Are you in a hurry in the kitchen? If you’re always scrambling to get dinner ready fast, you might want a combination thermal/convection oven, which cooks with a fan that circulates hot air so items cook more quickly and brown more easily. Convection ovens have improved dramatically in the last few years, says, Sharon Franke, director of food appliances for Good Housekeeping magazine and the Good Housekeeping Institute (the Institute evaluates new ranges on a regular basis). GE introduced its Trivection oven in 2003 which combines thermal heating with convection AND microwave cooking. The Trivection oven can cook a baked potato in 10-12 minutes and a 22-lb. turkey in two hours, says Leslie Redford, a spokesperson for GE. Prices for a slide-in GE Profile oven with Trivection are close to $3,000. "If you’re the kind of person who really needs their chicken cooked in half an hour instead of an hour then you have to decide if it’s worth the extra expense," says Christine Frietchen. Prices for convection ovens, which are offered by several manufacturers including Maytag, Kenmore and Jenn-Air, start at $1,000. Another consideration if time is a factor: high heat burners or elements (they’re called "burners" on gas stoves and "elements" on electric stoves). "The wattage on electric elements and the BTUs on gas burners are getting higher so most ranges have one or two burners dedicated to high heat," says Franke. Both will bring water to a boil faster or sear meat quickly.
Finally, if you’ve joined the slow cooking movement, there’s a stove for you, too. Kenmore makes a range that offers a slow cooker feature, so you can set your stew in there in the morning and let it cook all day until you get home. "People who love slow cooking don’t have to have a separate appliance to store somewhere or to sit on the counter," says Sharon Franke. The ranges start at $800 or so.
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