Electric Ranges/Ovens

[rafi...@my-deja.com]

I'm in the market for an electric range/oven,
preferably under $700. I welcome all opinions
re. what to buy, what not to buy. I'm especially
interested in peoples' experiences with the "flat
top" ranges, which look really easy to clean, but
are they good to cook with??

Thanks!

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

[Erik Miller]

Second-hand info from other cooking geeks says that people who clean
the kitchen love the flat-tops (inductive elements) and the folks who
cook in the kitchen hate them. Supposedly the heat is inconsistent
(some models) or merely weak (others). Sorry not to be able to
provide brands. We do have 2 or three friends who have these; none
were the same brand and generally they all regretted the purchase.

Erik Miller

[Peter Aitken]

Not all flat tops are inductive. Some are radiant heat just like a standard
electric stove. We have a Dacor flat top and like it very much - this is
both me (the person who cooks) and my wife (the person who cleans up). It is
not the equal of a good gas stove but without natural gas in our area we did
not have that choice. It is better than a standard electric in that the
elements heat up and cool down faster. We have even done successful wok
cooking on it using a flat-bottomed wok. You do want to have pans with
relatively flat bottoms, but you do not have to have the really flat bottom
that some types (inductive?) require. We use le Creuset, Calphalon, Falk
copper, ScanPans, cast iron, and RevereWare all with excellent results. As
an added bonus the oven (cmbination convection/regular) is by far the best I
have ever used. Admittedly this is a $2000 range and the less expensive ones
may not work as well. Clearly, however, you cannot make a blanket judgement
about flat top ranges.

Peter G. Aitken

Erik Miller <e...@jprc.com> wrote in message
news:37c2121e...@news6.bellatlantic.net...

[Jay Bain]

Hi Erik,

when you added the "inductive elements" to flat top, I was curious.
Since flat top "Ceran" or equivalent can be radiant, halogen, or
inductive, where you talking about a specific type. Most flat tops are
radiant and of those, some of them can be anemic when it comes to
heating. Smoothtops were well rated in the August Consumer Reports and
had heating capability similar to electric coil. Perhaps the smoothtop
technology has improved from the earlier units that have been around
for decades.

Also, halogen is becoming less popular from what I have seen in the
showrooms. And induction, although a good technology, has never taken
off as a mainstream cooking appliance.

jay

[Steve Calvin]

A friend of mine bought the Maytag flat-top range and he loves it.
He says that the cook top is "somewhere" between the old style elect.
element ranges and gas from a time to heat-up/cool-down point of view.

Don't know if it would be under the $700 figure though. I have the
same range in a self-cleaning gas model and that ran around $800 or so
--
Steve

[Erik W. Miller]

Unfortunately, I was probably replying out of turn. I don't have much
personal experience with these stovetops--just anecdotal, and so my
facts are probably not in order. The people that I know and have
spoken with who have these ranges have been generally disappointed.
They've bought the units within the last 5 years or so, but I don't
have specific knowledge of which technology was being used.

I also freely admit to being the sort of person who believes in the
benefit of "the old ways" in cooking. I worked in restaurants for
better than 10 years, most of that time in fine dining. Whereas a
flat top may make for a nicer kitchen and is more convenient to clean,
I would still rather cook over gas than anything else. We have a
Kitchen Aid--I use a whip. We don't have a food processor--I use
knives. We don't have a microwave--I only ever used them for
softening butter anyway, and water in the sink is sufficiently fast
for thawing frozen meats.

You probably get the idea...

In any case, with the constraint of a $700 budget, it sounds like a
choice between getting a fairly mediocre flat top or a good
traditional element. The $2000 flat top is of course right out of the
running, and if you don't have gas or can't afford the
hood/ventilation for it, that's out as well. If it were my money (and
of course it's not), I would most likely look for a traditional
electric stove top, and if we're talking about the whole stove I'd
swap away fancy stove-top gimmicks for definitely self cleaning and
hopefully convection function for the oven.

More than 2 cents worth, but where else besides the Internet are you
going to get that kind of value?

Erik Miller

On Tue, 24 Aug 1999 14:39:18 GMT, jb...@REMOVEhiwaay.net (Jay Bain)

[rafi...@my-deja.com]

Thanks for the input (all). Since I'd rather cook than look, and since
I don't have the extra $$, I'll probably focus my search on standard
ranges (and just wait impatiently for the day we move to a gas-equipped
house). Then again, maybe I'll just grill out every day!

Rafi

In article <37c2e7bc...@news.jprc.com>,

[rafi...@my-deja.com]

Steve - do you know what model Maytag your friend has? Also, is it
radiant or induction?

Rafi

In article <37C2B6...@vnet.ibm.com>,
Steve Calvin <cal...@vnet.ibm.com> wrote:

> Jay Bain wrote:
> >
> > Hi Erik,
> >
> > when you added the "inductive elements" to flat top, I was curious.
> > Since flat top "Ceran" or equivalent can be radiant, halogen, or
> > inductive, where you talking about a specific type. Most flat tops
are
> > radiant and of those, some of them can be anemic when it comes to
> > heating. Smoothtops were well rated in the August Consumer Reports
and
> > had heating capability similar to electric coil. Perhaps the
smoothtop
> > technology has improved from the earlier units that have been around
> > for decades.
> >
> > Also, halogen is becoming less popular from what I have seen in the
> > showrooms. And induction, although a good technology, has never
taken
> > off as a mainstream cooking appliance.
> >
> > jay
> >

> > e...@jprc.com (Erik Miller) wrote:
> >
> > >Second-hand info from other cooking geeks says that people who
clean

> > >the kitchen love the flat-tops (inductive elements) and the folks

who
> > >cook in the kitchen hate them. Supposedly the heat is inconsistent
> > >(some models) or merely weak (others). Sorry not to be able to
> > >provide brands. We do have 2 or three friends who have these;
none
> > >were the same brand and generally they all regretted the purchase.
> > >
> > >Erik Miller
> > >
> > >On Mon, 23 Aug 1999 19:40:15 GMT, rafi...@my-deja.com wrote:
> > >
> > >>I'm in the market for an electric range/oven,
> > >>preferably under $700. I welcome all opinions
> > >>re. what to buy, what not to buy. I'm especially
> > >>interested in peoples' experiences with the "flat
> > >>top" ranges, which look really easy to clean, but
> > >>are they good to cook with??
> > >>
> > >>Thanks!
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>

> > >>Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> > >>Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
> > >
>

> A friend of mine bought the Maytag flat-top range and he loves it.
> He says that the cook top is "somewhere" between the old style elect.
> element ranges and gas from a time to heat-up/cool-down point of view.
>
> Don't know if it would be under the $700 figure though. I have the
> same range in a self-cleaning gas model and that ran around $800 or so
> --
> Steve
>

[Steve Calvin]

Rafi,

I'll ask him when he decides to show up at work this morning. I doubt
if he'll remember the model of the top of his head so I may need
to get back to you next week. If I forget, send me a note and jog
my memory.

Steve

--
Steve

[Steve Calvin]

rafi...@my-deja.com wrote:
>
> Steve - do you know what model Maytag your friend has? Also, is it
> radiant or induction?
>

Rafi,

Ron has the MER5370. You can check it out at:
http://www.maytag.com/maytag/appliances/ranges.asp?page=product&category=electric&subcategory=Ceran&mid=MER5730AAW

--
Steve

[Robb Dabbs]

Our family has cooked on electric ranges for over thirty years. Our most
recent range is a Frigidaire Gallery with radiant glass cooktop. It put
all its predecessors to shame, including an earlier glasstop range. The
elements heat quickly and intensely, yet they they can also hold a true
simmer as needed and heat control is excellent. We happen to have the
model that also has a "keep warm" zone on the surface that can maintain a
lower than cooking temperature. This is excellent for keep a dish or two
at serving temperature. We also have the warming oven drawer in place of
the storage drawer. This is terrific for large dinners where some dishes
may have to be cooked in advance and held until the rest of the meal is
ready. Hope this helps.

Robb