Temporary? Insanity

Okay, here’s my two cents. I’m not sure if they are American or Canadian. You get to choose based on which is worth more today. =)

First, I wish there were some way for you to go ahead and have a gas stove, simply because they are really lovely for cooking. I don’t have one, but used to work with one. It was wonderful to have something heat up and cool down nearly immediately. And besides, where else are you going to roast marshmallows when you’re craving something sweet?! =) But I’ll move on out of my concern for Emma…..

Having an oven that has a convection mode is nice. My mom has one that can be regular or convection. Convection cuts down the cooking time, and seems to help bake things more evenly. As long as you have the option to flip a switch to get regular heat or convection, I don’t see how you could lose on a choice like that.

Self-cleaning……hmmm…..well, one of those means you just flip a couple switches, put the lock in place, and leave the house for a few hours to let the oven do its work. My mom likes hers. However, this redhead does not. Mainly because my mom chose to do hers in the dead of night when we were upstairs sleeping. But the fumes from it permeated my room, and I was miserable for hours. I’m not sure if all self-cleaning ovens do that, but my landlord mentioned needing to leave the house if we chose to use that feature on our new-to-us oven. The fumes aren’t caused by chemicals, but by the extremely high (as in higher than 500 F I think) heat as it burns away the nastiness. And because the cycle is a long one that you’re commited to once you begin, I’m not a fan.

Oven cleaner does seem to be made of scary sounding chemicals, but the no-fume models don’t seem to be too bad. Before my old oven died, I used one of the brand names from Superstore to clean my very awfully dirty oven. I sprayed it, closed the door, let it set for a couple of hours, and then wiped it out. It did a fairly good job, and I didn’t feel like I was breathing in anything too nasty. Of course, you’ve got to wear rubber gloves, use old rags or paper towels, and keep small children away.

Cooking surfaces….Scribbit swears by her invection or whatever it’s called. My husband longs for me to say that I want one too, for they supposedly heat up and cool down as fast as a gas range. But I’m skeptical about the whole thing. For it to work, you have to have the right pans. And what about clean-up? Our honeymoon suite had a similar flat range that required special cleaner on it after every use. The romance of cleaning it got old really fast. And trying not to scratch it did too. I’d rather have something with less moving/computerized parts, and something that could handle any pan and my occasional roughness and clumsiness in the kitchen. And anything tough enough to take some steel wool on it occasionally is also a good thing in my opinion.

But then, you probably know me well enough to know that I am not a fan of change. So the uber modern cook tops are probably really wonderful, and I’m just stubborn and set in my old ways. =)

Finally, get one that has wonderful warranty and service protection. If they are willing to come out and get you back up and running three years after you buy it, it’s probably a good deal. An even better deal would be a brand that has a reputation for working for decades. I’m not your source for brand name dropping, as I’m now living with a 30 year old GE. =)

I hope you find something wonderful. And when Emma gets bigger, I can teach her to roast marshmallows over a candle. =)

by Inkling on December 19, 2007 at 6:58 pm. #

Our home in Oregon had a flat top convection oven and I loved it. We could use it as convection or regular. It took some time to get used to the convection heating… it cooks faster and I burned several things. One thing, at least with our convection oven, is that the oven space was smaller. We bought a “take and bake” pizza and had to fold the sides up because the fan that circulates the air took up too much room. And I really liked the flat top. It heated quickly and cooled quickly. The area around the elements didn’t get hot. I thought it was easy to clean and I never did use the special cleaner it came with. The top did scratch a little, but not to the point that I was annoyed or bothered by it. We have a gas stove right now and it is nice. You turn it on and the heat is right there. You don’t have to wait for the element to heat up. That aspect of it is really nice. One thing I don’t love is that the knobs on ours are on the front of the oven instead of the back. Meaning that little hands can turn the darn thing on! Get one where all the controls are on the back panel. It may be a bit of a pain, but it is worth it!!! Hmm… let’s see… I don’t know much about the self cleaning. We had an oven that was supposed to do that. I tried it and it didn’t do anything except char broil all the stuff so that it stuck to the sides even more. Hmmm… can’t think of anything else… but if I do, I’ll come back and add it on! Happy oven hunting! :D

by Melissa on December 19, 2007 at 9:53 pm. #

When we built our house 4 years ago I was so excited to finally get a gas stove! I have one with double ovens and I enjoy it, though I wouldn’t recommend it because of some problems with the upper oven. The only one with a broil feature.
I don’t know anything about electric, except that I didn’t want one. Good luck, though.

by JustRandi on December 19, 2007 at 10:51 pm. #

make that wolf

and my fave: http://www.vikingrange.com/consumer/products/category_products.jsp?id=cat10003
oooooooooooooooooooooo

by Jod{i} on December 19, 2007 at 11:32 pm. #

Get an induction cook top. They heat the pan using electromagnetism, and the cooking surface itself doesn’t heat. If you leave something flammable on the cook top it won’t burn up. It only heats the pan. No burning little fingers and etc.
Scribbit wrote a post about it once…check it out at http://scribbit.blogspot.com/2007/04/induction-cooktops-by-diva-de-provence.html

by Heffalump on December 20, 2007 at 1:13 am. #

I have absolutely no idea. Probably because I suck.

by That Chick Over There on December 20, 2007 at 1:54 am. #

I’m going to echo the gas loving comments. Seriously it’s no more dangerous then an electric stovetop. I think it’s less dangerous then electric because you can see when it’s on and hot- and it cools down instantly. Unlike my glass top electric currently which is still hot (but doesn’t look like it) 5 minutes after I’ve removed the pan from the top and turned off the range.

My dream oven/stove is gas, has 6 burners, is self cleaning, and has a double oven with the convection/regular heat option.

by Amber on December 20, 2007 at 5:03 am. #

You’ve got a huge range of opinions here, no pun intended!

Okay, I have five kids. No one has ever gotten hurt with our gas ranges. I, however, once got burnt badly on an electric stove. The coil had gone from red to innocent-looking black, but it was still plenty hot (those elements take forever to cool).

I would never have an electric range. I am a picky, picky cook, and you can’t beat the flexibility of gas as far as range of temperature. I do like having an electric oven, though. Perhaps look for a dual-fuel model (gas top, electric stove).

I had convection once and thought it was pretty useless. Plus the convection fan takes up room that could be occupied by a slightly larger turkey. ;)

Self-cleaning? It heats up the oven so hot that it chars all of the grease and food bits, leaving a fine ash everywhere in the oven. You still have to wipe it out. Me no likey.

As far as brands go, I have a LaCanche, and it rocks my world. Our last range was also great; it was a Jenn-Air (gas top, electric oven). It looked like a fancy Viking or Wolf, but probably cost about 5 times less (and 10 times less than the LaCanche, FYI).

Good luck!

by Luisa Perkins on December 20, 2007 at 11:21 am. #

My ideal cooking combination is Gas stove top, with a separate electric convection oven. This is what we had in Ireland, as do many homes in Ireland.

Here I have a glass top, fully electric range. It’s fine and I don’t worry about it with the kids. I would love a convection oven though.

by Annie on December 20, 2007 at 12:17 pm. #

My dream kitchen would have two electric ovens (more even heating) and a gas stovetop (fast heat).

If you ever want to can vegetables, don’t get a flat-top stove. I have one that came with my house, and I was excited to can until I saw these words on the canner: “Not for use on glass top ovens”. Why? The reason was understood using Google. Some glass tops, under the pressure from a canner filled with full jars and water, heat up so much that the canner can crack the glass. Even worse, the metal canner can fuse to the glass. I have heard that some people do can on some of these stoves without a problem, but I don’t want to test it in case I’m one of the ones whose stovetop explodes.

by Rebecca on December 21, 2007 at 3:40 am. #

As one of the male readers of you blog, I can add nothing to the converstation… If it were us, and Kate has agreed, we’d by a gas cook top, and a separate electic oven probably, double. I like the idea of the flat top electic ovens, for cleaning purposes, but well really as much as there is a flame on the gas oven when it’s on… there is still a glowing heating element on an electic oven as well, Emma, or Becka, could get burned just as easly on either one of them. And from what I am remembering, the gas knops have to be bushed a certain why, and held in a certain position for it to ignite. So, accidently turning it on, is unlikely.

So, it seems I am going to add my vote to: a gas range of some sort. :)

by James on December 21, 2007 at 5:55 pm. #

Personally I hated my glass-flat-top in our house in Indiana. HATED IT! If you accidently had a boil over it was horrible to clean it up. Even after turning off the burner, it stayed hot and continued to cook the boil-over onto the surface. It was a royal pain in the you know what! You also must have absolutely flat-bottom pans to use one. You’d be suprised how many pots and pans look flat, but aren’t when you set them on a flat-top stove. When we first got it, I used my pans from the past ten years, filled it with water, set it on the burner, and turned it on. After 30 minutes it was barely steaming, forget about boiling. I had to buy all new pots and pans!

Personally I can cook on gas or electric, whatever’s thrown at me at the time. Right now, it’s electric with coils, which, by the way, stay hot long after they look cool!

by Grace on December 23, 2007 at 5:08 am. #

Jus popping in from Cre8Buzz to give a little love.

What I was going to advise has already been said. *chuckle* Flat top ranges are bad because they’re too darned pernickety for a busy mom of a kidlette to have to pamper.

There are far more important things to do with your time that clean the stove.

by Whimspiration on December 26, 2007 at 2:49 pm. #