The Amana AER6603 is an electric range with four burners on its flat ceramic glass cooktop. There are two 6-inch burners, an 8-inch burner and one burner that expands from 6 to 9 inches. While there's no designated power boil element, the 3,000-watt burner will boil water relatively quickly.
The expandable burner sits close to you on the left side of the cooktop, so you don't have to worry about reaching over other hot cookware to grab large, heavy heated pots. The standard 6-inch burners produce up to 1,200 watts and the one 8-inch burner has a power output of up to 1,800 watts. Some of the ranges in our lineup have a 100-watt burner for keeping food warm, but this range does not include that. Be aware that certain cookware made of cast iron, aluminum or copper could scratch the glass surface if you drag it across the cooktop.
This range is available in three colors: black, white and stainless steel. The cooktop is black ceramic regardless of the range’s color. The oven capacity is the smallest in our lineup, at 4.8 cubic feet, but produces an impressive amount of power for its size. The small capacity and size make this oven a good fit for smaller families or infrequent cooks. The thermal heat produced by ovens like this Amana model doesn't always heat food thoroughly. However, the oven's low capacity traps the heat in a smaller, more concentrated area.
This model lacks convection functionality, a style of cooking that uses circulated heat to cook food evenly and thoroughly. Ovens with this feature tend to consume the most energy and bake food at the highest temperature. For this thermal model, the bake wattage reaches 2,400 watts while baking and 3,400 while broiling.
The self-cleaning cycle lasts between 2.5 hours for minimal messes and 4.5 hours for serious spills. It doesn’t have a fast self-cleaning cycle like some of the ranges we evaluated do. Depending on the mess, you can program the self-clean duration by 15-minute intervals between these limits. The digital display shows how long you have left in the cycle. Once the cycle is finished, you can remove the ash of the food stains with a damp cloth.
This electric range is one of the more affordable ones in our lineup and has some nice convenience features like a Sabbath mode, which is used to warm or cook food for up to 12 hours. It overrides features like automatic shut-off for people in a Kosher home. The oven has a warm hold feature that stays at 145 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit to keep food warm that you don’t want to serve for a while.
This range is missing some convenience features some of the higher ranked models had like a timed bake alarm and removable knobs for cleaning, but it has some nice features for a range at this price. It is also an easy unit to use. If a timed bake alarm is an important feature to you the Whirlpool WFE515S0ES is an affordable range with that feature. This model sports a digital clock, timer, preheat tone, heat indicator lights and a door lock for safety.
If you need assistance with this model, there are several forms of support online and over the phone. If you lose the original literature for this range, you can find the use and care guide, dimension guide, installation instructions and specs sheets on the Amana website. The website also provides support in the form of FAQs, email and phone lines.
Summary
The Amana AER6603 is a standard electric range with most of the essential features. It’s smaller than the other units we evaluated, at 4.8 cubic feet, but it can still hold food and is a good choice for a small family or for small kitchens. The expandable element can accommodate large and small cookware. There is a child lock to prevent a child from accidentally turning it on. This is a thermal oven without a convection fan. It has a Sabbath mode but lacks a timed shut-off feature, which would turn off the range if anything is left on for an extended period. For the price this range is a good choice.
