I have the Kenmore induction slide in range. Love it. While it hasn't been as reliable as I wished, it cooks like a champ. Very solid low temperatures for melting chocolate. Very high highs for boiling water. Easy to clean because the surface stays relative cool (gets hot from the pot, not from a burner below the surface).

Good luck in your search!

My Spectra stove is at least 10 years old and I love the ceramic top. I have taken good care of it and it still looks great. I clean the ceramic top before my cleaning lady arrives because I trust it to no one. The cooking is even and when the burners aren't hot it is a great extra counter top. I roll all my pie crust on top of my stove.
Nancy

I have a new Maytag glass top and I love it. I make sure I clean it every time after I use it. It is easy to do and looks great. I bought the stove top cream cleaner.

Susie

There was a recent post on the conversations side about induction. I have it and love it.

Mom got a glass top stove 15 years ago. It still looks like new.
Hers is white, and she cleans it immediately after she uses it.
She loves it.

The only thing that I would be cautious about, is when I cook, I tend to shake the pan. She doesn't. I'm thinking that might scratch the surface more. I've read that you can use cast iron skillets but have to be careful about scratching.

I have an 8-year old electric Gemini (by Maytag) that I love, love, love. It has a small top oven and a large lower convection oven. The top oven is perfect for baking a little casserole, full size pizza, or to broil fish. It also toasts! though not economically unless you are doing a dozen garlic bread slices. The lower oven has 3 racks and the bottom one has rollers - perfect for a heavy turkey or casserole - no fighting to pull the rack out. The top is glass and slightly scratched but I don't care - the white glove inspector is not allowed in my kitchen. I use cast iron pans and must caution y'all to not drop them on the stove top, or it'll cost you $800 to replace it (I checked). I clean it with glass top cleaner and use Bon Ami powder for thicker stuff. For really stuck on crud my DH uses a thin razor sharp finish scraper (he's a wood sculptor), though he said I could use the "no odor" spray oven cleaner on it, but not the caustic one.

For my future though, the safest and the most energy efficient cook top would be induction (though it is the most expensive). I'd put that in an island and have a convection wall oven at waist height so I wouldn't have to bend down to lift up the heavy casserole or turkey as we do with a standard oven, rollers or not. I'd also have a fancy gas grill outside to sear peppers and nori, and a wood fired brick and stone pizza oven just outside the door. Eh, maybe next life I'll get them.

As to brands - I think there are only a few manufacturers left and different names are put on with different outer looks. The working parts are mostly the same. See this list for who makes what appliance brand:
http://www.appliance411.com/parts/make.shtml
and the market share of the four top ones (surprising):
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appliances/news/who-actually-makes-all-those-appliances/overview/

Nancy

Carolyn, be sure to check out induction. I've been studying appliances for over a years in preparation for my kitchen redo. I originally thought I wanted to switch from electric to gas but as time went on I realized that induction was the way to go for me. There are induction ranges or induction slide in stoves, along with cook tops.
According to what I've read the coil electric range my be obsolete before we know it.

Nancy

I have had two glasstop slide in ranges. The first was a Kenmore. (It was supposed to be their best.) I didn't like it at all because the burners cycled on and off too much. I now have a GE glasstop slide in range and it doesn't cycle as bad. Still I'd rather have gas or induction. I keep saying I'm going to get one or the other. Actually I had rather go back to a coil as the glasstop. What it comes down to is a matter of personal opinion.

Beverly

I have a Jenn-Air slide in electric range that is 21 years old. My clock died some time ago, thus can't use the self clean option on my oven. Since it is so old I can't get a new clock. I have been very pleased overall with my Jenn-Air stove and need the center downdraft because it's on an inside wall.

I google from time to time to see what's out there for center downdraft but so far very little luck. I did find a 2009 model but it looked so cheap (wasn't), like a stripped down model, or a car with no chrome.-)

I'm reading this thread with interest because sooner or later I will have to do something. The settings are wearing off the knobs... how sad is that! (My memory is going south at the same time).

jude

We've had an induction cooktop since early March and I love it. Like a few others here, I purchased a single hob countertop induction plate to see if I liked it about three years ago. It soon became the the first burner I used every day when cooking. My full sized cooktop was a Jennair with halogen burners. We put in a mid line GE unit because we are not sure if we will be in this house for much more than a year. We did not have to change the electric wiring to add more capacity than the former cooktop required. If I was choosing for a more long term installation I would definitely choose a cooktop with at least one burner having a countdown and shut off timer, a feature I love on the countertop unit. This cooktop has a timer but it does not shut the burner off.

My cooktop is single flat piece of glass, no metal edges to restrict the pan size and to catch bits of food. It is unbelievably easy to clean. If I am cooking something that I know will splatter, I put paper towel under or around the pan to minimize it. The paper does not burn. The cooking performance is far superior to the halogen burners I had.

My strongest recommendation, if you are considering induction, would be to get induction only, not a range or cooktop that has two electric burners and two induction. You may think you would like to continue to use the cookware you have on the electric burners, but in fact you will always use the induction burners first. I gave away a lot of of high end pots and pans to family members and have not looked back.

Lee