SIA AMZGHG602BL Gas Hob

Is the SIA AMZGHG602BL Gas Hob worth buying?

Yes, the SIA AMZGHG602BL Gas Hob is worth buying at £94.99 if you want cast iron pan stands and 7,500 W of gas without crossing the £95 line. It is a 60 cm built-in four-burner hob in black glass, and 187 buyers rate it 4.3. Run the price against the power and it comes to £12.67 for every kilowatt, which is the cheapest figure of any 60 cm four-burner gas hob on this page.

It suits a kitchen swapping out an old four-burner unit on a fixed budget, where iron grids and a flame failure device on every ring count for more than a badge on the front. It is less suited if stir-frying is your main cooking, because a dedicated wok ring is where the TopStrong 4 Burner Gas Hob puts 3,400 W on one burner for £149.99. It is also not the hob to fit alone: at 12 kg it is heavier than most of the 60 cm models here.

How much power does the SIA AMZGHG602BL Gas Hob give you?

The SIA AMZGHG602BL Gas Hob runs 7,500 W across four gas burners, which is 1,875 W for each ring on average. That is 140 W less per ring than the TopStrong at 2,015 W and 250 W less than the Hisense GM663BHF at 2,125 W, so it sits in the middle of the 60 cm field rather than at the top. In practice, 1,875 W a ring brings a big pan of water to the boil quickly and still leaves two rings free for the rest of the meal.

Divide the £94.99 by the 7.5 kW and you get £12.67 a kilowatt, against £16.00 for the SIA GHG612BL and £18.71 for the Hisense GM663BHF. That is the number that makes this hob interesting: the same 7,500 W the £119.99 SIA delivers, for £25.00 less. You give up nothing in output to get it, only the bigger crowd of owners behind the pricier model.

What comes in the box and what is it like to live with?

The box holds the hob, heavy-duty cast iron pan stands and enamel burner caps, plus the LPG kit, so the same unit can run on bottled gas or mains gas. It is a built-in 60 cm model with electronic ignition at the knobs and a flame failure device that shuts the gas off if a flame goes out. SIA keeps spare parts for 5 years and the cover runs 5 years on parts and 2 years on labour.

At 12 kg it is one of the heavier hobs at this price, so two people make dropping it into the worktop easier, and the cast iron stands add weight in the hand every time you lift them off to clean. The black glass ceramic top shows water marks and smears under a bright kitchen light, so a wipe with a damp cloth once it is cold is the routine. Nothing beyond the hob and its pan stands has to be bought separately, though the fitting itself needs a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Where does the SIA AMZGHG602BL Gas Hob fall short?

The 12 kg body and the cast iron stands are the weight you feel, both on fitting day and every time the grids come off for washing. The burner caps are enamel rather than cast iron, so they scratch and discolour sooner than the supports sitting around them. Black glass also asks more of you than stainless steel, because every fingerprint and splash shows against it.

The record behind it is respectable rather than deep: 187 buyers rate it 4.3, against 413 ratings at 4.4 for the SIA GHG612BL. Its controls are plain rotary knobs with four burners and no extra cooking modes, which keeps it simple but leaves nothing to reach for when you want a specific low simmer. If a ring above 3,000 W for a wok is what you cook on, the TopStrong 4 Burner Gas Hob is the one to look at instead.

How does the SIA AMZGHG602BL Gas Hob compare with the others?

The SIA GHG612BL costs £119.99, which is £25.00 more for exactly the same 7,500 W, and it swaps the cast iron stands here for enamel ones. What that £25.00 buys is the longer record: 413 buyers rate it 4.4 against 187 here, with the same 5 years on parts and 2 years on labour. If iron under the pans is what you want, this hob is the cheaper way in, and if a bigger body of owners is what you want, the GHG612BL is the safer buy.

The TopStrong 4 Burner Gas Hob at £149.99 is £55.00 more and brings 8,060 W with a 3,400 W burner for a wok, cast iron stands and 222 ratings at 4.3. Choose the TopStrong if stir-frying is the centre of your cooking, and stay with the SIA AMZGHG602BL if the cost of the power is what you watch: no other 60 cm model on this page beats £12.67 a kilowatt.