I went into the house buying process with the goal of getting two ovens in my next kitchen.  It was by no means the reason for moving (we could have renovated the kitchen), but if I was going to move it was something I was looking for.

I had assumed that this would be stacked wall ovens, which one sees in most new home construction.  But, I didn’t want the range in the island and that meant a distinct lack of wall space.  So, I went round and round evaluating different options.  Some newer models come with a second oven instead of the storage drawer at the bottom, or have divided the full height into two ovens.  This wasn’t going to help much as my goal was to cook two larger items.  Then we evaluated side by side 48″ ranges.  These offer a standard size oven and a small oven.  For us this was an improvement on the horizontal divider, but since my cookie sheets didn’t fit in the smaller oven it was not ideal later.

Mr. Google led me to the idea of two ranges and eventually to this blog which showed side by side Frigidaire ranges – http://www.chrislovesjulia.com/2015/09/idaho-home-full-kitchen-reveal.html.  This could solve our problem!

We went with Kitchenaid instead, as we had already selected their fridge.  In the end we swapped the dishwasher for the Kitchenaid model also giving us a full suite.

As you can imagine, once I requested this there were many questions – from the appliance guy, builder, inspector, plumber, electrician, etc.  And, Kitchenaid wasn’t quite as forthcoming as the blog asserted Fridgidaire was in endorsing this arrangement.  But, everyone agreed there should be no issues and we moved forward.

It has been a great decision.  These are 30″ dual fuel ranges (electric ovens and gas cooktops).  When one switches from gas to dual fuel, Kitchenaid switches the storage drawer to a baking drawer so we actually have 4 ovens!  The lower ones are very small and I’m still not sure of the value of them.  You can’t do much more than a lasagna, but I guess you’re not heating up as large a space.

I have run both simultaneously.  I really appreciate the extra space on top to put hot items fresh from the oven.  One doesn’t quickly identify them as two ranges.  There’s a seam in the top section and two clocks, but that’s about it.

It turns out two standard ranges are also significantly less expensive than dual ovens plus range, even the dual oven wall units.  Two of these are also less than either a 60″ or 48″ range, even by a similar grade manufacturer.  All in all I think we got great functionality for significantly less cost.  And, if someday we want to upgrade to a professional 60″ range, it should slide right in.