Electric cooktops - please enlighten me

[Anonymous]

We are moving into a house next month that does not have gas on the street, so our cooktop will be electric. I have never owned an electric cooktop before (nor had any experience cooking on electric), so I am little nervous! To make things more difficult, we are replacing the appliances in the house prior to moving in, which means I need to pick our new cooktop before I can get any experience cooking on one. I like to cook and do so 5-6 nights each week, so I will use this cooktop a lot.

Does anyone out here have one who can enlighten me on what I should be looking for, what features are worth extra money and which aren't, and what to look out for? As I said, I'm in the difficult position of having to make selections before even getting to try, so I really need to be educated by others in order to make the most informed decision I can (admittedly, not very since I can't try first).

Thank you so much!

[Anonymous]

I hate hate hate my (admittedly, low end) glass cook top. When we replace it, we are going to go ahead and splurge on an induction model.

Our current one takes forever to heat up (and coming from gas to electric, you will be sooo frustrated), then. It gets too hot, but turning it down doesn't help because the glass retains the heat for so long. If you want something delicate to come to a boil, then go to a low simmer, better get two burners going - one high, one low.

I was an okay cook on gas, but this has really shaken my cooking confidence.

[Anonymous]

If I were buying new, I'd get one with two induction burners, two flattop electric - but check first whether your current pans will work on an induction top.

[Anonymous]

Our house has a Thermador glass top from the mid 90s and I'm pretty happy with it.

[Anonymous]

Induction is fantastic if you can spring for it.

I like electric for everyday family cooking.

[Anonymous]

Induction cooktop! Better than gas, so they say.

[Anonymous]

If it's up to you and $'s not an object, definitely go induction.

It works with any pan that's magnetic -- i.e., stainless steel or cast iron. If your cookware is anodized aluminum or all-copper, replace it. Worth it.

(If you have all-copper and it means that much to you, then you can afford to be the first house on the street to run a gas line.)

[Anonymous]

I don't hate it but I not love it. If you have cast iron or enameled cast iron, you can't slide the pan as it will damage the cooktop, so be mindful of this. Some manufacturers advise against using it completely dur to the weight of the cookware. It's been years since I've had gas so I can't say I miss it. Whatever you do, make sure the cooktop isn't white.

If I had the choice to do 2 induction/2 electric, I might go that route. But you must use stainless steel or iron cookware on induction. I have a few neighbors with large propane tanks outside (double or triple a grill tank size) and they ran lines to their stoves to keep gas.

[Anonymous]

Like you I was used to gas cooking. I've gotten used to electric after a year of cooking with it. We have a new but not high end whirlpool glass top electric range. It heats vey quickly -- I'd say it boils water in my pasta pot faster than my old gas range. On the downside, I agree that it's hard making quick temperature adjustments with the electric cooktops -- my secret is moving the pan on and off of the burners as needed to regulate the speed/intensity of cooking. It took a little practice but it's pretty easy now.

[Anonymous]

We moved from a house with gas to a flat-top electric (it's a GE profile) and I love it. It works fine and I'm happier with it than our low-end gas range.

[Anonymous]

It might be worth the money to have gas installed in the street before, you move in end buy appliances. The truth is electric is terrible and depending on your house price will negate anything positive you do to the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

I've been cooking on electric cooktops for a l-o-n-g time and thoroughly dislike the experience. Don't know a thing about induction; check out any alternative to the electric cooktop!

[Anonymous]

How loaded are people that they are suggesting you be the first to run gas on the street? I have to imagine that running a new gas line on a street would be insanely expensive as it would invoke digging up the entire street. It's not the same as just running gas from another part of your house into the kitchen

We have a low end glass cooktop and I like it more than I thought I would. I definitely prefer gas, but the glass has been fine, and I cook a lot.

[Anonymous]

We used an electric flat cooktop in the house we rented for ten years. The only reason why I didn't throw it out of the house was because it wasn't hours.

Reasons why I hated it include:
-when something like soup boiled over, it immediately burned, sticking to the stove, making the house smell horribly and the putting the burner out of service until it could be cleaned up.
-if something small like a grain of rice fell into the burner, it caught fire and again, stunk up the kitchen.
-scrubbing the cooktop after something burned onto it was hell, and it never looked completely clean as hard as I tried.
-there was no simmer, the lowest setting did nothing at all.
-Very uneven heat.
-hard to change temperature.
-you always had to clean the cooktop before cooking, to make sure nothing got further burned in (easier said than done with little kids).

We bought a house last year and I told DH I was not moving into it unless we put in a line for gas or got induction. Induction won. I LOVE our new cooktop so much! It's a Bosch. It simmers at the lowest setting, if something spills it does not burn in as the cooktop doesn't get that hot, I can just pick up the pot, wipe, and keep on cooking. It even has a timer that shuts off the burner when it's done.

[Anonymous]

I had an electric cooktop for years and really liked it. My parents also had one and my mom seemed fine with it. I miss it - it wasn't hard to cook, wasn't hard to clean (with the right cleaner) and I liked being able to put stuff on the flat surface when I wasn't cooking with it. Mine was just a normal mid-range stove. I have gas now and I'm tempted to replace it with an electric range when I buy new appliances.

running a new gas line to the street? WTF?? i've never heard anyone say they weren't buying a house because it didn't have a gas stove. Silly.