Oven capacity
It is the volume of the oven provided in the stove. It s the maximum volume of products that can be placed in it without compromising work efficiency. Accordingly, a
larger oven is useful for large volumes of cooking; on the other hand, such a capacity will significantly affect the price and dimensions of the stove.
If you buy a regular household stove with 4 burners and do not plan to cook a lot in the oven, you can not pay much attention to this parameter. The capacity of the oven is usually enough for most simple tasks like cooking a pie or baking chicken. But for more serious tasks, a larger oven may be required. Detailed recommendations on volumes can be found in special sources.
If there is an additional chamber (see below), this paragraph usually indicates only the volume of the main oven.
Hob material
— Enamel.
Enamel coating is inexpensive and relatively easy to clean. In addition, enamel can have different colours, which allows you to give the stoves an original appearance (although the most popular is still the classic white colour). On the other hand, cracks, chips and scratches may appear on such a surface. As a result, such a coating is typical for relatively inexpensive boards.
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Stainless steel. Steel hobs are highly durable and attractive. But, it will take a lot of effort to keep such a stove clean: even slight dirt is noticeable on a steel surface (especially polished). And it is more difficult to clean them than enamel. In addition, such surfaces are somewhat more expensive than enamelled ones, and there are, in fact, two design options for them - matte and polished.
- Glass-ceramic. A material is found predominantly in electric stoves; rarely used in gas models, mainly for aesthetic reasons. The main advantages of
glass ceramic are resistance to heat and high permeability to heat and electromagnetic radiation.
Schott Ceram and
EuroKera, manufacturers of this very glass-ceramic, which manufacturers of household appliances install in their models, were especially successful in this. It allows electric burners (regardless of type) to be placed directly under such a surface. The re
...sult is a flat top with no protrusions, making cleaning easier and providing a neat appearance. The main disadvantages of this material are high cost and sensitivity to impacts.
- Tempered glass. A material similar to the glass-ceramics described above: the glass surfaces have an attractive appearance, usually with a glossy finish. Another common feature is the ease of cleaning: most of the contaminants are easily removed. However, this material is not as strong as glass-ceramic: it is much more sensitive to impacts and tolerates heat much worse, which makes it poorly suited for installation above burners. As a result, tempered glass is used mainly in gas stoves, where the burners are located above the work surface and tempered glass heats up relatively weakly. Another category of stoves with such a surface is electric models with induction hobs, where the dishes and not the surface are mainly heated (see below for more details).
— Plastic. Working surface made of special heat-resistant plastic. A rather specific option is found mainly among portable single-burner electric stoves with induction heaters (see below). There are several reasons for this. One of them is that, despite the heat resistance, even fairly advanced plastic does not tolerate heating on gas or a classic electric burner. But with an induction burner, this material works without problems, especially since it is well permeable to electromagnetic radiation. Plastic is cheaper than tempered glass or glass-ceramic, and it also weighs less - the latter is important for a stove that is planned to be moved frequently from place to place. At the same time, all these advantages cannot be called critical. As a result, this option, even in its niche, has not received much popularity.Number of solid plates
The number of solid plates in the design of the stove.
Solid plate hobs are the simplest type of electric hobs (see Hob type). Such a burner has the appearance of a "pancake" raised above the hob. The main advantages of such burners are the simplicity of design and low cost. On the other hand, they heat up slowly and have high thermal inertia — they react with a great delay in heating power adjustment. Another disadvantage is that solid plates can deform over time. After 2-3 years such a burner may need to be replaced. As a result, solid plate burners are typical for low-cost electric stoves, as well as, combined models, where the electric heater is a spare. But the variety can include both 1-burner
stoves and 2-burner stoves.
Number of Hi-Light burners
The number of Hi-Light burners in the stove design.
Hi-Light is an improved kind of electric burner in comparison with the solid plate ones described above (see "Hob type"). In such burners, the tubular heating element is replaced by a thin metal strip, and the working surface is usually made of glass-ceramic (see "Hob material"). Due to this, the heating and cooling rate of such burners is much higher than that of solid plate ones (although it does not reach the instantaneous reaction of gas stoves).
Residual heat indicator
The residual heat indicator is is used in electric stoves. It allows you to determine the presence of hot burners when the power is off, thus reducing the risk of burning yourself on a burner that has not had time to cool down. In addition, the presence of such an indicator helps to save energy.
Connected load
The connected load of the stove is the maximum electrical power consumed during operation. This parameter is indicated only for models that are equipped with at least one electric heater — burner (burners), oven or grill. It is the burners that are the highest consumption in terms of energy consumption; Features such as auto-ignition or oven lighting require little energy, a ordinary socket is enough for them.
First of all, the requirements for the power grid depend on this indicator: it must be able to provide such power without overload. It is worth noting that for household sockets the power limit is about 3 – 3.5 kW; with more power, you need to connect the stove to a 230 V network according to special rules. An alternative is a three-phase 400 V mains: most modern stoves with electric heaters allow connection to both 230 V and 400 V.
Country of origin
The country in which, according to the manufacturer, the model is manufactured. Despite the fact that most of the capacities are concentrated in
China, European factories (
in Poland,
Slovenia,
Romania,
Turkey,
Czech Republic, etc.) for the production of household appliances have not gone away. And some models can be produced there. In general, such a division into a Chinese or European factory should not particularly affect the quality of products, but the stereotype of a reliable European assembly is present in us. However, it is possible that the model may have a country of manufacture, for example, Poland, and in the store under the same article, you will meet China.