Gas vs Electric cooking.
 

Several thread currently exist with a theme about gas ranges and ovens.
Got me thinking. What do you like better?

I grew up with and only experienced gas ovens for about 50 years. Then, with great trepidation we bought an electric range. After using it for about ten years, I don't see any advantage to gas, and several disadvantages. Namely, dirty pots, difficulty moving the device for cleaning, etc., the (okay, rare) possibility of explosions (a home 1/2 mile from blew up three days ago!)

I would like to hear other people's opinions. G vs E. (But I'm most interested in feedback from people, like me, who have used both. I prefer E.)

We use induction hob. More than happy with it.
Superfast heating and heat control, and very safe for when younger grandchildren are around.
Ours are all grown up now, but that was one of the reasons we went with the system many years ago.


PS. Recently found out, not recommend for cooks with heart pacemaker fitted.
Evidently can interfere with device if within 2-3 feet of cooker.
Upside is, you do not have to cook anymore! :coolsmiley:

I grew up in a home in NY with a gas stove so that is all I knew when I ventured out on my own. That is when I had experience with electric stoves. I knew I preferred gas with my first experience with electric stove in an apartment then in a home that did not have natural gas. I will always prefer gas to electric. One of the criteria when moving to The Villages was I had to have a gas stove. I'm very happy our current home has natural gas.

Maybe the electric stoves of today are better at being able to adjust the heat but that was always the downside for me with electric. Another downside was that the heat did not immediately dissipate when the electric element was turned off. With a gas stove, you turn off the flame and the heat is gone right away.

I've had a gas range in a few houses, mostly rentals, but also in my first house in The Villages. That gas range was the normal basic one that the developer is putting into its houses. I did not like the smell of gas stoves when initially lighting them. I've got asthma and although the combustion didn't seem to set my symptoms off, I didn't like risking it. The Villages gas oven also never seemed to get to the correct temperature and took forever to heat up. I moved into a new designer home recently and ordered an electric stove during the design process. I'm much happier with electric. Both ovens are GE.

I posted the main thrust of this in the earlier post you mentioned. The bottom line is I have used both electric & gas in kitchens in my houses over the years. I prefer electric for cooking. I use what some people call the electric downsides to my advantage. I know perfectly well the heat is retained in the burner after turning it off. I simply turn it off earlier or if longer slower cooking is not needed at the end, I'll just remove the pot.

I have used both, extensively, & successfully, & I prefer electric.

I'm not going to list the downsides of gas, I'm sure others will do that. I would not be happy with a gas line in my attic in The Villages.

I have owned many homes with standard gas/electric cooktop and ovens. You learn to adjust to the pros and cons of either. Electric cooktops are definitely easier to clean. What matters is having a quality set of pots and pans. It’s easier to control the temperature with a good heavy skillet. But… if you can afford it…. A commercial grade gas stove (I.e., Viking, Wolff) is leaps and bounds better than all of the rest. It’s amazing how fun and satisfying it is to cook with a professional grade stove.

Definitely gas. To heat up a gas stove: Turn it on. To heat up an electric stove: turn it on, and wait. To heat up an OLD electric stove: turn it on, wait, wait some more, wait some more, turn it off, turn on the other burner, wait some more, wait some more.

To cool down the cooktop of a gas stove: turn it off. To cool down the cooktop of an electric stove: turn it off, wait, wait some more, wait some more, wait some more.

If you have all 4 burners on an electric stove going at the same time and need to take the pan off one of them because the dish you're cooking is finished and you don't want to burn it, there's no place to put it. If you have the same situation on a gas stove, just turn that burner off.

In near future there going to be war on gas stoves…:police:

Convection hobs heat up and cool down far quicker than either gas or conventional electric hobs.
No contest.

I agree with all of this, except maybe heat up time. Of course, it take a minute to heat. But when I had electric a few years back I warped a cast iron pan because the electric heated it too quickly.

But I defintely agree that shutting gas off is so much better than waiting for electric to cool.

I also found the glass tops of electric very hard to clean. I erased the painted lines on mine by mistake when I was trying to get it clean.

Whats nice about gas stoves is you don’t have to clean them — since they cannot be cleaned. Just buy a new one.

Seriously though. Buy the electric oven but first check if you have a 50 amp outlet behind the stove. A villager reported it cost $800 to have an electrician run a 50 Amp circuit to the stove.

I notice gas stoves in all the new homes. This is undoubtedly due to saving the $800 for the circuit. $800 x 1100 home sales is serious money.

If you have the coin check out induction electric glass cook tops. They heat up quickly and you can even put your hand on the glass and it will be cool. Its science..

We had gas for decades before moving to TV, then a standard Whirlpool glass topped electric stove. After 10 years the glass top shattered, we went and purchased an INDUCTION stove, and we love it. It heats almost as fast (if not faster) than gas, it shuts off immediately, and we only had to get a few new pans. It shuts off after a few seconds if you remove a pan. It did take a few days or so to get use to which setting to use.

Are we talking stove tops or ovens? If ovens, I don't care. If stove tops - natural gas all day long. Not propane (slightly sooty smoke when propane is burnt). Like someone else mentioned, turn it on, instant heat at a constant temperature.

More importantly, we (well, Mrs EDJ) make a fair amount of our meals in the form of Mexican food. For that, you need tortillas. While the best way to get a nice cook on those is in oil on a cast iron plancha, the second best and fastest and least messy way is on a gas burner. Electric not so much.

Our "up North" place has only electric or propane options, so we opted for an induction. Far superior to electric, however, a bit of a second place to natural gas.

YMMV, My .02, etc.

We've used both gas and electric stoves. It doesn't matter to us, as my wife cooks everything on the highest setting. Yeah, I know...........

I prefer gas, have had both but prefer the gas, we also have a gas clothe dryer which works great.