I bought a flat surface cooktop last fall, and I enjoy the “easy clean” aspect of it.
The only thing I don’t care for is the fact that the pans slide around on the surface very easily and you have to hang on to the pot, when you are stirring something thick, to keep the pot on top of the heat area.
The black cooktop surface doesn’t seem to show the scorch marks as easily, so I got a black one.
Don’t try this at home, and YMMV, but I’ve touched a freshly hot burner surface more than once, and have never gotten a burn. Either the glass stays at a lower temp than an electric resistance burner or the lower thermal conductivity comes into play, but the reflexive pull back has always saved me from anything but a few seconds of pain. As opposed to touching a hot cast iron pan, which gave me some nice blisters even though I pulled back immediately.
That’s an excellent tip–so I should lean toward the first one. Anyone familiar with the pros and cons of ceramic glass vs. porcelain or are they basically the same??
I’ve heard people say that the flat-top electric stoves can be a problem if you have older pans. The pan bottoms warp, so they don’t sit entirely flat anymore.
On a gas burner, that’s not a problem. On the flat tops, if it’s not touching, it’s not heating.
Has anyone experienced that?
Yes I have - and on my old coil stove, too. I have a better skillet now. (My pots already had thickly clad bottoms)
I, too, was in a tizz trying to figure out if I should get one or not when we were finally able to redo the kitchen. If I could, I’d have a gas stove. Nothing cooks like real fire! But I don’t have gas, and got a ceramic top this past January. I miss my cast-iron pots, but am dealing with it. I use Barkeeper’s Friend (or something like that) to clean scorch marks, it’s a scouring powder that doesn’t scratch, so I have no problem keeping it clean. I like how it looks flat on the counter. And really, the old stove was over 50 years old (yes, really) and probably just about anything new at that point would’ve been well received.
Bibby
After years of cooking with gas, I’ve had to adjust to using an electric stove, since they seem to be that standard where I am now. The condo I was renting had one of those flat-top stoves, and I had a bit of trouble with stuff burning onto it and being afraid I was going to scratch it when I cleaned it. When I started house-hunting I seriously considered one place solely because it had a gas stove, even though it had a number of other problems. The townhouse I finally bought had an older Kenmore electric with raised plate heating elements, and I was considering replacing it before I moved in, but couldn’t decide what kind I wanted to get. I’m still considering getting a gas stove, but I don’t think there’s a gas fixture in the kitchen, which would mean the additional expense of having one installed.
Yes indeed. One of our old pans just vibrates uncontrollably. Luckily we have mostly new pans that are flat.
We got one when the replacement old style stove top cracked our countertop. I’m not thrilled with it, but I guess we’re stuck. It seems to heat up a lot more slowly, and you have to make sure the pans you put on it are dry on the bottom. I’m in charge of cleaning, and it is a pain - but we have a black one.
The kitchen isn’t hooked up for gas, and getting it would cost a fortune, or else I’d go that way. We also have a weird setup where the oven is under the microwave and the cooktop is on some cabinets. At least installing it is easy.
We used to have an electric coil stove for most of my life (about 26 years or so.) Then we replaced it with a glass ceramic flat topped stove and it’s great. Sometimes stuff gets burnt on, but it comes off if you keep at cleaning it. It’s still easier than having to pull out the burners and clean under them.
And I would never want to cook with gas…just the idea of having an open flame powered by explosive gas in my kitchen – eeps.
I have heard that flat top electrics make using any type of pressure cooker/canner impossible.
Gas user myself, wouldn’t know.
My experience mirrors much of the things already said here, but especially Mahna Mahna’s post. I’ve had a black glass cooktop for 5 years now, and it’s always a lot more upkeep than I ever would have guessed. I do resent the fact that splattering and boiling over are much bigger issues than they used to be. And I have spot the size of a dime etced into the middle of one burner area where something sugary got scorched. That’s left a spot that will always be there, and that irritates me.
That said, it’s fine enough to keep me from replacing it. The cleanup isn’t too hard, and it looks nice when it’s clean. I’d still rather have a gas range.
My workplace has an on-site kitchen, and we recently switched from traditional coils to a flat-top - I think the flat-top is so much easier to clean than the coil was. I WISH I could have just taken a scraper to that beast without having to worry about screwing up the paint, etc.
One of my best friends is a professional chef, and he has a flat-top in his house (They aren’t piped for gas - if they were there the flat-top wouldn’t have even been considered. Of course, when given the option he’s outside cooking on the grill 
)
What’s that about? It doesn’t just steam off, because there’s nowhere for it to steam to??
We have this issue. Basically no, the water/steam gets trapped under the pan and you get a loud, nasty popping and hissing going on under the pan until you move it around and let the water burn off.
Me too. The problem of baked-on spills is doubly aleviated by a gas hob - for one thing, there’s usually a little depression into which the spilled fluids are safely caught, but also, spills just don’t happen so much because the heat is instantly controllable - things don’t boil over so much.
That’s what the directions say. I guess it is bad for the glass, but I’m not sure.
I have a Kenmore glass top. Compared to my old exposed-coil stove, it’s terrific. It heats up much faster, is easier to clean, and I don’t have to replace those stupid drip pans every few months or clean underneath the stove top. But the best feature is that pans sit flat on the stove, since there are no burners to warp and create uneven cooking surfaces.
We like our GE glasstop. One thing to realize about any flat surface range is that it must be kept clean. The upside is that it is very easy to clean. But you can’t let any food or spills stay on the top. If you do, the next pot scratches the glass. A few of those and there will be food burned into the glass scratches making it VERY hard (but not impossible) to clean. Flattops work well, but you must keep them much cleaner than a regular range. Which is good. They are easy to clean and look nice when clean.
I have a 10 year old whirlpool cooktop similar to your #2.
Very easy to clean.
Cooks like crap. Imagine an electric stove that was even slower to react than a traditional one, and waay slower to initially heat up.
Also, when you want to use a large pot it doesn’t heat well at all. Put an 11" pot base on a 9" burner and the outer 2" are being cooled while the inner 9" are being heated.
I put up with it because it’s easy to clean; when I retire & have time to home-chef again that thing’s gone, and a proper gas stove goes in its place.