It’s an age old debate: gas stoves vs. electric stoves. Many people base their preferences on what they grew up on, and there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, if one was in your home throughout your earlier days, there’s a chance you probably used it to cook as you got a little older too, so you became more familiar with it. But personal preferences and nostalgia aside, which is truly better for cooking: a gas or electric stove?
It’s hard to say that any one is actually the right choice for everyone, and there’s more to this than simply what kind of stove we’re all used to seeing in our kitchen. These two different types of stoves cook food differently. So the preferred choice may depend on what you cook most often. Then there are also other household considerations. How safe do you need your stove to be? And how much are you willing to pay in utility costs throughout the year? We dig into these, and more, with a full analysis of gas vs. electric below.
1. Gas stoves are cheaper in the long run
Purchasing a new stove is going to be a big investment; there’s just no way around that. And it can be difficult to compare whether gas or electric will be cheaper for you upfront because of their different price ranges. If you’re going very low-end, you’ll probably get a bit of savings with an electric since they tend to start at around $650 while gas stoves typically start at around $800.
But if you’re looking for something a little higher end, you could end up paying up to $2,800 for an electric stove while the best gas stoves can be had for about $2,300. There’s a difference at both ends of the scale, but it’s not much considering the big investment stoves are to begin with.
It’s really in the long run that you’ll see the difference. And this too can be difficult because utility rates vary widely from state to state. Generally speaking however, gas is usually the cheaper option over electricity. And if that’s important to you, it’s good to know that investing in a gas stove will save you anywhere from 10 to 30 percent in utility costs every year.
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