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If you keep up with cooking trends, there's a good chance you've witnessed the unexpected rise of the air fryer. Billed as a healthier alternative to America's love affair with deep-fried everything, the popular countertop appliances have been flying off store shelves.
Our own air fryer testing revealed that while there's still a performance gap between full-fat deep fryers and air fryers, there's a justifiable reason to buy one if you need your french fry fix.
The downside, of course, is having yet another big, bulky item in your kitchen. That's exactly the problem that Frigidaire set out to solve with its new line of full-size ranges that feature an Air Fry mode. We got our hands on the Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF gas range (available at Abt for $1,399.00) and ran it through all the standard testing plus some special tests just to see how it could handle life as a short order fry cook. (Very well indeed, as it turned out.)
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The Best Air Fryers of 2019 About this range Credit: Frigidaire
The front of the gas range (left), as well as the burner layout for the Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF (right).
The Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF is a 30-inch gas range with a front-mounted control panel and a smudge-proof stainless steel finish. The cooktop has five burners, including an 18,000 BTU power burner (right front burner), a 5,000 BTU simmer burner (right rear burner), and a 10,000 BTU griddle burner (center burner). A griddle that fits the griddle burner comes standard with purchase of this range. The burners are covered by three removable cast-iron grates.
The oven has True Convection (which involves an additional heating unit and a fan to aid hot air circulation) and Air Fry modes, steam and pyrolitic cleaning, three racks, and six rack positions. It is possible to use Air Fry mode with a regular baking sheet, but you can also purchase the Air Fry Tray, which is basically a shallow frying basket, separately.
What we like Credit: Frigidaire
The control panel for the Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF gas range.
Air Fry mode works well to cook frozen food through easily (more on that later).
The right front power burner can boil six cups of water in under five minutes, which is very speedy. For the other gas cooktops and gas range cooktops we've tested, it takes an average of five to six minutes to boil that amount of water.
The hottest burner, the left front burner, reaches a maximum temperature of nearly 500°F. Not counting the simmer and center griddle burners, the other two burners reach max temperatures of 400°F-430°F.
The center griddle burner and the front left simmer burner are great for maintaining low heat on sauces and food items you want melted but not burned. Both burners approach 130°F at their lowest temperature settings.
The burners are spaced far enough apart that large cookware, like a saucepan or a spaghetti pot, will not touch one another when they're on different burners.
Cookies and cakes tend to be evenly baked on both the top and the bottom. The bottoms are typically much darker than the tops of these baked goods. True Convection mode ensures that two separate racks of cookies are baked to the same degree.
Meat cooks evenly all the way through on both Standard and True Convection mode.
What we don't like
As with most gas ranges, there's a natural hot spot in the center of each cooktop burner and the broiler heating unit where the gas flame is the most concentrated. While this typically means faster heating, it can also translate into uneven heating across the bottom of your cookware (or, with a broiler, across the top of your food).
Performance results (standard tests)
Overall, we were pleased with the performance results of the Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF.
Burner and broiler heat distribution Credit: Reviewed
Bread toasted in the broiler showed a hotspot in the center of the heating unit.
If you're familiar at all with gas cooking appliances, then it is not surprising that we discovered hot spots in both the burners and the broiler. This is a function of using a gas flame, rather than electric coils; it's a feature, not a bug. However, if you need something to be evenly cooked, we suggest moving the cookware or the broiling tray further from the heat source.
Time to boil six cups of water
On the right front 18,000 BTU power burner, it took just under five minutes to boil six cups of water. While that's not as fast as the boil time on induction cooktops, which can boil six cups of water in as little as two-and-a-half-minutes, it's still faster than most of the boil times for other gas cooktops and gas range cooktops we've tested.
Maximum and minimum burner temperatures
Other than the simmer and center griddle burners, the remaining three burners reached maximum burner temperatures close to or higher than 400°F; the left front burner can get as hot as 500°F. These maximum temperatures are pretty typical for a gas cooktop. When it comes to cooler temperatures, the right rear simmer burner and the center griddle burner can both maintain temperatures of about 130°F on their lowest settings, while the other three burners have a tough time reaching temperatures lower than 145°F-150°F. This burner arrangement is ideal; it means that you have at least one burner for each temperature extreme, and other options if those burners are occupied.
Time to preheat
In Standard mode, it takes about 9.5 minutes to finish preheating to 350°F; in True Convection mode, it takes about 10 minutes. These preheat times are pretty average, compared to the other gas ranges we've tested.
Baking performance Credit: Reviewed
The Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF baked cookies (top row, True Convection mode) and cakes (bottom row, standard mode) evenly; the bottoms are noticeably darker than the tops.
We baked sugar cookies and white cakes in both Standard and True Convection mode; they all came out beautifully. The cookie and cake tops and bottoms were all evenly baked, but the bottoms were noticeably darker than the tops, which is to be expected.
Cooking performance Credit: Reviewed
In True Convection mode, the Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF evenly cooked a pork loin both in the inside and the outside.
When it came to roasting a pork loin, this gas range had no trouble cooking it evenly and thoroughly in both Standard and True Convection modes.
Performance results (Air Fry mode)
The star feature on the FGGH3047VF is the Air Fry mode, so we ran extra testing to see how it fared.
We followed the manual's cooking instruction for 43 ounces of frozen french fries (Ore-Ida, in this case) on a baking sheet for 30 minutes in Air Fry mode. Then we cooked the same load of fries for the same amount of time in standard mode.
It's worth noting that Ore-Ira gives conflicting instructions and recommends only cooking 1/2 to 3/4 of the bag. We opted to follow Frigidaire's instructions, however, which may have created the less-than-ideal fries.
Credit: Reviewed
The frozen fries cooked in standard mode did not cook all the way through, and were mushy, somewhat oily, and undercooked.
Unsurprisingly, the 43 ounces of french fries that were cooked on Standard mode were mostly still frozen. The fries that were touching the bottom of the baking sheet (the baking sheet couldn't fit all of the fries in a single layer and were piled on top of one another in some places) were crispy on one side, but were otherwise mushy, slightly oily, and uncooked.
Credit: Reviewed
The frozen fries cooked in Air Fry mode were cooked all the way through, and were not oily at all.
Using the air fry tray and Air Fry mode, it was a different story. Not only did all 43 ounces of frozen french fries fit onto the tray, but after 30 minutes, all of the fries that were not on the outer edge of the tray had been cooked evenly all the way through, and there was no oily residue. While the fries on the outer edge of the tray were burnt, some people like them that way (us included); also, it's a good indication that heat is flowing efficiently through your fried foods, even if it's moving a little too efficiently at the tray's edges.
Long story short: The Air Fry mode works. According to the manual, Air Fry mode works on everything from frozen tater tots to fresh chicken wings. We've also heard that it's possible to make cheesecake (!) using Air Fry mode.
Warranty
The Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF gas range comes with a one-year limited warranty that covers parts and labor.
What owners say
Because this range is relatively new, there aren't many user reviews available. Of the reviews that are published, though, almost all mention how much they love the Air Fry mode feature.
The bottom line
Even if this gas range didn't have the Air Fry mode, it would be a solid range that boils water quickly, has a good distribution of hot and warm burners, and cooks and bakes evenly. That this range also comes with Air Fry mode and True Convection is just the cherry on top. The Frigidaire Gallery FGGH3047VF is in the middle of the pack price-wise, edging toward costing slightly more than your average range. However, this is not your average range. If you're someone who spends a lot of time in the frozen foods section at your grocery store, or if your passion is cooking or baking, you won't regret investing in this gas range.
