Who do they suit?

Serious cooks may have these stoves high on their wish list, but they're not for everyone.

Pros

• All the models we looked at had 5 or more burners (including a wok burner). Some also include a fish burner in the centre of the cooktop – which can be used for cooking a whole fish or for char-grilling on a cast-iron grill plate that you place on top.
• The gas/electric combo gives you a cooktop with instant and easily controlled heat, plus the versatility of a multifunction oven.
• The ovens have at least 4 shelf positions and you can fit in extra-wide baking and roasting dishes. The extra space means you can cook a number of dishes simultaneously, saving you time and making it easy to cook for more people. 

Cons

• They take up considerable kitchen space. As well, their trays and racks are heavy (particularly with a large roasting tray on top) and the size of the racks makes them hard to clean in a domestic sink.
• These stoves require professional installation, because they have to be wired into the mains as well as plumbed into the gas supply (reticulated or LPG). This adds to your overall costs.

You may want to consider a stove like this when completely redesigning your kitchen, but not as an upgrade to your current layout. If you just want to switch to dual-fuel cooking, there are several manufacturers offering 60cm-wide 4-burner dual-fuel models that would fit in place of an existing stove.

What these ovens can do

Conventional baking

This is standard convection baking using the top and bottom elements. It tends to be slightly hotter towards the top, allowing food to brown. It's good for cooking foods such as cakes, roasts and casseroles.

Fan-forced

Heat comes from an element at the rear of the oven, and a fan in the centre of the element circulates the heat. The oven heats relatively quickly and efficiently. Heat is distributed evenly – making it good for multi-shelf cooking. It's similar to conventional bake but heats faster and more evenly.

Classic ("base") baking

Heat comes from the bottom element only. It's particularly recommended for getting crispy bases.

Fan-assisted

This uses the top and bottom elements of the oven, with a fan circulating the heat. "Fan-assisted" helps distribute the hot air evenly, so it's useful when you're cooking on more than one shelf.

Grill

This may use a special grill element, or just the conventional top element. It's good for finishing off dishes that have cheese toppings, and for other "browning" tasks.

Grill with fan

Can be used to cook chicken and other roasts or larger cuts of meat.

Check our test results to see which models in our test were best – and worst – at different tasks.