On Nov 20, 4:58*pm, "cshenk" wrote:
"Wayne Boatwright" wrote





cshenk told us...
"Bob-tx" wrote
considering the smooth top type.
What are the pros and cons of the smooth top over the open burner type?
Pro's, they tend to look spiffy. *I stretched for another one and can't
find it.
Con's
- Much harder to clean a spill if it bakes in at all. *Easy to damage
surface when trying.
- Often a favorite pan or so can never be used on it (my best cast iron
for example)
- Somewhat fragile, leading to chips or cracks
- Expensive to repair (pretty much replace)
- Pots leave marks, the time you 'save' wiping gets used scouring pot
bottoms
- Slower to heat, lower final heat (this may be dated info and newer
models may be better)

Reality is the usefullness tends to degrade fast with a person who
*loves* to cook and and is more interested in performance than looks.
Seen any cooking shows? *You won't find any glass tops at all in them.
Electric and gas (both slightly different but both work well).

Now, if most of the time you folks are just reheating a soup, or boiling
a few veggies etc, glass top is ok. *If using it to put up canned goods,
make jellies/jams, or any of the other assorted things some of us really
enjoy doing, you will find a glass top 'looks spiffy' and after a month,
you will wish to hell you had a regular stove top again. *That big pot
of tomato sauce, perking slowly all day to perfection? *Nope. *Not as
efficient as a regular burner for that.

I had a fortunately *short* 4 month time when I had a temporary place
with one of those glass top units. *With no experince with them at
first, I thought it looked really neat and liked the idea. *The
honeymoon ended in less than a week in my case. *I was really glad to
move by the end of that 4 months to a place with a real stovetop.

Clearly we've had different experiences, Carol, and I couldn't disagree
more. *In 3 different houses I have had 3 different smoothtop ranges and
loved all 3. *The first was a Frigidaire, the second a GE, and the present
one a Whirlpool.

Yes, very different experiences. *It may have to do with how we both use the
stove top but withough an involved discussion that goes all the way to the
recipe level, I can't tell for sure what is different. *"Now, if most of the
time you folks are just reheating a soup, or boiling
a few veggies etc, glass top is ok." was credence to the difference in usage
levels we may have.

We don't know what Bob-tx's wife does. *No, I am not saying you just reheat
cnas, but there might be a usage level difference combined with my
experience with earlier versions of this sort of range.

A side tale: *When I was 19, I made a trip to Oskaloosa *Iowa to visit a
friend. *Glass tops were in their infancy and Sara's Mom was really happy
with it. *I don't recall clearly why, but we decided to have chili for
dinner. *She was shocked to find i knew how and no cans were needed other
than perhaps canned tomatoes. *I managed to make it work, but on those 1980
or so circa versions, it was problematic. *Fast forward to 1995 with a
'supposed' state of the art model. *It *was* much better and i can only
assume 14 years later they are better yet.

So, I am happy that you are happy, but Bob-tx asked for the general input on
pro's and cons. *If his wife has set ways, and cooks using the stovetop alot
(not just reheating stuff or frying some bacon and eggs), she may not like
the 'adaption' even if the units no longer have the flaws of the earlier
ones.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Maybe she could find a friend who has a fairly new smooth cooktop and
try cooking a meal on it to confirm like/dislike before soending the $$
$.