Regardless of whether you opt for a traditional floor for your kitchen or something more avant-garde like hardwood floors, you’re probably going to want to update your stove and oven someday. Presuming you want a gas range over a wall oven and cooktop (because there are pros and cons to both), your next challenge will be to find an appliance that blends quality with affordability. Because while you can buy a brand new range for under a grand, most of what you’ll find on the market won’t last for long before running into electronic brain damage due to planned obsolescence. And as much as we love cooking, most of us aren’t going to buy Wolf or Viking ranges any time soon, no matter how attractive and powerful they may be.
Fortunately, thanks to the Internet, you can buy well-engineered and durable appliances from all around the world without taking out a second mortgage. Want a buy-it-for-life vacuum? A made-in-Germany Miele canister will last you 20 years or more. And if you want a high-end gas range for mid-range prices, one of the best options on the market today is the Thor Kitchen HRG3080U 30″ range, which we recently reviewed. Today we’ll take a closer look at the Kucht KRG3080U Professional Natural Gas Range to see how it compares to the Thor Kitchen in value. Our overall thoughts are to choose the Thor Kitchen if saving money is a priority, to upgrade to the Kucht for better customer service, and to take advantage of Amazon’s expert installation; the ranges themselves are identical. We fully review the Kucht below, and you can buy the Kucht KRG3080U here in the US. Our Canadian readers can buy the KRG3080U here.
Pros, cons, and key features of the Kucht KRG3080U Natural Gas Range
The Kucht KRG080U is one of several gas ranges produced by Clifton, New Jersey-based Kucht Professional. The company is a small but growing brand, one of many to hit the market in recent years due to the ready availability of high-end appliances from Chinese factories. They offer dishwashers, range tops, dual fuel setups, range hoods, refrigerators, and wine coolers, and their gas and liquid propane (LP) ranges are a good way to get “prosumer” cooking gear–that is, professional-like appliances at consumer-friendly prices–in the United States. Like Thor Kitchen and other small brands sourcing their appliances from the same factories, we’re impressed at the level of quality they’re bringing to moderately affordable price points.
The KRG080U offers a 4.2 cubic foot, 22,000 BTU convection oven beneath a 4 burner stovetop with 3 different max power outputs. The front left burner generates 18,000 BTU; the right front offers 15,000 BTU, and the two twin rear burners have a maximum output of 12,000 BTU each. You’ll find a 13,000 BTU broiler beneath the oven. The KRG080U uses natural gas. If you want to convert it to use liquid propane, you’ll need the Kucht liquid propane conversion kit and a few hours of work. Alternatively, you can buy the KRG080U/LP propane range; it’s exactly the same model except designed to run on propane instead of on natural gas. The range uses piezoelectric ignition and an auto-regniter. It’s stainless steel from top to bottom with a blue enamel finish in the oven.
What control options are available for the Kucht Range?
The Kuch range is well-made, easy on the eyes, and very easy to control. The solid steel construction is visually attractive and firm to the touch, although the steel used isn’t quite as thick as that used in a Viking range. On the other hand, this costs half as much. The control knobs turn easily and have a discreet metal finish. The cast-iron cooking grates are satisfyingly heavy and reassuringly stable, even when balancing heavy dishes. We’re particularly pleased with the inclusion of a central cooking grate to make it easy to move cookware from one burner to another without needing to lift anything. The oven window is clear, solid, and large enough to get a good look at whatever you’re cooking. Several internal halogen oven lights allow to you to see your culinary creations with the flick of a switch, one of only two on the face of the range.
One of our favorite things about the design of the range is how wonderfully simple it is. In a world where most appliances are thrown away because it costs more to fix their circuit boards than to toss the machines and replace them, we’re happy to see a pushback against planned obsolescence through electronic brain damage. The range is refreshingly analog in design; you can control all of it through switches and knobs.
There are no clocks to set, self-cleaning functions to fix, digital thermometers to beep at you. To set your oven temperature, you turn the dial to the temperature you want and you’ll see a blue indicator light when the oven reaches it. You can choose between 150 and 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The oven is 28-7/8″ long including the oven handle, 30″ wide, and 40″ tall including the venting grills. It weighs 200 pounds. Like all ranges by Kucht, it includes a two year parts and labor warranty.
What is it like to use and cook with the KRG080U? Is it user-friendly?
Cooking with the KRG080U is a pleasure. While you’re not going to turn into Jamie Oliver or Wolfgang Puck the moment you turn it on, you can easily lose yourself for hours making meal after meal. The burners click smoothly, light practically instantaneously, and the bright blue flame that sprouts from the grates heats food satisfyingly quickly. Unless you’ve used a professional-grade stovetop before, you’ll need to give yourself some time to adjust to how the increased power–because there’s a lot of it–affects cooking times. The inclusion of the center grate is wonderful for letting you move pots and pans from one burner to another without risking spills and burns.
Beyond the ease with which you can cook with the Kucht, perhaps the most satisfying part of using it will be how organic it is. Nothing’s going to beep at you, flash at you, need resetting or programming or other electronic tinkering. It’s not a “smart” appliance, and it won’t overstimulate you like one. You just light it and get cooking, which is ultimately what we’re most interested in doing.
What’s the difference between the Kucht KRG3080U and the Thor Kitchen HRG3080U?
Our investigation of both models has led us to conclude that there aren’t actually any meaningful differences between the two models aside from brinding, price, and customer support. They have the same specifications, cook the same way (very well), and appear nearly identical internally and externally. The main differences in price are that the Kucht costs more in the US and less in Canada than the Thor Kitchen model. It’s also got far better customer support if something goes wrong; while we haven’t had any direct negative experiences, we’ve heard from others that Thor Kitchen can be less than responsive if you have questions or problems with the range, while Kucht has already established a reputation for promptness and a willingness to go the extra mile. When buying a multi-thousand dollar range, a little extra support can go a long way.
Why buy the Kucht KRG3080U, and is it worth paying extra for Amazon’s professional expert installation service with the Kucht range?
To sum up our thoughts, both the Thor Kitchen and Kucht ranges are a smart way to buy a Wolf or Viking-like cooking experience on a middle class budget. Both ranges are sleek, powerful, functional, and impressively well made. They aren’t perfect; the steel scratches too easily for our tastes, and the range can become quite hot when using it; we’d like to see better insulation. But if you want a commercial-grade range at a consumer-friendly price, there are very few better options on the market. We’d recommend the Kucht over the Thor Kitchen for the extra customer support.
As a final note, we’d also recommend paying the additional few hundred dollars if you’re in the US to have Amazon send experts over to install either range for you and remove your own range. It’s not a complicated installation if you’ve done it before, but if you haven’t, there are better places in life to try to save money than when trying to haul in and haul out two appliances that weigh hundreds of pounds each and are fueled by explosive gases. Just choose the “include installation” option and enjoy your new range. Alternatively, you can always hire a local professional; the range is worth it.
You can buy the Thor Kitchen HRG3080U 30″ freestanding gas range here on Amazon or buy the Kucht KRG3080U range here instead for a little more money and a lot more customer support. If you use propane, get the Kucht KRG3080U/LP instead.
Canadians can buy the Thor Kitchen HRG3080U 30″ freestanding gas range here on Amazon or buy the Kucht KRG3080U range, which is cheaper, instead. Use propane? Buy the Kucht KRG3080U/LP here.
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