Is your kitchen range ready for the holidays?

With the holidays coming, every cook needs a reliable stove. But Consumer Reports
finds big differences in reliability based on its survey covering more than 67,000 gas
and electric ranges bought in the last five years. Popular brands such as KitchenAid and
Jenn-Air have proved among the most repair-prone.

Consumer Reports does the survey every year, and though it doesn’t have repair
histories of individual models, it has found that you are much less likely to need repairs
if you buy from a brand with a good record of reliability.

Among the most reliable electric ranges: Hotpoint, General Electric, and Whirlpool.
Among the most reliable gas ranges: Hotpoint, GE, and Kenmore.

What about pro-style ranges that can cost thousands? Consumer Reports surveyed
more than 500 of its readers who own one. The repair rate is significantly higher for
those expensive ranges. Of those bought in the last five years, more than a third
needed to be repaired. And 9 percent of them needed to be repaired three times or
more. Repairs for pro-style ranges averaged $100 or more than repairs for standard
stoves. It was also harder to find a qualified repairperson for the pricier ranges.