Why You Can Trust CNET Frigidaire FPEH3077RF review: This Frigidaire electric stove could leave you fuming
The $2,500 Frigidaire FPEH3077RF has too many pesky issues for such an expensive stove.
The Frigidaire FPEH3077RF is a $2,500 slide-in electric range.
I have certain expectations for a stove that costs $2,500. For many folks (me included), that's an expensive investment in your kitchen. Such an appliance should have helpful features and a consistent cooking performance that make it worthwhile to drop that kind of money.
Frigidaire FPEH3077RF
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The $2,500 Frigidaire FPEH3077RF electric range falls short of those expectations. There's nothing extremely bad about this stove, but there's nothing extremely good about it, either. It's a decent appliance that will bake evenly and cook food on its burners at a decent rate. You just have to be willing to deal with some headaches, such as convoluted controls, a high-powered burner that might waste some energy, and a broiler that sears your food well but leaves your kitchen full of smoke.
The FPEH3077RF is another one of Frigidaire's attempts to make a range that echoes commercial-inspired, higher-end products. But if you're brand loyal, stick with the company's lower-cost, freestanding stoves like the Frigidaire Gallery 30-Inch Electric Range. If you want a better-performing product with high-end features, opt for the $2,500 Electrolux EI30EF45QS (owned by the same parent company as Frigidaire) or the $2,600 Kenmore Elite 41313.
The Frigidaire's looks and features are appealing
The electric Frigidaire FPEH3077RF is nearly identical to its gas counterpart, the FPGH3077RF. Both ranges are the standard 30-inch-wide size with a stainless-steel exterior. And the stoves have simple control panels on which you can set two timers, turn on the oven light and check the time. To control the oven, you have to use two separate knobs: one to select the oven cooking mode (Powerplus Preheat, bake, clean, convect bake, convect bake, convect roast, broil, keep warm) and one for the temperature.
The stove has a setting that will automatically convert a cooking temperature if you're using a convection setting (convection modes cook food faster, so some ovens will automatically lower the temperature to account for quicker cooking). But enabling this setting is convoluted: You have to turn the oven temperature knob to Off, turn the oven mode knob to Convect Bake, press and hold the oven light and clock icons, and then switch the convection converter on or off.
The Frigidaire FPEH3077RF features a smooth cooktop with four burners and a warming zone in the back center.
The Frigidaire FPEH3077RF's smooth cooktop has four burners and a warming zone to keep food hot and ready to eat. You can synchronize the two burners on the left of the cooktop to create an oblong cooking surface for cookware like griddles. On the front right of the cooktop is a dual burner for faster boiling (more on that performance later).
Frigidaire includes some nice extras in the FPEH3077RF's 5.1-cubic-foot oven. There are two convection fans built into the oven's back wall that circulate the air while you bake for more even cooking. There is also a place to plug in an included temperature probe so you can keep an eye on the internal temperature of foods roast, such as a turkey. The oven also comes with three racks, including a gliding rack that rolls out similar to a drawer for easy removal of heavy dishes.
Stove's performance is good if you only look at the numbers
During lab tests, the Frigidaire FPEH3077RF was able to cook food quickly and bake evenly. But there always seemed to be a catch behind seemingly good test results.
For example, it only took an average of 12.78 minutes to broil six hamburger patties in the oven. That's the second-fastest time we've seen broil tests for electric ovens:
Hamburger Broiling Test (Electric Models)
In exchange for quick burgers, you have to deal with a lot of smoke rolling out of the oven during your broil. I had to turn on four overhead vents, set up a floor fan and open a door to outside during each test.
Frigidaire said this stove's broiler is designed to mimic an outdoor grill by quickly searing cuts of meat to lock in the flavor and juiciness; the smoke is an anticipated result. There was a nice sear on the test burgers, and they were juicy, too, so Frigidaire's explanation holds up. However, we've seen stoves make a nice char on broiled, moist burgers without all the smoke, including a model from the same brand, the Frigidaire FPEF3077QF.
The double burner on the cooktop is just as ambitious and disappointing. It took an average of 12 and a half minutes to boil 112 ounces of water, which is a completely respectable, though unimpressive, boil time:
Large-Burner Boil Test (Electric Models)
But to use both burners simultaneously to get the full power, even if your pot, like the one we use for testing, is too small. This seems like a waste of energy unless you have some sizeable cookware.
Not everything is bad about this Frigidaire oven. It roasts a moist, evenly cooked chicken thanks to the two convection fans in the oven. The fans also help bake two racks of biscuits that are, for the most part, an even level of brown.
I baked two racks of biscuits on the convection bake mode as seen on the left. The photos on the right represent the brownness of each biscuits. The biscuits that backed on a lower rack on the right side of the oven (bottom pictures) were lighter than the rest of the biscuits. Overall, the discrepancies in color weren't too alarming.
Final thoughts
On the surface, the Frigidaire FPEH3077RF is a competent electric stove. It cooks food quickly and evenly, which is what most folks want out of their appliance. But for $2,500, the FPEH3077RF has too many little annoyances that you have to bear along with its cooking ability.