Shopping for a 36″ cooking range?
How does this sound:
– Five sealed burners
– Convection ovens
– 304 stainless steel
– Heavy duty cast iron grates
– Italian design
– Availability in colors such as stainless, anthracite, ivory, burgundy and blue
You’ve just read the main selling points of Fratelli Onofri’s 36″ dual fuel ranges. They’ve been available in the US for over a year now but seemed to have been overshadowed by Bertazzoni, the other Italian manufacturer to have made recent inroads to the US market. Fratelli Onofri products look very similar to Bertazzoni’s, but an important factor differentiating them is price – Fratelli Onofri’s are less expensive.
Case in point: Let’s compare a 36″ dual fuel range in stainless, with 5 sealed burners and convection ovens.
Fratelli Onofri FREV905S – $2499
The big discernible difference? Bertazzoni offers self clean function and a meat probe. Is that worth $2300 to you?
Check out some of the colors that Fratelli Onofri offers….
Fratelli Onofri FRRYC905D
Fratelli Onofri FREV905S
Appliance Fetish 
The problem is that we cannot get the Fratelli in Canada so I just purchased a Bertazzoni. I must say that it was the Fratelli that I fell in love with first. I hunted all over the place, all to no avail.
My question is about the build. Are we sure that with the huge price differential there is (or is not) a difference in the build and quality of ranges?
Patrick – I guess Bertazzoni didn’t tell you that the reason you have to spend so much more on their product is that they have their ranges painted at the Ferrari factory and Fratelli Onofri has theirs painted at the GM plant. ; )
Actually, there are some functional differences between a Bertazzoni and a Fratelli (though I was entirely unimpressed with the few Bertazzoni’s I’ve seen). A closer comparison would be with an Ilve, which is distributed by the same company that handles Fratelli, but is regarded as a notch better.
We have a brand new FREV905SS that has a moisture buildup inside the oven. The condensation drips down into the storage compartment pan beneath, then onto the floor at the legs. Does anybody know how this range vents. We can’t seem to find any holes or slots for the heat to exit. Please help. rrussell@roadrunner.com