Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Kitchen Range (Glass or Gas?)
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January 28, 2011 at 2:24 am #597765
ceilidhMemberI never thought purchasing a kitchen range would be so confounding. Please share your experiences with the ceramic glass top ranges. I have an all gas range now. I’ve read that the smoothtops are difficult to clean, take a long time to heat up and cool down. Also, I’m considering a dual fuel. Anyone out there have the Bosch 700 series or the GE Cafe?
After reading thousands of reviews on the net, you’d think that every other range was catching on fire, buzzing and humming, or otherwise out of commission. Welcome your thoughts because I just cannot decide :)
January 28, 2011 at 2:39 am #715401
QueMemberI love my ceramic glass top range. It is slower to heat up than gas, but I think that it is faster than a traditional electric. Super easy to keep clean, and the bonus of extra counter space when you are not using the stove.
January 28, 2011 at 2:40 am #715402
Genesee HillParticipantElectric smooth top glass GE has been great. Heats up quick. Gas is probably best, but some air pollution in the kitchen. I cannot imagine that a smooth top GE would be more difficult to clean than a gas stove.
January 28, 2011 at 2:50 am #715403
JayDeeParticipantThanks to BPA and City Light’s hydro we do have pretty low electric rates here compared to other nearby states so electricity is not an automatic loser. I am keeping my heritage ’50s range going because it works but also because electric seems easier to dial in to low temps compared to gas. IMHO. Good luck.
January 28, 2011 at 3:29 am #715404
HomerParticipantWe have a somewhat old Hotpoint glasstop and I don’t notice too long to heat up but do notice slow to cool down. No big deal to us though. Cleaning they say must be done with this special stuff but we never do…just the backside of a sponge (a bit rough) and some water. Much easier than our old gas one with the big grates that food just caked on to. I like gas personally but this is really not bad in my opinion….pleasantly surprised!
January 28, 2011 at 4:28 am #715405
SmittyParticipantI like the extra counter space that a glass top provides. If you already have a lot of counter space then go for gas.
January 28, 2011 at 4:36 am #715406
sam-cParticipantif I was making a choice, I’d go for a glass top. we have gas. on the stove, I feel like it’s hard to get a variety of temps (it doesn’t seem like there is a sufficient ‘low’), and on the oven … (which you didn’t mention, but they are one and the same at least in our case) the oven temp. isn’t right either. perhaps I need to get a good oven thermometer, but I always feel like I need to guesstimate a higher temp than the recipe suggests. (If I set the oven at the temp listed in recipe, nothing is ever done in the suggested amount of time- I think our oven is colder than the reading claims it is)
January 28, 2011 at 4:40 am #715407
HomerParticipantDon’t forget that you can still cook soup or make hot water during a power outage with a gas stove vs. an electric stove….just another point.
January 28, 2011 at 5:06 am #715408
JayDeeParticipantHomer:
Unless your new gas stove uses electronics for lighting the burner or running the stove computer…just sayin’ ;-)
January 29, 2011 at 7:58 pm #715409
cjboffoliParticipantI prefer gas because I just feel like it provides faster heat and hotter temperatures. There is more heat being applied to the cooking vessel and I feel like the food actually tastes different in a lot of cases, especially with cooking meats (perhaps a reason why restaurant food tastes so different than home cooking). Not to mention that I can look at the burner and quickly see how much flame there is without having to step back and look at the knob (which are on the front of my stove, at waist level).
With the gas option, you may want to make sure you have a ventilation hood that vents to the outside. I have a commercial stove and there were actually code requirements that meant my builder had to re-engineer a larger exhaust pipe to handle all of the BTUs. Gas does burn cleanly, but you should always have the vent running with an open flame.
Good luck and happy cooking!
January 29, 2011 at 9:50 pm #715410
hammerheadParticipantWell from a house cleaners perspective: this also depends on how much or how “hard” you cook.
Ceramic: easy to clean although they can burn and that can be bit difficult to come off, I have found that a razor blade(thanks to a client) does work well in taking that stuff off.
Gas: “racks” on the stove part, get will burnt and don’t clean easy, hard to explain, but eventually you will just see dark burned spots, some have drip pans again once stuff is burned on it can be tough to get off.
Electric: with drip pans are my favorite, you can use oven cleaner on the drip pans or buy new ones.
Yes while is seems toxic or a waste, from a cleaners point of view it is the easiest to keep clean.
Good Luck
January 30, 2011 at 2:01 am #715411
dhgParticipantI have a glass top and I think it’s a great trainer if your roomie is the sort who lets things boil over far too often. The glass top cleans up easily. I like it for its precise temperature control. I don’t like the fact that it’s glass and can be shattered and I don’t use any of the le creuset pots or cast iron. The rough bottoms of cast iron would really scratch the glass.
As soon as I switch to natural gas for the house I am going to get a gas stove.
January 30, 2011 at 3:26 am #715412
banglesMemberWe have the GE Cafe dual fuel range. Very sharp looking and we really like it. Favorite parts are the center long burner, seamless surface that allows you to slide pans across the top and the lower oven. It’s not hard to clean. I usually just use a damp paper towel followed by a dry one.
January 30, 2011 at 3:29 pm #715413
flowerpetalMemberWe shopped around last year and thought we were going to buy glasstop. But on the day of purchase we talked further with the salesman and the topic of cast iron pots and skillets came up. We use them alot; and they are not a good match for glasstops; particularly if you might drag a heavy cast iron pot across the surface, even a little. The scratches can be damaging.
Dinner tonight? Lamb shanks slow cooked for several hours in a huge cast iron pot!
January 30, 2011 at 5:43 pm #715414
JoBParticipantanother factor i haven’t seen mentioned…
glass cooktops require flat bottom pans…
i have never been able to get the sides of a wok hot enough to be effective with a glass cooktop…
January 30, 2011 at 7:11 pm #715415
OwnerMaryMemberDual Fuel is what I did — GE Medallion. I spent alot of time researching differnt ovens. I really liked the magnetic induction tops, but realized that they will show their use much earlier than a gas. I once had a glass cooktop and it never looked clean. So I went with the GE dual fuel medaliion series with a built in grill. I LOVE IT. There are more expensive units, but GE has really built the right capabilitis into their oven. I picked it out at Albert Lee, after seeing all of their ovens. I purchased it from Metropolitan on 1st Ave, which gave me the better deal.
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