I Love My Ceramic Cooktop

When I bought my condo in 2002, the kitchen had a vintage 1983 GE electric cooktop with coil elements. All four had a distinct tilt which made the pans slide around. From the beginning I was determined to change out the cooktop at my first opportunity. I also found that the GE cooktops of 1983 were slightly larger than the ones being produced in the 21st century which made replacement a little harder.

I poured over information about coil vs. glass-ceramic cooktops and talked to a number of women at work that have them. It was actually their telling me they'd never go back to the traditional coil cooktop that made me decide to make the switch. After a lot of shopping around, I decided on the Frigidaire for three reasons: 1) it was slightly larger than my coil cooktop and fit the hole in the counter without altering the countertop, 2) at the time it was one of the few "true-white" models available, and 3) the heating elements tended to be higher wattage than competing models. A final consideration was cost: the Frigedaire was $100 less than the nearest competition. So I ordered the Frigidaire FEC30S6 cooktop from Lowes and had them install it.

That was early in 2003. Overall, I've been very happy with my glass-ceramic cooktop and wouldn't go back to an electric coil model. The "true white" cooktop looks great in my small galley kitchen and really gives it a clean, fresh look. Though Frigidaire doesn't recommend the practice, the flat surface does provide a little more counterspace, particularly when I come in with an arm full of groceries! (in a small kitchen like mine, anything that gives a few inches more counterspace is appreciated).

I was very impressed with the speed at which the elements heat up when turned on - I'd estimate the burners are glowing red in about 4 seconds. I have Caphalon cookware so the bottoms are very flat and heat as rapidly as the typical coil elements. I find cooking on a glass-ceramic cooktop as easy as on a coil model.

It does seem like these cooktops retain heat for quite a while. One person I spoke with recently expressed concern about this fact. I pointed out that on these cooktops there is a warning light that continues to glow as long as the glass is hot/warm. I didn't have anything like this with the coil cooktops I've used before, so I feel this is an advantage to this type of cooktop.

Cleaning is probably the biggest chore, but I must admit I'm much better keeping this cooktop clean! If something gets burned on, it can be a chore (I never use a scraper on mine, so it's the ceramic-top cleaner with the soft-scour pads and some muscle). I have found that if you wait until the cooktop has cooled down but is still warm, you can often use a wet pad and the cleaner and the cooktop cleans much easier. Some people complain about the cleaning, but I found that once food had burned on the drip pans of a typical electric cooktop, I could never get them clean, so the ceramic cooktop to me is a big improvement.

One other consideration is that if you're a sloppy cook, you may not want a ceramic-glass cooktop. You don't want to spill items such as sugar or salt on the cooktop when cooking as they can etch the surface. On a cool cooktop they can scratch the surface. I understand that sliding around pots on the surface can sometimes leave marks that are difficult to impossible to remove. However, I haven't experienced this problem as of yet. The one other thing you learn to do is avoid dropping pots and pans on the cooktop since there is always the possibility of breaking it. I suspect that it's not good on a coil cooktop either!

My only regret was that I did not initially shell out the extra money and buy the Frigidaire model that had the bridge elements that make it easier to cook with long pans or a rectangular griddle. But for the price I paid ($375) I can't really complain.

So would I buy another ceramic cooktop? I wouldn't consider anything else if I'm buying an electric cooktop. Would I recommend it to others? My recommendation would be to consider how you cook and thoroughly research the pros-and-cons of ceramic-glass cooktops as it's probably not for everyone (particularly the sloppy or clumsy cook!).