Going Form Gas to Electric

I prefer electric.
You will have to adjust to the fact that when you adjust ghe heat, it's not an immediate drop in temp.
But my flat electric cooktop stove is WAY better than the older "coil" electric stoves.

I refuse to live in a house with a gas stove. When I was in college I got cought on fire by one. And I can't imagin teaching my kids to cook near fire. They would probably catch my house on fire. Playing with it.

I've now had two gas ranges and would switch back to electric in a heartbeat. Electric heats water in half the time. It takes a little longer to heat up, obviously, but once it gets going, it's much more powerful. I would not shed a single tear over having electric.

Having used both (grew up with gas, then electric in college and grad school, gas in first rental, electric in next house, gas in the one after that and gas now) my preference is for gas, but both definitely work, and the smooth top ranges are REALLY nice for a lot of cooking.

The big difference will be that electric takes time to heat up, but more importantly, it TAKES TIME TO COOL DOWN.

Keep that in mind while cooking, and err on the side of too little heat, rather than too much... you can always turn it up, but if it starts to burn or boil over, turning it down won't fix the problem quickly enough. Start on low and work up (rather than hi and working down... which is what I do with gas).

In the event that something IS burning or boiling, just lift the pot/pan up off the burner while you adjust the heat (that gets it off the heat but also lets the burner cool down faster). You can also just move it to a different burner, but I often don't have a free space while cooking.

Remember that a recently used burner is still VERY hot. Just because it isn't on and isn't glowing red, doesn't mean it's cool to the touch, so keep kitchen towels and little fingers AWAY!

Make sure it's OFF. With gas, even on low, there's a flame. With electric, your burner could be on without glowing. Check the dials EVERY time you finish cooking to be sure they're off.

That's all I've got, for now.

HTH
T.

The thing that I found out about cooking with electric is that when you see it change color you set the burner to the temp that you want. This catches most of the temp change when cooking with electric and you don't burn your food.

My son has a smooth cook top and I don't care for it much. It depends on the size of the pot/pan you use and the temp you need as to how it works or does not work to keep the heat. If something ever happened he can change the stove as he has gas for heating the house and the water heater.

Good luck to you with your cooking.

the other S.

PS I have gas but have the option to switch to electric if needed. The same with my clothes dryer - electric to gas.

get the stove top cleaner - makes cleaning the top really easy. You should have flat bottom pots & pans. I've only ever had electric, but really like the smooth top.

They are not very good stoves. I have heard so many things that go wrong with them. You have to spend money on different kinds of cleaner so it won't scratch the surface, you can't cook anything that takes a while or that uses high heat, like canning, you cannot can using this type stove top. I would think that anything you cook that takes a long time like beans or spaghetti sauce, not if you're simmering it of course but if you're cooking chicken pieces and they need to cook for a while, then you are possibly going to have a cracked top. Too expensive to replace.

Any cleaner or sponge, even the Teflon ones, are going to scratch the surfaces. You have to be super careful.

I was a home health aide for a while and one of my ladies had one of these. I used a sponge with a scratchy surface on one side. She had some food cooked onto the surface top. I scratched the heck out of it and I didn't even know it. I looked at it from an angle and didn't see any issues. But when she went to cook on it later that night she noticed the heat made them show up.

My company had to buy her a new stove. I suggest that you either treat this stove top with kid gloves and lots of special cleaners or get a new style top. You might see if there can be a gas line piped to underneath the cabinet it's on too. That's what I would do instead of buying a new electric range top, I would not even use the flat one at all. I'd get a plumber in to look at it to see if it was at all possible to put gas to a new gas stove. If the house is not total electric it might already have a gas hook up behind it. Hidden by the current stove.

I've only ever had electric. I love the fact that the top is flat and it is easy to clean with the proper cleaner.
Much happiness in your new home🏡

I hate electric. In fact, we have a dual fuel cooker so that I have an electric oven ---better for baking-- and a gas top.

You'll need to use multiple burners if you are cooking anything sensitive. I would bring something to a boil on one, and then switch to another to simmer. It just takes so long to adjust the temperature on electric. Also, buy a good cleaner and whip the top down after every use, or stuff will eat burned into it.

After switching out kitchen from electric to gas, I have half joked that I would like my gas range in the winter and electric in the summer. I find gas to be highly inefficient. It heats up my downstairs when preparing dinner. In the winter I don't mind but my air conditioner has to kick into overdrive to keep the house cool.

I agree that it takes forever to boil water and I feel that 3 out of 4 burners just aren't powerful enough,

The electric stove I replaced had coils so I can not speak to the smooth top. I have heard that they need to be cleaned on a daily basis which sounds like a chore.

Give yourself a time to adjust. You may come to love the electric range.

I prefer gas, but like you we have a smooth-topped electric stove.

Pros- heats water waaayyyy quicker.

Cons - can't regulate the temperature very quickly.

Just make sure to take a pot off of a burner if it has the potential to overcook, burn, etc. It takes a few minutes for a burner to cool off a bit.

It takes a bit more effort to clean, but we use a sponge with a "sensitive" scrubbing side. Not the heavy duty scrubby side. We've had no issues, and it gets cleaned with cerambryte (sp?) every 2 weeks.

The new gas stove my mom has is way different from her old one - the burners are set up so high over the burner that it takes longer for some things (like water to boil). Makes no sense why they made them this way! If any of you had her old stove, you'd love the gas version - it was a Norge and came when the house was built in 1966 (and JUST got replaced about 6 months ago when the oven failed to light - no parts for it now - and she wishes she could have kept the top tho that isn't an option in the house!)

I have a white Kitchen Aid flat cooktop. I LOVE it. I've had this one over 3 yrs and it still looks new. You must clean it everytime you use it.

I use Cerama Bryte (about $7) from Home Depot and the yellow scrubbies (about $3 a pack) that are sold with it. It works like wonders and my white is still bright white and looks new.

I've never had to use the razor to scrape dried food. Just a little cleaner and the yellow scrubbie does the trick every time.

The pans I use are all All Clad, high end stainless steel and cast iron.

I hate our glass cook top. Yes it works great, but it stays hot for a very long time after turning it off. If you have over spill it will burn on the glass, you have to be carful about what product you use on it yu can scratch it. Also don't drop anything on it as it will crack then it needs to be replaced. Also if you have the touch pad (we do) you can wear out the buttons, I really wish we had the dials. Good luck and congrats.

The only thing I have found that I don't like about the glasstop stove is you can't use cast iron on them. It can scratch and damage the surface. I really miss cooking in a cast iron skillet!

If you love to cook, it is worth every cent to have gas installed in your kitchen. For the past 2 years, we have rented due to a relocation, and the kitchen in this house only has electric. It's horrrrrible! My main issue with it is that it's just not responsive. If you want to turn the heat down, instead of the heat being instantly down like it would be with gas, you have to deal with the heating elements cooling off, which of course doesn't happen right away. So you're left lifting the pan up off of the stove until the element cools down (?!). I would sell my soul to have a gas cooktop again. (But that won't be necessary, because we will be buying a house soon. ;)