LG LDG3017ST Gas Dual Oven Review

Introduction

Front

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Range-top

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Upper Oven

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Lower Oven

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Broiler

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Cooking Performance

The {{product.model}} had pretty decent performance overall, but it did not wow us in any of our tests. We found that it was rather slow at boiling water, but the burners on the rangetop could produce a good range of temperatures. The two ovens that are on offer also had decent, but not great performance, providing a good temperature consistency for even cooking and a decent range of temperatures. A good oven can deliver the low and high temperatures consistently to allow for cooking all types of food, from a low warming to a high roasting temperature. We found that the {{product.model}} was able to deliver the high temperatures, but struggled at the other end, with the average temperature in our keep warm test being about 185°F.

{{photo_gallery "Primary Oven Keep-Warm Ramp-up", "Primary Oven 350F Ramp-up", "Primary Oven Max Ramp-up", "Secondary Oven Convection Ramp-up", "Oven Temperature Variance", "Range-top Water Boil", "Range-top Temperature Range"}}

Range Performance Overall

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In our tests, we found mixed performance from the {{product.model}}, with the four gas burners being able to produce a good range of temperatures, but struggling when it came to boiling water.

Water Boiling

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A range should be able to boil water quickly, from a small pan to a big pot of water for pasta. So, we test how quickly every range can boil several different sizes of pans half-filled with water. The {{product.model}} struggled somewhat here, with the quickest it could manage being 11 minutes and 22 seconds to boil just over 4 fl oz of water. Other burners failed this test, though, with the two burners on the right side of the rangetop failing to boil the water within the 35 minutes that we allow.

Low Temperature Cooking

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A good rangetop should be able to deliver a range of temperatures, starting with a gentle simmer for your sauces. That's what we test here, looking at the lowest temperature that the burner can deliver to our test pans. We found that the {{product.model}} was a little hot here: at the lowest setting, all of the burners delivered a temperature of higher than 130 °F. That is on the high side, meaning it would be difficult to gently cook a sauce or simmer your soup.

Range-top Temperature Range

High Temperature Cooking

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At the other end of the temperature range, we also found that the burners were not able to deliver a particularly high temperature, with the highest temperatures ranging from 277°F for the right front burner to 397°F for the front left. This means that your searing and frying would be best done with the front left ring, and that the other burners might have a problem reaching a very high heat for searing.

Overall Oven Performance

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There are two ovens on this range, with the top one offering a rather small 1.5 cubic feet of space, and the larger one offering 3.6 cubic feet. The performance of both ovens was acceptable, but not overly impressive.

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Target Temperature Accuracy

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Our first test looks at the range of temperatures that the oven can deliver. A good oven should be able to create anything from a gentle warming temperature up to a raging inferno, but we found that this oven struggled with both. At the cool end of the range, we found that the average temperature after the oven had heated up was about 185°F, which is a little higher than most. This could mean that food stored in the oven to keep warm would dry out a little quicker than some.

At the high temperature end of the range, the average temperature was 542°F, which is a little lower than most. It is definitely usable, but it is not enough to cook things like a pizza quickly.

Temperature Fluctuation

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As well as delivering a range of temperatures, a good oven should be able to keep the temperature consistent to ensure even cooking. The {{product.model}} also had a few issues here, with the temperature varying more inside the top oven more than we like to see. In fact, in one corner of the oven, we saw a variation of over 100°F in our tests, which is very high.

Secondary Oven Performance

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The bottom oven had a similar performance pattern to the top one, with average performance in keeping a consistent temperature. This oven also offers a convection mode that circulates the hot air to create more even temperatures, and we found that this was quite effective at eliminating hot spots and a more even temperature overall.

Broiler Performance

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We test the broiler by measuring the time it takes to heat up a test pan to 609°F, and many ovens struggle to reach this in any reasonable time. The {{product.model}} had no problems with this, though, reaching our target temperature in 5 minutes and 3 seconds. That's a fast time, which would make for quick broiling.

Broiler Features

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The broiler on this range is a radiant type, which uses a heated ceramic panel to heat the food. There is only a single broiler in the top smaller oven.

Overall Efficiency

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We found that this is an efficient range overall, using lower amounts of gas than most ovens of this type and size.

Range Efficiency

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To test the efficiency of a gas range, we measure the amount of gas it uses with two burners and the broiler running. For this range, that is a total of 61,795 BTU (British Thermal Units), which is in the middle of the range for ovens of this type.

Oven Efficiency

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LG claims that the gas usage of the top and bottom oven should be 14,500 and 18,000 BTU respectively. We found that both were a little lower than this in use, with the bottom oven using 16,528 BTU.

Features

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The {{product.name}} has a good selection of burners, with five burners of varying sizes and shapes. The four main burners are the common circular type, but the middle burner is an oblong shape that is usually called a fish burner, because the shape allows you to cook an entire fish at once. The power of these burners ranges from 5,000 BTU for the front right to 17,000 BTU for the burner at the front left.

There are two ovens in this range, with the top oven being a rather small 1.5 cubic feet, and the bottom one having a capacity of 3.5 cubic feet. The bottom oven has two racks, with one additional rack in the top oven. All three racks are the same, so they can be swapped out if required. None of these racks offer any removable sections, though.

At the back of the bottom oven is the large fan used in the convection cooking modes.

The standard timer features are on offer, with modes for delaying the cooking start and setting the alarm to sound after a particular cooking time.
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Controls

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The burners are controlled by the large dials on the front of the oven. These are comfortable to use, with good positive latching that means you are unlikely to accidentally turn them on if you lean against them: they require a fair amount of pressure and a turning motion to engage.

The oven controls are located on the illuminated panel on the top of the range. This uses touch screen buttons that are illuminated when you activate them. There is also a beep that lets you know that you have selected a control, but there is no touch feedback, so some users might not be comfortable using them if they don't hear the beep. The temperature, date and other information is displayed on the large LCD display in the middle of the panel.

The broiler is controlled by the same touch screen controls as the oven, with the same pros and cons: the buttons are easy to use, but it is hard to sometimes tell if you have pressed them fully.
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Cleaning

Conclusion

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Priced at around ${{product.msrp}}, the {{product.name}} at the higher end of the price range for ovens. And it does offer a good range of features for the price, with 5 burners (including a large fish burner) and dual ovens.

On the plus side, we found that the gas burners were capable of delivering a good range of temperatures, ranging from a very gentle simmer up to a high sear temperature, and the controls were easy to use and well laid out.

We did find, however, that the ovens did not share this wide temperature range, with the warming temperatures being a little warm, and the highest setting being a little cooler than we like to see. These temperatures were also inconstant, with a lot of variation across the oven space. Using the convection feature of the bottom oven did improve this situation somewhat, but the temperature range was still wider than we like to see.

Our overall conclusion is that the {{product.name}} is a good pick for the general cook, but those who are serious about cooking may want to look elsewhere. The slightly high keep warm temperature also means that those who like to prepare parts of a meal early may want to look elsewhere as well.