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GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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Posted by chas255 (My Page) on Wed, Dec 30, 09 at 21:57
| I've spent 4 weeks with the GE 48" dual fuel Monogram range with grill/griddle and 4 burners. This has to be the best made and performing range on the market today. We've cooked everything from cookies (3 large sheets in the "caterer's oven" simultaneously) to custards on the stove, to a turkey in the oven. Everything performs absolutely perfectly. The grill chars meat quickly and evenly. Pancakes are perfect on the griddle. This monster has yet to disappoint me. I could have spend over $2,000 more for a simlar Wolf, but why??? Fit and finish are perfect. The LED lights above the dials are quite the nice touch. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| Still in love? Any other owners with comments on the performance of this range? Does it have optional thermal bake on both or just small oven? Thanks a bunch. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| We have one also, but have not had an opportunity to cook on it a lot as the house has not been finished for very long and it is a part-time home. If the OP does not reply to your post, please send me a PM and I will let you know what I think after I have had a chance to cook on it a bit more. I will say, fit and finish are excellent and I am impressed thus far. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| I would LOVE to hear more about this range. Just saw it in our first trip to the appliance store to get acquainted with what's available (for a new build, just starting). I really want double ovens with one being smaller than the big one (for daily use, 2 people) and they don't make wall ovens like that yet (probably come out next year--I'm wanting to get rid of having a toaster oven for my daily baking). Thanks! |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| I just decided to purchase the 36" range after cooking on a friend's over the weekend. She LOVES hers & I concur. I was in a constant debate over going with a better range and I was sold after cooking one meal. It appears to be able to compete with the "big boys" while coming in a lower price tag! |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| I was going to buy one of these until we lucked into a Wolf at $3,000 less than the Monogram. I too thought they were very impressive; good to hear that they work well, too. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| We have one of these. We got a year old model on clearance for $6K (new in box with full warranty). We've had it in use for about 6 months now and it is perfect. We finally got around to using the grill within the past couple of weeks with some USDA prime filet mignon we got at Costco and won't be grilling much steak on the outdoor grill from now on as a result. I do have to turn the grill on for about 20 minutes before I cook but once things get going, it is awesome. The griddle is nice and convenient, although we've been spoiled by a very nice non-stick stand-alone griddle that has a little more cooking area (nice for a larger family when lots of pancakes are called for). Our unit has convection in the main oven only. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| Queequeg--is the grill fairly easy to clean up? I'm assuming the end-result of the steak was as good as the outdoor grill because of your comment? Is the small oven self-clean, too? Is its size adequate (to replace the use of a toaster oven)? That's great to be able to find an older model--I wouldn't mind that myself! Thanks. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| The end result was the best product I have ever cooked and was comparable to some of the better restaurants I've eaten at. I think there are a couple of issues at work (aside from the quality of the meat): (1) our outdoor grill isn't the best. Temps can be difficult to control and there are some hot spots. (2) when you grill inside, you will tend to control the cooking much more because you're right there. In the Pacific NW, only a masochist will sit outside tending to the steaks in the winter. It's much easier to stay on top of things indoors. (3) my technique is different because I have a super hot grill AND a moderately hot oven in one unit. This makes searing the meat on the grill and finishing it off with indirect heat in the oven much easier than cooking with a typical outdoor grill (at least for me). Ease of clean up really depends on what your objective is. My objective is to get things I can feel with my fingers off. That is very easy with a regular scotch bright cleaning pad. However, I don't really care about carbon buildup on a day to day basis. That would be a serious pain to get rid of after every meal. I suppose at some point I might have to resort to putting the grates in a trash bag and spraying a bunch of Easy Off on them but I don't think that will occur for awhile. In the meantime, I hide the blackened grills with the grill cover (that's what it's for!). The small oven on my unit is NOT self-clean. We originally thought that we would use the small oven only on holidays when the large one was full with a turkey. As it turns out, we use the small oven for most of our meals as it can easily hold a full sized pyrex dish (i.e. 9 inches wide by whatever the depth of the oven is). Seems like overkill as a toaster oven replacement but it would certainly do the trick. As the small oven heats up a lot quicker, we use the large one only for pizzas and turkeys. As for the price, check Craigslist. We got our unit from a local wholesaler that generally doesn't deal with the public (contractors only). However, when they end up with older models, they dump them on Craigslist. When I found my unit, the place I bought from had two in stock. I did a little more looking around and found a couple of other places up in the Seattle area that had 3-4 each for similar prices. Obviously, all of the contractor supply outfits in the region (and maybe the country) were dumping them all at once. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| Thanks for all the excellent information, queequeg! I appreciate it. Tracey |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| Great to see all the Monogram range love. We are almost ready to order appliances for our new build and are going with this range. Spent last few months obessively searching through messages on this forum. Selecting appliances for an entire kitchen has kept me up too many nights and might certainly lead to an ulcer and bankruptcy. Now I have to decide to griddle or not. Back to searching. Thanks for all the info. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| I hear you, jennchris! I thought the griddle came with it? |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| Trying to decide bewteen 6 burners and grill (and use separate griddle pan) or 4 burners grill and griddle. Adding griddle ups the price a bit and I do like being able to clean the griddle pan directly in the sink. Users--is it worth it? Thanks! |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| I wondered the same thing (about 6 burners vs. 4). Ultimately, the decision was made for me because of the manner in which I found our Monogram (explained in a post above). As it turns out, having just four burners is fine. There were very few situations in which we needed a fifth burner (and never 6) and in those few situations, it's usually because we need to keep a pan warm. If that's the case, you can easily just use the grill on a low setting. Not entirely appropriate but it definitely works. As for the non-burner cooking surfaces, I couldn't live without the grill now (even though that was the surface I was most ambivalent about when we bought the range). I am now more ambivalent about the griddle (even though I seriously wanted that when we bought the range). There are two reasons: 1) Size. Our stand-alone electric griddle can hold 50% more pancakes. 2) cleaning. The stand-alone is teflon coated and cleaning is a breeze. The Monogram, obviously, requires some cleaning effort. I use a kitchen stone to get some of the gummier buildup off. It isn't that much of a pain and I do like not having to take up counterspace with the electric griddle. So the Monogram griddle beats out the electric but by a pretty narrow margin. If I were to do it all over again, I would get the same unit as we just hardly ever have the need for six burners. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| Thanks queequeg99. I am loving the idea of an indoor grill and can imagine using it constantly. How's the smoke output from the grill? What kind of hood do you have? We have a total open floor plan so hoping this won't deter me from using it. |
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| We have a 48" wide Broan hood. We also have a 1500 CFM external blower which does double duty as a whole house fan (just kidding). I've seared up to the three large t-bones at a time and the hood easily handled the smoke at substantially less than full speed (I think an internal 1200CFM blower could have easily handled the smoke and probably something even less powerful). "Open floor plan" can mean a lot of things so I don't know what your design limits are. Our kitchen is right off our great room, so it is relatively open. Copied below is a link to some photos of our kitchen so you can get a better feel for our design limits (the oak setup is before our remodel and the white setup is after): |
Here is a link that might be useful: Our kitchen photos
RE: GE Monogram Dual Fuel 48' Range
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| Queequeg99-your new kitchen is gorgeous! Love the look of the Monogram range in there. Sounds like a powerful enough blower will handle the grill smoke. I think we're going to pull the trigger on the range. Thanks again for sharing. |
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