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Home & garden.

6 August 2021

Top five best freestanding cookers for 2021

Do your dinners justice with one of our top-pick freestanding cookers – including gas, electric and dual-fuel models

Jane Darling

The best cookers ace our tough lab tests, so you can be sure the top models we recommend cook evenly, grill beautifully and come with a hob that can boil quickly as well as simmer gently.

To help you avoid spending money on a cooker that will make preparing meals a frustrating ordeal, we've rounded up five models that we think you'll be more than happy with.

Only logged-in members can view our recommendations below. If you're not already a member, join Which? to unlock the table and also get instant access to our freestanding cooker reviews.

Best cooker overall

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74%
£600.00
This freestanding cooker is packed with features, including the option for an oven programme that the manufacturer claims will ensure food is golden and crispy. We bake a batch of shortbread and a sponge cake to see how well the ovens distribute heat and bake. The best create well-risen, evenly cooked foods. Read the full review of this freestanding cooker to find out if it can deliver on this front.
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Top electric ceramic cooker

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69%
£882.00
The high points for this cooker are the grill and the excellent heat distribution in the main oven - you'll not struggle for even colour when grilling or baking. Just be mindful of the hob: as with many ceramic hobs, it's rather slow to get going.
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Best dual-fuel cooker

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69%
£1434.00
It's rather pricey, but this Best Buy cooker has an accurate, speedy oven and a very good grill. The main oven fits in a decent amount of food, and has some useful features such as programmable cooking timers. Just be aware that the hob is a bit slow.
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A top-choice gas cooker

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65%
£500.00
One of the better gas cookers we've found. The main oven heats up really quickly, and the catalytic liners on the side walls of both the main and top oven save on cleaning time. The hob isn't too slow compared with other gas hobs taking around nine minutes to heat up 1.5 litres of water in our tests.
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Cheap induction cooker

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65%
£598.97
This cooker has an impressively accurate main oven which gives good results. The hob is decent, too, although the grill is somewhat mediocre. This cooker has been available for a few years now, but still holds its own alongside modern competition.
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Prices, recommendations and test scores correct as of August 2021.

Not found the cooker for you? Browse all of our freestanding cooker reviews.

Two freestanding cookers to avoid

If you choose a cooker on a whim, you risk spending your hard-earned money on poor quality. Our extensive tests have found some freestanding cookers with inaccurate ovens and hobs that take an age to warm up your food.

Even if you don't go for a Best Buy, avoid the duds below.

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45%
£369.00
The grill is good, but the oven's temperature accuracy is dire. When we heated it to 200°C, it overshot by 27°C - this could spell disaster for any budding bakers.
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42%
£459.99
The oven heats up quickly, but you can't trust the temperature accuracy. Plus it's hard to clean and the hob is slow to heat up water. This cooker really doesn't have much going for it.
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Top five things to consider when choosing a freestanding cooker

If you're looking for a new freestanding cooker and don't know where to begin, the following are a good place to start:

Type: you can have all-gas, all-electric or a dual-fuel cooker that has an electric oven and gas hob. With electric models your main choice is what kind of hob you get. Find out more by heading to our guide on gas cookers vs electric cookers.
Price: you can buy all-gas and all-electric cookers from under £200 to upwards of £1,000. If you want an electric cooker with an induction hob, prices start from around £500. Prices for dual-fuel cookers start from around £250, but most are more than £400.
Size: most freestanding cookers are 60cm wide, but you can also find 50cm and 55cm-wide cookers. All are roughly the same height (80cm) and depth (60-65cm).
Oven capacity: manufacturers state oven capacity in litres, but this includes space you can't actually use for cooking (such as the area under the lowest shelf). We measure how much usable space there actually is, which we reveal in our reviews.
Features: think about which features you need or want the most. For example, you might want a cooker with a self-cleaning program, or telescopic runners that help with moving hot, heavy dishes out of the oven.

To help you compile your shortlist, take a look at our detailed advice on how to buy the best freestanding cooker.