new stove, glass top vs. coil

[pampam]

I'm in the market for a new stove, but I'd like some input on what is better. What are the pros and cons of each?

We currently have an electric coil top. It's all I've ever used. I like my stove, but the glass inside the oven just broke. I probably need to replace the seals as well. One element on top is kind of tricky, and the stove is 20 years old, so I probably should replace it with a more energy efficient one.

 

[deegack]

Gas!

 

[formill]

Induction cooktop seems to be the latest and is very energy efficient and supposed to be faster than gas? Also very safe as the top never is hot for you to touch it. I would also recommend convection for the oven.

 

[Spoonful_Of_Sugar]

I got a glass top and do not like it. I thought it would be easy to clean, but I find that it takes along time for it to heat up and cool down.

 

[nichanda]

I have a glasstop stove after having a coil top for years. I like the glasstop. The only downside is that it shows smears and fingerprints. I have to dry it with the dish towel after I wipe with the wet dish cloth so you don't see the watermarks

If I had a choice, I'd buy the glasstop stove again. I like not having to clean the foil under the coil burner. Plus, I just like the looks of the glass top better.

Good luck!

 

[CTdiznymom]

I have a glass top which over the years I have learned to live with. I suppose I would get another, as cleaning coils were a real pain, but I'm not thrilled with the glass either.

Glass is easier to clean daily spills, looks more up to date, and I use it as an extension to my countertop. However, it's slower to heat & cool down, cooking temp is hard to adjust, the surface of the large burner is noticibly more scratched than the other burners. the pots & pans you use have to have an even flat bottom otherwise they spin all over the place. Copper bottoms are not recommended.

 

[mantaz]

Our 20+ year old stove popped up an error code. Called to find out how much it would cost and they said about $275. I decided to shop our Sears Scratch and dent store on a holiday and got a glass top for just a few bucks more. No scratches or dents on the front. It has a scratch on the side that's against the cabinet. I love it!!! Sometimes it is hard to clean if I spill grease on it, but I just figured out if I use my pampered chef pan scraper, it get's the gunk right off!!! If I had to choose again, I would go glass. Gas scares me. I am not fond of open flames and I hated the crap catchers under the coils! Don't have to worry about cooked smells coming from the coils anymore. AWESOME!

 

[maggs1035]

I hate glass top for the same reasons as pp, takes forever to heat, takes forever to cool down, my pans spin and slide around too easily, and it is so hard to clean! I wish I never got it!

 

[luvmy3]

I replaced a coil top with a glass top a couple years ago. I can't say I love it, but I definitely like it better than the coil top.

 

[minnierocks]

Love my glass top and would never go with coils again! I found it very easy to cook on and even though it requires some cleaning, it is no where near the amount of time that the coils take! The hardest thing to get used to is the cool down time but you get used to looking for the sensor light to go off...it tells you when the top is cool.

 

[Buzzsgramma]

Personally i LOVE the glass top....have had it for 11 years...Have special cleaner for the glass top...not any problem..

 

[tar heel]

I made the decision you're making in April and went with the glass top. I cook a lot and I think it is a vast improvement over an electric coil. It does take more to clean it than just wiping things off, but I am 100% sure I made the right the choice. I usally clean it with the cream cleaner once or twice a week and just wipe it down the other days. I haven't noticed any problem with it heating up slowly and the light stays on to let me know it's still hot. I have a burner that can be big or huge, which I really like for the big skillet and pots. As someone else said, if it's cold, you can use it as a counter extension when you're cooking, too.

I asked on here for recommendations, was specific about my price range and had people recommending $10,000 stoves!

 

[clanmcculloch]

When I was looking for a new stove, the consistent negatives I heard about the glass top stoves was that if your pots & pans are not perfectly flat then they won't work well on the stove and that they top marks up easily. We have a good set of pots & pans with great flat bottoms so the first problem wasn't an issue for us. The second did concern me a bit. We got a bottle of a special cleaner for the surface when we bought the stove and we make sure to clean up messes immediately and then periodically clean/treat with the special cleaner and we've had no issues. If you look closely, sure there are some marks but we cook from scratch a lot so our stove gets used. I love it. I'm so glad we got the glass top as it does get used as an extension of our counters and I love that messes are so much easier to clean than with coils. I haven't found that it takes any longer to heat things than with the coils and I haven't paid attention to how long it takes to cool down; I just make sure that as long as the little light that indicates a hot surface is lit that I treat the burner as though it's hot and don't put anything on it.

The other option that people raved about when we were looking was gas but I really don't like cooking over gas as I never got used to the different way the flame heats compared to a burner. I've found that the glass top burners seem to heat similarly to how coils heat.

 

[SandrA9810]

I have come to learn gas stoves after using electric all my life. Sometimes it's a bit tricky to get the sweet med-low heat for simmering, but I think part of it is my stove.

I rented an apartment for one year with a glass top stove and hated the thing. It looked cool, but I hated cleaning the stupid thing with the really expensive cleaner. And if you ever boil something over, it's a nightmare to clean up. Since it was a rental, I was trying to be extra cautious with getting scratches on it, which is nearly impossible to do. It's like trying to keep stainless finger print free.

You're also not allowed to use things like cast iron skillets. Although some people have mentioned they do very carefully. I've always wondered about the repair cost of the thing should something happen. At least with coils and drip pans, they're at every hardware store.

 

[mrodgers]

Gas!

Gas would be fantastic! I hate electric. I just need to figure out how to run 30 miles of gas line to my house.

 

[punkin]

Gas would be fantastic! I hate electric. I just need to figure out how to run 30 miles of gas line to my house.

I would only have to run about 30 ft. of gas line in my house and I still can't afford it.

 

[hanutedmansionmomma]

Gas would be fantastic! I hate electric. I just need to figure out how to run 30 miles of gas line to my house.

I'm in the same boat, less distance tho.

Just passed up a glass top Amana at Nebraska Furniture Mart for $150. It was a repo. I came home to my almond coil top and have been kicking myself ever since. I convinced myself I wanted to wait and get something a little more upgraded (this one was basic basic basic - but 20 years newer than mine!) Doh!

Hate coils. Looking forward to glass top!

 

[momto2inKC]

LOVE my glass top!! So much easier to clean than my old coil stove top. And I just like the way it looks. We lucked out and paid a whopping $25 for ours at a garage sale!! It was fairly new when we bought it, they went from white appliances to stainless

 

[Muushka]

Gas!

This would be my first choice. I loved gas. Quickly heats up and when you turn the burner off, it cools down. Magic!

I hate glass top for the same reasons as pp, takes forever to heat, takes forever to cool down, my pans spin and slide around too easily, and it is so hard to clean! I wish I never got it!

Funny, I thought when I went from coil to glass top the heat up/cool down was somewhat improved. Could just be different stoves..

Induction cooktop seems to be the latest and is very energy efficient and supposed to be faster than gas? Also very safe as the top never is hot for you to touch it. I would also recommend convection for the oven.

And if I could not have gas, I finally got my induction range! And I love it. I actually bought induction hot plates to see if I would like it (which I still use to cook smelly things and heat producing things in the summer out on the porch). I quickly learned to love induction cooking. The elements do not get hot, the only thing that gets hot is the pan because the stuff in the pan is hot. It is very responsive, quickly heats up and quickly cools down. So I sunk the $$ into a convection/hybrid induction range. Love it! And it uses much less electrity than conventional electric cooking, has 2 normal heating elements and 2 induction. I have had it for several months and still have not used the conventional elements. The only caveat is that you have to use special pans otherwise it won't work. If a magnet sticks to it, it will work.

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/FPCF3091LF.html?mv_pc=gg&utm_source=google&utm_medium=adwords&utm_campaign=pla&utm_term={keyword}&gclid=CJ_ZztKesLECFYOc7QodO2kAlA

Pretty good price too!

 

[twinmommyks]

LOVE my glass top. I will never go back to coils. When I boil something over, it takes some effort to clean but not near as much as the coils, imo. I do have a glasstop cleaner that I really like. Without that I wouldn't like to clean the boil overs.