KitchenAid Gas Ranges - Brief History and useful information on Gas Ranges

In cooking, a gas range is a cooker which uses natural gas as a fuel source. It is one of the oldest appliances invented.

[b]Gas Cooktop[/b]

The first gas ranges or stoves were advanced already in the 1820s, but these remained isolated experiments. At the Appliance World Fair in Toronto in 1851, a gas range was shown, but only in the 1880s did this technology start to come to be a market success, especially in Toronto. The first gas ranges were rather basic compared to the appliances of today, but soon the oven was integrated into the base and the size reduced to fit in good with the rest of the kitchen furniture. A high-end gas stove called the Aga cooker was invented in 1922 and it is determined to be the most effective compose that major appliance manufacturers such as KitchenAid followed and improved on.

Gas ranges today use two basic types of ignition sources, standing pilot and electric. A stove with a standing pilot has a small, continuously burning gas flame under the cooktop. When the stove is turned on, this flame lights the gas flowing out of the burners. The advantage of the standing pilot law is that it is straightforward and fully independent of any exterior power source. A minor drawback to this type of appliance is that the flames continuously consume fuel even when the stove is not in use. Early gas ranges did not have a pilot. One had to light these manually with a match. If one accidentally left the gas appliance on, with the oven door closed, gas would fill the oven and finally the room. A small spark could ignite the gas, triggering a violent explosion. To preclude these types of accidents, appliance manufacturers such as KitchenAid advanced and installed a protection valve in the oven. The protection valve uses a pilot flame to ignite the main burner when the oven is turned on. The pilot flame heats a thermocouple that sends a signal to the valve to stay open, resulting in safer appliances.

Electric ignition ranges use electric sparks to ignite the exterior burners. This is the "clicking sound" you hear just before the appliance burner admittedly lights. If the power fails, exterior burners must be manually match-lit. After wide investigate that was done in Toronto on KitchenAid appliances, using different types of ranges, it was found out that electric ranges tend to be more energy efficient, although many Toronto residents prefer the gas range due to faster use.

KitchenAid Gas Ranges - Brief History and useful information on Gas Ranges