High-end features without the high-end price
Jinx
5/22/2025
The Bosch 100 Series Gas Range is an affordable option for people who want the look, feel and many of the features of high-end ranges without the high-end price.
The 100 Series Gas Range offers a sleek "slide-in" design, meaning that there's no control panel sticking up in the back. Once installed, it looks like a built-in stove/oven combo. With its large, glass oven window stretching the full width of the range and horizontal panels of stainless steel, it made an attractive addition to our kitchen. And we soon discovered that this design has added benefits.
Our old range was clad almost entirely in stainless steel, with its oven window surrounded by stainless steel. As a result, it was constantly covered in fingerprints, and properly cleaning the stainless steel (cleaning gently with the "grain") was a pain, especially around the window. The 100 Series Gas Range's more sparing use of stainless steel and side-to-side oven window makes for much easier cleaning, and it tends to not pick up as many fingerprints.
This easy-cleaning design stretches to the stove on top. The cast iron stove grates are massive, solid and heavy, like the kind you will find on high-end and professional stovetops. Remove them, and the surface underneath is black enamel. Compared to our old stainless steel oven, cleaning the black enamel is a lot easier. Most baked on spills just wipe off. And the process is less stressful, as the enamel seems to be more scratch resistant than stainless steel. There's a generous amount of distance between the burners and the bottom of the stovetop, protecting both the burners and surrounding countertops from boil-overs and spills.
There are five burners: two large ones in front, two smaller ones in the back and a large oval burner in the center. The front left burner is the most powerful, and while it takes a bit longer to boil a big pot of pasta water than some of the more higher-end ranges I've used, it's still pretty quick and the difference isn't too noticeable. The right hand burner can also boil a decent size-pot of water without too much delay, although we mostly use it with our saucepan. The smaller back burners do a good job if you need to simmer some sauce or cook something in a smaller pot. The front burners are placed a little farther back than I'm used to, but this is probably a good thing for people who have younger kids around the house.
What really makes the 100 Series Gas Range's stove unique is the large oval center burner. I've had ranges with center burners before, but this one is considerably larger and definitely burns hotter. I have a large, rectangular cast iron griddle that I usually use outside. On Mother's Day I tossed it on the center burner and I was able to cook eight pieces of French Toast at a time. I air-fried some bacon in the oven (more on that later), and I was able to cook Mother's Day Brunch quickly and with minimal mess.
Speaking of the oven… It has a lot of features that, once again, you would normally find in more expensive units. There's convection bake, convection roast, air fry mode, a setting for proofing dough… There's even a special mode for cooking frozen pizza, which could come in handy on those busy workdays.
What really impressed me was how quickly the oven heats up, especially for an oven of this size. With "Fast Preheat" turned on, it can preheat to 400 degrees in about half the time of our old range.
The air fry mode is a fun add-on. We do have a dedicated counter-top air fryer, but the 100 Series Gas Range obviously lets you air-fry a lot more food at once. There are some foods (like sweet potato fries) that do tend to come out a bit crisper in a dedicated air fryer, but for things like hot wings or bacon, I didn't really notice a difference and you can cook substantially more wings at the same time in the 100 Series Gas Range (useful if you're putting out appetizers for a party). You will want to invest in a baking pan with a grid to hold whatever you're air frying above the surface of the pan, and consult the user manual for proper rack placement. Also, I found that if you're following the air fryer instructions on most frozen food packages, you'll generally want to add a little extra time and set the temperature a little bit higher to get similar results to a dedicated air fryer.
Another thing that really impressed me about this oven was its even heating. To put it through its paces, I baked a spinach soufflé. If you've never baked a soufflé, one thing you should know is that you need to avoid opening the oven door during the baking process, as that could cause the soufflé to fall. It's not like baking a tray of cookies or a roast where you can open the door and rotate the pan halfway through the process to ensure even heat. I'm happy to report that even though the soufflé sat in the same spot in the oven during the entire baking process, it rose evenly and browned evenly. It looked beautiful and tasted better.
But you don't have to make a soufflé to appreciate the even heating. My wife cooked two trays of coffee cookies on two different racks at the same time using the convection baking mode. All the cookies were perfectly baked without rotating the trays or making any other adjustments during the baking process. We did enable ACC (Automatic Convection Conversion) in the oven settings before she baked the cookies. The manual that comes with the range can walk you through that process.
I haven't had to try the self-clean option yet, as any spills we had wiped up pretty easily, so I can't report on that. About my only criticism of the oven would be in regards to the oven racks. They are not as solid as the racks I've used in some other ovens, and they do seem to flex a bit under the weight of my Dutch oven. Still, for most people and everyday use, they should be fine.
All in all, the 100 Series Gas Range is a really nice range. The door and the stove grates all feel solid. The oven controls are easy to use. Plus it's easy to keep clean. It's a huge step above the usual basic ranges without being substantially more expensive.
Originally posted on Bosch.com
Yes, I recommend this product
