Cooktop TypesThe first step is knowing the cooktop types. They are... Electric cooktops come in two versions, your traditional coiled eyes, and your smooth glass/ceramic top. Now, the glass/ceramic top tends to be more popular because of how easy it is to clean. It requires a cleaner called, “Cerama Bryte” which can be found here Click Here to Get Ceramabryte Amazon will provide the cheapest price cleaner around. Although this is the least expensive cleaner, expect that extra expense with this cooktop type. Another thing to remember with the glass/ceramic tops is that they can crack if something heavy such as a cast iron pot hits it. Most importantly, these types of tops take longer to heat up, and longer to cool down as opposed to gas, or even the coiled eyes. This could possibly pose a danger, depending on the quality of cooktop you purchase because when cooling down, there may be no indication that the burner is still hot, possibly causing you or a loved one to be burned. This also would make the cooking area warmer. Finally, these types of tops don’t provide the even heat distribution throughout the pot or pan as gas does. This trait goes for the coiled eyes as well. Modern pots and pans are grooved on the bottom so full distribution of heat wouldn't be possible with anything electric. Coiled eyes, can produce a slightly better performance than the glass/ceramic tops believe it or not. Depending on the quality of the coils (the more coils in an eye the better!) they're able to provide faster cooking and faster cool down time. With coiled tops, the coils are your heating element, with glass tops, the coiled heating element is beneath the glass surface which causes the delay in cook times. Coiled eyes can just be a pain to keep clean, so depending on how often you cook, glass surface may be the way to go. Another cooktop type is gas. If you were to visit a chef’s kitchen, you would find in there a gas cooktop. The reason for this is for it’s capability to cook evenly with all pots and pans. Like I said before, most pots and pans today aren’t flat on the bottom, so electric cooktops wouldn’t be your ideal choice to get that even cook. Chef’s also prefer gas because of their on/off capability. When you turn it on, it’s hot and ready to go, allowing you to cook faster than cooking with an electric cooktop; and when it's turned off, it cools a lot faster than electric, reducing the heat in the kitchen. If you are choosing a gas cooktop, make sure you choose one with a good BTU rating. The higher the BTU (British Thermal Unit) the more heat is distributed to that burner. A good cooktop will have a burner capable of 15,000 BTU’s. BTU ratings on cooktops differ on each burner, so make sure you check the specifications of each individual burner. The last cooktop type is induction. Like gas and electric, induction is a different energy used for cooking. Now for supreme cooking efficiency, energy efficiency, and time efficiency, induction is the way to go. Lets explain in a non-scientific manner what this technology is. Well, simply put, instead of using electricity or gas it uses magnetic energy to product heat. The interesting thing about induction is that the cooking surface never gets hot! you can take a boiling pot of water off of the burner and immediately put your hand on it, and it will be cool to the touch. So how does this work? Again, magnetic energy! The ceramic surface reacts to the iron-based pan, which produces the heat. This technology cooks twice as efficient than electric or gas. Now for the cons, (you knew it had to be some somewhere!) these cooktop types are a lot more expensive than electric and gas, not only that, you have to purchase new cookware. You need special pots and pans to be able to react to it's surface to create the heat. So converting over to such a thing can be very costly. Is it worth it? Well depends on if your name is Chef Boyardee. If it is, than Yes! It would be worth it! Or if you have some extremely curious children (like I was) who seem to ignore, "The stove is hot!" (like I did) and just may burn themselves from playing around the stove so much, (like I did) than yes, I think any amount of money is worth my family's safety. However if you wanted to test the waters with this cooktop type, there are some stores which may have it on display to show customers how it works. Call around to local appliance providers to see if you can see it work in person. Click Here to Exit Cooktop Types and Return to Cooktops |