Anyone else love gas range (dangerous, kitchen, oven)

[TheotherMarie]

I've got a gas stove, and I was so excited because I prefer cooking on gas.
I seemed to have forgotten how hard they are to keep clean.
Since it looks like we'll be staying in this house for the foreseeable future, I'm thinking of switching back to a glass top electric cooktop just because they're SO much easier to keep clean.
If something gets on there, you just put a bit of cleaner on it, give it a couple of swipes with a cloth, and it's gorgeous again.
Always looks tidy. No nooks and crannies on grates and around burners where food spills and gets stuck and looks grimy.
I spent a long time cleaning my stove tonight and I'm a bit fired up about it right now. No pun intended.

[WorldKlas]

Originally Posted by TheotherMarie

I've got a gas stove, and I was so excited because I prefer cooking on gas.
I seemed to have forgotten how hard they are to keep clean.
Since it looks like we'll be staying in this house for the foreseeable future, I'm thinking of switching back to a glass top electric cooktop just because they're SO much easier to keep clean.
If something gets on there, you just put a bit of cleaner on it, give it a couple of swipes with a cloth, and it's gorgeous again.
Always looks tidy. No nooks and crannies on grates and around burners where food spills and gets stuck and looks grimy.
I spent a long time cleaning my stove tonight and I'm a bit fired up about it right now. No pun intended.

Very good point! Every night I cook and my husband cleans the kitchen. But I always have to go behind him and clean the stove top. Gas stoves are a PITA to clean for sure!

[lepoisson]

I'd say that cleaning a gas stove is somewhere in the middle on the difficulty scale. It's super easy to remove the metal rail/grill and that makes the cook top rather flat. The worst stove to clean is the old fashioned coil style. My apartment has one and removing those coils and metal pans is a royal PITA. Glass top is definitely the easiest.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by pharpe

You will have to check. Definitely don't assume that.

If a gas line is already plumbed then you are good to go. Easy swap. If not it's starts to get more expensive. If it's a pier and beam house then its a lot easier(cheaper). If not you need to either go through the attic and down the wall (not easy in a finished kitchen) or you will need to go around the exterior with a buried gas line and come in behind the stove. If the stove is in an island then the floor will need to be busted up. It will also need to be vented.

100% true.

There are gas lines running all over the place under our house and through the attic but curiously there are none in the kitchen. (That anyone can find, anyway. Nobody wants to check the attic over the kitchen due to some asbestos up there.)

Can't assume!

Fortunately our house is pier and beam so getting a new line put in will be a lot simpler.

[octo]

Unless you are a cooking professional or it's a hugely important hobby I think it's a bit extreme to disqualify a house just because of an electric oven/cooktop (I have gas available but chose electric).

A modern electric cooking appliance has much better electronic temperature control and is much safer and easier to maintain so unless you absolutely need the ability to flambé or one of the other exotic features of a gas appliance I don't see the point. But then my cooking is mainly hitting #5 on the microwave or throwing battered fish in the oven.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by octo

Unless you are a cooking professional or it's a hugely important hobby I think it's a bit extreme to disqualify a house just because of an electric oven/cooktop (I have gas available but chose electric).

A modern electric cooking appliance has much better electronic temperature control and is much safer and easier to maintain so unless you absolutely need the ability to flambé or one of the other exotic features of a gas appliance I don't see the point. But then my cooking is mainly hitting #5 on the microwave or throwing battered fish in the oven.

....and that's why you don't see the point.

No gas is a dealbreaker for me.

[pharpe]

Originally Posted by octo

Unless you are a cooking professional or it's a hugely important hobby I think it's a bit extreme to disqualify a house just because of an electric oven/cooktop (I have gas available but chose electric).

A modern electric cooking appliance has much better electronic temperature control and is much safer and easier to maintain so unless you absolutely need the ability to flambé or one of the other exotic features of a gas appliance I don't see the point. But then my cooking is mainly hitting #5 on the microwave or throwing battered fish in the oven.

This is simply not true. Newer electric stove might be better than old electric stoves but they are not even closes to a gas ranges in terms of control.

Safety wise electric has a small edge but not much. Modern gas ranges have safeties to shut off free flow gas so that's not much of an issue any more. There is an open flame but electric stoves are a fire hazard as well. Electric stoves, especially the flat tops, are a higher burn risk because they look like counter space and it's not always easy to tell if they are hot.

It basically comes down to ease of cleaning vs usability. For people that like to cook usability is generally the winner.

[Aceraceae]

Originally Posted by pharpe

This is simply not true. Newer electric stove might be better than old electric stoves but they are not even closes to a gas ranges in terms of control.

Safety wise electric has a small edge but not much. Modern gas ranges have safeties to shut off free flow gas so that's not much of an issue any more. There is an open flame but electric stoves are a fire hazard as well. Electric stoves, especially the flat tops, are a higher burn risk because they look like counter space and it's not always easy to tell if they are hot.

It basically comes down to ease of cleaning vs usability. For people that like to cook usability is generally the winner.

Last paragraph sums it up perfectly for me.

[C24L]

I love gas ranges as well

[lepoisson]

Originally Posted by pharpe

This is simply not true. Newer electric stove might be better than old electric stoves but they are not even closes to a gas ranges in terms of control.

Safety wise electric has a small edge but not much. Modern gas ranges have safeties to shut off free flow gas so that's not much of an issue any more. There is an open flame but electric stoves are a fire hazard as well. Electric stoves, especially the flat tops, are a higher burn risk because they look like counter space and it's not always easy to tell if they are hot.

It basically comes down to ease of cleaning vs usability. For people that like to cook usability is generally the winner.

Every electric range I've cooked on has this problem: You boil water and turn off the burner, yet the water continues to boil. Why? Because the burner is still hot.

With a gas stove, you turn off the gas and the water almost immediately stops boiling? Why? Because only the pan support is still hot, but it's not hot enough to keep the water boiling.

The problem is even worse with food. I've never had scorched food in a pan on a gas range.