, though, because each unit is actually more expensive than the price of a unit of gas, so ultimately, you’re going to end up spending more.

    Let’s break this down in a way that everyone can understand. Say, for example, that you spend an average of five hours per week cooking and using your cooker. If your stove is gas, this is going to cost you just 17 pounds every year. However, if your cooker is electric, the cost runs up a bit and ends up being as much as 40 pounds. This is quite a difference in cost and something to consider.

    So, what about the upfront cost of each model, then? All in all, while there is a slight variation depending on the model that you’re looking at, it’s going to cost you less to purchase a gas cooker vs. an electric cooker upfront as well. 

    Gas Cookers: Advantages and Disadvantages

    Of course, you’ve got to consider more than just the price tag when doing your research on which cooker to buy. As we mentioned earlier, both gas and electric cookers come with their upsides and their downsides. Let’s take a look at what these are.

    ADVANTAGES TO GAS COOKERS

    • Heat is Easier to Control: generally speaking, it’s going to be more efficient to heat your pots and pans when you cook with a gas cooker. You’re also going to be able to have more control over the heat as well, and whether it’s turned all the way up or a bit lower. The heat itself also tends to be a bit more evenly spread, so that the cooking process overall is going to be a bit more efficient.
    • Costs Less to Run: as we mentioned, gas in general costs less than electricity, so you’re going to end up saving money just by having gas alone. 

    DISADVANTAGES TO GAS COOKERS

    • Issues with Heating in Oven: while spreading the heat evenly on the stovetop is a breeze with gas, it struggles to do the same in the oven itself. This is because gas ovens don’t have fans that can distribute the heat evenly, so be prepared for meals that may cook quicker at one end. Generally speaking, a gas oven is going to be warmer at the top than at the bottom, which some people aren’t bothered by.
    • Stovetop Can Be Slow: while gas is more efficient on the top, when it comes to a big pot of food, it could end up being slower than its electric counterpart.
    • More Difficult to Keep Clean: because gas stovetops have raised burners, you may have more trouble cleaning them than the typical ceramic stovetops that come with electric cookers.
    • Installing Can Be Tricky: because a gas cooker needs to be connected to the gas supply, whether it’s located inside or outside the house, this usually requires a professional to come in. With an electric cooker, all you need to do is make sure it’s plugged into the wall. 

    Electric Cookers: Advantages and Disadvantages

    ADVANTAGES TO ELECTRIC COOKERS

    • Oven Temperature: you’re more likely to get an even distribution of heat with an electric oven because the vast majority of electric ovens come with a fan that blows the heat throughout the oven evenly. Of course, this means that your food is going to get cooked more evenly, which is excellent if you have a larger family and cook lots of food in one go.
    • More Functions: a lot of the time, electric cookers come with ovens that have many different functions. This also means that you’re going to be able to use different heating options together, making electric stoves more diverse than gas cookers. For example, with an electric cooker, you can usually put the grill on at the same time as the fan.
    • Effortless Clean: because of the flatness of the cooker surface and the fact that it’s usually made of ceramic, you’re going to have a much easier time cleaning an electric cooker than a gas one.
    • Induction Cooking: this means that typically it will take less time to cook things on the stovetop because the burners take less time to get hot. Additionally, a lot of the time, electric stovetops are better at allowing your food to simmer.
    • More Advanced Grilling: generally speaking, electric cookers are more proficient at grilling food than gas cookers. While not every model is going to do such a great job, in general, they have proven to be better at this task.

    DISADVANTAGES TO ELECTRIC COOKERS

    • Costs More to Run: electric cookers are going to cost you more to run on a daily basis, and as you saw before on an annual basis as well. This means that your monthly energy bill could end up being more than if you had a gas cooker.
    • Stovetop Can Stay Warm: the stovetop of an electric cooker usually stays warm for a while after you’ve turned it off. This means that if you don’t move your pot off the burner, it could end up cooking more or even getting burnt on the bottom. 

    Make Sure the New One Fits

    This may seem pretty obvious, but it’s going to be vital that you measure the dimensions of the space where your new washing machine is going to go before you decide on which one you’re going to purchase.

    Even if you measure the height and width of your old washing machine and feel pretty confident that you know the space, when it comes to the depth washing machine models can be pretty different from one another. This is why it’s important to allow for more room than you need – it’s much better to have too much room for your new washing machine than not enough.

    How to Find the Right Cooker

    Once you know which cooker you prefer, it’s going to be important to base your decision on the features that come with it. If you’re happy to pay a little bit more in energy bills each year, then you may prefer the benefits of a gas cooker. However, if you want to stick to a budget, an electric cooker could be the right choice for you.

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