Today, Saturday, we went back to a Kitchen-Aid studio in Buckhead called Insperience to look at a range that we like. We had been there previously for a guided tour of their products, including Kitchen-Aid and Whirlpool.
We are interested in a 30” slide-in / freestanding duel-fuel range. The Kitchen-Aid Architect line has two reasonable ranges that are relatively inexpensive. When I say inexpensive, it is relative to other “professional” ranges like Viking or Dacor.
Kitchen-Aid has some models with steam assist, which is something to add steam during the cooking cycle to prevent the need for basting or water baths when baking or roasting. It seems like nice idea, but we are still not sure if it warrants a $400 premium, when other high-end ranges do not have this feature.
These models have 4 15,000 BTU burners, which is hard to find. All ranges seem to have a simmer burner and one or two high-powered burners. We would prefer powerful burners. The model with no steam assist is around $3,100 and the model with steam assist is $3,500.
KDRP407HSS – No Steam Assist
KDRP707RSS – Steam Assist
The “experts” did not rate well in product knowledge. We have studied the stats on these ranges from both the internet and the actual Kitchen-Aid documentation that is given to dealers. We asked innocent questions like does the simmer plate come with the range? They looked at each other and then said no. We said that it did and they shrugged and looked it up and said it does come with it. I asked another question about the timer on the oven. My question was does the oven shut off after the time expires. Again, a hesitant answer of I think it does. Simple question, because if the cooking time is not known you might not want the oven to shut down if it needs 5 more minutes.
The moral of the story is, never buy anything on the first trip to the store. Ask questions and then go back home and look up reviews and detailed product documentation on the web to get the real answers.
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