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GE Cafe : C2S980SEMSS 30in Free Standing Dual-Fuel Range w/5 Sealed Burners |  | Brand: GE
Category: Kitchen
Buy New: $2,502.33
as of 9/7/2010 20:03 CDT details
New (2) from $2,502.33
Seller: evVive Home
Rating:  7 reviews
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
MPN: c2s980semss
UPC: 084691165118
EAN: 0084691165118
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Dual-Fuel | | • | PreciseAir(TM) Convection System - Delivers even air and heat circulation for superior baking and ro | | • | Extra-Large Oven Capacity - Provides a large oven interior ideal for cooking more items at once | | • | Self-Clean Oven - Conveniently cleans the oven cavity without need of scrubbing | | • | Deep Recessed Cooktop - Designed with a recessed surface to help contain spills and make cleaning ea |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
GE Cafe C2S980SEMSS Stainless Steel Slide-In Dual Fuel Range - C2S980SS. 6.0 Cu. Ft. Capacity. 18,000 BTU Power Boil Burner. PreciseAir Convection System. Self-Cleaning Oven. Deep Recessed Cooktop. Stainless Steel Finish
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 Best range I've ever had March 5, 2010
Michael Trask (Rogers, MN USA)
74 out of 74 found this review helpful
As I prepared to purchase a new range, I did a lot of research on the internet. While there were many glowing reports for the cafe dual fuel, there were just as many highly critical reports. What explained such a discrepancy? Bad quality control? Maybe. Inexperienced users? Perhaps. People expecting one thing and getting another? Possible, I suppose. I didn't know. But I noticed the same thing for all brands and all types of ranges. It would seem that there is no range that is universally recognized as the best. Likewise, I noticed that people get pretty worked up about ranges.
How could I cut through all that and find a range that I really like? The first thing I did was talk to 3 different appliance dealers that sell nearly all brands and all of them said that GE does ranges better than it does anything else and furthermore that GE knows ranges better than most. That was helpful. I was really interested in dual fuel. I also liked the looks of the Cafe. But then on the other hand, my sister liked her Bosch dual fuel range that is similar in style.
Eventually I settled on the GE because it seemed more substantial. I did this tentatively; crossing my fingers; hoping that actual problems were rare. I assumed that those who got stuck with a lemon were more motivated to go on the internet and write something then those who had a stove that worked well.
When my new range was delivered, I was very interested in putting it through its paces and seeing if I agree or disagree with those who wrote against it. Also I wanted to see if I made the right choice.
The chief complaints people seem to have against the GE dual fuel Cafe range are as follows:
1. Burners not calibrated well
2. Lower oven does not heat fast enough.
3. Griddle is not hot enough
4. Control knobs get HOT!
5. The mess! Oh the Mess!
6. Water doesn't boil fast enough!
Here's what I have concluded about these complaints after a couple of day fiddling with the The Cafe:
1. Burner calibration: For me and my range, this complaint was not true. I took a sauce pan, about 8" in diamater, filled it with water, put it on the biggest burner, brought it to a boil. When it come to a boil, I was immediately struck by how even the bubbles were in size and spacing. I've used three different stoves over the years and never saw this before. As I lowered the heat, the bubbles merely got smaller...but still evenly spaced. Wow!. Nice, even heat and such a delicately broad range even in rate of boil! I did this on all the burners and had the same experience. This cooktop has great control. Cooked bacon on it this morning and easily found the sweet spot for perfect bacon....barely sizzling.
2. Lower oven does not heat fast enough: Yep there is some truth to this complaint. But it depends on what is meant by "fast enough". It does require 20 minutes to warm up. This is not the main oven, and I never expected it to perform like my main oven. If I'd wanted two main ovens, I'd get dual wall ovens. I'm just happy and somewhat amazed that I get to have an extra little oven in my storage drawer! (and yes... you can still use it for storage!) It'll be handy the 20 or so times a year when I want to cook two different things at different temperatures. For those times, I'll simply plan ahead and give the lower oven time to warm up. I did a pan of corn muffins (20 minute baking time) in this lower oven as I cooked some ribs(70 minute cooking time) in the bigger oven. As I put the ribs in the big oven, I turned on the lower oven to warm up. I put the corn muffins in so that they would be done the same time as the ribs. Both ribs and muffins turned out great. They don't recommend things like pizza or roasts in the lower oven....no way to clean the upper surface. So only breads, cookies and non splattering things go in the lower oven.
3. Griddle not hot enough: I think this complaint is just a case impatience and a related lack of reading. The manual tells exactly how to set it for each food..and how long to warm it up. For pancakes it is setting 4 with a 10 minute warm up. It made perfect pancakes! Better than my stand-alone griddle (which, by the way, takes 7 minutes to warm up and doesn't have the benefit of my exhaust hood). The cafe griddle is heavy... and gives very even heat across the whole surface. The pancakes I've cooked on it turn out identical and even in color. Never cooked such perfect pancakes. In the reviews, I hear people talking about cooking sausage, bacon, and things that splatter. I would never do that on this griddle in my kitchen. Massive amounts of grease spattering everywhere is most uncool. Funny thing though, GE put grease channels in this griddle as if you'd use it to fry greasy/sizzling things, a sales gimmick no doubt. But pancakes, eggs, french toast, rubens; all would do very well on there. It did a marvelous grilled cheese. But only held three of them (larger sandwich size bread). It's kind of nice having a little griddle ready to go. It's smaller size makes it easy to clean.
4. Control knobs get hot. There is some truth to this complaint. While I was cooking the ribs in the oven, I boiled a big pan of water on the front burner just to see how hot the knobs get as both stove top and oven are used at once...which is the situation that generates this complaint. They do indeed get hot. But I would not say it was a burning temp. I could still hold them constantly....but only on the part that was farthest away from the range (the knobs are long and project outward). Tonight I did convection setting...with pizza in there. Barely any heat in the knobs.
5. Mess! This complaint has some validity too. Range tops do get messy. I suspect that these are first time gas stove users who are making this comments. Gas stoves can be quite a bit harder to keep clean than smooth tops or electrics. But the way this one is constructed, I think the cleaning will be a lot easier than any other gas stove I've had. The burners are sealed and skirted so that the seam between burner and the sheetmetal is not an issue. I'll like not having to try to clean that!
6. Water doesn't boil fast enough: Okay, this is one of consumer report's issues too. They seem to mark all gas ranges down because they don't boil water as quickly as an electric. But I contend that there's a lot more to cooking than boiling water fast! A lot of people don't know this, but gas burners take longer to boil water than electric or ceramic. Yep. it's just a fact. you'd expect all that impressive fire to heat faster, but no. Where gas shines is in it's ability to simmer and saute without scorching. Gas is much gentler and more capable of doing foods just right and at a much higher level of flavor. That's why I like it. If all you do is boil water to heat prepackaged meals, I wouldn't recommend a gas stove. But if you like to cook, to saute, simmer, caramelize, reduce, and deglaze you gotta get gas! One other thing that is more critical with gas is the size of the pan. If you put a little pan on a big gas burner, a lot of heat's going to blast up the sides of the pot.
In Conclusion, the GE Cafe Dual fuel is, so far the most impressive range I've ever owned. To my mind the extra money spent was well worth it. If my impression changes I'll amend this later. I did buy an extended warrantee just to be safe. Seems like appliances don't last as long as they used to.
P.S. Here's what ranges I've used in the past just to give you an idea of what I am comparing to so you can understand where I'm coming from: an Older Hotpoint Electric (from the late 70's/alright ), A GE Gas...(mid-level from '95/Good), and Jenn-air gas (2003..slide in/ very disappointing and found perverse joy in seeing it carted away)
 Very nice range with a couple small flaws December 2, 2008
James Marker (alaska)
42 out of 42 found this review helpful
This range is wonderful. It is very sharp looking with a nice quality appliance feel to it. I have had mine for about 13 months and I do a lot of cooking on it. The oven works very well and cooks accurately. It is quite large inside compared to most of the 30" ranges due to the narrow compartment walls. The lower warming oven is very useful and we use it constantly.
The cooktop burners have excellent range of heat and the flame adjusts very accurately on each of them.
The cooktop however is where the flaws come in. The burner caps are coated with a heat resistant coating which is charcoal gray in color. It matches the color of the grating. Foods/oil/fat will stain these surfaces. You can clean off the bulk, but it will leave behind a stain. If you use anything heavier than a plastic scrub pad, it will scratch and remove the coating. I have had two spill overs of boiling water that landed on first the left rear burner and later it happened on left front burner. Both of the burner caps lost large chunks of the coating when the water contacted them. The burners would still function just fine, but they look terrible. Burner caps on a range of this quality and cost should be able to withstand some hot water.
Also when you are cleaning the Stainless steel surfaces, don't use anything but soft cloth are a sponge. Good stainless steel is soft by nature and will easily scratch.
With the exception of the middle elongated burner, all of the burners produce a lot of very controllable heat. When you use the included griddle on the middle burner, it takes several minutes before it heats up properly.
The digital controls are very intuitive and easy to see and use. All of the range top components remove easily for cleaning.
I have found a product called "Sprayway Stainless Steel Cleaner and Polisher" that works excellent for this range. (got it a Sam's Club)
My sister in-law bought one of these ranges and she has had the same problem with the burner caps chipping off.
When it first happened to mine, it was still under warranty and GE promptly shipped a replacement. The second incident happened just a month after my warranty expired. I contacted GE and they are shipping me another one and they said they would have their product specialist contact me. Hopefully for a product this expensive, they will come up with a satisfactory re-designed fix.
Overall I am very satisfied with the looks and performance of the range, but something needs to be done about the burner cap coating issue.
If it were not for the burner cap problem, I would have heartily given this range a 5 star rating.
Be sure to find some of the Spraway Stainless cleaner, it works great.
Awesome dual-fuel range! Some things to consider. January 19, 2009
James J. Bell (Chamblee, GA United States)
26 out of 27 found this review helpful
I went back and forth before finally deciding to purchase this range. I received a 10% discount off list, which means I paid North of $2,600. That is a LOT of money in my world.
Imagine my surprise, when the range was delivered and I discovered that it required a 220V outlet! Now this oversight was 100% my fault. I just want to prevent others from learning this the hard way (like I did). Furthermore, this GE Cafe dual-fuel range requires a 40 amp circuit! My electric dryer requires only 20 amps!
So $415 later (the cost of running a 50 amp circuit) I could cook!
Cooktop: You will want to buy "Simple Green" (degreaser) & a bunch of the fiber non-metalic scrubbers. Simple Green's instructions say that it can be used straight or diluted 1:10 with water. You'll want to use it full strength. This range has the most infuriating of all types of stainless steel - trust me. This range will work your butt off to get/keep clean. This range is such a pain to clean - it will change the way you cook. You will turn things down - so they don't spit. You will use lids - when you never used to use lids. On the positive side, I really like the oblong burner in the middle & the high output front right burner.
Griddle: Very good. The griddle grate is super dense & large. Grease flows away from your foods into a well designed catch. In fact, the tendency for grease to move away from foods and into the grease catch can be frustrating when trying to cook breakfast "Waffle House" style. However, I'll take on a George Foreman grill any day!
Oven: Superlative! The touch screen controls are elegant & intuitive! The oven has a digital temperature readout that tells you the temperature and shows you the elements in use via a picture! Very cool. The (2) oven lights & the crystal clear dual-pane window allow you to see everything that's going on. Anything you bake, convection bake, convection roast - will exceed your expectations!
That's it. It was a rocky road ($$$) to get here, but I love my GE Cafe.
Too much money March 14, 2010
T. Moore (NJ United States)
0 out of 43 found this review helpful
I don't care how good this stove is..who in their right mind would pay $2,489 for a range??? There are many good ones for $500-$700. And people wonder why they have no money in this economy... you're all spoiled brats!
 A nice range with some design flaws June 9, 2009
Grider (Missouri)
30 out of 30 found this review helpful
I'm writing this for a close friend who wanted me to post for her. Overall she likes the range but had two issues: First, were problems getting the burners calibrated, which took several service calls. Her primary concern however, is the fact that the burner "knobs" get super heated when she uses the stove and burners at the same time. (If you do any cooking at all, pretty common). A temperature sensor she borrowed measured the knobs at over 190 degrees. Plenty enough to cause burns. After 5 service calls, GE replaced the unit. The flames on the new unit's burners are much better, but the burner knobs are still heating to a dangerous level. Definitely a design flaw. She's hoping GE design people will read this and take note.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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