Jenn-Air's slide-in range offers cooktop grilling and downdraft ventilation

The Jenn-Air 30-inch slide-in electric range offers modular flexibility on the stovetop so you can grill chicken while you are boiling pasta.

One side of this stove provides the option to grill with 1,900 watts of cooking power. The stove ships with an open double electric bay on the other side. To use it, you'll need to buy a separate cartridge, which costs between $150 and $299, depending on whether you want coil or radiant heat.

The oven on this model has 4.3 cubic feet of cooking space and menu-driven touch pad controls that offer high and low temperature presets ranging from 350 degrees to 550 degrees.

There's a warming option and delay-start functions for both cooking and cleaning the oven. Its controls are menu-driven and are featured in English, French, and Spanish. There's a "Sabbath mode" on this model, too, a newer feature on some stoves that enables the oven to stay warm after 12 hours, so religious observers can avoid turning the oven on or off. A halogen light provides a bright view through a large oven window.

This stove has a two-speed downdraft ventilation system located between the grill and burners, which is intended to make for easier island or peninsula installations. This stove can be converted to freestanding.

Some kitchen enthusiasts at Chowhound (a CNET Networks property)are criticalof downdraft ventilation, complaining that the system can suck the heat from the bottom of pots and pans. "I second your dissatisfaction with the downdraft Jenn-Air stove," one reader wrote. "There is the eternal choice of cooking with the fan off, which means that you have to scrub down your ceilings every week or so, or turning the fan on, which means that you have all the power of a child's birthday candle under your pots. And the fan clanks like something out of a David Lynch movie." A buyer on Sears.com differed, offering that the vent "really does suck down all the steam and odors and yet the motor that runs that vent fan is quiet enough that a person can carry on conversation or listen to the radio/TV while cooking."

Six Sears.com buyers rated this range 2.7 out of 5 stars, with several complaining that the stovetop didn't get hot enough and that the burner configuration is limiting. "The stovetop burners only allow enough space and heat to bring one item to a boil at one time," one buyer said. Another noted that the grill never heated up properly and took 45 minutes to cook a boneless chicken breast.

Overall, Jenn-Air stoves have a high rate of repair when compared with other range models, according to a J.D. Powers and Associates 2007Major Home Appliance Survey. (Maytag ranked highest on the list.)

The range costs about $1,499 and is available in black, white, or stainless steel ($1,799).