The 55cm cooker - great for small spaces

Don't let this week's nice weather fool you - winter is on the way and it will soon be time for warming hotpots and stews. As the festive season approaches (sorry for mentioning it already, won't use the 'C' word yet though) a lot of people replace their cookers and ovens in preparation for increased usage, however we don't all have the space for a luxurious range cooker, so what should you go for? If you live in a apartment, or have a smaller kitchen, a 55cm cooker is ideal for small spaces whilst still having a big enough capacity to cook for a whole family, or a Christmas dinner (sorry, I know I promised I wouldn't). Depending on the set up of your kitchen, 55cm gas cookers and 55cm electric cookers are available. But bear in mind when buying a new cooker that electric cookers don't plug into the mains and you will need a qualified electrician, and gas cookers required a registered gas fitter. One more consideration if you live in an apartment (sorry to overload you) is any gas cooker you buy must be fitted with a flame safety device by law, which basically means if a flame goes out, the gas supply will be cut off, saving the whole building from going up in flames. This is not a legal requirement if you live in a terraced, semi-detached or detached house.

However if you won't settle for anything less than a stylish range cooker but don't have the space for a full sized model, try a 90cm range cooker, if you are really short on space, I would recommend this Electrolux EKM70150X dual fuel range cooker, which is only 70cm wide. One more that I have to mention is the Stoves RICHMOND550 mini range cooker – I don't know if 'cute' can be used to describe a cooker, but these are! They are only 55cm wide, but have the appearance of a traditional country range cooker, and come in a range of funky colours as well as fuel types.