How To Buy a Stove

Whether you call it a stove or a range, you’re going to want to keep these considerations in mind when shopping for a new … oh I give up.

black-electric-range

Though freestanding ranges are the most commonly used, slide-in ranges are growing in popularity. Featuring unfinished sides and controls on the front, this style lends a more built-in look, great for islands, and featuring decorative backsplashes.

Pro-Style Ranges

Professional ranges mimic the performance and appearance of a true commercial range. Pro-style ranges use the most durable components and achieve high temperatures for rapid boiling as well as extremely low temperatures for delicate and precise simmering.

Larger models (36”, 48” or 60” wide) can include built-in griddles and grills. Their ovens offer convection and high-temperature broiling. Convection ovens use airflow for even heat distribution and consistent baking, even with multiple racks. When cooking meats, convection fans sear the skin to retain moisture.

wolf-range

Gas vs. Electric Ranges

Professional and aspiring chefs usually prefer gas due to a common misconception of all-around superior performance; In most cases electric ranges boil liquid just as quickly and frequently. Electric burners reach extremely low temperatures for delicate and precise simmering. But the heat-retention qualities of electric coils and ceramic surfaces cannot range from high to low heat instantaneously as gas cooktops can. But glass surfaces of electric ranges are the easiest to clean and maintain.

When it comes to ovens, electric responds quicker to temperature changes, providing less heat variance overall for more consistent baking results. However, gas ovens provide more “moist heat,” which is better for meats and vegetables. For cooks who want the best of both worlds, the dual-fuel range has the flexibility and control of gas burners on the cooktop with the accuracy and precision of an electric oven.

Induction range burners use magnets to directly heat cookware and leaving the surface cool to the touch, combining an unmatched degree of safety with high power and the responsiveness of gas.

Hot Stove Features

  • Warming Drawer – functions as a keep-warm area.
  • Second Oven – additional cavity functions as a separate oven. Perfect for cooking short items such as pizzas, pies, casseroles, etc.

slide-in-double-oven-range

  • Split Oven Racks – can be partially removed as needed for cooking multiple dishes simultaneously.
    split-rack

    Split racks accommodate simultaneous baking of tall dishes.

    Featured image via Café

See Warners’ Stellian at MetroIBA Annual Meeting

official_dayton

Warners’ Stellian is proudly hosting Gov. Mark Dayton as keynote speaker of the Metro Independent Business Alliance’s Annual Meeting Wednesday night.

Did you know that three times as much of your money stays in the community when you buy locally?

And why wouldn’t you spend here; The Twin Cities is home to a unique crop of businesses that add so much to our community both economically and philanthropically.

Along with hundreds of other local, independent businesses, we partner with the Metro Independent Business Alliance, a nonprofit that working to support and preserve businesses like us in the Twin Cities region.

MetroIBA’s mission is to help the Twin Cities maintain its unique community character, provide continuing opportunities for entrepreneurs, build economic strength, and create an environment where locally owned, independent businesses grow and flourish.

Every year at our annual meeting, we celebrate our accomplishments and (not ones to rest on our laurels), share our goals for the next year.

MetroIBA Annual Meeting
Wednesday, March 14
6-9 p.m.

>>Register here

Warners’ Stellian Appliance Corp. Headquarters
550 Atwater Circle
St. Paul, MN 55103

Gov. Mark Dayton will give the keynote address to our alliance and guests as we enjoy refreshments from fellow members of our local, independent business alliance such as:

  • Aesop’s Table
  • Flat Earth Brewing Co.
  • Key’s Cafe
  • Peace Coffee
  • Mama’s Pizza
  • Sharrett’s Liquors

I’ll be there listening to the guv over a slice of some of my favorite St. Paul treats: a slice of Mama’s and a glass of Flat Earth Cygnus X Porter.

Warners’ Stellian Earns Sustainable St. Paul Award

Saving 20% sounds like a good deal to lots of us. Save half? Even better, right?

So you can bet that around here we get pretty excited about the fact that we save about 75% of the waste we generate from entering landfills.

And we’re not the only ones pumped up about our appliance packaging recycling program.

Recognize the guy on the left?

Sustainable-Award-Ceremony3

Just in time for Earth Day, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman honored Warners’ Stellian with a Sustainable St. Paul Award for our efforts to reduce waste and recycle.

So, when you do your part to reduce your environmental impact by using Energy Star appliances, we do ours, by savings hundreds of tons of packaging from clogging our local landfills. Thanks to all our customers for their support in helping us make this crucial commitment.

The Sale that Closed Our Doors

Many of our longtime employees still refer to our Customer Appreciation Sale as its predecessor, the Private Sale.

(Background: My grandpa, Jim Warner, began at Stellian Appliance on Snelling and Larpenteur avenues in 1954 , but surprisingly, not in sales – where those who know him would expect.

Jim Warner awards a customer an Amana Radarange in the early 80s.

“One day they said to me, Jim you’re a good bookkeeper, but you’re an HS salesman [HS stands for something meaning bad, we’ll just say that],” my grandpa said.

After being challenged, My grandpa said that challenge started him selling and went on to become a great salesman. Those that work at Warners’ Stellian on Snelling and Larpenteur still get his former customers in saying so. (I know I used to hear some pretty funny stories myself.)

The Private Sale literally closed down the store. Don’t get me wrong, the once-a-year, one-day-only sale attracted 600-700 people, but because the prices were so unusually low, customers were only admitted by a letter sent by Warners’ Stellian. Lockdown, letterholder-only.

My grandma and grandpa recall the days spent manually weeding out the duplicates (Steve Anderson/Steven Anderson, etc.) from the list and handstuffing several thousands letters and licking the envelopes and stamps. They assigned each salesman a box per week to try to get the work done in time.

Curious shoppers would try to sneak early peeks, so they had to cover the windows with cardboard. And NO ONE was admitted without a letter.

From about noon to 5 p.m. on a Saturday, hundreds of people would come through, eat some homemade cookies and punch, check the prize board for their number for a grand prize (a trip “up North” somewhere, Grandpa said: “Nothing major, by today’s standards.”) and – hopefully – buy an appliance.

We still delivered for free, even then, but from the backs of pickup trucks. And we kept a delivery guy on hand to run down to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, where we warehoused back then, to grab a Radarange. The early Amana microwave apparently was a popular gift for men to get their wives. My grandpa said we sold hundreds of them.

Those sales were considered very successful by the day’s standards, my grandpa said. But because they were one-day only, and we’re in Minnesota, the weather could virtually crush the sale. And some years it did.

“One year we had a private sale and it snowed like hell, so we had no one in the store,” my grandpa said. “Finally, a customer walked in. I looked at him and said, ‘I believe you’re next.’ “

And there are so many more where that came from…

Can you imagine this sort of thing these days?