Stainless steel doesn't look great either as when it's scrubbed it leaves ugly swirl marks on the stainless making it look worn. You should be able to use oven cleaner on the porcelain enamel to bring it back to new. The stainless cooktop will always have those scrub marks in the stainless. I much prefer the black enamel top.

I agree with Blondelle. Never use steel wool on stainless steel. Always use a gentle sponge like a Dobie pad which won't scratch. Bluestar ranges have cast iron tops which are the toughest. But if your goal is for your gas cooktop surface to stay looking brand new, then either don't cook on it, or get a white gas range or cooktop - they are easiest to wipe down and won't show stains and smudges as much. But not very fashionable.

You could also try an induction cooktop which are the easiest to clean. Each type of cooking power (gas/electric/dual fuel) has pros and cons, and induction does too, but induction cooktops are the easiest to keep looking clean. You'll need the electrical wiring for it though if you don't have it already.

You don't say the width of the cooktop you are considering. Keep in mind that a cooktop that is 30" wide has a lot of its real estate taken up by knobs. The pans are always crowded with a 30" cooktop. Therefore I recommend either a 36" cooktop, or a 30" rangetop (which is just the top part of the range without an oven, with the knobs on the front), or a range.

The other problem with a cooktop is that it has a specific cut-out in your counter. Should you need to replace it in the future, you will have a hard time finding one with the exact dimensions, even with the same brand, since they change them frequently. A rangetop or a range won't have that issue.

For the transition space between the range/rangetop and counter, you can insert this:

Stainless Steel Transition Piece at HD or RangeKleen Transition Piece

Follow

I'm looking at 30". I don't know why but this decision has been plaguing my life of recent. Cooktop/wall vs range. induction/gas. 30 vs 36". I'm apt to get a thermador or Bluestar slide-in range. I really like having a gas oven since they preheat in no time and are energy efficient.

I still like stainless. You can definitely polish stainless steel to a new look. You need the different pads that get more and more fine. Can't do that with a painted surface.

True, cooktop cutouts are custom to the appliance but I found they are all about the same size with about 2" overlap, and you can cut out countertop larger for not much money ~$300. Definitely would be a problem if it was too large

I thought a lot about induction but I don't care for the controls and afraid I might drop something on it and chip it. Also not convinced it could ever be as reliable as a gas unit.

Get induction! You will be deliriously happy at the level of control and ease of cleaning. Since nothing gets hot ( induction is not like smooth top electric) nothing gets baked on, no cracks or crevices. Heaven. There are induction ranges and cooktops. Bosch is a great brand for induction.

I’m sorry. I replied before reading what you said about not wanting induction ... never mind what I said ;-) Bluestar’s range is cast iron on top. I think that is more expensive than the brands you listed, but very easy to keep looking clean.

There are induction cooktops with knobs, like Bluestar. (next time for sure). When I got the Wolf induction (well over a year ago) I was concerned about the glass cracking too, but it's just hasn't been an issue--and that's with me doing the cooking. I suppose there are some who drop things more than I do, but it's a very small set :-) A cooktop paired with a wall oven is the bee's knees.

>>>"I don't know why but this decision has been plaguing my life of recent."<<<

Many of us have suffered through the same process because every choice has a different mix of tradeoffs and compromises and because there are so many choices in the current market. You have my sympathy.

>>>"I really like having a gas oven since they preheat in no time and are energy efficient."<<<

There may be plenty of reasons why somebody might prefer gas stoves and ovens to electrical ones (and vice versa), but faster oven preheating and greater energy efficiency seem unlikely to be realistic expectations.

The supposed preheat speed might not be the factor you think it is. In the dozens of past threads we've had here on oven preheating, most folks who evaluate stoves on preheat speed have been looking at their stove's or oven's preheat indicator light or buzzer. Virtually all of those indicators exist only to give marketeers meaningless bragging rights about speed. Those preheat indicators only measure the air temp, usually in a top corner of the oven. That is not what you bake or roast with. "Actual" preheating means getting the metal walls of the oven heated to temperature so that they radiate heat more or less evenly into the oven cavity That radiant heat does most of your cooking when roasting and baking. It takes a lot more time than the pre-heat indicators would lead you to believe. As dozens of threads have pointed out here over many years, pretty much all home ovens (except tiny ones) take 20 if not 30 minutes to actually and fully pre-heat.

Also, "energy efficiency" is noticeable for commercial oven operations, where ovens may be on continuously, but otherwise seems pretty much moot when it comes to residential ovens and stoves. Home stoves and ovens are rarely run constantly, as with furnaces, or always run full bore, as with water heaters. The U.S. Dept. of Energy's "Energy Star" program says that cooking appliances represent maybe 2% (on average) of homes' energy usages. Ovens are only a fraction of that. Also consider that gas ovens need to vent combustion byproducts (mostly CO2 and water vapor) which means they can pump more waste heat into a kitchen than an electric oven. Depending on your local climate, that can load-up your home's HVAC and offset any assumed efficiency advantage in the summer.

In terms of ecosystem efficiencies, it gets pretty hard to quantify. When you figure in production and transmission systems for residential gas and electric, they both have costs and ineffeciencies albeit at different points in the process from production to delivery and consumption.

OTOH, there may be others kinds of efficiencies. If you have a wholly or partially off-the-grid home, for example, or live in an area where the electrical grid is very heavily burdened.

>>>"I thought a lot about induction but I don't care for the controls and
afraid I might drop something on it and chip it. Also not convinced it
could ever be as reliable as a gas unit."<<<

The last issue is the big one, I think. I think it is not so much "reliability" as it is durability and longevity. A BlueStar range is mechanically and electrically a lot simpler to the point that it can be repaired and maintained by reasonably handy homeowners for a very long time. As I see it, induction ranges have a lot of expensive "black-box" electronics and that creates uncertainties. Are they as cheaply made as the electronics in TVs or as robust as the electronics in our cars? For me, it is not so much that the systems are necessarily less reliable/durable; it is just that there does not seem to be any way for most of us to know. Further compounding those uncertainties for me is that we know that some proportion of the products will fail early, some in the mid-term, and some will fail eventually. Many of the failings will either be impossible for me to diagnose or fix by myself and the electronic parts seem to be prohibitively expensive if they are even available in the long run. Buying induction (and many other current appliances, for that matter) requires us to reconcile ourselves to living with the uncertainties. Going with a simple range like a Blue Star RCS can obviate the need to address those uncertainties. It is a calculation of personal preferences, though, so different folks will react to it differently.

On the subject of induction control interfaces, there is a greater variety in induction controls on ranges than there used to be. This goes beyond the knob controls that Jerry mentioned. The relatively new GE Cafe induction slide-in models have knob controls for the burners, and those have more-or-less infinitely variable power settings, which appeals to folks who like that aspect of gas ranges.

I don't know where the OP is from, but I see more cooktops with stainless than ranges, and plenty of them on CL. I agree about the black enamel, though. I DO NOT want that again. My next kitchen will have stainless and gas even if i have to have a custom cooktop made.

I currently have induction, and it's ok. I hate the black glass, but do enjoy the gas-like response, and clean-up is easy. Do I love it? No, I'll go back to gas someday.

Really great advice everyone and @jwvideo, that's one of the most comprehensive responses I've ever read, anywhere! The GE cafe induction controls look to be a solution to what was holding me back. But this means I would have to go with a GE oven as well since it's going underneath and ashamed to say but I really don't like the GE badge on the unit. I've had GE growing up, in my last house and current house and wanted something a little nicer or at a minimum, something different.

I have not heard people complain about the Bosch touch controls. And honestly, if you use a smartphone, I think you'd be fine with the cooktop controls ;-)

With the Bosch induction cooktop, I found I had to push in the exact spot, sometimes twice. Kind of clunky and nothing like the precision of a smartphone IMO.

I ahve a Bertazzoni it is used inmmy catering biz i run from my home it has all satiless top with all the burner cover going in my DW all the time it looks awesome 11 yrs down the road and I love it, I have the one with 6 burners one of which is a wok burner. There is no need to use a steel wool for cleaning a good soapy cloth takes care of it all with a vinegar and water wipe down

I would never have a stainless stove top againv had one and hated it. Not only is it hard to get a smooth shiney surface, but it will scratch like crazy if you are not super careful when wiping up spills and small pieces of cooked on food.

Samsung 30" slide in gas range; about 2K in cost (is that mid-range?). I have had it over a year, and clean the stainless cook top with a soapy cloth, rinse and dry. No scratches or problems. My sister has a similar gas range with black-enameled top and hates it.

Rita, the issue is wet hands or spills. Your hands (or at least mine) need to be 100% dry or the touch controls don't work. Exactly the same as on a phone, although chances are greater having damp hands while cooking. On the phone, faceID is a real lifesaver as it works whether hands are wet or dry.

I realize the problem is wet hands :-) I didn't have much trouble keeping my fingers dry when I reached the cooking stage of meal prep when I was using a Miele cooktop. But I can imagine it would be something to deal with when you have a million plates spinning in the kitchen. I would just wipe my fingers on a paper towel all the time.

I have knobs now - not because of function- because of looks- the Gagg knobs are very cool when they are set into the cabinet face.

In light of the trade off, ease of cleanup vs getting used to wiping hands all the time, ease of clean up would win for me- I'm lazy that way ;-)

You must be a much neater chef than I am if you didn't spill while cooking on the controls and have all the lights flash :-)

Hmmm ... maybe the issue is that I am a rubbish chef? Had anyone mentioned what you just did I would not have had the knobs installed! Now I'm going to be paranoid. Are you saying the liquid would spill off the cooktop and down onto the face of the cabinet? There is that metal rim though ...

In all seriousness, spilling on the induction cooktop is greatly reduced/eliminated compared to my lovely old coil electric.

No, what I'm saying is that if something spills on the touch controls, they will react to the liquid, depending on the amount spilled. Perhaps I'm messier than average, but about one out of every three cooking sessions, I spill a small amount while stirring and it goes on the touch controls. Usually this stops the cooking until I dry the surface and turn the elements back on. Knobs wouldn't do that. Touch controls would be much better if they were remote from the cooktop (e.g. a panel that affixed to the hood).

No pro stove would have touch controls at all.

gustaviAtex
I was considering the same range (30 in Samsung). I would be replacing a freestanding with the slide in. would that be a problem?

Patricia, so all the induction units in restaurants must have knobs then? Why don't they sell knobs to the general public? It seems like many people would prefer them.

A few companies, such as Bluestar, do.

>>>"No pro stove would have touch controls at all."<<<

>>>"so all the induction units in restaurants must have knobs then? Why don't they sell knobs to the general public?"<<<

Actually, some models of restaurant (aka "commercial") induction cooktops and ranges do have touchpad control interfaces and there are numbers of knob controlled residential induction appliances.

For a commercial example of a touchpad controlled appliance, there are the Cooktek "Apogee" units used in restaurants as high-end as Grant Achatz's Alinea in Chicago and the Ducasse restaurants in Paris.

For "knobs sold to the general public," recognized major brands with knob-controlled induction models include the GE Cafe models that I cited in my previous post, Electrolux/Frigidaire's "Gallery" slide-in induction range and some of the induction ranges the company makes for Sears to badge as Kenmores, LG's induction slide-in range, and Samsung's induction slide-in ranges. Boutique brand models with knob controls include Viking's induction range and some of its cooktops, Blue Star's induction stoves and cooktops, AGA, Bertazzoni, DCS/Fisher & Paykel, Verona and Ilve. Gagenau (a divsion of the Bosch BSH conglomerate), offers some models of cooktops with unique knob and glass controls. There are probably more models out there, but you get the idea.

On a cooking YouTube with Gordon Ramsay the induction hobs were temperature controlled, so you could set the temperature you wanted the bottom of your pan to reach. I don’t recall if the controls were touch or knob, though.

Well I just have a glass too electric. I love the oven...it’s a huge inprovement over my old 25 year old Kenmore drop in coil. BUT, after using my pretty shiny black glass top range for 7 or 8 months now, I have concluded that stainless is king, for me. I would even take a coil top...if I could keep my oven. Don’t get me wrong, the range cooktop is beautiful and I love its looks. But the keeping it clean is a bitch. I had been afraid of this and was really hesitant to get the glass top...but choices are limited in electric ranges. OP, I am with you. Stainless is far better for practical use.

The Samsung induction cooktop has a single magnetic knob that you can put on any of the touch controls to dial the control. Lifts off for wiping the cooktop.

That could be me writing that post. I realize it is 2 years old but I have spent days trying to find a gas range dual with a stainless top. They are all black.

me too!! trying to look through all the brands and couldnt find any stainless top!

I have Bertazzoni all stainless under my grates and all the grates go in my DW to clean . Ther eis a big difference between pro and pro look . I run a catering biz from my home so a well used range that still looks nice .

I currently have a Wolf 36" stainless cooktop and previously had an old Dacor black gas cooktop in my old house. I thought the black was tough to keep clean and really wanted stainless. But the old Dacor was a workhorse (not sure that is true now) and worked perfectly after 30 years of heavy use. Still looked good too. I've found that the stainless is EVEN HARDER to keep clean than the black. Within a week, I had some scratches on the Wolf, even though I was extra careful. It is beautiful, but there is a lot of maintenance in keeping stainless looking good.