Gas or Electric Oven? Which is Best?

When choosing a new oven, it can often feel like a bit of a minefield. Where do you start? Do you even know the difference? The main decision you will need to make is around fuel type and whether you want a gas or electric oven. To make the decision easier, we have listed some handy details on and benefits of each, helping you make the decision.

Gas Ovens

Gas ovens are usually cheaper to run than electric ovens, this is due to the fact that gas (as an energy utility) is cheaper. According to Which?, a gas oven costs an average of £17 a year to use, whereas an electric oven costs £40. Below we have listed some of the other benefits of the hob, grill and oven elements of a gas stove or oven units:

What Are The Benefits of a Gas Hob?

A gas hob usually makes cooking time shorter this is because they will give you the benefit of a quicker heat to your pots and pans. The flames created by the gas provide heat almost instantly, whereas electric hobs will need time to warm up meaning boiling, frying and steaming will all be faster using a gas hob than an electric counterpart.

What Are The Benefits and Drawbacks of a Gas Grill?

Like the gas hob, a gas-powered grill provides instant heat too meaning anything you need to grill will be on your table a lot quicker. But, with the heat only coming from one area of a gas grill, it is not normally distributed very evenly which can sometimes mean that certain areas of food cook before others are cooked or burn whilst other areas are only just cooked.

What Are The Benefits of a Gas Oven?

As we mentioned above a gas oven is a lot cheaper to run than an electric oven, giving you the added money-saving benefit on your energy bills compared to the electric alternative.

Electric Ovens

While electric ovens are more expensive to run than gas ovens, they are generally easier to install. This is because many electric ovens can be plugged into a wall socket. However, gas ovens will need to be fitted by a gas safe engineer into the properties gas main supply.

Electric Ovens also come in many different varieties, compact single ovens, regular single oven, built-in double ovens, built-under ovens, freestanding cookers, freestanding range cookers.

Single electric ovens have one large cooking cavity usually coming in at 64 litres in capacity and housed in a 60cm x 60cm unit, however, you can also find compact variations of electric ovens which are more microwave sized at 45cm x 60cm and make a better option for those with small kitchens.

If you’re a larger household you can also opt for a double electric oven which combine a main oven of roughly 50-75 litres with another slightly smaller top oven holding 35-60 litres. This gives you a lot more cooking space for larger or more complex meals.

Both single and double electric ovens can also be built into your kitchen either at eye level which is typically termed built-in or below the countertops which is typically termed as built-under. Meaning you can find a perfect electric oven that fits right into your kitchens design, wherever you want it and whatever the size of your household.

The alternative to this is one of two freestanding electric oven options, these are a normal freestanding cooker and a traditional freestanding range cooker. Normal cookers with electric ovens built into them tend to come in 90cm x 60cm and either 50/55/60cm in width to fit into appropriate gaps in your kitchens design. Traditional range cookers tend to be a lot larger at 90cm x 60cm and either 90/100/100cm in width to accommodate up to four electric ovens and seven electric burners on their hobs.

Below are some of the other benefits of the hob, grill and oven elements of a electric oven or stove units:

What Are The Benefits of an Electric Hob?

Unlike gas hobs, an electric powered grill is often easier to clean, due to it being flat and not having removable parts. Saving you time-on the kitchen clean-up!

What Are The Benefits of an Electric Grill?

An electric grill can provide a more even heat distribution than a gas grill. This is due to the way that the grill is heated up, allowing the heat to spread across the grill better. This means that your food is more likely to be cooked evenly on top and throughout rather than having patchy burnt, cooked and undercooked areas.

What Are The Benefits of an Electric Oven?

Similarly to electric grills, electric ovens spread the heat more evenly, again allowing your food too cook more evenly too. You will also benefit from a constant temperature around the oven, be this the top shelf or bottom shelf so you won’t need to re-organise your meal to suit the hot and cold spots of your oven. One final point on electric ovens benefits is that the oven environment itself is typically drier and that help your food crisp up and turn a nice golden-brown.

So, what benefits you are looking for, can really influence what type of oven is best for you!

Common Questions About Electric Ovens

Can You Bake In An Electric Oven?

Yes, you can definitely bake in an electric oven, they are generally quite good baking. This is because the coils in the electric oven heat and cool slowly which results in calmer, more even heat with fewer spikes and drops in temperature.

The heat is also less intense on your baking creations when the coils are fully on, so it’s easier to avoid the undersides burning as sometimes happens with gas fuelled ovens. Finally, the oven environment is much drier in an electric oven, which helps foods crisp up and turn golden-brown.

What Is An Electric Oven Used For?

An electric oven is used much the same to another differently fuelled oven in that it can heat and roast all kinds of different food. This makes it great for meat, roast dinners, casseroles, hot pots and baked items such as cake, bread and desserts.

What Are The Cons of An Electric Oven?

A few of the cons of an electric oven have been explained above, however we have nicely summarised them into the following list:

More expensive to run because of electric being more expensive than gas in utility bills
If there is a power cut you’re unable to cook until power returns
If the coils aren’t even like they should be then the oven temperature is uneven and therefore food is cooked unevenly too
Because the electric coils have to heat up this does mean there more prep involved to bring them up to heat.