Hi,

I had an Amana ceramic cooktop that I cursed at daily. It came with the house. After 12 years of pain and agony, it is now in the trash. I;m getting a new kitchen this summer and have selected a gas range. I've heard good things about the induction cooktops, but I didn't want to chance it. This may be my last chance to have a really nice stove. Don't know how the inductions would work with your canner. Good luck,

I have cooked on the "electric coil" (as my mother used to call it) or induction type of cook top for most of my life, except for a brief time when I was renting a place that had a gas stove. I loved the gas, and would love to have another, but it makes no sense to run a gas line in here and add another outside tank, just so I can have a gas cook top. The economics just outweigh the benefits. Anyway, I guess my point is that I've been canning on an induction cook top since I was about 7 years old, and haven't had any problems. I don't anticipate any problems with this one either, but will keep you posted. (If I do, it goes back!) MacThayer

I have had the old coil, and regular ceramic cooktops. My last two homes have been gas - first one by choice, second home a rental. Cooking on the gas is nice, but what a royal pain to keep it looking clean and nice - I have ended up hating it, and even planned on returning to the much less efficient ceramic (I am not a cook by any means). However, I am so thankful for this forum where I first learned about the induction cooktops! Mine was installed yesterday, and it will be a couple weeks before I can try it out.

I had one and hated it. It was not TOL, though. I ripped it out after about 8 months and got what I'd really wanted in the first place, WOlf AG range. Hating that top was the main reason for doing the kitchen reno when we did it.

I also hated my Jennair ceramic cooktop and it predecessor the solid element. I just got a Miele induction 36" 5 burner and the control is fantastic to say the least. I had always said I would move to gas when getting a new kitchen but am really happy I made this choice.

I've had a Kenmore smoothtop for the 13 years I've lived in this house. It is very easy to keep clean, and when not in use, is a handy smooth extension of my countertops/work surface.

However, when I want to cook and turn it on, its limitations become all too obvious. It takes forever to heat up (10+ minutes to heat my wok), and just as long to cool down. I can't deep fry on it, as it is totally incapable of maintaining or restoring max heat. It does simmer though, as long as I use my electric kettle to provide boiling water.

I'm currently planning a total kitchen redo, which will begin as soon as I can find a willing, affordable GC. Since I can now afford a few of life's luxuries, I'll be designing everything around a high powered AG range. It can't happen soon enough. Last week the half the broiler element in my oven packed it in. I NEED a new kitchen before the end of barbecue season!

I have this GE model. The best, fastest, easiest to control, easiest to clean range I've ever owned. Totally smooth all over. No nooks or crannies. Rolling boil of six quarts in about 16 minutes. No trouble deep-frying....or any of the other complaints mentioned so far. Wonderfully controlled simmers. Oven very consistent, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: GE electric smooth-top

Long ago (1978) I inherited a white ceramic cook top in a house I bought. I hated it with a passion. It was nearly impossible to clean, and just wouldn't work at all with any pot that wasn't dead flat on the bottom. (Almost none of mine were then.

After three years I moved, leaving the problem to somebody else. But I would never have one again. If I was going to do electric now I would do induction.

Yes! Yes! Oh, I just have to join in here. I hate mine, too, and like so many others that are hated, it's a Jennair. Heats up slow, cools down slow, impossible to regulate the heat, and if the pot is not perfectly flat, you're sunk. A PITB to clean, too, with tons of nooks and crannies. Who wants to go at that stupid edge with a toothpick and a brush every time you want to really get it looking nice? Bah! I'd have trashed it long ago but I spent (to us) a fortune on the stupid thing and I knew that "someday" we would remodel, and then it would be so, so history and I'd buy something excellent to cook on. I swore I'd go with gas when we finally remodeled, but the induction units have really caught my attention. The biggest strike against them is that they *look* like that smooth top horror I currently have! I'm trying to get over it before decision time comes on the remodel. :-) Seriously, I bought a little induction unit and so far I'm liking it very much. Even so, y'all will probably hear a lot of worrying and questions as the decision comes near to actually choose induction over the gas later this year...

Cj

Yes! Oh what a pain to clean! I had a white ceramic Amana top at our old house. I'd have to get baking soda out each time and it still had stains I couldn't get rid of.

My current cooktop is a Jenn-Air that needs to go soon! It also has 2 coils and a grill. I tried the grill once and realized it was such a mess and a pain to clean, I've never used it again. We grill outside instead. And the vent just isn't strong enough to do much of anything.

I hope to replace it sometime in the near future with a gas cooktop.

A Thermador dealer told me he could sell a ton of the old fashioned electric coils rather than the ceramic with radiant electric underneath, but they stopped making them. GE has a coil electric cooktop. If you want a ceramic top, induction seems to me to be the way to go: easier to clean than electric.

Sorry if someone has already mentioned this... again, I did not have time to read all of your responses b4 calling it a night. If you have heating oil delivered, then you probably have access to LP. An LP dedicated range or range top would probably require little investment in a tank that could be buried in your backyard and would likely need filling a couple or three times a year. Just grist for the mill so to speak. I have had some friends do it and they love it.

Geeze, this thread is really demoralizing to me. We are building and I have been looking into appliances. Gas is not an option for cooking and I'm not too interested in propane. I can't do induction because my much beloved and cherished and well-used All-Clad pots and pans don't pass the magnet test, and with all of the expenses for the new house, I don't even want to think about buying new cookware. I had my wagon hitched to a ceramic top, but now I'm unsure. Seems like my last option would be the old-fashioned coil burners, and now a poster says that they are no longer being manufactured. Guess I'll be cooking on the woodstove!

Coffeehaus,

I felt the same when considering switching to an induction cooktop from my old GE downdraft electric cooktop. I had purchased an extensive and redundant set of Calphalon anondized and commercial nonstick 4 years ago. The cookware was a huge upgrade from my old mix of pots and pans I had used the previous 32 years. I really hated to think about giving up my fairly expensive and functional cookware to switch to induction, but after reading so many posts of others who said they made the switch with no regrets, I decided to take the leap.

My induction cooktop is on order and after researching induction ready cookware, I found that it is easily available and at reasonable prices if you don't have to go for high end brand name. Several of my anondized Caphalon pieces I can still use in the oven and the rest is in great condition for hand-me-downs to nieces and nephews getting out of college and looking for apartments.

I made my first purchase of induction cookware over Mothers Day when Sears had their Kenmore Elite 8 piece Stainless Triply Clad set 50% off at $100. It is a beautiful set, well made, very similar to All Clad with the addition of pouring lips, inside measurement marks and sturdy,comfortable handles. The 8 piece set includes a 1.5qt, 2.5qt saucepan with lid, a 3.5qt deep saute pan with lid and a 6qt stock pot with lid. You have to keep an eye out for it at Sears since they only make it available from time to time.

You can get excellent heavy triply clad skillets in the Tramontina Gourmet line carried at most Walmarts. Plus they have a Tramontina 8qt stock pot with pasta insert, steamer and glass lid for $40. Just keep a small kitchen magnet in your purse and you will find induction ready cookware available in most department stores. There is no need to break the bank on new cookware if that is the only thing keeping you from considering induction.

My plan is start out with just the basic cookware and add to it piece by piece as the need arises once I have my induction cooktop installed. Gas cooking is also not an option for me and I believe induction will certainly not have the same cleaning issues that radiant heat ceramic tops have had. Don't be discouraged if a ceramic top is really what you want. You can find many happy owners on other threads.

Coffeehaus,
I just purchased an electric coil -- NOT induction -- cook top, and did not have a problem finding one. Several companies still make them: GE, Frigidaire (which is the one I got), Whirlpool, and -- Oh, dear-- there was one more I looked at but can't recall the company. And they were not all that expensive. Mine was listed for $419 and they sold it to me for $319. Like you, my husband and I are right in the middle of trying to get out from under all the debt we piled up by building and don't want to add more, and I have a beautiful set of Caphalon pots and pans -- almost everything I own is Caphalon, so I'd have to replace everything. I thought about induction VS electric, and finally decided that when we were out of debt -- which should be in about 3 years based on our plan -- if I really hate the electric, then I'm going to replace it. So what if it will cost me $100 per year until then, based on the list cost. The Jenn-Air that blew up on me cost a heck of a lot more than that! And I can still do my canning. It HAS to be better than ceramic. Anyway, when we have a little extra money, if I want to replace the cook top and the pots and pans, I can do that. Right now, I went for the most economical solution that would fit my needs.

So if they're telling you that there aren't any models, just google the web sites of those companies and look them up yourself. You'll find them, and you'll find them at other companies as well. The salesperson I worked with said he'd only shown me about half of the available models for the strictly electric coil cook tops.
MacThayer

Your problem is Jenn-Air. They are overpriced, overhyped JUNK. Get rid of it. I've got a Frigidaire smoothtop, and MUCH prefer it over ALL of the ranges I've ever owned, gas included... I'll never go back to cooking with gas. I find it dirty, smelly, and I got fed up with that yellow film it leaves on everything...

Remodeled my kitchen, got rid of the ugly gas pipes, and installed all-electric. Best thing I ever did. Water boils MUCH faster than it ever did on gas. Cleanup is a breeze, and mine even features a special "simmer select" function that allows me to have a variable-temp simmer, which is terrific for making gravies, stews, sauces, hollandaise, etc... Trying to get a good, low simmer on a gas range was always a task. Either the heat was too high, or the flame so low that the slightest draft made the fire go out!

Don't give up on smoothtops. Get rid of the Jenn-Air. Also, check into Consumer Reports. Most of the electric ranges got a better score than even the most expensive gas ranges, which are a complete waste of money IMO. Jenn-Air was/is among the most repair-prone brands...

Good luck!

"...."simmer select" function..."

My GE has similar; a five-stage selector; quite wonderful, I agree.

"Trying to get a good, low simmer on a gas range was always a task. Either the heat was too high, or the flame so low that the slightest draft made the fire go out!"

Identical experience. Made me nuts. Abandoned gas because of it. Well, because of that and a number of other annoying characteristics.

I had a Jenn-Aire with coils many years ago which worked fine. However, all those nooks, crannies, and seams made it a nightmare to keep clean.

I never understood the fascination and obsession of cooking with gas. I grew up cooking with gas, but now that electric cooking has made such advancements(especially induction), I don't miss it. Yes, it's true that you've got more precise control over the heat, but once you've mastered cooking on an electric range, you get to know, through experience, which heat settings work best, and when to compensate for the temperature change. I remember that going from a low heat to a more higher heat took awhile with the old coils, but that's not an issue with my smoothtop.

Also, I can't emphasize this enough, you MUST have the proper cookware for smoothtops to work correctly. Pots and pans should be flat-bottomed, heavy base, tight-fitting lids, and matched to the size of the cooking zone. Forget cheap, aluminum cookware, and stay away from copper. That stuff is useless for any type of cooking as far as I'm concerned...

Like a few others here, we had a GE Profile ceramic top range in our last house. It was called white on black, I think...It was speckled and looked kind of grayish. Cleaned up wonderfully and easily with Barkeeper's Friend. No complaints about how it heated or how fast...Only thing I had to compare it to at the time was coil burners, which I HATE. I do know it boiled water faster than my Wolf rangetop, which I love for other reasons. But we do miss the nice, flat, smooth surface that cleaned up in a minute or two.

Hi everyone,

So nice to read all of your reviews and concerns. I planned to buy double dish washer and an electric (Gas-need to remodel the design)) cook tops this memorial day sale. I have to explore about "induction" option. What does it mean exactly?, Which product is good?

So far my choice

GE Electric cook top
Kenmore Elite double dish washer

Any suggestion would help me.

Thanks,
Verba.

verba: Induction cooktops use a magnetic field to heat the pot or pan directly; they don't use heating elements as such. They can heat very fast, but you have to use the right kind of cookwear with them.

We've got a GE TOL glass electric cooktop with touch controls. Very easy to clean, as long as you don't let anything boil over. If something does boil over, it's a few minutes worth of scrubbing with Whirlpool glasstop cleaner. Once, I had to take a single-edge razor blade to something that was particularly stubborn. It's a little slower to boil water than a gas cooktop might be, but our previous range was one of the cast-iron solid element ones, so compared to that the glasstop is wonderful.

Thanks for your reply, I'll check it out this weekend!!

"...a little slower to boil water than a gas cooktop..."

FWIW...My experience was the opposite. My GE boils water just about twice as fast as the high-end Amana gas range it replaced. Since I cook a lot of pasta and shrimp, the return-to-boil superiority has been much appreciated. As has been the fine-control of lowest-heat settings.

Same here. My Frigidaire smoothtop boiled a large stock pot of water nearly 10 minutes FASTER than the highest rated burner on the old Viking I recently had removed... I couldn't believe it either, but the results speak for themselves.

asolo,

Don't the GE ranges feature a 3000-watt "power boil" element? This supposedly boils a large quantity of water in under 10 minutes if I remember correctly...

Not familiar although maybe it does that....don't know. (There's a link to my range in previous post on this thread.) I get rolling boil from 75F ambient six quarts in 16-18 minutes. My gas range never reached "rolling" and took 36 minutes to accomplish that. Return-to-boil was a joke. Lots of sub-standard pasta.

IMHO....10 minutes for six quarts would be REALLY fast. Don't know what you or they may mean by "large quantity".

I cannot STAND it. It scratches easily, part of the element has gone out on one hob and it's going to cost me hundreds to get fixed. I absolutely hate it. Is there an electric alternative.

How about an induction cooktop? I learned about induction on this forum in 2006 when I was trying to figure out what to do because gas wasn't an option. I'll never go back. One warning: check your pans to see if they will work on induction. If a magnet sticks, you are good.

I feel so guilty even saying this because my children bought me a beautiful looking GE Stainless steel, ceramic top stove and I absolutely despise it! How I wish I could have had either another electric coil top or my fave - a gas top.

Ceramic is a joke to cook on. It takes forever to heat up or to cool down, you can't leave anything simmering because it does NOT simmer, and nothing really cooks correctly. Who cares how "lovely" it looks if you can't actually cook with it. I wish I could return it!!!!!!!

I am an experienced home cook, but the ceramic glass top is enough to reduce the most experienced cook to tears because it does not really work. You cannot simmer, fry, stew, or sauté correctly without taking the pan on and off. I finally bought an electric counter top skillet which I use for frying and sautéing. I use the glass top to boil pasta water, and tea. That's about it. I use my slow cooker for stews and tomato sauce or thick soups and my electric skillet for everything else. My stove bakes perfectly so I use it for baking. BUT to think that my children paid a fortune for this stupid stove is sad and just plain WRONG.

Are you using the appropriate cookware? Or got a radiant ceramic cooktop and not an induction ceramic cooktop?