Gas cooktop questions

[Elan]

Contemplating the minor kitchen remodel (new countertops, minimal cabinet modifications, and some new appliances). We currently have a lower end 30" gas range. We are thinking of going with a 36" gas cooktop over a 30 single electric convection wall oven. We'd love to have a double wall oven stack, but it's just not going to be a reality for this house.

Anyhow, with regard to the cooktop, we were looking at the gas on ceramic as a possibility. It seems like it might be very easy to clean and keep looking nice, which is a major plus to us. Does anyone have a gas on glass cooktop? If so, what's the verdict? What about other options for cooktops? We know what we want in terms of burners, BTU's, etc, but am not sure on the surface material. We like the look of stainless, but I'm not sure I'm sold on ease of maintenance. All advice appreciated.

 

[Passepartout]

I have no experience with gas on glass, but we've had great service from our freestanding Viking range. It's of the older- multi-piece top and grates that look really 'commercial', but are a PITA to keep clean and new' looking. If I were looking to install a new gas cooktop, and had recently hit the lottery, the one on the right here: http://www.vikingrange.com/consumer...cat12360037#subcategory-child-cat-cat12430057 is my choice. The continuous grates allow moving pans around without lifting them. You can put them partially on a burner if you need a really low simmer, and the grates will go in the dishwasher. The stainless wipes up easily, and wouldn't have the risk of scratching and breaking that glass could.

Put it in and I'll bring over a box of 'roni's and cheese to try it out with. You buy the beer.

Jim

 

[Fern Modena]

Now you make me want to replace my range top. Unfortunately there is nothing wrong with the old one, so it will stay. But I do have Viking envy...

Fern

 

[Elan]

I presume the gas-on-ceramic top is little different than a ceramic top on an electric range, with which I have no experience either. So comments related to ease of cleaning on those would be appreciated as well.

WRT brands, I'd likely buy a Wolf or Viking if money were no object, but since that's not the case it'll likely be a more mundane brand (GE, Bosch, etc). This house is not a show house by any means (my kids see to that!), and even if it were it's difficult to justify the price premium of the lux brands. I just want to upgrade to something mid range while we're in the process of replacing the countertops.

Here's an example of a gas on glass cooktop:

http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=JGP970SEKSS

 

[glypnirsgirl]

I hated my electric glass top! It is a myth that they are easy to clean. If there is any oil on the bottom of the pan or the smallest amount of boilover, then you have to practically chisel it off.

I now have a regular gas stove with sealed burners. It really is easy to clean.

My husband claims that the gas is "wimpy." He longs for the Viking range that Jim linked to. Since peanut butter and jelly does not require high heat, it is immaterial to me whether it is wimpy or not.

elaine

 

[Passepartout]

Jim, I think that GE should do the job just fine. My SIL has an electric glass top and as Elaine said, it it not as easy to clean as they lead you to believe. Gas may be different where the pans rest on grates and no heat is actually below the glass. I saw it has just one 15k BTU unit, and while not the biggest, it should boil water fairly well. The only time you really miss the BTUs is with a big pasta pot or kettle of soup you want to bring up quickly. I am able to bridge 2 of my burners with an aluminum griddle. Very handy. This one looks like it might do that too.

Jim

 

[CMF]

I have no experience with gas on glass, but we've had great service from our freestanding Viking range. It's of the older- multi-piece top and grates that look really 'commercial', but are a PITA to keep clean and new' looking. If I were looking to install a new gas cooktop, and had recently hit the lottery, the one on the right here: http://www.vikingrange.com/consumer...cat12360037#subcategory-child-cat-cat12430057 is my choice. The continuous grates allow moving pans around without lifting them. You can put them partially on a burner if you need a really low simmer, and the grates will go in the dishwasher. The stainless wipes up easily, and wouldn't have the risk of scratching and breaking that glass could.

Put it in and I'll bring over a box of 'roni's and cheese to try it out with. You buy the beer.

Jim

Very, very cool! Thanks for the link.

Charles

 

[Rose Pink]

http://www.bosch-home.com/us/products/cooking/cooktops/gas/NGM5664UC.html?source=browse

This is mine. The grates and the tops from the burners go in the dishwasher. I've found the rest of it comes clean with a magic eraser type product. The black isn't as easy to clean as I'd hoped but I like the look far better than stainless. I really am not a fan of stainless. Boring. Overdone, imo.

Once upon a time, I thought I wanted a smooth glasstop for ease of cleaning but then I wondered "what would catch the spills and boil overs?" My drip pan areas of my Bosch catch spills and I can clean them up when I have time to do so and don't have to worry about them running over the counter and down the front of the cabinets. I don't cook often, but I am messy. Well, DH can be messy. Yeah, I think I'll blame him.

 

[MuranoJo]

I think 'continuous grate' would be great!

We do have gas with a glass top around the individual grates. Cleaning the glass top isn't bad--it's the area under the grates--the removable rings around the gas flames and the crevices around the circumference of the burner, and worst of all, the grates themselves. Ours is white with gray grates (from '93).

And I'd love to get 5-6 burners vs. the 4 we have, with at least one very large burner in the middle for canning. I just don't believe we have room to fit that over the surface area we have now for the 4 burner.

But, a new stovetop will be our next upgrade.

 

[Rose Pink]

And I'd love to get 5-6 burners vs. the 4 we have, with at least one very large burner in the middle for canning. I just don't believe we have room to fit that over the surface area we have now for the 4 burner.

When I was looking at four vs five burners, I realized the width difference was only six inches ( 30 vs 36 inch). Can you squeeze out another 6 inches from your counterspace? Since my cooktop was going in the center of a counter run, I lost three inches on either side. I figured I wouldn't miss 3 inches, and I haven't.

 

[MuranoJo]

When I was looking at four vs five burners, I realized the width difference was only six inches ( 30 vs 36 inch). Can you squeeze out another 6 inches from your counterspace? Since my cooktop was going in the center of a counter run, I lost three inches on either side. I figured I wouldn't miss 3 inches, and I haven't.

Unfortunately, we don't have much room to the right side (maybe 8") as the refrigerator bumps up against that counter. I would love to somehow make it work.

BTW, your suggestion about the magic eraser is absolutely right! Someone else suggested this to me and I think they're the best thing since sliced bread. Wish they were available when we first built this place so we could have managed the upkeep better. Magic eraser is actually great for many other surfaces.

 

[Karen G]

I presume the gas-on-ceramic top is little different than a ceramic top on an electric range, with which I have no experience either. So comments related to ease of cleaning on those would be appreciated as well.

Here's an example of a gas on glass cooktop:

http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=JGP970SEKSS

That is a nice looking cooktop, and I think it would be easy to clean. I have a similar cooktop except it's not all glass like the picture. Around each burner is a built-in drip pan made of some other material & not glass. The glass surrounding the burners on my cooktop is very easy to clean and I like it a lot. I wish the whole thing were glass like the one in the picture.

In our other house we had an electric stove with the glass top. I liked it and it wasn't too hard to keep it clean if you cleaned it after each use and used the recommended cleaning products. But I prefer the gas cooktop I have now.

 

[Elan]

Thank you all for the helpful input! A couple comments/questions:

1) My req's WRT BTU's etc was that the unit have at least one burner 15K or greater, a couple mid-output burners (10k) and at least one low output burner. The unit I linked to barely meets that requirement, but I'll make that sacrifice if that particular unit is exceptionally easy to keep clean.

2)Not bragging here, because we're certainly no culinary masters, but we seldom boil anything over. But I do see where that could get messy without having the burners recessed. Good point.

3) Rose Pink, what is the surface that you are using the Magic Eraser" on? Doesn't the abrasiveness do damage? Our current range has the porcelain trays in the depressions under the burners, and those things are impossible to clean, once something gets cooked on.

4) Just thought I'd mention that we do most of our cooking these days in cast iron. Dropping cast iron on glass sounds disastrous, but I don't know that it'd be much more so than our other cookware, which is copper/stainless clad.

 

[Karen G]

4) Just thought I'd mention that we do most of our cooking these days in cast iron. Dropping cast iron on glass sounds disastrous, but I don't know that it'd be much more so than our other cookware, which is copper/stainless clad.

Looking at the picture of the cooktop, I don't know how you could drop a skillet or pan directly onto the glass top because of the way the grates and knobs are situated. I guess if you removed the grates and then dropped the pan it might be a problem, but I can't think of a scenario where that would be an issue.

 

[Elan]

Looking at the picture of the cooktop, I don't know how you could drop a skillet or pan directly onto the glass top because of the way the grates and knobs are situated. I guess if you removed the grates and then dropped the pan it might be a problem, but I can't think of a scenario where that would be an issue.

Right. That was my thought as well on that particular unit.

Just for clarification, by no means are we leaning toward the cooktop I linked to. It was just a good example of gas on glass. We may go that direction and we may not. Having said that, we both like the look of that particular unit, as it's black with a stainless bezel, which would complement some of the other pieces in our kitchen.

 

[Passepartout]

As mentioned earlier, for me, a deal maker/breaker is the continuous- or interconnected grates. Individual grates with glass exposed to damage/spills around them wouldn't get it.

Related: Our SIL has the electric induction glass top. He cleans it with Magic Eraser. It works pretty well.

I still vastly prefer gas... Jim

 

[hvacrsteve]

We broke ours three times in as many years, finally sold the house.
I personally would not purchase another one. We now have a GE gas range with 5 burners and a convection oven, love it and would notgo back to the glass top for our main stove.

 

[Rose Pink]

3) Rose Pink, what is the surface that you are using the Magic Eraser" on? Doesn't the abrasiveness do damage? Our current range has the porcelain trays in the depressions under the burners, and those things are impossible to clean, once something gets cooked on.

I think the surface is enamel or porcelain?? Whatever appliances are usually made from. The magic eraser has not scratched it at all. I would not use one of those scratchy pad thingies, though.

 

[MuranoJo]

Thank you all for the helpful input! A couple comments/questions:

3) Rose Pink, what is the surface that you are using the Magic Eraser" on? Doesn't the abrasiveness do damage? Our current range has the porcelain trays in the depressions under the burners, and those things are impossible to clean, once something gets cooked on.

Elan, I know you directed your #3 Question to Rose Pink, but I'll pipe in that I had the same concerns about abrasive damage. But I've used them for many types of surfaces--glass, stainless steel All Clad and non-stick fry pans, counters, etc., and I've never seen any damage.

 

[Elan]

I think the surface is enamel or porcelain?? Whatever appliances are usually made from. The magic eraser has not scratched it at all. I would not use one of those scratchy pad thingies, though.

Elan, I know you directed your #3 Question to Rose Pink, but I'll pipe in that I had the same concerns about abrasive damage. But I've used them for many types of surfaces--glass, stainless steel All Clad and non-stick fry pans, counters, etc., and I've never seen any damage.

Thank you both for the info. I tried a Magic Eraser on the stuff baked on the crumb trays of our current stove. Not much success, although I didn't have the time to put a ton of elbow grease into the effort. BTW, I was asking about micro-scratching because I read somewhere that a Magic Eraser was roughly the same abrasiveness as 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

 

[Rose Pink]

Thank you both for the info. I tried a Magic Eraser on the stuff baked on the crumb trays of our current stove. Not much success, although I didn't have the time to put a ton of elbow grease into the effort. BTW, I was asking about micro-scratching because I read somewhere that a Magic Eraser was roughly the same abrasiveness as 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

I have no doubt there is some sort of scratching but it is too fine for my eyes to see it. I don't use it all the time but I imagine if you used it daily, you might see a dulling of the surface after quite some time. Most cleaners work that way--either that or a chemical reaction that dissolves the food and even those types of cleaners can dull a surface over time.

As for your current cleaning dilemma, if you can remove the crumb trays/drip pans, put them in a plastic sack with some oven cleaner or straight ammonia and see if that doesn't soften the gunk enough to get it off.

 

[MuranoJo]

Adding to an older post here.

Rose, just FYI, we recently decided to update our measley 30' gas cook top and decided on this 5-burner Bosch model here. I was concerned the burners would be too close together, but looks like they'll work fine since they moved the control knobs to the front and freed up some side room.

We've been so happy with our Bosch washer & dryer, and then our oven, so here we go.

 

[bobcat]

Adding to an older post here.

Rose, just FYI, we recently decided to update our measley 30' gas cook top and decided on this 5-burner Bosch model here. I was concerned the burners would be too close together, but looks like they'll work fine since they moved the control knobs to the front and freed up some side room.

We've been so happy with our Bosch washer & dryer, and then our oven, so here we go.

This is our second electric glass top. We have had no problems. My wife loves it.

 

[Rose Pink]

Adding to an older post here.

Rose, just FYI, we recently decided to update our measley 30' gas cook top and decided on this 5-burner Bosch model here. I was concerned the burners would be too close together, but looks like they'll work fine since they moved the control knobs to the front and freed up some side room.

We've been so happy with our Bosch washer & dryer, and then our oven, so here we go.

Looks very much like my 36-inch. I am glad it worked out for you.

 

[Twinkstarr]

Now you make me want to replace my range top. Unfortunately there is nothing wrong with the old one, so it will stay. But I do have Viking envy...

Fern

Don't worry Fern, I have Viking envy too, plus double wall oven compulsion.