What Gary's one word answer means is that people don't really like electric smoothtop ranges. The glass gets so hot that little spills have to be cleaned with a razor blade, but the heat transfer to pots is inefficient and slow to react. The coil ranges out there are very old tech, but if I had to have radiant electric, I'd find the best one of them --maybe Whirlpool or GE -- and go for that. The exception might be if there was a really well regarded oven on a smoothtop, and I didn't expect to use the burners much.

If you have a little more money and a hardy electrical circuit (or can put one in), another choice would be induction. It requires a specific kind of pots and pans (iron, steel, or certain types of stainless clad), but it's much more efficient, and much less annoying. You can clean up as you go, and the glass only gets really hot right under the pots, where it takes heat from the pot itself. Induction works by using magnets to excite the iron/steel and make the pot hot.

Well spoken pillog!

I had one, as I mentioned, (well the cooktop anyway). I would get bloody knuckles from trying to clean that succer!!!

And then one night, it unlocked itself, turned the largest burner on full. Had I not come down from this room, which is on the 2nd story, to go to the kitchen to get some ice cream, (before retiring for the night), It very well could have (at the very least), started a fire.

So Yes I'm very anti biased towards this type of cooktop or range, even to the point of hatred.

Sorry bout that, and my "mini post", but I'm sure you got my drift?

Gary

I have a GE. I bought it in 1995. I loved it then and I still like it quite a bit. I recently upgraded to a Blue Star gas range, but the GE smooth top moved down to the basement kitchen area, so it is still in use. I had a gold coil top GE before the smooth top. It had to be circa 70s or earlier. It is STILL working. It was in my basement, but when I moved the smooth top downstairs, I had to finally give it up. I gave it to my son who is now using it in his kitchen. I've been happy with GE electric range performance, and can't complain about the lifespan of these ranges one bit!

Asking which brand is "better" begs of the question of what you mean by "better."

Warranty service and support? Features? Something else? Maybe, reliability and durability?

If the latter, check out the results from the annual membership surveys at Consumer Reports. (Those who are hot for diatribes against CR, please note that I am referring to the membership survey results not the performance ratings from the lab testing by CR's labs.)

If you don't have access to CR, here's my recollection of the most recent results. CR members who purchased a smoothtop in the last five years are reporting that GE brands (including Hotpoint, Profile and Cafe as well as plain GE) and Frigidaire are the most durable/reliable brands. Plain Whirlpool was next but Whirlpool's Jenn Air and Kitchenaid brands were the worst, with more than double the problem rates. Samsungs were about the same as Whirlpool. Kenmore was next (reflecting the mix of its sources). The defect rates for LG brand smoothtops were nearly as high as those for Jenn Air and Kitchenaid.

I have had a GE profile smooth top for 10 years with no issues. I agree with jwvideo that GE brands have been reliable. I know it takes lot time to cool off after using cooktop.

I would think that the Bosch and Miele smooth tops be high quality.

Doubtless they are. Those brands have a pretty small market share in North America, though. That likely accounts for their absence from the CR survey reports that I mentioned above --- there just are not enough of them bought by CR members/responders to get a statistically valid sample.

Only thing I can suggest for smaller brands is trying to talk to companies that service those brands. Also, some large appliance vendors have in-house service departments and occasionally report repair and service rates on their web sites or blogs. IIRC, Yale Appliances does this from time to time.

Quality isn't the main concern, performance is. This technology is very difficult to cook with when compared to gas or induction, both readily available. It is also the most difficult to clean. Everything bakes right onto the surface. There is nothing I can think of to overcome the drawbacks when anyone spends a few minutes cooking on the others. And induction is visually identical but much more efficient.

Generally we cook on an induction hob. Love it, Love it. Alternatively we cook on a Dacor electric smooth top in a Canadian cottage and I can just survive. The pain is a Miele electric smooth top unit in France that drives me nuts waiting for it to react. Not just heat up but cool down also. Don't have the power so it's unfortunately being replaced with a gas unit.

My electric smoothtop still looks brand new even after 10 years. After heat indicator goes off to say it is cool enough , I clean it with hot soapy dish water, once a month use ceramabryte

We have no gas in our house so electric smoothtop was my only option. Mine is now 12. At the time, Wolf was considered the best one -- likely it still is. I bought a Viking and it really has been ok as these go.

Without doubt, gas or induction would be better and more responsive. But if a smoothie is a must then I would check out Wolf, Miele, Electrolux and, gasp, Kenmore. See which get best reviews.

Everyone says how awful smoothtops are but mine has plenty of power and good control considering. I don't find it difficult to clean at all and it's white.

How to clean induction:

1. Wipe with paper towel

hvtech, :-)

"Electric smooth tops are not difficult to clean at all. After dinner, when the stove has cooled a bit, sprinkle baking soda on the dirtier parts of the stovetop. Take a washcloth dipped in hot soapy wash water and lay it out flat on top of the baking soda and let sit 10 -20 minutes. You have to use enough baking soda so that it doesn't melt away but stays kind of thick and chunky. After sitting for a bit, gather the baking soda into a pile and kind of use the thick pile to scrub the top. Baking soda has some abrasive qualities to scour but does not scratch glass. Clean baking soda off and rinse with micro fiber cloth to remove all residue. Easy and cheap. Never have scratches. Many natural products clean way better than store bought cleaners. Look on you tube - lots of videos showing just this."

Now compare the above to how hvtech42 cleans his induction cooktop:

"1. Wipe with paper towel"

Frankly, I'd much rather just take a paper towel even as I'm cooking then do what laurieich has to do to clean her cooktop. Sorry I don't have that much free time to bother with all that. Sounds almost like how my grandmother used to clean her stove and she's been dead for over 50 years.

And if you cook with your pan sitting on the towel (another induction trick) you can even skip the "wipe" part.

That's pretty difficult/time consuming if you ask me. Obviously, fine if you don't think so, and don't mind doing it, but it doesn't compare at all to the ease of cleaning an induction cooktop (I've had both, as well as gas, so I do have a basis for comparison). I detest spending time doing housework, so for me, ease of cleaning is one of the best features of induction!

That procedure is only half the effort. The other half is cleaning the baked on gunk you find on the bottom of your pans. No quick rinse after soapy water, wipe and put away. You need to create a padded work surface to scrub the bottom of the pan unless you soak them for a long time.