Cooking Appliances

What’s the Difference Between an Oven, a Range, a Stove and a Cooktop?

Many people interchange the words range, stove, cooktop and oven. Let’s clarify the difference between these appliances.

What is an Oven?

An oven is the box shaped appliance that you put food inside to cook. Ovens usually have a door with a single cooking compartment, and often a broiler drawer underneath the main compartment. If you do any baking, you’re definitely familiar with this appliance.

Ovens are also sold with double door either stacked or side by side. These appliances typically cook using gas, electric or convection.

What is a cooktop?

A cooktop is the flat appliance with burners, used to heat foods in pots or pans. There are a number of different types of cooktops available including: electric coil, gas burners, electric smooth tops and induction.

Cooktops can be stand-alone units that are attached to a countertop or island, or they can be attached to an oven, which brings us to “ranges”.

What is a Range?

Ranges are appliances that include both an oven and a cooktop. They are historically the most common cooking appliance in most kitchens, though modern kitchen design is changing this.

What is a Stove?

Stoves are technically any closed space, that produces heat by burning wood, coal or gas. Essentially a stove is a box of fuel that burns in order to heat a cooking area on top of the box. Before electricity was common in homes, stoves were used to both heat rooms and cook food. Today, the term “stove” is still frequently used to describe a cooktop.