View Full Version : Glass top stoves?
I am going to have to buy a new stove as my current one bit the dust. It is not so bad because I have really, really been wanting a new stove. I am thinking of a glass top one because of the ease of keeping the surface clean, but I have heard they do not cook so well. I do not want to cut out counter space to get a gourmet dohicky and I do not have gas and do not desire it. So, I am wondering, out of the electric stoves (Oven and stove-top range), do the glass tops cook well or am I better off with a coild burner-type stove.
livius drusus
09-17-2004, 10:14 PM
My parents have a glass top and I really hate cooking on it. It takes forever for the burners to heat up a pan and it takes even longer for it to cool down. That's the curse of electric burners in general, of course, which is why I avoid them as much as I can.
It is nice to have an easy to clean surface, that's undeniably true. Was your old stove electric?
Scotty
09-17-2004, 10:32 PM
Each generation of the glass stove tops gets better and better, so I would go check them out and see what you like.
I had one, and I accidently slipped and cracked the surface, and I didn't hit it that hard, just in the right spot.
So, that is another thing against them. Plus, you need to be carefull you don't use a pan that is too big for the surface that is heating up (so you don't heat a portion that isn't tempered) and then crack the surface.
Anyway.
-Scott
Bella
09-17-2004, 10:37 PM
I really would advise against a glass-top stove. They can be damaged easily (as Scotty mentioned). Glass is also a poor conductor of heat - that's why you rarely see cookware made from it - and it doesn't hold heat well because it's not dense enough. If you're going to purchase a new stove, I would recommend gas, with cast iron grates to go on top. The cast iron holds great amounts of heat and distributes it evenly. You can even purchase a medium price gas stove and buy the grates seperately.
Thank you. I guess I should avoid them. As far as gas goes, my stove is electric. My house is not equiped with lines to run gas. I also had a carbon monoxide incident once when I had gas in an older home. I pretty much scared me away from ever using gas again.
Well, I'm not surprised to see Bree recommending gas. It really is the best. But I have a glass-top stove and it heats up much more quickly than the old metal plates. I don't think the speed thing is decided just by the technology - you get good or bad in each. (But a gas flame that takes a long time to heat up: not.)
Also I think the risk of cracking may be less with modern ones. We heard of one cracking when a pot was allowed to boil dry ... for a long time. But ours is pretty tough.
Aside: once, on a gas ring turned down to a bare glow to simmer a stock, I left it on overnight. Woke up to a faint smell in the bedroom intensifying to smoke in the kitchen and a stench of charred lamb bones. Retchville. The pot could not be saved (it was toast, literally). The smell took weeks to clear out. But the ring was fine (it was still on...).
Scotty
09-18-2004, 02:26 AM
Hey Bree, you mean like one of these bad boys?
-Scott
viscousmemories
09-18-2004, 04:36 AM
Daaaaaamn, Scotty. That looks awesome. I have an dumb old electric stove here. :(
Looks like regular old electric for you, Beth. Unless you're not worried about the possibility of cracking or poor heating. I've never used a glass top so I can't comment.
lisarea
09-18-2004, 04:42 AM
Well, everyone already said this, but I don't care. I want to complain.
When I bought this house, it had a new, or newish, glass top stove in it. It was too new to replace, so I just figured I'd use it.
So I did. It heats really slowly and the heat is uneven. I am not supposed to use cast iron on it, or really anything heavy.
A couple of years ago, stupid Battlecat jumped off the top of the refrigerator and knocked a bottle of absinthe onto the stove, breaking the glass, so that now, one of the burners is totally useless. I didn't want to fix it because I hate the thing so much, but I still haven't gotten around to replacing it--I need to make sure the gas lines are still working and stuff--so I finally looked around for a new top. OH! I GUESS STUPID BATTLECAT BROKE THE PART WITH THE PART NUMBER ON IT, so I don't even know how to replace it. Plus, I still kind of don't want to.
It gets brokener and brokener all the time, and I use my cast iron on it, and I hope it explodes some day.
The moral is: Don't get a glass top stove! Even if the new ones are 100x better, they would still suck.
Dingfod
09-18-2004, 05:05 AM
What about the glass top induction range tops? They heat up steel and cast iron pans pretty quickly and cool as quickly as the pan will allow. I do not know if they are as controllable as gas, but they're a lot faster than the glass top radiant range tops.
Me, I prefer gas for a stovetop, both for control and for economy reasons. My mother-in-law, who used to bake cakes as a home business preferred electric ovens for that purpose, but had a gas rangetop for all her deepfat frying and collard green boiling. She claimed that gas ovens sometimes caused the cakes to fall if they cycled on or off at the wrong time in the baking process and electric ovens produce more even heat. The woman never tried a convection oven. As for this being correct, keep in mind that this is the same woman that believes everything she reads in the National Enquirer and Weekly World News and has been convinced that she was dying since about 1978.
dave_a
09-18-2004, 05:56 AM
never had a glass top stove, but have been interested in getting one when the present unit gives up. Must say I built my house without gas cuz I hated it in the last one. Had electric ran in the old one to replace the gas. Never understood the attraction.
Electric plus stainless steel cookware seems to work pretty well. I assume stainless steel is OK for glass top?
Bella
09-20-2004, 04:42 PM
I would think that stainless-steel on glass would be OK. Stainless steel is a poor conductor and distributer of heat so I wouldn't think it would get or stay so hot that it might crack the glass. If you have clad cookware, though, I would consult the manufacturer.
Scotty, if that's a picture of your kitchen, I'm jealous - I'm stuck in an apartment with a 20 year old electric hunk of shit.
Scotty
09-20-2004, 05:36 PM
Yeah, that is the Garland stove, the one that when we first moved in, and you turned on the oven, it would basically explode and slam the door open (it is a heavy door too, but it never pushed it all the way open, just 3-4 inches, but STILL!).
So, we had somebody come out to fix it. It is a LP oven, and it was jetted for natural gas. In other words, it WAS NEVER INSTALLED CORRECTLY FOR 10 YEARS! The people must have been using it (or not using it at all) with it exploding on them every time they used it. Morons.
Works great now. Just goes "foof" when starting up the oven :)
The kitchen still needs a lot of work, it seemed okay when we moved it, but open shelves instead of cabinets just doesn't work too well.
-Scott
Ah, I would love one of those. And gas heats so well, cooks food so wonderfully. Sigh. Maybe if we ever sell,...I would also be able to cook during a power outtage.
Roland98
09-20-2004, 07:03 PM
I have a glass-top stove. Less than a year old, damn thing is already cracked. My sister was babysitting and was boiling water for tea; forgot about it, boiled the kettle dry, tried to pull it off and c-c-r-r-r-r-ack! Lengthwise across the top, but missed the burners so we still cook on it.
As far as heating, it heats faster than our old electric stove, so I wouldn't avoid them for that reason. I think if we'd have gotten the good warranty, they'd replace the glass for free (but we didn't, oops). So I'd recommend that if you do get one.
But yeah, I prefer gas too.
Scotty
09-20-2004, 08:27 PM
Actually, all of our gas appliances (which is small right now) run off of a propane tank under the deck. So, it isn't too hard to get gas installed :)
They fill up once a month in the winter or so, but it is still spendy at times. It is a 110 gallon tank.
-Scott
RevDahlia
09-21-2004, 03:57 AM
Me, I prefer gas for a stovetop, both for control and for economy reasons. My mother-in-law, who used to bake cakes as a home business preferred electric ovens for that purpose, but had a gas rangetop for all her deepfat frying and collard green boiling. She claimed that gas ovens sometimes caused the cakes to fall if they cycled on or off at the wrong time in the baking process and electric ovens produce more even heat. The woman never tried a convection oven. As for this being correct, keep in mind that this is the same woman that believes everything she reads in the National Enquirer and Weekly World News and has been convinced that she was dying since about 1978.
She's right about the ovens at least. In my experience, although gas ranges rule, gas ovens are unreliable. I love my electric oven. I LOATHE my electric range. Don't have room for two stoves, unfortunately.
godfry n. glad
09-21-2004, 08:45 PM
I've a refurbished 1949 model of a Merritt & O'Keefe gas range/oven, complete with the center griddle. My wife inherited it from a flaky friend and then spent nearly $2000 having it refurbished, top to bottom, including re-enamelling and re-chroming. We did that after checking the prices on the new models...
I grew up cooking and baking with gas and I absolutely hate electric for any kind of cooking. I'm not clear about what Worn is talking about "cycling on or off during the baking process"...there's no "cycling" in the natural gas oven I have. You set the heat and it maintains that heat. If that's what you're talking about...a thermostatic response to keep the temperature at a given level, then electric oven heat has the same problem.
But, then, Mr. Mechanix I'm not.
It sounds like you don't really have the option of gas (although the bottle gas option might work, but it sounds like you're happy with electricity anyway), so sticking with electric seems the way to go.
As for glass-top, all I've heard is negative, despite the ease of cleaning issues. Check out the induction glass tops, though.
godfry
lisarea
09-21-2004, 09:13 PM
You know, I'd always thought that my fantasy stove was a Viking with the 6-burner range and double ovens, but not long ago, I realized that what I really really really want is to find an old model--something mid-century, probably--and refurbish it. I have the danged webpages bookmarked already.
I've decided I might have some flames painted on it or something, even, to impress my homiez and to intimidate rival stove gangs and stuff.
So, anyway, um, godfrey?
Got stove porn?
godfry n. glad
09-21-2004, 09:23 PM
You know, I'd always thought that my fantasy stove was a Viking with the 6-burner range and double ovens, but not long ago, I realized that what I really really really want is to find an old model--something mid-century, probably--and refurbish it. I have the danged webpages bookmarked already.
I've decided I might have some flames painted on it or something, even, to impress my homiez and to intimidate rival stove gangs and stuff.
So, anyway, um, godfrey?
Got stove porn?
Stove porn?
You wanna see pix of my sweet cookin' hotstuff?
Um...I'll have to look around.
godfry
lisarea
09-21-2004, 09:37 PM
Stove porn?
You wanna see pix of my sweet cookin' hotstuff?
Yes!
Yes please, Sir!
You know, I'd always thought that my fantasy stove was a Viking with the 6-burner range and double ovens, but not long ago, I realized that what I really really really want is to find an old model--something mid-century, probably--and refurbish it. I have the danged webpages bookmarked already.
I've decided I might have some flames painted on it or something, even, to impress my homiez and to intimidate rival stove gangs and stuff.
So, anyway, um, godfrey?
Got stove porn?
Cook-faster stripes?
I suppose you'll also be going for the alloy handles, the auto-food-eject, and leather interior?
Corona688
09-21-2004, 11:24 PM
I'd imagine it'd be pretty difficult to roast marshmallows over an electric oven.
godfry n. glad
09-21-2004, 11:32 PM
I'd imagine it'd be pretty difficult to roast marshmallows over an electric oven.
Yeah, but it's pretty difficult to roast marshmallows over a gas oven, too.
Stovetop burners, now, are a completely different thing....
godfry
lisarea
09-22-2004, 12:22 AM
You roast marshmallows on your STOVES?!?!?
Don't you have FIREPLACES?
What, are you POOR or something?
I'll bet you are! You're all POOR!!! HA HA!
Roasting marshmallows on your stoves, indeed! Besides which, who even eats marshmallows? SWISS PEOPLE IS WHO.
You're all just a bunch of POOR SWISS PEOPLE.
Dingfod
09-22-2004, 01:28 AM
I'd imagine it'd be pretty difficult to roast marshmallows over an electric oven.I'd bet my dad could. He is the only person I know that would have the patience to stand there over an electric burner holding a marshmallow. Over a campfire that man could make the most perfect brown marshmallow while everyone else was catching them on fire and eating carbon. OTOH, those glass stovetops that are supposedly the subject of this thread might not work at all on marshmallows held over them.
Dingfod
09-22-2004, 01:30 AM
You're all just a bunch of POOR SWISS PEOPLE.I wish!
godfry n. glad
09-22-2004, 01:50 AM
Uh...
Not poor...lazy. Yeah, I have a fireplace. I use it almost exclusively for seduction. It takes a little while and a lot of fussing to get it going, it takes a while to get up to decent heat for roasting marshmallows (good glowing coals), I have to stock fuel for it, I often have to run outside in inclement weather to get said fuel, and I have to actually work to get the said fuel appropriate size (I have to chop wood!). Once going, it sucks all the heat out of the room and up the flue (except, of course, for everything that's within two feet of the fireplace), and it leaves the house smelling like a meat processing plant for the following four days.
I think turning on the burner on the gas stove top burner to toast marshmallows is a capital idea. Prepare marshmallow, flip on burner, toast marshmallow to desired state, :search: (be sure to snuff the flamers) flip burner off, eat marshmallow. Over in less than a minute, maybe a little bit more if you're messing with s'mores. Quick, easy, inexpensive. And my place doesn't smell like a smokehouse for days. I think you can do the same with electric, but you have to be more steady of hand and hold the marshmallow closer to the element....risking the dread "marshmallow drop", a really bad thing with an electric burner.
As for the marshmallows, I don't particularly care for them, they're off my diet, but there must be a hell of a lot Swiss folks out there.:shifty: ...particularly in the campgrounds.
Does that explain all the Swiss Army watches? :huh?: And knives, don't forget.:susp:
Should I protect myself?:susp:
godfry
viscousmemories
09-22-2004, 02:57 AM
I like smores a lot, but not enough to go through all the work it takes to produce them.
Dingfod
09-22-2004, 05:46 AM
I have a fireplace. I use it almost exclusively for seduction. It takes a little while and a lot of fussing to get it going,
...
Once going, it sucks all the heat out of the room and up the flue (except, of course, for everything that's within two feet of the fireplace), and it leaves the house smelling like a meat processing plant for the following four days.Forgive my further derailing this thread, but I put vent-free gas logs in my fireplace. It starts with a piezoelectric spark button. No heat goes out of the room at all because I leave the flue closed. It will heat the whole house, but is really lousy at marshmallow and weiner roasting.
As for the marshmallows, I don't particularly care for them, they're off my dietMine too.
, but there must be a hell of a lot Swiss folks out there.:shifty: ...particularly in the campgrounds.
Does that explain all the Swiss Army watches? :huh?: And knives, don't forget.I don't know about the watches, but their knifes are handy as hell for people too cheap to buy a whole box of actual tools.
http://swizarmy.com/Graphics/Site10267/Vendor100406/medium53504.jpg
lisarea
09-22-2004, 07:05 AM
I like smores a lot, but not enough to go through all the work it takes to produce them.
Just get yourself one of these:
http://store1.yimg.com/I/wishingfish1_1805_2109794.jpg
I think you should buy one and dedicate kitchen real estate to it and everything.
Then, you should buy some premade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and one of those gigantic egg peeling machines.
BURN.
viscousmemories
09-22-2004, 07:23 AM
Hey cool! I waaaaaaaant it.
When I make smores, I just place a graham cracker that has a hunk of chocolate and a marshmallow on it in the microwave and nuke for a few seconds.
beyelzu
09-22-2004, 07:23 PM
When I make smores, I just place a graham cracker that has a hunk of chocolate and a marshmallow on it in the microwave and nuke for a few seconds.
that is just wrong.
no ash in your smores is a crime against god.
jesus died so you could have sinfully good, campfire smores.
obviously he wouldnt support microwave smores as there were no microwaves in jerusalem.*
:D
*this logic brought to you by faux news.
beyelzu
09-22-2004, 07:24 PM
Hey cool! I waaaaaaaant it.
I thought the exact same thing.
wildernesse
09-22-2004, 08:01 PM
You roast marshmallows on your STOVES?!?!?
It didn't take my brother and I long to realize that we could roast hot dogs on the burner of our parents' gas stove once we were old enough to use the stove on our own. We thought we were so special. And Brilliant!
It didn't take much to make us happy way back when.
(Oh, and the smores maker. . .whenever we see one, Rufus says "This is neat. We need one.")
I used to do this when we had a gas stove. If I really, really want charred bits, which are carcinogenic, btw, I either do them in the fireplace or over a candle.
Corona688
09-24-2004, 04:29 AM
I used to do this when we had a gas stove. If I really, really want charred bits, which are carcinogenic, btw, I either do them in the fireplace or over a candle. Bah. Precious few things in this modern world AREN'T carcinogenic. Charred flaming marshmallows all the way. ...OK, maybye not flaming.
livius drusus
09-24-2004, 04:34 AM
:welder::marsh:
Bella
09-24-2004, 04:51 PM
I used to do this when we had a gas stove. If I really, really want charred bits, which are carcinogenic, btw, I either do them in the fireplace or over a candle.
Yay! Someone else who has roasted marshmallows over a candle flame! Now I don't feel so dorky!
:welder::marsh:
Cruelty to smilies! Seriously, there could be children watching.
Or is this your inner nature: :dragon::marsh:
livius drusus
09-24-2004, 11:01 PM
Sometimes, Chester gotta get wacked. /old mafia saying
pescifish
09-25-2004, 12:50 AM
Sometimes, Chester gotta get wacked. /old mafia saying :eek: :faint:
godfry n. glad
09-27-2004, 11:55 PM
You know, I'd always thought that my fantasy stove was a Viking with the 6-burner range and double ovens, but not long ago, I realized that what I really really really want is to find an old model--something mid-century, probably--and refurbish it. I have the danged webpages bookmarked already.
I've decided I might have some flames painted on it or something, even, to impress my homiez and to intimidate rival stove gangs and stuff.
So, anyway, um, godfrey?
Got stove porn?
Does this set off your pilot light?
lisarea
09-28-2004, 12:44 AM
Does this set off your pilot light?
Oh, hell YES. That is truly a thing of beauty. And you have a b&w checkered floor, even. I know what I'm dreaming about tonight! (Don't anyone tell the ODB I'm fantasizing about other men's kitchens, please.)
Is that a double oven, or storage/warming?
godfry n. glad
09-28-2004, 02:11 AM
It's a broiler. Not particularly useful, but hey...it's melted a lot of cheeses.
As for the black and white tiles...you can dream all you want, but my wife put them in over 20 years ago and had wanted to change them for more than 18, she roundly advised against anyone ever doing it. It looks great new, or right after its been cleaned, but the white shows all the dark schmutz and the black shows all the light schmutz, and it consequently almost NEVER looks clean. We wanted to change to faux marble or faux granite vinyl tiles (schoolhouse vinyl).
But then, you're not the first female to autolube upon seeing this kitchen. The black and white vinyl tiles seem to impress the ladies a lot. The trim is all in natural oak, too. The kitchen has been reworked four times since I moved in with my soon to be wife. She'd lived here seven years before I moved in and had done two remodels on the kitchen. Her hobby was finding the right person to do the best job she could afford and then driving me crazy with paint chip comparisons...endless paint chip comparisons. We tinkered on it together for nearly twenty years. Her stove was one of her treasures. She got it free when a friend moved to Europe and asked her to stove sit. The friend never came back from Europe. My sweetie went into debt to get the job done when she did, because she'd found a restorer she trusted....good thing, too, 'cause he died before he got it put back together and his wife had to hire one of his proteges to reassemble our stove and reinstall it. We lived with a hotplate, waterboiler and microwave for nine months while this stove was being refurbished. It lacks only the built-in clock/timer and chrome salt and pepper shaker that used to be top center, where the timer is now.
It's a great stove, too. It's cooked a goodly number of turkeys and too many apple pies to count. Now always reliable, always dependable. Prior to the complete rework, we had the gas company in twice when the smell became obvious (that's in many years). They tinkered with the jets and reset it and it worked fine until it'd go outta wack again, I'd reset it and it'd be hard to light. You needed a match to light the oven, 'cause the pilot wouldn't stay on. Since the rework, no problems. It's been eight years. I have to actively caution myself not to use scratchy pads to clean the chrome top. It's Windex only....works great. I haven't cleaned the oven yet. I use a pizza pan underneath when I'm cooking pies, so there's not much need.
There's no :warmpie: smilie....
godfry
(hey...pssst...I'm not up on the lingo, what's OBD stand for?)
lisarea
09-28-2004, 04:55 AM
(hey...pssst...I'm not up on the lingo, what's OBD stand for?)
Sorry. I forget that everyone doesn't have a big list of fun facts about me at their fingertips.
He's the Old Dirty Bastard (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/member.php?u=67) I ordered off the internet.
Scotty
09-28-2004, 05:14 AM
Porn for you.
-Scott
I'd imagine it'd be pretty difficult to roast marshmallows over an electric oven.I'd bet my dad could. He is the only person I know that would have the patience to stand there over an electric burner holding a marshmallow. Over a campfire that man could make the most perfect brown marshmallow while everyone else was catching them on fire and eating carbon. I could do the brown ones, but, to me, nuttin' beats seeing the mallow bubble up in the flame and eating charred bits on the outside and yummy, melted goo inside :)
lisarea
09-28-2004, 05:36 AM
Porn for you.
-Scott
DAMN, you guys ROCK.
LadyShea
09-28-2004, 07:11 AM
I don't like, cook, or whatever...but that refurbished stove KICKS ASS in the looks department. That it is also functional for making food not raw is just bonus, IMO. I want one.
Did you consider the black and white floor in ceramic rather than vinyl? Just a thought...it cleans way better.
Oh, there is a topic huh? We had one of the original glass top stoves...I think it was glass...it was flat and the burners were drawn on it. It was made by Corning IIRC. Anyhoo, we could only use Corningware on it, because if you used metal pans, they left scorch marks on the stove top.
godfry n. glad
09-28-2004, 05:41 PM
I don't like, cook, or whatever...but that refurbished stove KICKS ASS in the looks department. That it is also functional for making food not raw is just bonus, IMO. I want one.
Did you consider the black and white floor in ceramic rather than vinyl? Just a thought...it cleans way better.
Why, thank you for the rave reviews.
Ceramic tiles in the kitchen.....hmmm...I don't know as I'd want something potentially breakable in a place where I tend to drop heavy things. We'd had quarry tiles in the bathroom and my wife didn't like those, either. Too cold on naked feet....so, she replaced them with real linoleum, before it was trendy. It's much nicer on the bare feets. (Then she decided on ceramic tiles for the upstairs bath...go figure.)
godfry
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