Electric range question

[NancyR]

I am in the throws of redoing my tiny cottage kitchen and want an honest opinion from people who cook and have had this experience: Are the smooth top electric cooktops SLOWER than the conventional coil? I have to make a decision on the stove and do NOT want to be disappointed. Any experiences to share? Thanks so much!

[KCZ]

I'm sure this will be the minority opinion here, but....

I have glass top electric ranges both at home and at our camp. My home range is a GE Profile, and I love it. It heats up faster than the conventional electric coil ones although not as fast as gas. The secret to maintaining constant heat is to use heavy pots (I have Calphalon anodized aluminum). The heat goes right to the pot instead of dispersing around it. I would never go back to gas.

The one at my camp is a Sears Kenmore. I needed a 24" range to fit in a small space, and Sears was the only company that made them. I am not very impressed by this one. It doesn't heat up very well at all.

Bottom line...I would recommend a glass top electric range but only a good quality one.

[NancyR]

Thank you so much. I will definitely stick with a top of the line stove. Cooking is too important to me. I appreciate your input!
NancyR

[siduri]

Sorry, but i can't imagine how you can really cook with one of those things. It's glass, and you need heavy-bottomed pans, so how can you toss stuff around like a sautee or whatever, and not crack the pan accidentally on the glass??? I tried cooking on one at my brother's house, and it was terrible. When you have to be too careful of an appliance, i say, forget it. Let the appliance work for me, not me for the appliance.

[Mezzaluna]

For us home cooks it's fine. Most of us don't toss food in pans when sauteeing- we stir with a spoon.

I learned to cook on gas and prefer it, but our small synagogue's kitchen has a spankin' brand new GE 962 cooktop to replace one that cracked. (Someone used a cast iron skillet to make potato latkes....) It has a burner that's adjustable up to 12" plus two burners that can be "bridged" to allow use of a stovetop griddle that fits over two burners.

Be sure you follow the manufacturer's directions carefully when it comes to cookware they recommend. No ridge-bottom pans (like the old Club aluminum), cast iron (unless they're enameled like Le Creuset) or warped pans.

[castironchef]

Originally Posted by Mezzaluna

(Someone used a cast iron skillet to make potato latkes....)

But you're SUPPOSED to make latkes in a cast iron skillet!

[MikeLM]

We have had the GE Profile glass/ceramic cooktop for three years and still can't figure the d**n thing out. It's slow to heat up, we don't have any idea where the heat level is, (I've burned up a couple dishes lately running on 1 - out of 10 - when "medium" heat was called for) and it just won't cool down when a reduction in heat is needed. We have come to realize that to reduce the heat on a dish we just have to start up another burner at very low temp and move the pan. We have mostly All-Clad cookware, so I don't think pans is our problem.

I'm starting to look seriously for an induction cooktop, but may be out of luck as they all seem to be just slightly larger than the GE, and I don't think I want to see about enlarging the cutout in our granite counter!

Looks really cool, though- black glass on a black granite counter.

As an added inducement, it's a b***h to keep clean, which you MUST do unless you want to vulcanize any spills to the surface when you next heat it up.

Scratches real easy, too.

Real winner.

Mike

[KCZ]

Mike, it sounds like maybe your thermostat controls are faulty or something. I don't have those problems at all. Have you had a repair person look at it?

[MikeLM]

Well, KC, I kind of doubt it. It has operated in the way I describe from the very first day we turned it on. Maybe it was defective right out of the box - I just hadn't considered that.

I'll think about it before I spend money on a service call.

Thanks.

Mike

[Free Rider]

My GE profile oven will say it has heated to the appropriate temperature and it has not done so. If I leave it for longer to preheat, it does end up keeping and maintaining the appropriate temp, however.

[Green Lady]

I have an 8 y.o. all electric GE Profile black glass cooktop and am going to be replacing it in a few weeks. I have offered it for free to whomever will cart it away.

We make pasta often and it takes forever to boil the water.

The convection fan died a few yrs. ago. We never bothered to get it serviced.

The bridge burner lights up whether I want it to or not.

When I warm up pasta sauce I have to turn the burner on and off because I can't get it low enough. The small burner that simmers is behind the large burner that my pasta is in so that is inconvenient, so instead I use the other front burner that doesn't go that low.

Also, it gets aggravating because the lit burner dims when I want it on high. It is as if the burner is telling me how to cook.

I do like the drawer at the bottom. Convenient for pans.

After looking online at blogs I am seriously thinking of popping for a Wolf dual fuel range. I want to go back to gas. Wolf is more than I want to pay but hopefully it will do the trick.

I don't find the glasstop too hard to clean. That is one reason I didn't get the gas w/ grates the last time.

[katbalou]

i have a coil top ge profile, (can't have gas - not available). i like the large oven and i would be totally unable to cook on flat glass after so many years of throwing pans professionally - i am not gentle on the cooktop. also if for some reason a coil burns out it can be easily replaced. some of my family have the glass tops and hate them - can't use their old pans, cast iron or keep the darn things clean very easily.
kathee

[bluedogz]

I have a KA 36" glass cooktop, and it's posed no concerns with cast iron or my All-Clad pans. It's been whacked pretty well with all kinds of hardware and not even scratched. I doubt it would stand up to professional-level abuse, but that's not what it's built for anyway. It's easier to clean if I just let the spillage carbonize and then scrape it clean with a razor blade, then windex it.

Green Lady- sounds like you have a bad control unit. Also, the radiant burners are supposed to turn themselves on and off. Remember that the "high" heat of a pro chef is nothing like the "high" heat of a home cook. Kinda like my version of "spicy" is quite different from my guests who think using TWO shakes of the pepper shaker is radical.

Oh, and NancyR- every manufacturer I found published the specs for their units on the web- the Sears website even links to them for brands they carry. You can compare the BTU outputs of all your choices.

[deltadoc]

When we moved in 30 years ago, we had a Litton ceramic top electric stove. It was horrible, and the ceramic finally cracked. I replaced it by remodeling my entire kitchen and got a Thermador Professional Gas Cooktop. If you're serious about cooking, go with gas. You have instant control of the gas flame height. There are just too many benefits to list them all.

doc

[cwshields]

We have a GE glass/ceramic top range that heats very quickly and is amazingly easy to clean. I use cast iron all of the time with no issues and I don't take any special precautions. The only thing I don't like is that it takes awhile to cool down to simmer mode (I think this is an issue with most electric stoves), I move the pan half off the burner until the proper simmer is reached (hard to do with a coil type electric). The oven is dead on so baking is a dream. If I had my way I would have a gas stove (not possible in our neighborhood) and the oven I currently have.
In other words IMHO get a gas stove top and electric oven if you can swing it.