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  • How It Looks

  • How It Cooks

  • Should You Buy It?

  • How It Looks
  • How It Cooks
  • Should You Buy It?

After spending some time with the stainless steel 94243, we came away impressed: It’s tricky to find any true convection oven at a reasonable price, let alone one that cooks well. Fortunately, this 5.8-cu.-ft. range not only had a good oven, but its burners didn't disappoint, either.

For a sale price of around $730, it's also surprisingly well-specced: Each range comes equipped with a warming drawer, an adjustable broiler, variable self-cleaning times, and a triple-ring element.

While there are both cheaper and better ranges out there, very few can compete with this Kenmore’s combination of unexpected features, above-average performance, and affordable price.

How It Looks

Regardless of your color preference, the range has a simple and effective design and doesn’t cut corners when it comes to overall build quality. We prefer it in stainless—though it's also available in black or white.

The rangetop is comprised of five burners and offers a great deal of versatility.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Libby Schiau

The rangetop is comprised of five burners and offers a great deal of versatility.

To complement that clean aesthetic, the range has a robust set of features which add to its overall appeal. The warming drawer, for instance, may not have adjustable heat settings, but it’s still an improvement over a storage drawer. The 9424 also has a variable temperature broiler and the option for two- and four-hour self-cleaning cycles.

Rangetop and oven controls are found on the backsplash, so be careful when you adjust them during cooking.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Libby Schiau

Rangetop and oven controls are found on the backsplash, so be careful when you adjust them during cooking.

Up top, there's a burner for almost every cooking task. Two 6-inch, 1200W elements occupy the rear left and right spots, while a 100W warming zone can be found in the middle. Up front, on the left is a 9-inch Turbo Boil Flex 3200W element, while a 12/9/6-inch triple ring element sits on the right.

True convection in a sub-$1000 range?
Credit: Reviewed.com / Libby Schiau

True convection in a sub-$1000 range?

How It Cooks

While we were generally satisfied with how well this Kenmore baked, broiled, roasted, boiled, and simmered, it did have a few issues.

First, the good news: On the rangetop, we recorded fast boiling speeds and a wide range of temperatures. The triple-ring burner brought six cups of water to boil in only four minutes, and across all the elements we measured a maximum temperature of 742°F and a minimum of 79°F.

The rangetop excelled in our cooking tests.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Libby Schiau

The rangetop excelled in our cooking tests.

Down below, things got less impressive. Sure, the standard bake setting offered fairly even baking results in our food tests, but we noticed that food placed around the edges tended to get overdone, compared with food placed in the center. Similarly, multi-rack convection resulted in evenly baked cookies on the lower rack, but some burnt and underdone cookies on the upper rack.

The oven struggled to maintain the high standard set by the rangetop.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Libby Schiau

The oven struggled to maintain the high standard set by the rangetop.

Fortunately, both broiler coverage and time-to-preheat were exceptional. Even on its highest temperature setting, the variable-temperature broiler browned food evenly from edge to edge, and the oven preheated to 350ºF in only seven minutes.

The variable broiler allows a fair amount of control when grilling food.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Libby Schiau

The variable broiler allows a fair amount of control when grilling food.

Should You Buy It?

The Kenmore 94243 comes with a full one-year warranty and is only available from Sears and Kmart.

Thanks to a combination of pleasant design, helpful features, and overall cooking chops, we have no compunctions about heartily recommending the Kenmore 94243, 94242, and 94249 ranges. In fact, we would put them all forward as an excellent example of affordable cooking appliances that don't force you to compromise on quality or versatility.

If true convection is at the top of your wish list, the Kenmore 94243 is well worth a look. In fact, considering that it’s often on sale for as low as $730, you would be hard-pressed to find a better value.

Meet the tester

James Aitchison

James Aitchison

Editor

@revieweddotcom

Aside from covering all things sleep, James moonlights as an educational theatre practitioner, amateur home chef, and weekend hiker.

See all of James Aitchison's reviews

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