We recently bought a house and it came with a stove that has a glass cooking surface. There are outlines to show where to put the pots or pans. I am used to cooking on an electric stove. I am just not sure if this ‘new’ stove is working correctly, or if the differences I am experiencing are simply a function of the different stove.
What I like about it: Surface of cooking area does not heat up when oven is on, unlike old stove which had great ‘hot spots’, especially in the back burner area. Our kitchen is uber-small, so I have been using the stove top as extra counter space when preparing a meal.
**What I don’t like about it: ** It seems to take longer to heat up than our other electric stove, and when it does heat up, it seems hotter than I am used to at any given setting. Also, on ‘high’, the element under the glass glows, turns off, then glows again, until it finally boils water. Is this normal for this type of stove, or is it not working properly?
The brand is a Kenmore, which I believe is from Sears. We have been thinking of replacing it, but we have no idea how old it is. Additionally, the oven does not seem to be the correct temp. I tried to bake cookies for the required 15-18 minutes at 355 degrees, but ended up cooking for nearly 25 minutes at that temp. Not sure how to adjust calibration if it is off a bit.
Can anyone tell me if there are differences between regular electric stoves with exposed elements versus a glass top stove? I like my other stove better, but maybe I just need to live with this one for awhile. Any insight which you are willing to share would be greatly appreciated.
For ease of cleaning, they can’t be beat; for cooking, they’re not as good as conventional electric or gas, IMO. As you note, they do tend to take longer to reach temperature. However, there’s no particular reason that they’d run hotter than you’d expect, as far as I know. Different stovetops simply perform differently; some run hot compared to what you’re used to, some run cooler. As for the cycling while on high, I’ll WAG that’s by design. See, glass isn’t as good a thermal conductor as metal and ceramics, so there’s going to be a considerable temperature gradient across it’s thickness. Presumably if the element is let run continuously, the temperature of the surface closest to the element can get high enough to damage the glass, so it cycles to keep the temp down to a safe level.
Are you sure the surface doesn’t get hot? There are stoves, called “induction stoves”, where none of the surface gets more than a little warm. The pot’s metal is heated directly without heating the surface the pot sits on. These are usually very expensive stoves.
Or do you really mean that the surface around where the pan circles are only gets a little warm, while the area directly under the pan gets hot like an ordinary stove? These are pretty ordinary. I have one.
In use, they’re about like a conventional electric, but with even more inertia or “lag” copared to a traditonal spiral-coil electric. And they take even longer than a traditional electric to get up to initial temperature. The glow, then not, then glow then not as it heats up is normal, at least based on mine. It does this even on full “high”, but a lot moreso on any setting below “high”.
As a cook, I think they suck pond scum. As bad as a spiral coil electric is compared to gas, this stove is that much worse again.
As a maid, I think they’re awesome. I’ve never had a stove that was easier to clean. And to keep looking new.
I don’t think this is the type the OP refers to, since she(?) mentions a glowing element. Induction stovetops are nice and they’re more efficient than almost any other type, but the problem I have with them is that they have very different heating curves depending on whether your cookware is aluminum, stainless or cast iron. And they don’t work at all with glass.
I’m pretty sure the OP means that the surface doesn’t heat up when the baking oven part is on, not the stove part (i.e., the surface definitely does get hot when you boil water on the stovetop, but not while a cake is baking).
I have one of these stoves, and I do get frustrated by its whims–mine also cycles on and off, and even the low settings are enough to boil over pasta water, even if I have a pan partially exposed to the air. I’ve also had some trouble cleaning it (although not nearly as much as a traditional stovetop).
I agree that she probably meant the sort I described having. But just to be sure I went ahead and asked. I am always amazed at the crappy advice we give when the OP asks an ambiguous question and other posters only skim what little was written. Just trying to do a thorough job, Ma’am.
My stove’s low is low enough, but the high isn’t high enough.
The worst thing is that you can’t put a pot bigger than about a 10" base on the surface. There’s a raised rim around the heating area & larger pans just won’t fit & sit flat. Even a 10"-base pan that physically fits is a problem because the heating element is 8" in diameter so while the inner 8" is on hot glass & being heated, the the outer 1" around the edge is on cool glass and being cooled. Makes for really lousy heat distribution.
**Q.E.D.**Agreed gas is the only worthwhile stove heat source. When I replace the current kitchen I’ll tear out the ceilings necessary to plumb gas to the kitchen. Until then, the craptastic glass-top electric will have to do. Bummer.
Electric stoves seem to be the default in my area. I grew up cooking with gas, and I’m still not used to it. I’m giving serious consideration to checking out how much it would cost to have the kitchen in my townhouse fitted for a gas stove; fortunately I have a crawl space under my kitchen so this won’t require ripping out a floor or ceiling.
Kevmom had a smooth top stove…she loved it (easy to clean) I hated it (too damn slow to heat)
Kevsister just re-did her kitchen and got an induction stove. Jeebus is that thing fast…much faster to heat than my preferred gas range. She has purpose designed pots and pans to speak to the concern mentioned above.
I agree that the glass top stoves can be a pain to cook with - it definitely is different from gas or electric coils.
When we bought this house, 3 years ago, it came with a glass top slide-in range which would have been ~10 yo at the time. My wife and I pretty much hated it from day one for all the reasons mentioned upthread. By sheerest accident, a bottle of wine was dropped on it from about 18" above it. The wine survived, but the stove surface did not.
We looked at other options to replace it, except gas - not having gas service, and ended up replacing it with another glass top model. We both agree that the new stove works much better than the old one. FWIW, the original was a Whirlpool while the new is a GE.
I guess the moral here is that while glass top stoves suck, some don’t suck quite as much.
Buy a (metal) thermometer that sets inside the oven. It will give you correct temperature readings. Once you have the thermometer, you can test it to figure out what temps you have to set the dial at in order to get the temps you want.
Oven temperature gauges are routinely wrong. I have an oven thermometer that hangs off the upper rack so you can see it through the door and I never trust the gauge readings. For the stove top I am a huge fan of heat diffusers. The ones I use are French I think (I’ve had them for years) with layers of vented mental that even out the heating and actually store some hit as the stove heat varies. They allow you to cook really slowly and you can get some extraordinary results.
Last night I cooked some pork fillet, sliced it in the pan a bit at a time and added it to the plum sauce and vegetables. I went out and when I got home 6 hours later discovered I had left the hotplate on low. I rinsed the frying pan with hot water, wiped it clean and no problem.
Hey everyone, thanks for the input. It has been very helpful. I am majorly paranoid about (possible) malfunctioning electrical stuff due to possibility of a fire. It is good to know that the cycling is normal. Also, I guess I need to be more patient.
Last weekend I tried to heat up a cast iron griddle and it took forever, so I set the damn dial to “high” and eventually, the oil on the griddle heated up, got smokey, and was no fun. It stayed hot for ages afterwards. it was not a very good breakfast, I am araid.
Maybe some day I can get an induction stove… sigh (Did you get that, Spoons?)
We use a glass-ceramic cooktop, let into the countertop so the surfaces are flush.
My wife is a chef and dislikes it for cooking. In all other aspects :dubious: it is superior. It’s sparkling clean and easy to maintain. Since my wife is also OCD-level neat, it’s a constant battle to decide if she should replace it. It does tend to constrain us to flat-bottom cookware; we tend to prefer copper. I don’t think the cooking temperature control is as instant as it is with gas, but when you use pans with heavy metal bottoms, it’s harder to tell. I am an eater and not a cook.
The elements do cycle; particularly the two halogen lamp elements. These heat up instantly and get very hot; we can steam a 20 quart crab pot or boil a large amount of water for pasta with no problems. We use Ceramabryte to clean it and it looks brand new after ten years. Occasionally I will take a safety razor to remove debris such as melted plastic (don’t ask). As you have noted, the material does not easily conduct heat so the adjacent surface doesn’t get very hot even fairly close to an element that’s on, and an oven underneath shouldn’t give any hotspots at all (our ovens are in a different part of the kitchen).
FWIW, I’ve had enough of it, and we’re going back to gas. I will be seizing the moment on the next wifely waffle toward hating it for cooking and replacing it before she can waffle back to how perfectly neat it is.
Can I put a range with a glass top in a seasonal house that is not winterized? The house is shut down in the winter and probably freezes over during the winter months. It wouldn’t be used during that time but can I have a glass top? Will it survive freezing temperatures during winter?
If the glass in the windows are OK when it freezes and the windows in cars are OK when it freezes and just about every other piece of glass I can think of, I think the stovetop would be OK. How cold does it get?
If you pick one out, I’m sure the manufacturer has a customer service phone number you can call to ask about their specific model.
I would be wary of turning it on when it’s very cold, because thermal shock may crack it. But by “very cold” I am thinking below 0F.
As someone has a Miele glass top induction cook-top (expensive high end) for a few years, I wouldn’t recommend induction. Ours came with the condo and I find myself often wishing we had natural gas again. When it dies we’ll get gas again.
Pros:
**Insanely fast heat **- Our Miele has a “boost” and a “super-boost” which jacks up the induction for a short period. I was stunned at how fast it heated up. I tested - on the “super boost” setting, in a large bottomed pot, it boils two cups of water in about 20 seconds. We’ve stopped using our kettle. Consistent even heat - No more crock pot. I can set any pot on the low setting and leave it on all day. There are no hot spots that you get with a standard coil or gas stove.
Cons - Cookware non-compatibility - They cook by magnet, so cookware must be magnetic. Copper, glass, aluminum are all useless (literally). If we try to put an aluminum pan on it, it beeps and flashes an error message. We had a high end set of stainless steel pots and pans, but didn’t realize the heavy bases were actually a copper core clad in SS. Useless, in the basement now. Also, since it only heats the part that touches cook-top surface, your cookware must have a perfectly flat bottom, so no standard woks.
**Very sensitive to water drops **- This is my absolute biggest source of frustration. The surface is coated with some conductive material and is extremely sensitive to water on it. If any water or sauce drops hit the cook top, our entire unit shuts off. I have to remove all posts and pans, wipe the entire surface down plus the bottoms of all the cookware then start up again. This happens almost every time I cook. Lifting the lid off pots to check them or having any pot or pan boil over (even just for a second) will shut you down. You’ve got to be super-careful and watch the stove constantly as things cook to catch boil-overs before they happen. Pain in the butt.
I’ve gone from loving it for the “Pros” to despising it for the “Cons”. We definitely won’t get another.
Weird, my induction top (Samsung) is completely indifferent to liquids on its surface. It is recommended that you wipe up spills quickly for protection of the ceramic top. It takes effort to even burn a spill on the cook top as the top itself only gets hot from the cookware.
I hate, hate, regular glass top electric ranges, but the induction is fast, easy to clean, very adjustable. It is as fast or faster than any gas I have used. My only complaint is cookware can make a high pitched whistling noise.
I have no idea how your stove works, if this is actually true. Inductive heating works significantly better with aluminum than with steel, and best of all with copper. The magnetism of the pot shouldn’t matter at all, but only its conductivity.
) Beaten to the punch again.
