Frigidaire vs GE Cafe Slide-In Ranges (Reviews/Ratings/Prices)

Frigidaire vs GE Cafe Slide-In Ranges (Reviews/Ratings/Prices)

Frigidaire Professional vs GE Cafe compares two affordable luxury labels from two of the largest manufacturers. It's a pretty compelling comparison. Have a look:

Frigidaire

Frigidaire was founded in 1913 as the Guardian Refrigerator Company of Indiana. They developed the first self-contained refrigerator with compressors on the bottom. The president of General Motors was so excited about this new technology that he invested his own money into the company. He eventually purchased the company in 1919 and developed mass production of refrigerators. In 1979 General Motors sold the company to White Consolidated Industries. They then sold the company in 1986 to AB Electrolux of Sweden.

Frigidaire Professional is their best line with pro style handles and upgraded features like convection, induction and warming drawers

GE / GE Cafe

Thomas Edison developed the Edison General Electric Co. In 1892 he merged all of his companies with the Thomas Houston Co. and formed General Electric also known as GE. In the early years GE developed the first hermetically sealed refrigerator and then they delivered direct drive dishwashers. In the 1950’s General Electric developed an appliance complex in Louisville, KY.

GE Cafe could be their most successful label at the present time.  Cafe has a very striking appearance and like the Frigidaire Pro has convection and a professional appearance

We will be comparing hybrid induction vs non-induction, so let's define it first.

What is induction?

Induction cooking uses electromagnetic friction to transfer heat from the cooking surface to the cookware. The cookware needs to have a smooth magnetic surface in order for it to work with induction. There are coils under the glass surface that produce molecules in the pan and creates heat very rapidly. This allows the pan to get hot but not the cooking surface.

What is a Hybrid cooking surface?

A hybrid cooking surface has both induction and electric radiant burners. The advantage of the hybrid cooking surface is you can use heat resistant glassware, aluminum, ceramic, and copper cookware. It makes the radiant burners more versatile and offers more cookware selection. The downside to having a hybrid cooking surface is that the other regular electric burners will not give you the same speed or control as the induction burners. Induction heats up the cookware much faster and you can also control it better than electric.

Let’s compare the Frigidaire Hybrid vs the GE Cafe slide-in ranges

	VS
Frigidaire FPCS3085LF Professional Hybrid Range Induction and Hybrid burners (3 radiant heat and 2 Induction burners) 2 Power burners with one 3,400 watts induction cooking surface Requires 50 amps of Electricity (traditional electric ranges require 30 amps) 4.2 Cubic Feet of oven capacity Power Plus Preheat – Less than 6 minutes to preheat True Convection – Moves hot air more evenly throughout the oven and also allows you to cook on multiple racks at the same time. Warming drawer – Keeps your food warm while other things are cooking in the oven One touch button for pizza or chicken nuggets which is great for families with small children $2379		GE Café CS980STSS Free Standing Electric Range 4 radiant burners A fifth burner – To keep your pan warm on the range Baking oven/warming drawer on the lower oven Single/Multi-rack convection cooking Precise Air Convection – The fan keeps reversing itself to circulate the heat and air for more even baking 5.4 Cubic feet of oven capacity $2799

Both are good choices and execute the professional styling.  They both feature convection and a warming drawer(great feature, btw)

The Frigidaire Professional offers induction on two burners, which is a huge advantage for faster boils and instantaneous simmer.  It also has a faster pre heat and is $400 less

I like the Cafe, but they have to offer an induction version to compete with the lower priced but well featured Frigidaire Pro.

Read the Yale Induction guide with a detailed explanation of the technology as well as ratings of every inductioncooking product currently on the market

Additional Resources

• Induction Cooking Buyers Guide
• Electric Cooking Buyers Guide
• Wall Oven Buyers Guide

Neil Katz has been in appliance sales at Yale for over 25 years. Neil spends time following the Sox and Patriots and watching the stock market. Read more about Neil here.