While there are ranges made with hinged cooktops so that they can be raised for easier cleaning of the insulation cover, anyone who cleans as many stoves as I do knows that while that might be a convenience, it's not all that necessary.

The fastest easiest way to clean under the surface element drip pans is with oven cleaner, and using oven cleaner makes the process fast and easy regardless of whether your cook top lifts up or not.

Lots of 24 inch wide ranges still come standard with GALVANIZED STEEL insulation covers, and those should be avoided like the plague. They stain easily, rust and can never be properly cleaned so that they look "clean". Making sure your stove comes with a porcelain enamel insulation cover is far more important than whether or not your cook top lifts up for easier cleaning.

And, oven cleaner cleans baked on food off of porcelain enamel insulation covers lickety split, so being able to lift the cook top to do that is only a minor convenience.

And, in most cases, raising the cooktop will require moving the stove forward so that the back of the stove console doesn't hit the wall behind the stove. It's a wash in my view. If you can clean the insulation cover fast and easy with oven cleaner, and you only have to do that chore once every 3, 4, or 5 years when you move out of your apartment, it's much ado about nothing.