[JC and John]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Well, looks like we finally did it. Haven't closed yet but have an agreement to purchase a home. I love cooking with gas, but the house we are buying has a nearly brand new smooth top electric.
We've been renting a few years, cooking on smooth tops, with crappy pans that are warped, so only a small portion of the pan is actually touching the surface.

What is a good product that will cook well, not warp, and not destroy the range top?

Love my All-Clad pots and pans. I use them on a smooth top electric stove and can control the temperature a bit better with these pans than with cheaper pans. They are heavy and a bit pricey but the cooking results and clean up ease are worth it. I love my pans so much that Santa brought me the All-Clad 7 qt. Electric skillet. It certainly lives up to all the great reviews. I am waiting for the day I can replace my smooth top stove with an induction stove. For the person that said the smooth top was hard to clean, I use Cerama Bryte and a safety razor blade (recommended by stove mfg.) to get the stubborn stains off. Use the razor blade just like you were removing paint from a window. Works great and NO scratches. BTW, Bar Keepers Friend will keep the insides of the All-Clad stainless steel pans looking like new.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Well, looks like we finally did it. Haven't closed yet but have an agreement to purchase a home. I love cooking with gas, but the house we are buying has a nearly brand new smooth top electric.
We've been renting a few years, cooking on smooth tops, with crappy pans that are warped, so only a small portion of the pan is actually touching the surface.

What is a good product that will cook well, not warp, and not destroy the range top?

I use all of the regular pans I have had for years and a few new ones coated with stuff. They all work just fine.

You will need to remember that it takes a few seconds for the heat to hit and it stays hot after you turn it down or off. That said, please don't be afraid of your smooth cooktop. I clean spills off of it with a Brillo pad and it has never scratched. I wash the ordinary grease spatters off with a wet cloth using a solution of dishwashing soap...It keeps it sparkling for things that don't get cooked on. I don't think that you need to worry about destroying the range top. I cook every day and my cook top is ten years old and looks great and is not marred.

[PaulUnderwood]

Tramontina Gourmet Tri-Ply Clad 10 Piece Cookware Set
TramontinaModel: 80116/248DS
Best bang for the buck check America Test Kitchen sold at Walmart.com

[Finchs]

Just don't make the mistake I did and buy Gotham cookware; you don't always get what you pay for! I bought an entire set about 3 years ago and not only did they warp (and I don't put cold water on hot pans!) but the supposedly non-stick surfaces revert to sticking after about a year's use. I returned a couple of pans during the first year, then just gave up and am replacing the lot of them.

[laboutj]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Well, looks like we finally did it. Haven't closed yet but have an agreement to purchase a home. I love cooking with gas, but the house we are buying has a nearly brand new smooth top electric.
We've been renting a few years, cooking on smooth tops, with crappy pans that are warped, so only a small portion of the pan is actually touching the surface.

What is a good product that will cook well, not warp, and not destroy the range top?

We just purchased a home in October and it has a Whirlpool glass cooktop. We purchased Calphalon cookware from Macy's for it and it works well. For our house up north we have gas and that is a mix of Green Pan, All Clad and Calphalon. All work well with the exception of the Green Pan, those are supposed to be non-stick and that wore off after a while. We did use induction while on vacation in Italy and France. Have to admit it's pretty cool. If the Whirlpool in TV goes it would be a choice of putting in a propane tank for gas or going induction. Either way the Calphalon will still work.

[jump4]

We closed on our new house in Fenny in April 2020. Induction cooktop was available from the Builder. It took some getting used to, but we now really like it and it's so easy to keep clean.

[Laker14]

Thanks for all of the responses. After I posted this question I did a search on YouTube, and one video was made by a man who sells stoves in an appliance store. He said don't worry about cast iron, and proceeded to put a cast iron pan on the smooth glass top of a brand new showroom unit, and with force, drag the cast iron all over the top. He said it looked like it scratched the glass, but in fact it was the bottom of the pan coming off on the top of the stove which he cleaned off easily. Gave me the willies watching him do that though.

[MiNana]

I have a set of Farberware pots and fry pans, that I've had for about 25 yrs and they work just fine on my glass top electric range.

[jump4]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Well, looks like we finally did it. Haven't closed yet but have an agreement to purchase a home. I love cooking with gas, but the house we are buying has a nearly brand new smooth top electric.
We've been renting a few years, cooking on smooth tops, with crappy pans that are warped, so only a small portion of the pan is actually touching the surface.

What is a good product that will cook well, not warp, and not destroy the range top?

Here are some links to good reviews of pots & Pans:
Sets: The Best Cookware Set for 2020 | Reviews by Wirecutter
Non-stick: Best Nonstick Pan 2020 | Reviews by Wirecutter

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Thanks for all of the responses. After I posted this question I did a search on YouTube, and one video was made by a man who sells stoves in an appliance store. He said don't worry about cast iron, and proceeded to put a cast iron pan on the smooth glass top of a brand new showroom unit, and with force, drag the cast iron all over the top. He said it looked like it scratched the glass, but in fact it was the bottom of the pan coming off on the top of the stove which he cleaned off easily. Gave me the willies watching him do that though.

I would like to see him drop a cast iron skillet a few inches onto the glass surface.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Well, looks like we finally did it. Haven't closed yet but have an agreement to purchase a home. I love cooking with gas, but the house we are buying has a nearly brand new smooth top electric.
We've been renting a few years, cooking on smooth tops, with crappy pans that are warped, so only a small portion of the pan is actually touching the surface.

What is a good product that will cook well, not warp, and not destroy the range top?

.

I too prefer gas but have electric. You will learn to cook on electric.

You state your pans are warped. That is not gas or electric, they were poor quality pans.
Probably not worth the effort and it seems like you wish to start you new home with new pots, but, you can put a warped pot on a flat surface and play auto body repair to again flatten it out.

Our electric stove and I think any of the ones with what you describe as a flat top have a step-less heat control knob. At say medium setting unlike gas where you turn down the flame and thus the heat, it is on at full high and then turns off and then back on again.
I suppose it averages as half. It however is far more likely to burn your food.

If,you are used to olive oil, beware it is a low heat oil and thus, far more likely to burn on an electric stove. You can buy a disc to put under a pan to better distribute the heat and prevent burning. I have cut the bottom out of old fry pans for the same purpose.
I've never done it but you can use a cast iron fry pan under a pot. You will heat up your kitchen and risk burning yourself as it does not fit under the pot very well.

There will surely be posts, my pot is better than your pot. I prefer stainless with a thick copper or aluminum bottom. I would avoid unknown cheap stuff from China. Not all stainless steel is truly stainless. I avoid aluminum pans rumor is it is not good health-wise. I avoid non-stick pans. Is the coating good for you? Remember when Teflon was and now it is not-it never was but we all bought it.

Brand names? I still have and occasionally use a Presto pressure caner. It was my grandmother's the company supplied instructions were printed in 1945. It still works fine
and you can still buy parts for it.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by MiNana

I have a set of Farberware pots and fry pans, that I've had for about 25 yrs and they work just fine on my glass top electric range.

We do too. Ours are close to 50 years old. I'm not sure they are still made the same. Thickness of the metal etc.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Laker14

Thanks for all of the responses. After I posted this question I did a search on YouTube, and one video was made by a man who sells stoves in an appliance store. He said don't worry about cast iron, and proceeded to put a cast iron pan on the smooth glass top of a brand new showroom unit, and with force, drag the cast iron all over the top. He said it looked like it scratched the glass, but in fact it was the bottom of the pan coming off on the top of the stove which he cleaned off easily. Gave me the willies watching him do that though.

All these demos. Remember the cowboy movies and the guy selling snake oil?
Cast iron? I have a friend who regularly uses it. Instructions in plainspeak, don't clean it gets better as more char piles up. The stove heat I'm sure kills the germs but..........

[Shimpy]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

I agree with keeping it clean. I thought it would be easy to clean a glass cooktop, but it is very difficult to get baked on food off of it.

I am afraid to use cast iron because, if you drop it, you could break the glass cooktop.

Baked food comes off easily with a razor blade. Single edge blades are the easiest to use.

[Carlsondm]

I have All Clad and cook mostly on an induction stove top, located next to the installed Samsung gas range. I wanted cookware that would work on electric smooth, gas, and induction because we RV'd and used a variety of cooking sources. Keep pots and pans flat on the bottom for smooth surface electric and magnetic on the bottom for induction and you should be fine much of the time.

Induction is very fast, clean, and more easily controlled than gas, so my gas stove sits until I need a broiler or oven. The surface gas burners are rarely used because they get dirty fast and are a pain to clean. We had a burner cover made to increase our work surfaces - that's how often it is used. The gas range may be useful after a hurricane.