Which cookers freestanding

Our interactive tool will walk you through the features you need to consider when buying a freestanding cooker, to help you decide which ones are essential and which you can live without. Unless you have a strong preference for gas or electric, it makes sense to stick with the fuel type you already have to avoid the extra expense that changing fuels usually entails.

While gas is cheaper to cook with, cooking costs have a relatively small impact on most people's household energy bills. There are a couple of different combinations of fuel type and technology. You can have all-gas, all-electric or a dual-fuel cooker; the latter has an electric oven and gas hob. With all-electric models you also have the choice of either a ceramic or induction hob.

These have an electric oven and electric ceramic hob. Most have true fan or fan-assisted ovens, which should help to spread heat evenly around the oven cavity. There are occasions when conventional heat — top and bottom heat without a fan — is an advantage, and if you get a cooker with a double oven, you'll usually get one conventional oven and one with a fan.

These have an electric oven and electric induction hob. If a fridge magnet sticks to a pan, then it will work on an induction hob. All-gas cookers are the cheapest to cook with, and gas hobs are usually more responsive than electric ceramic hobs. However, oven cooking results are often less uniform than electric.

These have a gas hob and an electric oven. This provides the best of both worlds for some people, with an easy-to-control gas hob, and an electric oven that heats evenly. Gas and dual-fuel cookers will need to be installed by a Gas Safe-registered engineer. If you aren't sure what you want yet, f ind out more about the differences with our guide to gas cookers vs electric cookers.

Our top Best Buy cooker is an electric induction model. If you're looking in this price bracket, you may want to consider buying a double built-in oven and induction hob separately. The cheapest cookers usually have just one oven, plus a storage drawer. But if you're willing to pay a little more you will get more features and more stylish designs. However, paying more doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a decent cooker. We've found pricey models that fail to impress as well as some cheap-and-cheerful options.

Looking for the perfect cookware for your cooker? Read our expert guide on the best non-stick frying pans. Find a good cooker that is also cost effective to run by using our cooker reviews to compare models. Gas cookers are cheaper to run than electric cookers because gas costs less than electricity, rather than any superior efficiency credentials.

In fact, electric cookers use energy more efficiently than gas cookers, especially if you go for one with an induction hob. An induction hob heats only the metal of the pans, so no heat is lost from the zone directly into the air. Also, while electricity has the potential to come from renewable sources, this is not the case for gas. See our expert round-up of the top five best freestanding cookers. Most freestanding cookers are 60cm wide, but if you're squeezed for space, you can also find 50cm and 55cm-wide models.

All are roughly the same height 80cm and depth cm to fit a standard kitchen and line up with your worktops. Manufacturers state capacity in litres, but this includes space you can't actually use for cooking, such as the area under the lowest shelf. We only measure the space you can actually use to cook with.

You'll find the figure for each cooker we've tested in the specifications tab on our cooker reviews. Put us to the test Our Test Labs compare features and prices on a range of products. Sign up now or login. Sort by: Most-recently reviewed. Displaying 1 to 10 of freestanding cooker reviews. Add to Compare. Test score Show Context.

Need help choosing? How to buy the best freestanding cooker. Gas cookers vs electric cookers. All Freestanding cookers advice.