I use cast iron on mine, but you need it to be flat and not disfigured on the bottom or it will flop around.

Also want to be careful and not shake it back and forth in contact with the glass surface.

Are you used to a lot of high heat cooking? I'm not and I've always cooked on electric so I never got used to gas as I could never get the right temperature adjusted for lower heat that wasn't simmer. Of course these were all in rental houses so probably not the best quality, but that is my only experience with gas. If you do more low heat cooking then you'll probably adjust fine.

Things take longer to heat up though such as boiling water so keep that in mind. However as with any new stove there will be a learning curve. Temperature settings that work on one isn't the same on the other.

Start with your simpler recipes where the heat (low/high) doesn't matter so much and learn your new stove top settings.

Generally water heats up and boils faster on electric ranges than with gas. But that's about the only thing they do well, in my opinion. If it is a plain jane smoothtop electric, you will find it heats up realllllly slowwwwly, and cools down just as slowwwwly. Depending on the unit, it may or may not be capable of a low simmer.

If I absolutely couldn't have gas, I'd lobby for induction.

Pans need to be flat, and in my experience all but cast iron warp easily when used "dry" at too high of a heat.

Slide your pans, including cast iron, all you want. My black cooktop has seen ten years of hard work and you'd have to look close to find a scratch. If it were speckled you probably wouldn't find one. (LOL the glass is broken in many places but it's NOT scratched!) IMO one of the biggest fallacies.

On mine, heat up time is quick. Turn it on 30 seconds before you need it, as you prep, and it'll be ready to go when you are. Cool down time is slow. You'll have to get used to sliding off the burner, or slide on-and-off, if you need to go to lower temp quickly.

No need to re-hash, but on a recent thread I believe I conclusively showed that my 2500W burner boils water slightly faster than even a whopping 23K BTU gas burner. So yeah, I'm thinking a typical electric burner will boil faster than a typical gas range.

Another fallacy is that cleanup is hard. I might cook for a week on top of multiple burnt on boilovers and it still doesn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes to get the cooktop perfectly clean.

I'd prefer gas - primarily for response time - but I don't find electric to be the lowly appliance that many crack it up to be. You like to cook, so you'll get used to it.

Cookware tends to warp more on electric cook tops because only the bottom gets heated up compared to gas, which heat�s up the sides also, allowing better metal expansion.

Glass/ceramic tops are very scratch resistant, however, some cast iron does have carbide crystals which are almost as hard as diamond, and that can scratch. It�s a good idea to use a Carborundum (Not aluminum oxide) sharpening stone to smooth the bottom.

You can't use a wok on glass top stove.

You can't char peppers to remove skin.

Read the instructions. Some glass top can melt if used improperly.

It's a good idea to have the glass top leveled. Sometimes if you have a few drops of water under the flat bottom pot and it can slide with water steaming under the pot.

dcarch

I have scratched mine in several places from cast iron- the scratches are small though- so I never slide pots.
I have a dark speckled top.

Also, it doesn't take much to dirty the cooktop so I typically clean it each night. I like the kitchen to be fresh and clean for the morning.

you have my sympathy. my new (to me) house has electric and i've learned that i'd rather have the cheapest gas range on the market than the most expensive electric. i'm trying to at least get an induction cooktop when money permits.

My house here has gas, and I've used it for decades. Our place in OK has one of those glass top electric ranges, like you have, I guess. I tend to burn things up there a lot more, as I underestimate how hot, or how quickly things get hot, and forget to move the pans off the burner. Actually, I've learned to do that, after a few mishaps. I much prefer my gas stove, but the one big, big, big plus to the glass top electric stove is clean up is much easier. There are gas lines at that house, so one of these days we'll replace that stove for a gas one, but for now, it works just fine, and there's no reason to replace it until we move there permanently. Oh, and I do use cast iron on the glass top stove.

I didn't know that about warping. That's good to learn.

Sally

Bumblebeez - IMO cleaning the cooktop is like making the bed. Why bother, when the next time you use it you're going to mess it up again anyway? ;-)

I have used both gas and electric, and don't find gas all that much better. I am a decent cook and turn out great meals on my simple GE smooth top electric stove. It heats up fast, has a low setting to melt butter and everything in between. Oven is great, I turn out great breads and other baked goodies. Cleanup is a breeze. You will get used to it, there is a learning curve. I really like the GE electrics, for me they have been the best.

I maintain that a good cook or at least a decent one or better can cook on anything. There's snobs out there and I won't get into the debate with them over gas vs. electric. I'll take a good electric stove over a junk gas one any day. There's advantages to both. There's a learning curve to go from one to the other. The one big benefit of electric is, assuming of course you're reasonably matching the burner size, the heat goes to the pan rather than up the sides like on gas so you can use more of the power.

I use gas at the lake and camping. Have had electric at home for 35+ years and used gas at home prior to that. I've used gas stoves at other peoples' homes and I've used electric stoves at others places too. They all are a little different and it's up to the cook to adapt to it and I don't find it all that difficult. Some will.

The cautions I've heard from people with the glass tops are to be careful to not drop cast iron on them or you'll have an expensive repair.

I had a Corning top stove for a lot of years. I replaced it with a basic coil GE stove about a year ago. Response time is basically as good as gas for my use and I'm a much happier cook with it. Gas does *not* give "instantaneous" response as the "gasbags" as I like to call them would have you believe. They still heat the grates and the pans and there's residual heat there too, not that unlike electric. Nitpick all you want, don't fear the stove. Use it. It's a tool and if it's that big a deal to you or if you can't adjust to it, replace it and move on. I thought about running a gas line and going with gas but didn't think it was worth it. After a year with my new stove, I'm happy.

I am a gas stove fan. Most likely you will learn to adjust to electric. I did, but I still hate electric stoves. When my house is finished being built I am having gas in it, though it will have to be propane.

You can certainly use your cast iron cookware on your electric stove, but you'll have to be more careful is all, so you don't damage your stovetop.

You may find that you enjoy cooking on electric. If you don't, then perhaps in time you can have things set up for gas. I live in the boondocks so no natural gas here, but propane can usually be set up anywhere. Most manufacturers have propane conversion kits.

Sandy

I missed the gas stove I learned to cook on in my mother's kitchen when I married. Everywhere we lived, we had electric. Finally, after about 7 years, we moved into our first purchased home, and I chose gas for the stovetop. Boy, I had forgotten how much a gas stovetop will heat up a kitchen when the flames come around the bottom of the pots. With the next move, I went back to electric and stayed there.

Thanks for the replys everyone. You've all made me feel like it's not going to be as big a deal as I thought it was going to be. Thanks for all the good info and tips. Got the keys yesterday. I'm excited!

I went from an electric smooth top to a gas range a year ago.

I have not noticed much change in my day to day cooking. The newer smooth tops have very sensitive controls - they heat and cool quickly and have many levels of control. And they get hot enough for canning.

Drawbacks, some told above - pans must be flat, preferable heavier, must be dry on the bottom, aluminum like Calphalon tends to warp so are not a good choice.

The good for me was the smooth top electric was a breeze to keep clean. My continuous-grate gas stove is a beeyotch to clean - it must be taken apart and each layer cleaned.