Amana AER5630BAW vs GE PGS950SEFSS

With a price tag below $800 and overall impressive features, this range is an excellent product when it comes to price-performance ratio.

The oven delivers very good baking performance despite not having any convection units or specialized modes. It takes only a short while for the oven to reach the desired temperature. Temperatures are distributed evenly throughout the cavity, preventing burned or undercooked items.

There are four heating elements on the rangetop, one of which is a double ring useful for both small and large pots. All of the elements can reach temperatures high enough for stir-frying and searing. Additionally, the elements can provide low temperatures, ideal for simmering and melting.

The range has a self-cleaning system, which heats up the cavity to extreme temperatures to burn off the debris. However, as this procedure imposes some stress onto the oven, it's not recommended to use it too frequently.

With five different burners and a double oven design, this unit is perfect for multitasking. For example, while you use the lower oven for convection cooking, you can simultaneously broil burgers on the upper one. The cooktop has an oval-shaped central burner where you can cook with wide casseroles, or you can swap the grid with a griddle, and cook eggs and bacon. The smaller burners are perfect for simmering. The two large front burners can be used for rapid boiling or frying.

The cooktop’s front left burner consists of a center-tiered burner and a donut-shaped outer burner. This makes the range quite flexible with the temperatures it can reach, so you can gently simmer a sauce or cook a large steak on the same burner. Additionally, such burners heat up cookware more evenly than standard burners.

The lower 4.3 cu-ft oven is capable of convection cooking, which distributes heat evenly throughout the cavity to prevent overcooked or undercooked portions. This is especially useful when doing multi-rack baking. The upper 2.4 cu-ft. oven can't do convection baking, but, on the other hand, it does have a broil feature.

The range's control panel is situated on the front of the unit, so you don’t have to risk burning yourself while reaching over the cooktop, contrarily to what happens with some other ranges.