11 Facts You Need To Know About Electric Ovens

You'll often hear enthusiastic home cooks insist that gas ovens are the best kind. The reason given is one that actually applies to the stovetop rather than the oven itself, though. As appliance maker Maytag explains, a stovetop+oven combo is more accurately known as a range or stove. Let's set aside such semantic quibbles for now as most home kitchens come equipped with a range (or stove) instead of a separate stove and oven. Therefore, a gas oven will typically have a gas stove attached, and, yes, you can fiddle the knobs on the latter to more precisely control the temperature.

Recently, however, there's been some news coming out that makes gas ranges a lot less desirable. For one thing, it seems that they cause far more air pollution than their electric counterparts, reports PBS. Even if you're not much of an eco-warrior, this should still concern you because the government is considering implementing regulations regarding these appliances. No, this doesn't mean they're going to go door to door confiscating non-compliant appliances, but there's a possibility that if you're in the market for a new stove a few years from now, you may need to get used to the idea of an electric one. If you already have one, well, you now have the right to feel smug after all those years of hearing your foodie friends boast about cooking with gas.

Are you excited at the thought of a free or deeply-discounted electric range? So are we! Before getting into the nitty-gritty of choosing what type and making plans for any necessary installation, though, let's take a nostalgic look back at the early years of our soon-to-be-favorite appliance. While the very first cooking was likely done over an open fire, ThoughtCo. informs us that even by ancient times, people were starting to come up with rudimentary clay ovens. The first gas oven came on the scene in 1826 (earlier ovens used wood, coal, and even kerosene), but was followed some six decades or so later by an electric version.

One early electric range made its debut at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the same one that also helped introduce the nation to chili, brownies, and canned sardines (not all together, though, as that would be gross). Apparently, the electric technology still needed some tweaking, though, as these amazing new stoves really didn't start to compete with the old-style gas ones for about 40 years. By the early 1930s, they were starting to catch on — at least in households that could afford such a thing during the Great Depression. Too bad our great-grandparents didn't have any New Deal programs in place to subsidize their stove purchasing, but it makes us all the more grateful for that IRA rebate.

Let's take a little break from perusing Wayfair's offerings and see what's for sale at Home Depot, shall we? At present, it looks like it's offering 179 different electric ovens of all different types. Thirty-four of these ovens, however, have a pretty cool add-on: They also serve as air fryers. How do manufacturers manage to get air fryers into ovens? It's quite simple, really, as long as the oven is a convection one. Both types of appliance work by circulating hot air with a fan, so in a sense, all food that is convection baked is actually "air fried."

Air-fry ovens, as opposed to straight-up convection ones, may also include some type of rack or basket, although there's a possibility this will need to be purchased separately. Spencer's TV & Appliance also informs us that on the air fry setting the fan may circulate the air more quickly than it would in standard convection mode. One advantage to using the air fry program when appropriate is that it may not be necessary to preheat the oven. It also means you can clear one more small appliance off the countertop, which is always a plus. What's more, you can finally cook that "fried" Thanksgiving turkey you've always wanted without running the risk of burning down your house.

If you've lived in older homes or rented not-too-fancy apartments, there's a chance that the electric ranges you're familiar with are of the old-fashioned coil-top design. In recent years, however, it seems as if smooth-top ranges with sleek ceramic glass surfaces have completely taken over the market. This isn't entirely true, however. Even our old friend Wayfair offers 30 different coil top models, most (although not all) on the more budget-friendly end of the spectrum.

Assuming you want to max out that $840 IRA benefit, why would you wish to purchase a coil top electric range? Are there any advantages, apart from generally being cheaper than smooth-top ones? Bellingham Electric says yes, starting with the fact that glass stovetops can break. They're not likely to do so if handled with care, but if you're accident-prone and do something like dropping a frozen chicken or cast-iron pan on the cooktop, it's not inconceivable that the glass could shatter and make for an expensive (and non-government-subsidized) repair. Glass cooktops can also become cloudy, pitted, or scratched if you don't clean them well and often, although they're usually easier to clean. One more plus in the coil top column is that coils heat up more quickly than glass surfaces, although a minus is that they also take longer to cool down. Still, there's a solution for this: burner covers. You can buy a two-pack at Dollar Tree for a buck and a quarter.

There's one more upcharge mentioned by Home Advisor that the IRA most likely will not cover; that being a vent hood. This may cost up to $600 for the purchase and installation. Is a hood something you need, and, if not, why would you want to fork over the big bucks for such an option? Cafe Toscana dives into the topic of whether electric ranges in the home should be vented. Spoiler alert: It says yes, but you can make up your own mind when you read the reasons given.

For starters, it's good to know that a range hood with a fan and filter should do the trick with an electric oven, so there's no need to drill through the wall and vent to the outside if you'd rather not go to that extent. The main reason for venting your electric stove is that if it lets off any smoke, perhaps because there's some burnt-on food, the smoke may escape from the oven and will dirty up your walls, as well as do bad things to the indoor air quality. If the smoke stays inside the oven, it won't do much to improve your food. What can you do, though, if you can't afford or don't have room for a range hood? In such a case, you can simply clean the oven instead.

At long last, we'll get to what may be the heart of the matter for any gas stove owners not completely won over by the thought of that $840 subsidy: What about the so-called fact that gas simply cooks better than electric ovens? Well, apart from that whole air pollution thing, the myth of gas stove superiority may be just that — a pretty piece of fiction designed to justify the higher prices. As Wirecutter relates, gas ranges are far less efficient, transferring just 32% of the heat generated to the food being cooked as opposed to 75% from standard electric ovens and 82% from induction cooktops.

Electric ovens also have it all over their gas counterparts, as per Do It Yourself, in that the heat they produce tends to be more evenly distributed. What's more, it's a drier heat, so your chicken skin will come out nice and crispy and your pastries less soggy. Should you happen to want moist heat, though, you can put a cup (a heatproof one, of course) filled with water into your electric oven as you're baking.