Gas burners

The heating power of gas cooktops and ovens are measured in Btu (British thermal units) and will greatly affect how quickly your water boils and your sauce simmers.

For everyday cooking, 9,000 Btu should suffice. But if you plan to do a lot of sautéing, stir-frying, or other high-heat cooking, you'll want to reach a Btu of 12,000 or more. You'll need to buy a pro-style cooktop to get that kind of heat. You may want some of your burners to cool down to 5,000 Btu so you can simmer without scorching.

The benefits of gas burners are you get instant heat and control. Newer models use a pilot-less ignition instead of a continuous burning pilot which uses less gas. A word of caution: gas fumes can be very dangerous, so be sure your ventilation and gas-hookup is properly installed and maintained. Cost for a basic gas cooktop ranges from $300 to $1000.

Electric Coils

Electric black coils are metallic tubes covered with insulation that create heat through electrical resistance. The heat moves from the coils to the pot or pan through conduction and radiation. The benefits to coils are they generally cook faster than gas cooktops and they're easy to clean and repair. The cons to coils are they can cost more over time than gas, they're limited in their design appeal and temperatures fluctuate. Most coil cooktops start around $200.

KitchenAid offers a wide variety of gas and electric cooktops. The innovative 48-Inch Architect® Series Classic Commercial Styling Sealed Gas Griddle and Grill Combination Cooktop is featured above.

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Glass ceramic surfaces

Whether you opt for radiant, halogen or magnetic-induction, they all heat up using electricity. Its flat, glass ceramic surface has patterns on the surface to indicate where to place your cookware and it operates using knobs or a touch pad. The pros to ceramic are they're easy to clean and add a sleek look to your countertop. The drawbacks to using this surface is that you can easily burn yourself, it scratches and you'll need to use good cookware like steel and cast iron if you opt for magnetic-induction. If you can't stick a magnet on your cookware, they won't work with this option. Average cost is $500 to $700.

Modular burners

These kind of burners can run on gas or electricity and allow you to vary the placement of your burners. The benefits to a modular burner are you can use them on an island counter and you can vary the type of cooking you do on the same cooktop. You can expect to pay about $450.

A range combines an oven and a cooktop and they generally use the same heat source - gas or electric. A professional-style range affords you the luxury of having a gas burner and electric convection oven. The same pros and cons of oven and cooktop features apply to ranges as well. When it comes to installation, you can choose from freestanding, slide-in or drop-in. The price varies depending on the style - electric coil ranges will cost between $425-$650; electric smoothtop ranges between $650 -$1400; gas burners between $550-$2000 and $4000 and up for a pro-style model.

Ventilation

No matter what you're cooking in your kitchen, you'll generate grease, smoke, steam and gas byproducts that you don't want lurking around your kitchen. The system you choose will depend on the layout of your kitchen, personal preference and local building codes. You'll pay more for systems with higher airflow and lower noise ratings. That's where it's handy to know about CFMs and sones. CFMs refer to the amount of cubic feet of air a vent system can move per minute and sones measure noise level. You have two options when it comes to ventilation - an updraft vent hood or a downdraft vent.

Updraft vent

An updraft vent is located over a range or cooktop and cleans the air by either pulling the polluted air up by a fan, then through filters and out of your house through a metal duct or by a fan that filters the polluted air and then recirculates the clean air back into the room. The benefit of an updraft vent is that they are very effective and are available in a wide array of decorative models to spice up your kitchen. The only drawback to this system is that it is generally hard to clean and you need to remember to change the filter regularly. Vents can be as cheap as $100 or as costly as thousands.

Downdraft Vent

Instead of being placed over the cooking area, a downdraft vent is built into a base cabinet and expels air by pulling it down through vents located on the sides and back of the cooktop. While they're more subtle in appearance, they don't work as effectively as updraft vents because they only catch the byproducts directly around the vent. Average cost is $500.