Why You Can Trust CNET GE PHS920SFSS Induction Range review: Tricky controls and scant features hurt this otherwise promising induction oven
GE's Profile Induction range is easy on the eyes and cooks proficiently, but its flat-panel controls are hard to handle.
Editors' note, May 20, 2015: After uncovering some discrepancies in our initial round of testing, we have updated this review from when it was originally published on April 29. We have since rerun both its double rack convection and large burner boil tests, and updated its ratings accordingly.
GE PHS920SFSS Induction Range
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
At first glance the $3,200 GE Profile PHS920SFSS induction range looks like a shrewd kitchen upgrade. Its stainless-steel design is gorgeous, and it includes a powerful induction cooktop and convection oven. While it's not what you'd call inexpensive, at $3,200 it's actually cheaper than other slide-in induction ovens such as Samsung's Chef Collection Induction Range , which goes for a cool $3,700.
After boiling it all down, however, that extra $500 for the Samsung is money well spent thanks to its ease of use and an assortment of meaningful extra features. Compared with this GE induction cooker, the Samsung Chef Collection is the wiser choice.
Design and features
The GE PHS920SFSS induction range certainly has bold, beautiful looks to match its luxury price tag. Despite being compact and measuring a mere 30 inches wide, GE's liberal use of stainless-steel materials in this oven's construction lend it a decidedly premium appearance.
Further elevating the slide-in model's visual appeal is a front-mounted control panel. It's stylishly angled downwards, sports clean lines and gives the whole appliance a sleek shape. This design choice not only gives the range a futuristic profile -- the panel's gentle slope places its buttons and keys within easy fingertip reach.
The range's control panel is sleek and subtly angled.
Unlike the Samsung Chef Collection Induction Range, however, the GE PHS920SFSS lacks physical knobs to control its cooktop burners. That's a shame because one big challenge with induction cooking is the technology's lack of sensory feedback. Whereas gas stoves and electric cookers emit flame, heat, light or some combination of all three, induction ranges operate in relative stealth, heating compatible cookware using invisible magnetic fields only.
The Samsung Chef Collection Induction Range does its best to offset this issue by using LED lights placed around each of its burners to mimic the look and feel of real gas flames. Samsung also installed a cluster of power level indicators right on the cooktop (in the center near each of the range's burners) just in case you miss similar labels grafted onto its burner dials. This setup offers three methods that work together to effectively convey cooktop status.
Telling which burner you're using can be confusing.
Unfortunately I often found it difficult to tell which set of buttons controlled which burner. That's because all the GE PHS920SFSS range's cooktop indicators sit up front on the control panel, not near the burners themselves. The panel's small keys are tricky to locate and tap without looking at them directly.
The interface here is easy to clean since it's a flat, unbroken surface. And GE certainly has the chops to build a stovetop with an elegant UI. I found the company's Glide Touch interface on its new Monogram Induction cooktop much easier and enjoyable to interact with. Hopefully we'll see this control setup trickle down to the company's freestanding free-standing and slide-in style ranges in the near future.
GE's new Glide Control-equipped Monogram induction cooktops are much more intuitive.
One positive is that GE thoughtfully equips the small burner (back right) with a "melt" button. Pressing this will engage a preset heat level just hot enough to melt delicate ingredients such as butter and chocolate without scorching them. Likewise both of the large 8-inch burners feature similar "simmer" keys designed to bring sauces to a gentle bubble without the fear of burning.
Down below is a 5.3-cubic-foot capacity convection oven.
Aside from its induction cooking surface, the GE PHS920SFSS range offers an oven that's pretty pedestrian. Its 5.3-cubic-foot capacity cavity is actually a tad small when stacked up against larger 5.8-cubic-foot ovens such as the Samsung NX58F5700 , Whirlpool WEG730H0DS and KitchenAid KGRS306BSS . That said, the GE does boast a fan and a linked heating element that promises convection baking and roasting.
Performance
Due to its high price, premium styling and efficient induction cooktop, I expected the GE PHS920SFSS range to really wow me with its cooking capabilities. Actual test kitchen results were more of a mixed bag. I baked numerous batches of biscuits, using both single- and dual-rack configurations.
The PHS920SFSS had no trouble baking single racks of biscuits, either using convection or traditional oven modes. In both cases I was consistently treated to evenly browned results.
Whether we used traditional (left) or convection (right) modes, single racks of biscuits baked evenly.
I wasn't surprised that using the standard bake mode (not convection) for two cookie sheets of biscuits consistently turned in uneven results (top rack browned, bottom rack underdone). This is a common challenge where many ovens stumble.
Traditional multirack bakes were uneven (top rack shown left, bottom rack shown right).
Using the PHS920SFSS range's convection mode for two-rack baking -- with a button expressly labeled "Multi Rack" -- improved matters drastically. Biscuits on both top and bottom rack were sufficiently baked.
Double racks of biscuits browned evenly but only using convection (top rack shown left, bottom rack shown right).
Boiling pots of water also confirmed that the power and speed of GE's induction technology is a force to be respected. The GE PHS920SFSS's large 11-inch burner (3,700 Watts) will push 14 cups of water to a rolling boil in an average time of just 5 minutes, 58 seconds, the fastest we've seen.
LARGE BURNER BOIL TEST (ELECTRIC AND INDUCTION MODELS)
Compared with gas and electric ranges, which typically take anywhere from about 11 to 15 minutes to complete this task, the PHS920SFSS' time is very fast. This result also soundly trounced the best Samsung's Chef Collection Induction range could muster here. Its less powerful 3,300-watt (11-inch) burner couldn't keep up with GE's induction range and managed to finish this test in a slower 7 minutes, 24 seconds.
On the other hand the GE PHS920SFSS's small burner (6-inch, 1,800-watt) heated 8.4 cups of water to the brink of boiling in 7 minutes, 25 seconds, while the Samsung induction range tackled this in feat (with a 6-inch, 2,000-watt burner) in a shorter 5 minutes, 43 seconds.
SMALL BURNER BOIL TEST (ELECTRIC AND INDUCTION MODELS)
The Samsung Chef Collection Induction schooled the GE PHS920SFSS when it came to broiling burgers, though. GE's Profile appliance grilled six 5.3-ounce burger patties in an average of 16.31 minutes, which, though respectable, can't match the Samsung's swifter broil time of 14.9 minutes. Still, the hamburgers the Profile cooked were satisfyingly charred on the outside, yet juicy and moist at their centers.
The GE PHS920SFSS range broiled up tasty burgers.
Hamburger broiling test
Conclusion
Sure, the $3,200 GE PHS920SFSS range looks great and feels very durable, which are both critical attributes of any oven marketed to luxury buyers. In some ways the oven is also an impressive kitchen performer with the fastest water boiling times we've seen from a cooktop to date (whether induction, gas or electric). It also handled multirack convection baking like a champ.
Unfortunately, other aspects of the range are quite disappointing, especially GE's confusing cooktop controls and the appliance's light list of extra features.
That's why it's difficult to recommend the GE PHS920SFSS range over the $3,699 Samsung Chef Collection Induction Range. Yes it does cost a little more, but with plenty of bells and whistles such as its dual-use Flex Duo oven cavity, more intuitive controls and slick LED burner lights, the Samsung is an all-around better buy.