Other way around. We seriously regret moving into an all electric community.

Wouldn't have anything but gas ... at the same time, I have to respect your own experience and familiarity with electric. If you totally love the electric range, maybe that's the one for you. However, I find it hard to believe that, once you used a gas range for a few weeks, you'd ever want to go back to electric. It will produce the temperature range you want instantly and then totally reverse to a simmer when desired. I feel like a gas cooktop is to an electric cooktop what a manual transmission is to an automatic. While I know many feel that an automatic transmission is much easier, I love the control I have with a manual transmission. If, OTOH, you find a manual transmission scary and difficult, then ignore this comparison.

I love my gas cooktops, have hated all the electric ones I've owned (3). I do have electric ovens, they are double wall ovens, and I love those too, but I've never had an electric cooktop that I've liked at all.

Mother has a smooth glasstop electric stove and she hates hers nearly as much as I do. I do too much canning, something the glass cooktops do not excel at usually, and mother lives in fear that she'll drop something on that glass top. I like the "instant" reduction of gas, although I do know that the metal grates will retain a little of the heat. Mother is also a bit of a perfectionist, and the dark cooktop never seems clean enough to her, every speck shows. I only care that if I put my biggest canner on it, not a single burner will make it boil, at least not very quickly, something about the pot being so much bigger than the element in the burner.....

Annie

If you prefer glass to open flame, get induction. Really. Check out the Appliances forum. It's night and day different from other glass tops. The only thing is you have to use iron or steel/steel clad pots and it's not really good for wok (unless it's a wok specific induction unit) or canning (other than some small jars of water bath jam or similar). I have both gas and induction, and I mostly use the induction. It's really fab.

I HATE electric. Would only have gas.

Gas forever. When I bought my house in 1998, none of the homes in the community had gas. I told the builder to put in a propane tank and that I would supply my own cooktop. For almost 15 years, I had the only gas kitchen out of 330 homes in the community.

As someone who cooks low and slow, I could never imagine trying to make it work on an electric stove. Sauce without gas? Blasphemy.

Thanks. This is all I need. It's new, I feel hesitant and crazy nervous in case I don't like it. It will be fine. Another feature it has is a baker's drawer. Another, why do I need that? I am very basic with most things I buy so this extra drawer, I question it's use.

Here's another question. Does anyone miss the extra stable work surface of a glasstop - say, to put things on when you have a lot going on.

Have no experience with induction but I have immensely disliked every electric cooktop that I've ever used. Coil and glass.

I have total electric and have had for over 40 years here. For a brief moment early on I did have gas. I find no difference in them. I do a lot of cooking. I think you have to learn your range and oven.

Sue

Had both, I preferred my electric glass because it forced me (who does a LOT of cooking) to completely clean after each time- nothing to move/get under for any crumbs or spills. No cooking difference, except that you have to "learn" different electic tops, as opposed to gas being similar anywhere (vacation rentals often had gas, too!).

I've almost always had gas except for once when I lived in a high rise. I prefer gas over electric but getting used to the electric was easier than I thought it would be.

Install the gas cooktop, you'll love it.

I paid to have a gas line run to my home so I could install a gas cooktop when I remodeled my kitchen

Now I've added a gas water heater and gas furnace now, too, and the oil tank is gone from the basement.

I suffered with an electric stove for too many years.

I've used glass-top, too, and didn't like it at all.

I like to see the flame, and adjust it and have an immediate response.

Here's another question. Does anyone miss the extra stable work surface of a glasstop - say, to put things on when you have a lot going on.

I put things on the cooktop grids all the time. Best landing pad for things coming out of the oven and microwave.

And if I need extra counterspace I put a big Ikea cutting board over the cooktop.

Enjoy

I've used both gas and electric, sealed electric burners, glass top electric and coil burner electric. Really dislike electric to the point that when we were first married and not exactly flush with funds, still we went halves with the owner of our rented house to have a secondhand gas stove installed in place of the electric stove already in place. When we bought our current house it had an electric stove. The kitchen was one of the first things we changed, installing a five burner gas stove and oven. As we are on bottled gas, we can still cook when the power goes off as it does from time to time.

Like Momj47, I also park all kinds of things on the gas stove grids when i need extra space.

cookie asked: Here's another question. Does anyone miss the extra stable work surface
of a glasstop - say, to put things on when you have a lot going on.

I have to admit...this glass top electric we have in the new house does provide a nice flat surface to work on, that is when it's not hot. It is easy to clean because it is flat, which does not mean my wife keeps it clean. I do our dishes and find that the bottoms of our pans are covered in a film of burned oils (varnish). It comes off with steel wool, but it was never there with the gas range. We had a lot more horizontal surface in our old kitchen, so we didn't need to put stuff down on top of the range top.

Modern gas ranges do not have pilot lights so you could get a large sheet of plastic and set that down on top of the gas grates when it is not hot. I used to put a cutting board on the grates if I needed some temporary horizontal space. We tried that on the glass top but the hot glass warped the cutting board. We were lucky it didn't melt. We're still learning how to deal with the electric glass.

Thanks so much everyone. I think a cutting board is the perfect solution. I panicked a little as we got ready this morning and found three of us used the stove top to put things on. I think a cutting board would be sufficient space to set things on first thing in the morning as we don't usually use the stove top first thing in the day. May be time to face the fact we leave too much stuff on our countertops!

They also make burner covers which I use, but you have to be careful and turn on the correct burner if you leave them on some of the burners and not others. (Ask me how I know!) Gas is harder to clean (more nooks and crannies) but no comparison when it comes to cooking, gas is superior by far. I can't wait to switch mine out to glass from ceramic flat top. I loathe the pulsing.

I have both gas and induction. I prefer induction. I cook a lot and make specialty dishes that require extremely high heat and low heat too. I cook a lot of Indian and Asian style cuisines. Not having the handles of cookware be hot when you touch a pot although it is at rapid boil is fabulous. I can lay my kitchen towel on the cooking surface and not have it be a flame is also great. I use my gas burner rarely now and it was a compromise when I purchased the induction cooktop because I did not think I would love induction so much. The ability to control the cooktop and make sauces, caramels, etc without scorching or fiddling with the flame. Making pancakes that are evenly golden is a dream as the pan is evenly heated. It makes cooking easier! Boiling water for pasta in minutes is also wonderful. If it was my decision to make, I would return the gas range and get an induction one. It is nothing like your electric cooktop that you use today. You may need new cookware depending on if you cookware is induction capable or not. Cookware choices abound from Ikea to William Sonoma depending on your budget.

Good luck!

I spent a miserable few years using an electric stove that was in the house....gas all the way!!

So, for induction, spillovers will never stain, will it?

I have debated off and on about buying one of those induction burners just to see how it would work with canning and other high heat applications, but perhaps the plug in ones are not robust enough.

I went back to gas years ago after having electric in many homes. I prefer gas for its instant control of temperature, but I went back to electric with the next move because I found the gas stove top heated up the kitchen too much.

Induction.........everything homepro01 said!

Cookie8,

Spillovers have no impact on induction. Some surfaces are really sensitive to liquids and may turn off but once you wipe off the unit, you turn the burners on and you are ready to go. Oatmeal boil overs are no longer an enemy:-)

l pinkmountain,

The 1500W induction units that plug into 110v are adequate units. I have two of them that I use as warming trays when I have parties. They don't perform in the same way as the cooktops but the portable units are 100% better than standard electric cooktops. The induction cooktops or ranges are 500% better that the portables with heat management, the ability to select power levels etc. There are also induction portable units that are similar to the performance of a cooktop but they need 240V outlets and are almost as expensive as some of the more reasonable induction ranges:-) The issue with canning on induction is related to the aluminum pressure canners but if you are using regular canning pot, you should not have any issues as long as the pot is induction capable. Pressure cookers are also great on induction. Once you dial in the temperature, you can maintain the pressure of the cooker for a really long period of time.

Whistle,

Having a cooler kitchen during the summer is fabulous and induction is better at this than electric cooktops because there is no heat from the burner at all.

Good luck!

I have an induction burner, and the only thing I use it for is my pressure cooker. I think they go together very well, but mainly because the induction burner turns itself off after the number of minutes that I set it for. Most of my pans are not induction ready, and I do not feel like buying new pans. Also, my gas range has a wok grate that will hold my round wok, and I cannot use that on the induction burner at all. My cooktop is sealed, and so it is very easy to clean. Also, since it is Italian, it has safety features built into the controls so that it is very difficult for children to turn them on by accident. It will also work without electricity, but it requires a match to light it.

I have no desire for any type of cooktop that is glass or electric. Gas is inexpensive, but electricity is not. I thought the induction burner would convince me to want an induction range, but it did not.

I have an electric glass top. I prefer a gas stove because when you turn the heat off it is off. Plus where I live gas is cheaper than electric.

I used my round bottom wok on my induction cooktop. There are a few adapters to make this happen (De Buyer Induction Ring). That was the reason that I actually have a separate wok gas burner. Rarely use it now except for charring peppers or something like that. I do love the timers on my induction cooktop. It takes a little bit to remember to use them.

Lars,

That is good to know for gas stove buyers that the Bertazzoni can be manually lit.

There is no comparison between induction and regular electric. They look similar, but induction installed (not a household plug portable) is as powerful as gas and as responsive, though a lot depends on your pan. Heavy cast iron is slower to change than thin carbon steel. Same as with gas.

In the Appliances forum there are many threads about would you go back to gas, and by far and away the answer is no. The people who would go back to gas generally can't get used to thinking in terms of a number or indicator position rather than bending to see a flame, or they like all the hot air (wasted fuel, but there is the sensation of cooking yourself along with your food that can't be discounted if you like it), or they like the visceral sense of cooking on fire, rather than by scientific magic. It's an emotional thing. I don't remember complaints about the actual cooking of the food other than from the few who have only 10 cooking positions. There should be at least 17, plus boost (that's 1-9 with half steps). You also want to have enough power in your elements.

I'm not putting down gas here. I like it. I have it. But before you make a big change to go to gas, it's really worth your while to explore what induction has to offer.

Re the surface, you can put down paper (newsprint, towels, etc.) under splattery pots to keep the surface clean and throw away the mess. You can also use a silicon mat which doesn't have fiberglass mesh. There's rarely a burnt on mess because the surface only gets hot from the heat of your pot, and maybe a little warm from the electronics. You can lift your pot while you're cooking, wipe under it, and put it back, besides just cleaning up drips as you go. If you do burn something on because you've left it under the pot, you can get it off with baking soda and boiling water, or baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Don't count on needing to. It's a rare rare thing. Sometimes there's a cloudy look. It's just a thin bit of oil or something and comes off with alcohol or vinegar and a microfiber cloth, easy peasy.

The biggest care issue is not to spill crystals like salt or sugar, and clean up the ones that do get away from you right away. If you push a pot along on them, they can score the surface, weakening it, and potentially leading to breakage. Most people lift rather than push their pots, just in case. But it's the same with any glass/ceramic top, so you're used to that, I'm sure.

Check the Appliances forum for a lot more info.

Gas is by far better for cooking. I live a civil war era home now for 3 years and we have electric because homeowners insurance would double if we got propane. I often cook on the burner of the outside gas grill.

I had induction at our last house. Loved it. Easy cleaning, excellent temperature control, I could go on and on. I now have a brand new 36 inch gas cooktop and it drives me crazy because I know how much better induction is.

Anne,

Did you look at induction? It would be such an improvement if you were looking to replace your current unit.

There are several show rooms that have induction set up for use in my area. If you are interested, I would call around to local showrooms to see if anyone has a live display to try for yourself.

Good luck!

Us humans have been using fire for over hundreds of thousands of years. The need to see fire, smell fire, play with fire, feel the fire is deeply programed in our DNA.

It is not healthy one day your kid asks you, "Mom, what is fire?"

The problem with electric cooking is that only the bottom of the pan gets hot. I like gas because the heat is more even from the bottom to the side walls all get heated up.

I am happy to have gas, because there has been 6 or 7 major blackouts in my area. Twice happened when I had parties planned.

dcarch

I also use the top of my grates to place things on, mostly using them as cooling racks for pans coming out of the oven, as the oven is right across from the cooktop. I've also used a match to light the burners when the power is out, so I can still have coffee in the old Corningware stove top percolator type coffee pot.

I wasn't wild for induction, my old friend/boss had it, but I only used it a couple of times, not enough to really get a feel for it. It was not instant affection, but it might have grown on me, if I'd used it more.

Of course I also HATED the convection oven that Elery had, I never did manage to bake anything that turned out right in the darned thing and I used it periodically for four years. Ugh. Add the noise and I made sure my new ovens did not have convection.

Annie

Pretty well any gas burner can be lit manually, homepro. You just need to keep it going until the little starter thingy gets hot enough to keep the flame going, usually less than a minute.

It's getting installed tomorrow! Thinking back, I remember going from element to glasstop and I was the exact same - overthinking my concerns. Thanks for the input.

LOL, I did ask if anyone has a baking drawer but not sure if anyone noticed. My oven will have one and I have never used one before. It might be useful because I like to make one batch cookies....to the dismay of my children.

I grew up using electric and now much prefer gas. Power outages are not unheard of in my neck of the woods and so it is nice to be able to cook something even when the power is out. I would really, really miss using the grates as a cooling rack/landing spot for hot pans coming out of the oven. Kids playing with the knobs was never a big issue here as they were not in the kitchen unsupervised.

The 2 downsides I have had with the gas stove, is I have been a little reluctant working with the younger kids at the burners, but to work with them more have bought an electric skillet to have them start cooking in. The grates also stay hot for a time so I use it as an excuse not to clean up the cooktop as quickly as I should (yes, I know, I could move them with a pot holder).

My mother was a nervous ninny and just could not handle the concept of gas and had an overwhelming fear of gas leaks so she bought a glass cooktop. As it is probably used a couple of times a week (she does not cook much at all), it works fine for her.

I had a range with a baking drawer a few houses ago. I used it once or twice for biscuits as I recall. It wasn't great--awkward to access and not all that even for baking.

Colleenoz,

Not true for most modern gas ranges. If you are buying a new one, make sure to confirm in the manual. My previous dacor rangetop which was about 9yrs old, could not be lit with a match. My current Miele wok burner cannot be lit with a match either. It is something about the electric igniter that is being used by most manufacturers. In the event of a power outage, I have a small generator to power the necessities.

I have a regular warming drawer but it is at waist height so it is more useable. I like it when I am cooking for large parties or having neighbors over for dinner.

Wonder if things are different in Oz? We had2 new high end gas stoves at church and my son has a new one....and both can be lit with a match. But you can't work the ovens because they are controlled with a touch pad on an electronic control panel.

My Dacor manual says not to light the cooktop with a match, but we do when the power is out and have never had any problems.

The gas still comes out around the burners, but the electric igniter won't come on when the power is out.

That's one of the reasons I got a gas cooktop.

Someone here recently pointed out that you can use a UPS (the computer battery back up & surge protector, that prevents an immediate computer crash on a power outage) to drive a gas stove/cooktop after you have your computer shut down. They would probably work on a gas oven control panel too. Certainly not with an electric oven.

Most non-pilot gas ovens have "glow rods" to heat the gas. These require electricity. I've heard that there are also safety shutoffs for the burners in many, but I'm less sure of that.

Grew up with gas when you had to stick a lit match into a slot in the floor of the oven to light it... scary. Had pilot light that was ALWAYS on so very center of stove was always hot... at least too hot to touch and hot enough to actually keep stuff warm.

After getting married, lived in an apartment that had electric and hated it. Can understand that electric is probably "safer" than gas. Electric oven was fine, in fact probably more consistent than gas?

Have gas now. Planning a serious down-sizing within next 6-12 months. Going to an apartment again and will surely have to get used to electric all over again.

My Bosch manual doesn't say anything at all about lighting it with a match, but I did it and it worked and the cooktop still works, so I guess it's OK. My older stove in my prior house had ignitors that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, so I used a match to light those about half of the time, that stove was possibly 10 years old, maybe 12. It was a Crosley, which I was told was manufactured by the Maytag company.

I don't have a warming drawer, though, or a baking drawer. I figured with double ovens, that was probably enough! I do use both of them on a very regular basis, though.

Annie

Ack Ack no!!! Maytag never made Crosley...during the time when they were buying other companies to avoid a hostile take over....they bought the company that made Crosley...and Hardwick and Jenn aire....and I forget what else.
But maytag never made Crosley....and after they bought it, they phased out the brand.

Well, the repairman told me it was manufactured by Maytag, so I took his word for it, not that I cared at all. It was cheap and it worked well, other than the igniters. I just bought matches, they were cheap and easy, and always worked! When I sold the house, the stove stayed and the people who bought the house are still using it, and still lighting the top burners with matches about half of the time, LOL.

The only real problem I had with that stove was that it did not have a self cleaning oven, I definitely like that with my new ovens!

Annie