Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Revised: My opinion has changed after owning this range for +8 years. We had some repairs during the warranty period and that was great. After about 6 years of owning this range we had to do a major repair. The oven suddenly stopped working. The flame would stay on for about 2 minutes and then go out, or would not turn on at all. To fix it, it required to change the thermostat and thermocouples. To get to the components the range needs to be disassembled by a professional. The whole repair cost about 20% of the original cost of the range. OK...we went with the repair thinking we'd get another good 5-6 years without a problem. Not such luck. About 2 1/2 years after the repair we are having the same problem. I contacted Bertazzoni to see if they'd cover part of the cost of the parts, since they didn't last long (we'll have to cover the cost of labor anyway). No luck. At this point, we will have paid almost half the cost of the stove in repairs in less than 9 years. Unfortunately, as beautiful as this range is, we'll go with a different brand when we replace it. ___________________________________________ We looked for about a year, comparing ranges, and finally decided on the Bertazzoni. We couldn't be happier. What we love: Stove top - It has 4 different burners, which allow you to simmer, heat fast, use small or large pans, and really regulate the heat. The double burner (one burner inside the other) comes in handy to evenly heat larger pans -- I can hardly wait to try to make some paella. One feature we really like is the "reverse" regulation with the knobs. If you want really low flame, you crank the knob to where it stops. In most ranges it works the other way around - the low flame is in the lowest position - with gas ranges it is really hard to find the precise spot between having a low flame, and having no flame. The way the Bertazzoni is designed, your burner is on and you are sure you have it at the lowest setting. It is well built, and sturdy. The guy that installed it thought it was a Viking from the weight and way it feels -- but it is about 1/3 of the price of a Viking. It has a 2 year warranty. We needed some adjustments and the lighting mechanism of two burners was failing a few weeks after it was delivered. I called Bertazzoni - the parts arrived in a few days, and the technician was here the day after the parts arrived. Excellent customer service. No digital controls!!! When looking for ranges, we found most of them have digital controls. I had heard that some of these ranges (especially in the $1000-$3000 range) have very noisy fans. After talking to a few sales people, I found out that since the digital controls are not supposed to be exposed to the heat, these ranges need an additional cooling/fan element to keep the digital controls from getting too hot. At that point I was on a mission to find a good range with manual knobs. It has a beautiful design! We didn't buy it for the looks, but it is certainly a bonus. FEATURES WE LIKE, BUT MAY NOT BE FOR EVERYONE The oven is relatively small, as ovens go. It is wide, but not very tall. You can fit 2 pyrex with no problem, but you probably wouldn't be able to fit a turkey and a pyrex. Since we seldomly need that big of a volume in an oven, we solved the problem by buying a convection-microwave for under $300 for the rare occassions when we need more oven volume. On the positive, since it is a smaller oven, it takes less energy to heat up, saving up on gas usage. When the oven is on, the sound of the fan is noticeable. We don't mind it, but it is something you may want to consider. SOME LIMITATIONS The minimum theoretical temperature of the oven is 275 degrees - so if you often cook or bake dishes that require much lower temperature, this may not be the oven for you. We recently made some dishes that required the oven to be 250 degrees. We found we could achieve this by having the oven at the lowest setting, and setting the trays in the top oven shelf. Since the controls are not digital (see above), it takes a little getting used to the oven knob to get the precise temperature control. We have a $5 oven thermometer, and that works very well. For the price and the quality, we couldn't be happier.