oldslabsides wrote: 

Yup, turn a ring on and you see a dull red glow. It seems to know when there is a demand for heat - a house we swapped in Spain a couple of years ago had one - put a pan on the "ring" (it's all a smooth glassy surface) and it immediately gets brighter, move a pan off and it dulls down.
 
As Jrzy said, you need a pan with a good flat bottom, but, I reckon, no more than you would with a traditional electric hotplate.
 
The stuff Enzo was talking about, the induction dodaa, sounds seriously high end, but that's just the way he rolls.
 
It's odd, though, that the idea of a seperate hob and oven is seen as strange over your way. It's pretty much standard here - you buy an oven to go under your work top, and a hob to go on top - the two are entirely seperate, hence the prevailing choice of electric oven and gas hob (in modest houses, the more upscale types use huge designer "commercial" ranges so that they can pretend to be Gordon Ramsey. They also tend to drive enormo-SUV's. Pillocks.)
 
Stuff about kitchen kit here

 hobiejoe wrote: 
I thought you were keeding.  I never heard of such a thing.

We have glass top electric.  Everything about the control of the temperature is true... it's slow, uneven, and difficult to control.

BUT, the cleanup on this glasstop is FANTASTIC.  No worries.  I can be cooking 4 things at once and guests are over talking to me, and if something boils over, it's not a huge mess.   It looks great all the time.  I love it. 

 Xeric wrote: 
I hated that GE Gas Stove (it came with the house) so I usually used my antique Crystal Star a few posts back. They made that GE so it was impossible to clean with the "sealed" gas burner units. Spills would run down the inside of the plastic insulator tubes with the wire from the igniter circuitry and all it took was one and it shorted all 4 out. Taking the top off the oven to get the tubes out to clean them out (and dry them) meant pulling the stove out from the cabinets to get to it. Also the self cleaning oven used tons of energy and stunk the house up badly. It sucked big time. My Crystal Star everything simply lifts off and you take it to the utility sink and rinse it off and dry it and your good to go.

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Sounds like just the ticket for backpain.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
A halogen burner will light up the entire kitchen before you put a pan on it. And it's very, very hot.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
Don't think so, the halogen is radiated infra-red.

 Xeric wrote: 
I'd go gas all the way. 

 hobiejoe wrote: 
maybe we are talking about the same thing?

 DaveInVA wrote: 


This is still the standard situation. The ovens use an electric ignitor that requires power, and the gas is safety-interlocked with that ignitor. No power/no gas flow/no manual ignition. The burners are valved manually, so a match fires 'em right up, power or not.

Gas. No question.

Safety is not an issue, unless you're incredibly paranoid. Gas works better, period. (For the "hob." Many of the high-end houses we do use a gas cooktop and a separate electric oven, so maybe there's some reason for that. My "baking" starts and ends with frozen pizzas, so I wouldn't know.)

we have friends who have a hideously expensive induction stove.



they are pretty amazing. Water boils almost instantly. They do not get hot (hence the uncooked egg in the above photo).. and combine the speed of gas with the convenience of ceramic.

Downside, they cost about a regular year's savings as you need special pots and pans.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Clicky

 BlueHeronDruid wrote: 
True 'nuff, and avoiding scratches and cleaning off carbonised spillage is a bit of a sod. Just thought I'd mention it though.
 

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Halogen is neat, but unless one has perfectly flat-bottomed pans, it's not that much better than electric coils or solid burners. I didn't care for it.

 hobiejoe wrote: 

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Have you considered halogen? Almost instantaneous control, not quite as good as gas, but next best thing.

Wood?

Gas. Also heats when power is out. Like when we have hurricanes.

Professionals use gas almost exclusively.  The degree of control you have with a gas range cannot be matched by an electrically heated surface.  If P could change one thing about our current apartment, I think it would be to have a gas range, her hatred for the electric one is sometimes palpable.

 Hairfarmer wrote: 
It's made me a lot of great meals over the years...

Whoops: Energy Star approves gas-powered alarm clock

(even though it didn't really exist)