Recommendations for new stove?

[Harold Hattaway]

Ray

Thanks for the hint about sugar. I'll bet that is our problem.. Even though I clean it, and the wife cleans it has discolored and there are little scratchs in it...

Harold

[Canoeman1947]

Deanna,
Several years ago my wife and I purchased a Whirlpool smooth top stove, and it is without a doubt, the best stove we've ever had. We frequently use a cast iron skillet on it without any problems, and have done so for several years. As long as we use the recommended cleaner (Weiman Smooth Top Stove Cleaner), we've had no problems keeping the stovetop clean. Other than the fact that this stove has a self cleaning oven, I don't know anything else about the type of oven.
Larry Compton

We have two Jenn-Airs, both electric. (Main home in AZ and vacation home at Lake Tahoe)

Jenn-Air #1 - slide in combo oven/4 burner range style unit. As mentioned in previous comments above, the burner units can be swapped around and interchanged. We have a grill, a griddle and 2 of the older fashioned circular "burners". Advantage to the older style burners, you can put any size pot on and have (dare I say it) intimate contact burner/pot. While this type of burner doesn't look as nice, it works well.

Jenn=Aire #2, countertop 4 burner unit with ceramic burner inserts. Looks prettier, harder to keep clean though. One problem is the raised border around the double burner unit keeps larger pots (corn, lobster, etc.) from coming in direct contact with the burner...longer heating time required. In this house we have a wall mounted oven (wish there were two) with the convection feature. I'd recommend the Convection type for more even baking and roasting.

Also LF, one feature of Jenn-Aires that you need to consider is the exhaust fan located between the two burner units (both on the stove-top and the range top). This fan has to be exhausted to the outdoors via ducting. Our Jenn-Aire #1 goes through the wall and out. #2 has a 15 foot run through the floor and thence to the outside since it is mounted in a island counter.

Both units are doing well with minimum maintenance or spare parts required over the years.

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There's snow on the roof but the fire still burns in the oven.

LF...We have a glass top (smooth)
I keep a black iron skillet on it at all times.
It has never scratched it. As a matter of fact I dropped the skillet on it from about a foot and it didnt break the top.....Nancy however almost broke my head.
It sounds like we have about the same unit as Ray...Sears.
It takes the smooth top burners longer to heat up, longer to cool down and is harder to regulate than our previous electric stove with regular coil elements. It is easier to keep clean, we use the ceramic cleaner made to clean smooth tops with....and after 3 years the stove looks new.

[This message has been edited by Buzz (edited 23 February 2006).]

[Jonezee]

We just replaced a gen-air grill top with a full burnner stove top (insert). Were in Michigan and I still grill outdoors in the winter on the outside bar-b. Thats what you do when you live in Michigan. The indoor grill smelled up the house, not for us. Regarding the smooth top. Our neighbor has one (2 yers now) and the only thing she reccomends is cleaning it properly. If you have a house cleaner come in, you have to instruct them on how and what to use when cleaning. I must admit, it doesn't look like it just came out of the box. Our gas stove top looks as good as the day it was made (3 yers ago)

[Grn Mt Man]

LF,

What a coincidence! We just had a new stove delivered yesterday. It's a Whirlpool and got it at Lowe's. Old stove was about 21 years old. New one has the smooth top with a warming spot in the back middle area. Touch pads for oven, cleaning and etc. The heating element inside is on the top and not the bottom; so, any spills don't go on a bottom element and stink up the place while cooking. Neat feature is the inside top rack has a removable section, on the right hand side, in case you want to cook a large turkey or the like and you can use the rest of the shelf space for veggies or whatever. Salesman recommended a new wiring harness for it and the delivery folks installed it in a few minutes. We slid it into the old wall space after trimming about a quarter inch off the floor level molding strip, turned it on for a fifteen minute burn out (watch your smoke alarms for a while) and away we go! Cleaner that came with the stove was a small bottle labeled "Cooktop Cleaner" from Whirlpool. Looking forward to trying it out.

[ducksterman]

LF, after researching and getting advice from an appliance guy my wife went with the smooth top slide in electric by Fridgidare....haven't gotten it yet so no experience.

[Rich Ward]

I would rec-o-mend the same model you had when you lived south of Livingston I believe it was a smooth top. and was not gas. and works well with cast iron LOL

Love Rich

[rnelson]

We bought a new range with the smooth top and I don't like it. I use cast iron pans, with caution because of possible scratching. But my cast iron pans are the only ones that heat uniformly.

Any pan that is not perfectly flat or that has concentric rings (supposedly to transfer heat more efficiently) do not work well. The heating element is constantly coming on and going off with these pans and that doesn't make for good cooking.

[Jo]

Whatever you are cooking should not notice the element turning on and off, thats usually a sign of a bad pot base. A thick base of air or aluminium sandwich instead of steel; or too thin base are all effected by this.

[This message has been edited by Jo (edited 24 February 2006).]