Jenn-Air vs GE Monogram Professional 36 Inch Rangetops (Prices/Reviews)

Rangetops are popular in the appliance industry. It’s a range without the oven below. 

Unlike a cooktop, the range will have the knobs in front not on the top. The rangetop is also more powerful and offers a grill and/or grill option.

Pro Rangetop Installed	Regular Cooktop Installed

Now let's look at Jenn-Air and GE Monogram rangetops.

Jenn-Air 

The Jenn-Air was founded in 1947 by Louis Jenn in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company started out by manufacturing and marketing industrial fans to be used in commercial and industrial applications. In 1961, they designed a fan which can be integrated with a cook top range. This was the first downdraft vented range. This became a revolutionary idea in the appliance industry. Jenn-Air was also amongst the first to offer convection.

Maytag Corporation purchased the Jenn-Air brand. When Maytag Corporation started failing, the company was then sold to Whirlpool. Jenn-Air has become popular with a 300 million dollar investment in cooking, most notably wall ovens and professional ranges from its parent company. 

General Electric 

General Electric, also known as GE, started manufacturing appliances in 1907. They developed full line of household appliances within different product categories. GE has value lines under GE or the Hotpoint label. They have more features and options under the GE profile or Café line. Their high end is the Monogram line. That was introduced in the late 1980’s. Their goal was to attract more affluent customers with professional cooking appliances.

In the beginning the products were outsourced to DCS-Fisher-Paykel. Now the appliances are made by General Electric in different parts of the world. To be transparent, we no longer carry any GE products. 

Let’s compare the two rangetops.

Jenn-Air Pro-Style Rangetop has two models. JGCP436WP and JGCP536WP.

Jenn-Air JGCP436WP - $2999

• 6 burners
• Two dual-stack 20,000 BTU burners with very high heat and a great simmer  
• Three 15,000 BTU burners with the opportunity to cook multiple high heat dishes at the same time.
• One 5,000 BTU burner which goes as low as 500 BTU’s for simmering and doing more delicate food items.
• Electronic Ignition and Flame-Sensing Re-Ignition system - allows a continuous flame which means if the flame blows out it will automatically re-ignite the burner in all-settings.
• Stainless Steel knobs with Diamond Etching - The diamond etching ensures that your hands don’t slip of the knob while cooking.
• Continuous cast iron grates - for easy movement of your heavy duty pans from one burner to another.

Jenn-Air JGCP536WP - $3299

GE Monogram has three different 36” models - ZGU366NPSS, ZGU364DPSS, and ZGU364RPSS.

GE Monogram ZGU366NPSS - $3899

• 6 burners
• Sealed, dual-flame stacked burners deliver a full spectrum of heat settings from an ultra-low 140°F simmer to an intense 18,000 BTU.
• Electronic ignition with automatic re-ignition ensures a continuous flame and reignites if the flame blows out.
• Reversible burner grates are flat on one side and uniquely contoured on the other to accommodate round-bottom woks.
• Professional appearance with premium-grade 304 stainless steel and smoothly finished edges and large electronic control knobs.

GE Monogram ZGU364DPSS - $4099

• 4 burners offer 18,000 BTU’s that simmer as low as 140 degrees.
• Griddle
• The stainless steel and aluminum-clad griddle offers 18,000 BTUs of cooking power, allowing fast and consistent heating across the entire cooking surface.

GE Monogram ZGU364RPSS - $4099

• 4 burners and a 14,000 BTU grill
• The ceramic-infrared grill has 14,000 BTUs of adjustable heat.
• The cooking grate is grooved on one side to create sear marks and rounded on the other for delicate foods.

Jenn-Air vs GE Monogram

Let’s look at the size of the burners. The Monogram range has all 18,000 BTU burners with no variation in size or power. What I like about the Jenn-Air rangetop is its different sized  burners with 2 20,000 BTU power burners. It has three 15,000 BTU burners for your everyday cooking and one 5,000 BTU burner for small sauce pans. 

The Jenn-Air chrome infused electric griddle has consistent heat throughout the cooking surface. We had a demonstration in the showroom recently and we put 25 scallops on the griddle. They were all cooked perfectly. The best part was the easy cleaning, because of the chrome infusion. We cleaned it with just water and a towel and after a few minutes it looked new again. 

The GE Monogram griddle is made of stainless steel. It has an 18,000 BTU gas burner. It is consistent as well throughout the cooking surface, but is hard to keep clean. You need a square-edge metal spatula while the cooking surface is still hot. Then you have to wipe the griddle with a dry heavy coarse cloth. If you use anything else you need to re-season the griddle and cold water can crack the griddle.

GE does have a grill and is the winner by default, but Jenn-Air is a better choice for burners and/or griddle.

Rebates:

Jenn-Air has more robust promotions with free dishwashers and hoods with qualified purchases.

Relates Articles

• Best 48 Inch Professional Rangetops
• Thermador vs Wolf Rangetops

Additional Resources

Download the Yale Professional Cooking Buyers Guide with features, specs, BTU outputs of every major professional cooking product. Well over 25,000 people have read a Yale Guide.