Range of options
No matter how loudly chefs protest that they never buy equipment on price alone, all equipment suppliers will testify that any conversation about buying basic items of new equipment rapidly gets around to purchase price.
While specification and performance are crucial on complex pieces of equipment such as combi-ovens and microwaves, on something as non-technical as a cooking range there seems little other than price to separate the contenders.
Cost is important to any chef looking to buy a new range, according to Neil Roseweir, development chef for Falcon; however, the figure to study is not the purchase price, but the lifetime price. That, he argues, gives a far greater insight into the true value of a purchase.
"Energy costs, service costs, breakdown costs, loss of profit through downtime, and the point in the life of a piece of equipment where it is clearly worn out and needs replacing are what make up the lifetime cost of any piece of catering equipment," says Roseweir. "Chefs may think they are making a cost-saving decision when buying a range at a lower price point, but they can end up paying more in the end."
Although they don't contain many moving parts, both gas and electric ranges need servicing, with oven hinges, gas regulators and ignition devices typical of things that can go wrong. This is often where a cheap six-burner range can seem expensive with hindsight.
Even with obscure imported makes, ranges will have been built to conform to EU regulations, and the actual servicing of them will be straightforward for a qualified commercial service engineer. But the spare parts may have to be sent from overseas, and that becomes expensive both in cost and downtime.
There are strict regulations on safety for any catering equipment sold within the EU, but what is completely unregulated is how a manufacturer interprets the descriptions light-duty, medium-duty and heavy-duty. It's a constant irritation to both manufacturers and chefs that everyone interprets these differently.
From a manufacturer's viewpoint, interpretation of the descriptions when applied to a cooking range has a direct bearing on manufacturing cost and product price. Thinner stainless steel and cheaper castings, controls, hinges and fabrication bring the selling price down. It is a temptation to bring down the specification but still apply a description that is overambitious for the amount of punishment a range is going to take.
A common problem with underspecification, according to Terry Stack, marketing manager of Electrolux, is in turnkey design-and-build projects. "Price is extremely important in winning the contract for a new kitchen," says Stack. "The designers may not fully understand what work the kitchen is going to do. By the time the chefs go in and see the equipment, the builders have moved on elsewhere."
With no industry standards on the meaning of medium- or heavy-duty, Stack's advice is to take a close look at the construction, looking for thickness of metal and robustness of castings, hinges and controls. "But don't ignore price - it does give you a good clue," he says.
Feel the weight Lincat marketing and export director Nick McDonald says that it is best to forget all about arbitrary classifications. Says McDonald: "All that matters is whether the oven range is right for you. Feel the weight of the pan supports, check whether doors slam shut with a satisfying thud and that all seams are fully welded."
Pressed to give at least an outline performance specification of what the duty levels mean, McDonald offers the following guidelines: a light-duty oven is going to offer only four or six burners, and maximum burner output will be about 4kW; medium-duty ranges are going to offer up to eight burners with a heat output of about 5.5kW; and in the hugely competitive heavy-duty category, apart from the rugged construction, chefs should expect burner output in excess of 8kW.
Purchase price is a crude indicator, but light-duty ranges should be priced at £1,000 or less, medium-duty £2,000 or less and heavy-duty £4,000 upwards.
Chefs can be tempted just as much as manufacturers and kitchen designers to underspecify when it comes to ranges; but one kitchen where there was never any such intention was at New College, Oxford. Catering manager Brian Cole is serving three meals a day to staff and students, plus function work, and he looked at the lifetime costs rather than just the outright purchase cost .
"The previous range was literally cracking under the pressure of the busy kitchen," says Cole. "I could have chosen a simple replacement, but in 10 years' time I know I would be replacing it again."
His solution was to go for one of the most expensive and heaviest of heavy-duty ranges, the Molteni, much loved by celebrity chefs as well as those with a vicious workload. Adds Cole: "Twenty years from now that Molteni suite will still be going strong, and although it was expensive to buy, it will actually be the most cost-effective long-term solution."
The lifetime cost of ultra-heavy-duty cooking ranges is what has persuaded Dawson Foodservice to begin promoting Rosinox bespoke ranges. Rosinox, like Yorkshire-based Dawson, is part of the world's third-biggest catering equipment company, the Ali Group. Sales and marketing manager for Dawson, Robin McKnight, says that interest in Rosinox is coming from across the spectrum of catering operations. "Chefs just look at a Rosinox and think, ‘a lifetime'."
Energy efficiency grows ever more important to all kitchens, not least because of the Government's Climate Change Levy, which has added up to 15% to energy bills in an effort to encourage energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This has focused attention on the eternal debate over which is more efficient: a solid-top range or a burner range.
As with many aspects of buying and using cooking ranges, there is not a clear answer. While a solid-top might appear to be inefficient, since the whole top - or a substantial part of it - has to be heated throughout the cooking period, a solid-top of equivalent size to a six-burner range can heat far more than six pans, and moving the pans around the top gives as much heat control as individual burners.
Michael Lee, development manager for Viscount Catering, says that although descriptions of overall performance levels of a cooking range can be woolly, a direct question about burner efficiency should be asked when buying a range. "The question to ask when buying is, what is the burners' declared efficiency?" says Lee. "All reputable manufacturers have this as an expression of the conversion rate of energy to heat. That tells you a lot about a cooking range."
Lee says that the industry standard of a burner's declared efficiency is usually about 52-56% (which, put simply, is how much of the consumed energy converts into heat in the pan). Viscount, however, has developed a burner with 62% efficiency, a huge energy saving. The Viscount Euro Range is still under development and will not come to market for some months, but Viscount claims that, when it does hit the showrooms, it will be one of the most energy-efficient burners anywhere in the world.
Contacts
Electrolux, Molteni and Zanussi
0121-220 2841
Lincat 01522 875555
Falcon 01324 554221
Rosinox
01226 350450
Viscount Catering 0114-257 0100
Parry Catering Equipment 01332 875544
Hobart (Wolf)
07002 101101
