Why You Can Trust CNET LG LSE4617ST review: LG's induction stove is just too expensive
The $3,700 LG LSE4617ST has loads of extra features if you need your food in a hurry, but it'll cost you.
LG did well by the LSE4617ST, a $3,700 slide-in stove with an induction cooktop and an electric oven. The appliance is full of bonus features that are designed to speed up cooking, whether you need to boil, broil or roast. It can even connect to Wi-Fi so you can control your oven when you're away.
LG LSE4617ST
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
But these extras don't drastically change the overall performance of the oven -- it just drives the price up. And not everything lives up to its potential. For example, the oven comes close to burning burgers, and the Wi-Fi app is limited in what you can do from your phone.
The LSE4617ST is one of the best LG ovens I've reviewed in a while. Unfortunately, its price is too high. Wait for this range to go on sale, or consider a freestanding and less-expensive induction oven like the $1,700 Kenmore 95073 or the $2,000 GE PHB920SJSS .
LG loads up on extra features
Like other LG ovens, the LSE4617ST is a hefty-looking appliance. This stove is a standard width (30 inches) and is a slide-in model, which means it's designed to fit flush with your bottom cabinets, and all the controls are located on the front of the appliance. LG outfitted the LSE4617ST with stainless steel and sturdy knobs that add to its stately appearance.
The LSE4617ST's smooth cooktop has four induction burners and one warming zone (learn more about induction here). The burners have an LED bar below them to show the power levels of each burner when they're in use. Like other induction cooktops we've tested, each burner is marked with a cross as opposed to a traditional circle, so it's important to keep the product's manual close by to make sure you're using the right size cookware for each burner. And speaking of cookware, you'll need pots and pans that are made of a magnetic base material. Newer cookware will have an "induction ready" or "induction capable" label. If you're not sure if your cookware will work with induction burners, take a magnet and see if it sticks to the bottom of your pot or pan. It's ready for induction if the magnet sticks; if not, you'll need new cookware.
There are four burners on the cooktop, and a warming zone in the back-right corner.
The LSE4617ST's oven is a roomy 6.3 cubic feet with a convection fan built into the back wall to help evenly distribute warm air throughout the oven cavity. The oven has the following settings: convection bake, convection roast, speed roast, warm, proof, self clean, easy clean, broil, speed broil and bake. LG includes two traditional oven racks and a gliding rack that works a lot like a drawer to make removing items from the oven easier. There's also a temperature probe you can use on the convection roast setting to track the internal temperature of what you're cooking. Below the oven, the LSE4617ST has a warming drawer to keep food hot until you're ready to eat.
Wi-Fi adds limited usefulness to LG oven
LG has included wireless connectivity with other ovens I've tested, such as the LG LDG4315ST and the LG LDE4415ST, so you could control some of the ovens' function from an app. On those ovens, LG used NFC (near-field communication), which meant you had to hold your smartphone or tablet right next to the oven for the two to connect. This was frustrating because you still had to be right next to your oven to operate it from your device.
LG included Wi-Fi with the LSE4617ST, so you can control your oven from a greater distance (like outside your home) than was available with just NFC. Within LG's app, you can see if one of the burners is in use, set the oven temperature, and set a cook timer that will automatically turn the oven off when it expires.
There are a few catches to the Wi-Fi capability. Once you connect your oven to your home's Wi-Fi network, you have to manually select the "remote start" option on the oven and open and close the oven to confirm that you want to control the oven remotely. That means that you can't randomly decide at 5:30 p.m. on your way home that you'd like to preheat your oven; you have to know before you leave the house that you'll want to turn the oven on from your device so you can enable remote start. And you can't enable every oven setting from the app. Issues aside, the addition of Wi-Fi to the LSE4617ST is a step in the right direction for LG.
LG oven clocks in good performance
The LSE4617ST does well at basic cooking tasks, especially when you compare it to other induction ovens. Let's start with the boil test, in which we measure how long it takes to bring 112 ounces of water to a rolling boil. Each of the burners on the LG cooktop are equipped with a boost mode that you use when you want to boil water or heat a large amount of food. I used this mode during the tests. Though the LG did have the second-fastest boil time compared to other induction cooktops we've tested, the boost didn't make a drastic difference.
Large-burner boil test (induction models)
The LSE4617ST also had a second-place showing in terms of how long it took to broil six hamburger patties. For this test, I used the normal broil setting, though the oven is equipped with a speed broil. Even without the special setting, the broiler cooked the burgers quickly. However, faster doesn't always mean better: During testing, many of the patties were nearly burnt on the outside.
Hamburger broiling test (induction models)
The best part of the LG's performance were chickens I cooked on the convection roast and speed roast settings. Both birds were fantastic -- golden brown, crisp skin, moist meat and cooked throughout. The speed roast setting is designed to cook a small chicken without needing to preheat the oven. It cut about 10 minutes off the total cook time of a five-and-a-half-pound chicken.
When it came to even baking, the LSE4617ST was just OK. Even with the convection fan in use, biscuits I baked on the right side of the oven were consistently lighter than the others on the baking sheets.
I baked the biscuits on the left at the same time. The biscuits in the top-left picture baked above the biscuits in the bottom-left picture. The illustrations on the right show a representation of the biscuits' brownness level.
Final thoughts
Overall, I liked this oven. Its cooking performance was solid, its Wi-Fi capabilities were a sharp improvement over other LG ovens I've tested, and its roasting capability was on point. But its cost is prohibitive. I'd shop around a bit and wait for a sale before you throw down $3,700 for the LSE4617ST.