Hello and boy am I mixed up!

Two friends have bought dacors and both have had problems. Though basically satisfied with their electric stovetop, one couple had to get theirs fixed, to the tune of over $600, soon after the warranty ran out. The other friend has had trouble with their gas burners from the beginning (they won't turn on if there is even a speck of even invisible dirt) and recommends staying away from the brand.

We totally redid our kitchen, renovations finished 3 weeks ago with a new stove top oven and fridge. Both are GE Profile from Sears and the stove top oven is gas, the guy we dealt with was great and very helpful. I would side with known brand names like GE, Whirlpool, maybe LG for electric, they're stuff lately has been very high quality with high efficiency power consumption. More so that they're proven reliable trusted names, I'd also inquire about warranty policies like what is or isn't covered, manufacturer or retail coverage on extended warranty, onsite or return? One things for sure though, where ever your sticking your new appliances, take note on space availability and the door openings (don't forget they gotta come in through the door first).

We did a complete kitchen rebuild four years ago, and got the GE Profile glass-top electric cooktop. We are completely dissatisfied with it: it is **** near impossible to judge the temperature, and impossible to reduce the temperature when cooking on the same burner. If you want high heat for a while and then a lower temp, you have to move the pan to a different burner and start it up from scratch.

It looks super-cool, a black glass surface on our black granite counter, but it's a complete pain in the a** to cook with. It also takes constant and complete cleaning, as any spills will vulcanize themselves to the surface unless they are immediately and completely cleaned off.

Its only virtue, maybe, is that most of it is just 3" deep, so I put a shallow drawer under it that holds all the stove tools - tongs, whisks, spatulas, and lots of other stuff. Nice not to have to walk to another place in the kitchen when you need something for the stove.

It got so bad that last month I got a service call by GE to check the temperatures of the burners, since they regularly heat up beyond the 525* capacity of my infra-red thermometer (bought for $65 to try to figure out what the he!l the burner is doing.)

He spent forty minutes, running each burner through its paces, and finally said it was working just as it should! I had recounted my difficulties to him, and he said well, that's pretty much the nature of the beast.

I was grateful that he only charged me the house-call minimum. He seemed a little embarrased by the product.

Two things:
1. Buy yourself a copy of Consumer Reports that deals directly with kitchen appliances and see what they recommend. I find their opinions more helpful as they come from real users and are not influenced by the manufacturing sector.
2. If you can afford it, I would recommend looking toward induction cook tops. There is virtually no heat and they respond much more quickly than either gas or electric.
Just my opinion though....