Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumA gripe about equipment
I need to vent about my stove and am wondering if I am the only one who hates this type: the flat glass top.
The house I am in came with this stove and its been so difficult to get used to. No matter what, I cannot seem to get the temp correct. Its either too hot and stuff burns, or when its low, it heats and slows, heats and slows, supposedly to keep an even temp. BS!
Then you have the three different On selections on the dial for each burner for small, medium, or large pans. Ugh. I just want the burner on and to stay at one even, correct temperature.
Todays mess: burnt ass onion. My house smells fabulous right now.
I sliced up a vidalia and put it on low (so I thought) in a little butter so I can have carmelized onions on my salad tonight. Watched the first 5 minutes as I did some dishes. Everything looked good, so I came back to my bedroom to read for a while...
Ten minutes later, I smelled something. The onions were charcoaled! The billow of smoke when I removed the lid was breathtaking. Literally. I panicked and didnt think to run the pan outside first.
The low setting seems to be the most finicky and way too hot. When its not cycling on and off, that is, and the burner is producing no heat at all.
Why?? Why does this keep happening?
I think when I checked and turned it down a tad more before going to read, I must have turned it down too far and edged into the High setting for the large pan controls on the dial. Ugh. Its so stupid.
I miss my gas stove so much.
Oh, and one for my poor first batch of onions.
For those unfamiliar with this abomination, here is the dial on my stupid stove:
Gotta say, I do love the convection oven part. Its just the stove top I want to smash and kill.
Thanks for letting me vent.
leftieNanner
(14,998 posts)I did not like it for many of the same reasons you mention here.
Only ONE good thing happened with this cooktop. My daughters were making homemade caramel (we do it at Christmas every year - it's totally YUM) and they didn't realize that when you add the scalded cream, you need to pour it in s-l-o-w-l-y. Oops! Molten sugar boiled over the top of the pan all over the stove. If that happened on my current gas stove (the electric one finally died), it would have been an impossible mess!
Good luck to you.
happybird
(4,516 posts)I have taken a razor blade to mine to scrape off particularly hard, cooked on spills, which is nice. Clean up, in general, is the only positive thing to say about the glass top.
Turbineguy
(37,212 posts)where controls need to be well-designed. And this one is obviously not and for several reasons. We have a Kitchenaid unit and it's really nice to use.
https://www.abt.com/KitchenAid-36-Black-Electric-Downdraft-Cooktop-KCED606GBL/p/108653.html
happybird
(4,516 posts)My parents have a glass top with the same type of whacky dials as mine (cant remember the brand), but it seems to work much better than mine. Way more temp consistency. It even has a bridge setting across two burners so you can use a long griddle pan for lots of pancakes.
I rent this house, think mine is a lower end stove. Its Samsung.
Turbineguy
(37,212 posts)I had to make numerous repairs to this thing. Switches, elements and wiring. It was not enough. My wife struggled without complaint for some time until one day I asked why it took so long to cook breakfast? I got "the Look". She told me only one burner was working.
By the end of the week we installed the new cooktop.
AndyS
(14,559 posts)Uses a combo of IR and conducted heat so it heats very fast and the heat stored in the ceramic top evens out the ON/OFF element. If it's too hot I just turn the heat down and slice the pan to one side. Absolutely perfect for simmering or rice cooking.
Gas is okay but if something boils over I just take a kitchen towel, lift the pot and make a quick swipe to pick up the mess. Can't do that with a gas burner.
Just my preference, YMMV.
Mr.Bill
(24,104 posts)fixer-upper mobile home in a nice senior park. We had one of those flat top stoves in our old house and I hated it. Took to long to respond to the dial and very difficult to keep clean.
We gutted and replaced the kitchen in our mobile home, and we went to Sears and bought the cheapest range they had, admittedly out of cost restrictions. It was $499 and it has the old electric coils. I had not had one of those for so long that I had forgotten how well they work and how simple they are to operate. We love it, and it's worked flawlessly for five years.
flotsam2
(162 posts)Buy an induction plate for perfect temperature control. I have a gas stove which I love but use the induction plate for precision simmering just below a full boiling point. As long as your cookware is magnetic the induction burner cannot be beaten. Set it and forget it no fiddling temp control up and down.
TygrBright
(20,733 posts)Magnets don't stick to my stainless steel pans, nor to the copper-bottom ones, nor to the ceramic ones, nor to the tempered glass ones. I have a few cast iron pots but they are too heavy for me anymore.
Where do you buy the special pans for an induction plate, and do they come in a wide variety of sizes/shapes?
Can they be used on a regular gas cooktop as well?
curiously,
Bright
flotsam
(3,268 posts)but to get an idea:
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Induction-Cookware/s?k=Best+Induction+Cookware
flotsam
(3,268 posts)induction cookware works on regular stoves...
TygrBright
(20,733 posts)sir pball
(4,726 posts)I have laminated stainless/copper Emerilware that works a treat, and some classic All-Clad. Solid copper wouldn't work, but who can afford that these days?
You don't need a special induction-specific pan, you just need one that says on the label that it will work with induction, which is probably half the cookware out there these days. If nothing else, I'd suggest a carbon steel pan which you should be able to get for under $50.