I’m thinking of getting a new free-standing range and being something of a clumsy slob when cooking, I thought a flat glass radiant heat top might be the way to go. I’m tired of removing the coils and cleaning, and getting new metal liner thingies for under the coils.
However, there may be drawbacks I’m unaware of, and I’d appreciate any opinions or advice.
Also, is there a big difference between
and
??
My wife and I have that exact model (the second one).
It seems to heat well enough, not as fast as gas but easily as fast as my ealier electric coil stoves.
We need to replace the one control, I suspect. It’s got a burner-in-a-burner dual-size thing and the inner burner doesn’t work well at low temperatures.
The top is pretty easy to clean but it does get stuff burnt to it. The old glass top we had was really hard to clean but this seems to come clean easier. We use the scrub made for these kinds of tops.
There does seem to be a permanent scorch of something I can’t get off at all. At least with a standard range, I could pitch the drip pans and get new. It bugs me that I can’t do this with a flat-top.
I’m 50/50 on re-buying another flat-top range when this one eventually gives up the ghost.
Switch to gas.
Thanks, Belrix, that’s exact what I didn’t know about. I’m probably one to scorch things too.
And CwG, it’s an apartment so I don’t think I can request the refit. 
We’re very happy with ours, a GE; much easier to clean than our old-style range. Going over it with the cleaning paste (rubbing compound) restores the shine pretty well. However, once Mrs. R slopped some boiling sugar on it and it etched the surface, so there’s a small pitted area.
That said, we still wouldn’t go back to an old-style.
It may just take more scrubbing - A lot comes off with elbow grease - I noticed this a couple weeks ago, gave it a half-hearted attempt them but really haven’t opened up my can of glass-top whoop-ass yet.
It’s a new stove for me, too - 4+ years old but I married into it.
But, it’s not magical - spilled stuff will scorch under the pan. The area outside of the burner circles seems just fine for easy-to-clean.
The only one I can speak to is the ceramic glass cooktop, which I can assure you is NOT more convenient to clean.
You don’t own the stove. The stove owns you.
You very quickly learn to keep an eagle eye on your pots lest they boil over, because you will suffer dearly for it later, and find yourself snuggling your spatter guards when no one is looking. You resent things that sputter and leave little droplets on the stovetop… spaghetti sauce and chili suddenly disappear from your repertoire, to be replaced with nice watery soups.
Once a week, you pull out the special cleanser and the scraper blade, and proceed to scrape and scrub and buff until your shoulders are sore and your hands are raw. You erect barriers around the clean stove so that all can admire its sparkling cleanliness, and find yourself thinking of excuses to order in lest you mar its pristine finish.
That said, it really does heat up much faster than the traditional coil-style electric elements… but I just don’t think it’s worth the hassle involved with keeping it clean.
Our next stove will be gas.
If you like the idea of the smooth top but are worried about scorched-on spills, consider induction. Since the top doesn’t get hot, it’s easier to keep clean. It also heats up and cools down quickly, giving you temperature control close to that of a gas cooktop.
Drawbacks: Induction ranges or cooktops are more expensive than standard electric or gas. Also, you may need to replace some or all of your pots and pans.
We have one in the condo we’re renting. I prefer gas from a cook’s point of view, but it certainly is easier to clean. I have some residual stuff on the biggest burner, but I think it would come off if I really tried.
It heats and cools at about the same rate as a regular electric coil stove. Two advantages are that it has two burners with inner and outer heating, so that they can function as either large or small burners. Also, you can slide pans on an off the burners easily or keep a pan parked halfway on a burner, which allows for somewhat more heat control than you get on a regular electric stove. If I were forced to buy electric I would probably go for one.
Yeah, not always practical. I have a gas cooktop and electric wall ovens, and that’s my ideal setup.
I’ve been waiting for years for someone to ask a question like that 
I had a friend who had an infrared flat top stove and it was way neat. You could crank the heat up to max, turn it off and at was instantly cool to the touch. It worked every bit as great as gas. Maybe better.
My wife just bought what I thought was the same thing but hers stays hot when you turn it off, and doesn’t seem to present the same flexibility in heating that gas (or my friend’s) would.
Ask about that.
As far as scorched on stains, we’ve got that. I told my wife they make pads you put over the hot spot to prevent that but she angrily insisted it was unneeded. Well, now we’ve got scorch. You can get scrapers that do a fairly good job of scraping off the scorch, but some of it appears to be permanent.
Cleaning is way easy though. Spray & wipe, for the most part. No digging into nooks and crannies.
I have the GE also and have had it for 6 years. No problems whatsoever.
The top looks like brand new.
I get those scorch marks also if something boils over but they come off with not much effort using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
If it died tomorrow I’d replace it with the same thing.
I hated ours. I was so glad when we moved and I could return to gas.
Now I’m moving again and guess what’s in the new place? Stupid yucky electric flat top grossness.
HATE.
Yep. The Magic Eraser works miracles.
Don’t like 'em.
I use a GE Gas stive and love it. The plates under the burners, the burners and the “racks” all come off and fit into the dish washer. The remaining area is a sturdy porceline, and the magic eraser works when I miss a spot during cooking splatters/spills. I generally just wipe them up as I cook though so this is a rare event (to need the magic eraser).
It is way cheaper than electricity to use, in terms of utility bills… (Our local electricity is produced by burning nat gas to make steam that turns turbines that makes electricity that an electric stove turns into heat. Consumers pay for every innefiecent loss along the chain, so using gas to make heat is way cheaper (40% at least) than using electric based stoves.
Plus, I just like cooking with gas…
Regards
FML
Gonna have to try it for this. Never occurred to me to try it here. Love the things though.
Around those stoves, I worry that I’m going to put my hand down on a hot burner. There just isn’t enough of a visual boundary for me between the part that is hot and the part that isn’t.
I have the first one --or what appears to be the first one. The person I spoke with at my local Sears appliance center explained that Sears changes model numbers often. He explained that Sears did this to keep people from falsely claiming that an appliance was just purchased and therefore still within warranty. Sears could check the model number and say, “We stopped selling that model 2 years ago. . .” This digression is not meant to be a slight against Sears. IME, it has been very easy to get parts/service on old Sears appliances.
Now that that’s out of the way. I like my stove way better than a traditional electric model. It is way easier to clean and I do cook sauces that spit all over the place. Looking at the spec sheet between the two stoves, the first has a 9" and an 8" eye while the second has two 8" eyes. The second claims to have a larger oven. IME, you can’t depend on the accuracy of Sears product descriptions. One description might have measured the oven from different points. They could actually be the same oven. Both descriptions say the oven has only two racks, but my oven has three (who needs three racks anyway?). My oven does indeed have one 9" eye and one 8" eye. On review of the specs, the actual dimensions of the second appear to be larger, so maybe it does have a larger oven. I hate how Sears makes you feel like you’re comparing oranges to apples. I assume you noticed that the item weight and shipping weight are identical on the first----infuriating how they can’t get these details correct.
----ETA. OOPS, my bad. I don’t have the first model. I have a Kenmore but I swear it looks exactly like it. Sorry about that.
Ours has an LED on the panel that’s lit (per burner) if the burner is still warm.
It’s not on the cooktop itself but there is a visual indicator.
I love my glass-top stove. I’m a messy cook, and I still don’t have any real trouble keeping it clean.