Unless you have a huge budget for your range cooker

Compare Range Cookers #1: In this first edition of Compare Range Cookers, two Sub-£1,500 Dual Fuel Range Cookers - The Rangemaster Traditional 110 and the Stoves Sterling 1100DF - go head to head.

These two models of cooker typify the choice you must make when deciding on your range cooker - style. Do you want modern or traditional? Both look great in the right setting - and that will depend on your kitchen units, worktops, taps, handles and tiles.

The contemporary Stoves cooker is available in black or stainless steel; the Rangemaster Traditional comes in blue, green, cream, black and red. Stoves' choice of basic monochromes and Rangemaster's plethora of colour choices ensures that with either of these cookers, there's little danger of being unable to fit the cooker neatly into your kitchen.

Further to the aesthetics of these cookers, they have very different hob arrangements. The Sterling's seven-burner setup, including a large wok burner suits a contemporary style of cooking with mixed regional influences. The Traditional has only 5 burners, but features a sit-on griddle, whereas the Stoves model has a one-piece hotplate as well as a griddle, giving further adaptability. One nice feature of the Rangemaster Traditional is the 'warming zone' to keep your plated foods warm while you perfect that medium-rare fillet.

Moving on to the ovens, both have a similar setup of two ovens and two grills for maximum cooking flexibility, with the Rangemaster boasting energy rating A on both the electric fan and conventional ovens which will help to keep your energy bills down.

The Stoves Sterling 1100DF is considerably more cost-effective than the Rangemaster, and offers a much more comprehensive cooking solution for those of you looking to use lots of pans simultaneously, including woks, during your daily cooking. The Rangemaster Traditional 110 [ is a great cooker that should satisfy most people's needs. The 110's practical features ensure a stress-free and efficient cooking process; the Sterling's two extra hobs and advanced programmable oven features ensure you keep a cool head cooking for a large number of people.

Unless you have a huge budget for your range cooker, one of these two could well serve your needs well.