Professional Range Top Thermador PCG364ED Stainless Steel Gas Cooktop
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BACKGROUND
If you’ve seen a couple of my other reviews on Thermador, you know that I just moved into a new home that came with the total Thermador package including this built in stainless steel 4-Burner Gas Range with center Griddle. Of all the package, I think this one is definitely worth the money.
OVERVIEW
The range consists of 4 large area gas burners and a center located 12” wide electric griddle. The overall range is stainless steel. The back guard under the burners is stainless also. The burner base is brass and the burner cap is cast iron. The grates are also a black cast iron with porcelain enamel finish. The griddle is a titanium-surfaced aluminum. The griddle’s grease tray can be washed in the dishwasher. The griddle itself can be removed for easier cleaning. Most cooking surfaces are recommended to be cleaned with nonabrasive cleaners such as Fantastic or Formula 409 or hot sudsy water. See the manual for more in depth cleaning instructions.
GRIDDLE:
The Griddle is centered between the two sets of burners. Interestingly, on a gas range, the Griddle is electric and heats from an electric element underneath. It has a separate grease tray to collect grease runoff. Both the griddle and grease tray are easily removed for cleaning. I say easily but that brings up a bit of a negative for using the griddle. When it’s hot and the grease is liquid, you can’t touch it to take it off the range. Only after it’s cooled down are you able to move it. Problem one is that the grease has now congealed. Problem two is that you finished cleaning the kitchen about an hour ago and still have this to deal with.
Another negative or caution is that the grease tray can be improperly set in place which would leave a gap between the griddle and the tray. In that position, it appears that grease would run down inside the range and create a huge mess.
So, net-net on the Griddle, I’m looking for low-mess uses for it rather than frying bacon or other foods that create a lot of grease. This may be drive me to healthier eating too :>)
BURNERS:
IGNITION: In our last home we had a Jenn-Air gas range. You had to rotate the burner from Low to High and then to Ignite. As a result, you could always smell gas when you first turned it on and particularly if it didn’t immediately ignite. The Thermador works the opposite way from Hi to Low with ignition happening almost instantly when you turn the knob.
CLEANING: Cleaning is a breeze – I let my wife do it. Har, har, har. I love to throw some humor into my reviews. Ok, she’s not laughing. You can easily remove the grates and burner caps for cleaning. This better exposes the stainless back guard which is less easy to clean but still better than our old Jenn-Air.
COOKING: We really prefer gas cooking over electric. I think you get more heat, faster heat-up, better distribution and much better control over temperatures. Downside is getting heat coming up around the sides of your pans and also heating up the handles of pots and skillets more so than with electric.
The Thermador has a couple of nifty features. The two left side burners have an Extra-Low setting. Our dials are marked Hi to Med to Sim and then 4 marks to XLO. If you move the dial to any of these marks, the burner flame will cycle on and off automatically to cook delicate foods or to maintain heat on a cooked item without scorching the pan or food. The first mark cycles the flame On for about 50 seconds and Off for 10 seconds while the last mark at XLO cycles On for only 8 seconds and Off for 52 seconds. The other marks are somewhere between these times.
Another safety feature is that if any of the burners are on a low setting and are inadvertently blown out, they will self re-ignite. (This feature will not function in a power failure.)
Yet another safety and convenience feature is that anytime the range has any of its burners or griddle in any On position, a strong Blue light shines from the front of the range. We caught ourselves leaving the Jenn-Air on with a large pan hiding the flame and feel lucky we always caught that in time. This light is hard to miss and a good reminder.
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