16775.1 | |
I posted this on Cook’s Talk as well, but I thought there may be builders or homeowners who had feedback or ideas they’d be willing to share! | |
I’m looking at purchasing the Frigidaire PLEF489A for our kitchen renovation- does anyone have any experiences with this model- or with Frigidaire stoves or smooth-top ranges in general? I know gas is preferable, but it is not an option, so any electric range advice would be appreciated! |
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I dislike smooth top ranges. One thing to be aware of: sugar will pit the surface. If you cook syrups etc, and don't clean up the spills right away, they will leave pits. This was told to us by the guy trying to sell us a smoothtop range. (we went dual fuel (propane burners, electric oven) instead).
Also, he cautioned us that many pots and pans will scratch the top as well.
I can only speak from personal experience. My mother has had a smooth top electric for about 6 years. There is no evidence of pitting, scratching or damage of any kind. She uses it everyday. It's been used for several large family gatherings a month over that 6 years. All kinds of food, including candy at Christmas.
I will agree that it doesn't have the heat output of gas. But if gas isn't an option the smooth top is an attractive choice.
I got that frigeraire smooth top. the black top with stainless side and front. No problem, just hard to keep clean but very happy. I got mine at Lowes but then found a local dealer that undercut lowes price.
Can you get flat top stoves in different wattages? I do a lot of stir frying (no wok) and the flat top we have is not hot enough to my liking. I was wondering for future building of new home if I could get a hoter flat top. Ohter than that my wife loves it!!!!
Take a look at the Dacor line I think I saw a nice unit that might do what you want. I 've got a manu flyer that I'll take a look for later and see if I can get you a model#. I'm gooffing at lunch now. So I'll look for it latter.
Clay
I just bought a new range and spent a good deal of time researching the topic. From what I learned, neither gas or electric is "better"- it's more of a personal preference. Consumer Reports states that, contrary to intuition, electric burners actually bring a pot of water to boil faster than gas. Apparently, the degree of contact between the electric element and pot is better than with gas. So, I'd disagree with those that say gas puts out more heat. The main advantage with gas is the rate at which you can change temperature on a burner. Electric models take a while to respond to changes. Gas is often a cheaper fuel than electric although they way things are right now, I'd doubt there's a big difference.
We ended up getting a smooth-top Kenmore Elite and are generally happy with it. It's nice to not have depressions in the surface where food can fall into but you do have to be diligent about cleaning up after spills. The smooth cooktop cleaners work pretty well for cleaning up and also to protect against future spills.
we have had a smooth top from sears for about 5 years. I find it pretty easy to clean. No scratches or pitts. Pans need a flat bottom to work well. Id recommend it.
Hello gen6, we have a smooth top Kennmore for about 10 years now. We have not had any problems with scratching the top. But we do have pits from pan boil overs that contained high amounts of sugar. The saleman was right it will pit the top. These pits are not craters that are going to swallow a pan, but they are noticeable.
Still it is easy to clean and my wife still likes it.
Mike
We have a glass top range that is about 10 years old, although I recently bought the house in which it is installed. My wife has a nice, heavy cookery set. It takes about 20 minutes to heat up a pot of water for spaghetti. All other uses take less time, but still a great deal of heat is wasted waiting for the unit to heat up enough to even fry livermush!
Also, the surface is impossible to clean without the special smooth top cleaners, and even then it requires a great deal of elbow grease. Cool down is equally excessively long. If you are required to heat food up to boiling and then let it simmer, you have to use one unit for boiling it and another for simmering. By the time the unit cools down enough to simmer, the liquid has all boiled away.
While the stove is cooling down (up to 3/4 hour), it is adding heat to the kitchen. This is welcome in winter, but makes the kitchen uninhabitable in the summer. Plus, it greatly increases the load on the heat pump.
Other than that, I like it just fine.
IMHO Heating with Electric is more expensive that heating with gas. I have always used gas.
You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Some time back, Consumer Reports had a good article describing the different types and advantages/disadvantages of various electric ranges. I didn't pay that much attention, since I wasn't planning on buying, but it seems to me that there are several different types of smooth top ranges such as halogen, glass/ceramic, etc. All that I have seen, as I believe someone mentioned above, stressed the importance of very flat cookware bottoms to get good head conduction. I think CR also cautioned that the flat tops stay hot longer and it isn't obvious that they are, so getting burned from putting your hand on the smooth top is a real possibility.
If you haven't already, you might want to take a look at:
http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Large_Appliances-All-Ranges-Smooth_Top
INDUCTION
flat top, no pitting in 12 years, INSTANT heat, faster than gas, gap no problem, top only gets as hot as the pan. Only dis-advantage is cost and can use only magnetic coorkware.
Ultra Safe as a 2 year old can fry eggs, would never let a 2yo fr;y eggs on gas or resistance heat elements.
We had an Admiral flat top for about 8 years. What a piece of junk. We replaced it with a GE Spectra, holy smokes what a difference. Heats real fast and has a real low warming setting we use a lot. Best feature is oven is dead on and the temperature is dead even, it's even adjustable. The wife started using it and discovered she actually liked to bake. First couple months we had more goodies then we could eat. Everything comes out perfect. If I knew it was that much better, I wouldn't have waited till the old one died to replace it.
The Spectra we bought our in-laws has a cool down indicator light. Even with the controls in the off position, the "on" indicator light stays lit untill the surface has cooled below burn temperature. Nice feature. It also chimes when the oven, broil or bake, and burners reach the set temperature. I am not a GE fan by any means, but the Spectra series seem to be a good one.
Dave
http://dacor.com/products/product_page.asp?ID=ett365
Take a look around, and see if any thing catches your fancy.
Clay
I also remember being told to make sure the pans have FLAT bottoms, and that cast iron was probably a bad idea due to scratches. I'm glad someone has seen the pitting from sugar. I was surprised the salesman told us, but it didnt' matter - I don't like the look of the smooth tops.
We have gas now, and for frying/sauteeing, etc, it is soooo much faster than electric. But it does seem to take longer to boil a pot of water. Weird. Probably due to the mass of the water in the pot.
Had our glass replaced today by GE on a Profile smooth top. A glass cooking pot had a piece of the glass cook top fuse to the bottom. The service man checked the flatness and said it was well within the manual requirement. Stove top is not quite 2 yrs old.
GE picked up the glass top cost, just short of $500, but we paid the service call/labor of $144. I will pursue with customer relations.
We did get to keep the original top, in case of major failure after the warranty expires.
Wife likes the top, easy to clean, cooks fine, safety light warns of hot grid, but not happy with fickle glass if pitting happens that easily with flat glass cookware.
On a related note- the range is 40 inches. Does anyone know of a good (but affordable) 40 inch hood? They seem to come 36 or 42- will I have to go with the bigger one?
Thanks