Induction requires certain types of pots, you may have to throw away a lot of your cookware. OTOH, my DCS gas stove has 4 large burners and I frequently want to use smaller pots than are ideal for the burners (the flames shouldn't go up the sides) even when cooking for 4 or 5 people.

I love my induction cooktop. Sigrid is right. All of your pots and pans have to be magnetic (i.e., if you put a magnet on the bottom, the magnet needs to stick to it.). Cast iron (unless enameled) is not recommended generally due to potential for scratching. If you try to use a really small pan on the largest burner, it may not recognize the pan and not work. Like any glass top stove, you have to use special cleaners and be fastidious about cleaning.

I have had two kitchens redone in the last 3 years. Both have induction ranges, one is a slide in and one freestanding. For some reason the slide in is much louder than the freestanding. While the free standing may have a slight buzz on the high heat, the slide in is awful. And I have tried a variety of pots, the best being cast iron. I have taken to using the vent fan when I am cooking on the slide in. I've had the rep out and they say there is not much you could do, that it is working properly. I don't know what the difference is since they are both GE. I would vote for gas.

to begin, i dont have an induction cooktop. but i have a smoothtop at my vacation home and a gas cooktop at my residence. BASED ONLY ON CLEAN UP, i would rather clean my gas cooktop than my smoothtop. it takes an inexplicably long time to get the smoothtop truly clean and not streaky, and even though i'm a really careful person, its getting scratches all over it.

for this reason, given the option of gas or induction, i'd pick gas.

We put in induction when our kitchen was redone. The previous kitchen had an expensive gas cooktop.

We choose induction for safety, internal air quality, and cooking quality. We had to replace our pans. The best best thing about induction, the thing I did not understand before I had it, is the value of extremely consistent heat settings. 7 is 7 is 7. It never varies. The pan heats up very quickly to a precise point and stays there - the heat is not created by cycling on and off like an electric cooktop, and it doesn't have the natural variation of a gas cooktop. I LOVE this. I figure out the ideal setting for my recipe and make a note for next time. I walk away from my cooktop more often with more confidence than I ever did with gas.

I use a mix of cast iron and induction compatible stainless steel pans. I haven't had any trouble with scratching. I clean the cooktop with windex - it isn't necessary to use a cooktop cleaner unless you have somehow managed to cook something onto the cooktop. Since the top itself doesn't get hot this is harder to do than it is on a regular cooktop. Spills next to the pan won't cook. You have to get the food under the pan and then cook - the heat from the pan will cook food under the pan onto the cooktop.

Induction does not put combustion residue into your indoor air.

The major downside is that aside from cast iron, there is limited selection of induction compatible cookware and it's expensive. Cast iron is cheap and is an excellent cookware material. It's downsides are that it's relatively heavy and not dishwasher safe. None the less it's now my preferred pan material.

I have never used induction but I used to have smooth top electric and now I have gas. Like a previous poster said, smooth top does not clean as easily as you'd expect, especially when spills get baked on. I inherited the smooth top stove when we bought the house and called appliance stores for cleaning advice. What worked best was to get cleanser made for Corningware and use that. For stubborn spills, put the cleanser on liberally then cover with damp paper towel and let sit for 30 minutes. Afterwards you can usually wipe clean. Keeping a smooth top clean is a lot of work and elbow grease especial if you cook a lot. I assume induction is similar. I prefer the look and ease of cleanup of my gas stove. And of course my gas stove is superior in performance to electric smooth top, but I can't speak to induction performance.

ty for the clarification/information, margaret.

last question, will your induction cooktop work when the power goes out?

Thanks Margaret, good to know and didn't mean to mislead anyone. Induction does sound pretty cool. I do appreciate that I can use my gas stove in a power outage without needing a generator, just another consideration.

Ikea has induction compatible pans that are very inexpensive and hold up well.

A lot of talk in the comments about difficulty cleaning electric glass top ranges. I doesn’t sound like you are using utility razors to remove baked on messes. Then it is just a breeze to clean it. Our first one didn’t mention that so you are right...it was a pain. Our next was a gas range and that was a pain too. Then my sister told me about the razor (look online). We have gas here but will put induction (preferably) in instead.