Coil Stoves Easier to Clean than Glass Top

[datalady]

I had a coil electric stove, then glass top stoves for years, and now a vintage coil. I thought it would be harder to keep clean than the glass top but it’s EASIER! I clean my stove thoroughly every week, wiping in between. I always had to use baking soda to scrub off the top because even a little water on the burner left marks, especially on my white top one. Some stuff had to be scraped off. Then I had to clean up all that baking soda, all on the stove top.

My new old stove is porcelain enamel and nothing sticks to that! I can remove the burner bowls and clean them in the sink. I’m spending far less time cleaning the stovetop!

Anyone else feel like this? Popular opinion is that the glass tops are so much better and easier to clean. I disagree, especially ones with the computer on the front. Guess where the water goes when there’s a boil over! I hope the coil type never goes away.

 

[ea56]

I couldn’t agree with you more!  My GE coil top is 4 years old, and still looks brand new.  I clean it every time I use it (the stove top), wiping up and spills or grease.  Then once a week my husband cleans it thoroughly.  The drip pans still shine.

 

Now the oven I’m not so anal about.  Out of sight out of mind.  But I do clean up spills and splatters right away and keep a sheet of heavy duty foil on the floor.  I clean the oven thoroughly about once every 6 months.

 

I had smooth tops twice in the 90’s.  Way more work to keep that black glass clean, ya have to clean the whole thing after any soiling. 

 

Eddie

 

[petek]

I was sort of disappointed when we got our first glasstop as well because it was a pain to clean, the coil top was much easier.

We replaced it was an induction glasstop in 2018 and it's the easiest to clean of all since nothing really burns onto it. It's pretty much wipe and go.

 

[gusherb]

We had a glass top for awhile and went back to gas. Other than lifting the grates off to clean, the gas cooktop is really no harder to clean. I was never too keen on cooking on the glass top as the heat was near impossible to control.

 

[beehiveboy]

We’ve had induction for about 12 years and it is insanely easy to clean!!! Just a microfibre cloth wrung out in warm water. Never even need a cleaning product, even after deep frying, the microfibre and water dies a perfect job in 20-30 seconds. Added to which how fast, stunningly controllable and convenient they are we would never ever ever consider a different cooktop!

 

[sfh074]

Had an old Kenmore Corning ware .......

cook top growing up as a kid. I hated that thing! Royal PITA if anything got on it while hot. Soft scrub did a great job, but expect to spend time cleaning and polishing after every use. If something boiled over by accident, get out the scraper blade. The flat cook top concept was nice, but in the real world, not so much.

 

Induction is the best thing since sliced bread to clean ...... love it!

 

[perc-o-prince]

and keep a sheet of heavy duty foil on the floor

Opinions on this please? Many say that this messes with convection currents in the oven, especially if it's gas, and others say it's bad because the foil can actually stick to the oven floor because of the heat.

 

Chuck

 

[ea56]

Chuck,

 

its a conventional electric oven, not convection.  I place it under the bottom element, not touching the element or terminal box.

 

 My oven bakes evenly and true to temp on the dial.   So my experience is that it just keeps the oven floor clean without any adverse effects.

 

 The owners manual says don’t do it, but I’ve always done this and been careful about changing the foil keeping it clean and not touching the element.

 

Eddie

 

[combo52]

Easy To Clean Cook-Tops

Induction wins by a country mile, it is just like cleaning the kitchen countertops.

 

Next best are either electric coil tops or black glass tops, both have advantages and disadvantages, coil elements will burn off soil that gets on the element without damage, glass tops are simpler to clean but may need a scraper and special cleaner.

 

The only white glass smooth-top that was pretty easy to keep clean and white were the original Corning ware CTs where all four elements had thermostats so the surface temp could not go over 550F.

 

 

 

 

Gas is by far the most difficult, there is no such thing as an easy to clean gas range top if it is used a lot and it will show permeant damage very soon to the burner grates and often the burner caps etc.

 

 

 

Putting foil on the floor of an electric oven will not hurt anything if it has an exposed heating element [ put foil under the element, it does not matter if it touches the plate where the element attaches to the back of the oven ]

 

DO NOT put foil on the floor of any gas oven or electric oven with a hidden element, damage to the oven will result and it may also affect performance.

 

John L.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Yes, I do think coil elements are easier to keep clean. As long as you aren't sloppy and get boilovers that spill down under the burners, all it needs is a wipe down.

Our Hotpoint's porcelain burner bowls can go in the oven during the self clean cycle, and we replaced the aluminum trim rings with porcelain ones that can go in the oven as well if need be.

The old white Corning ranges indeed stained easily. I think that's why later in the 80s, most went to the mottled gray patterned glass and nowadays most all are the black glass.

I do like the look of the newer white-on-white ranges with a matching white ceramic top though.

 

[tomturbomatic]

When my mother was loading the KDC15 after dinner, if there was any room in the lower rack the chrome reflector pans were loaded for a washing. This went on for decades.

 

[vacerator]

Glass is

a bitmore efficient. I use glass cooktop cleaner on our shower glass door and partition. Low end calrod ranges often have pans rocking on them. Ours did.

 

[ea56]

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 “Low end calrod ranges often have pans rocking on them.”

 

This is mostly due to the burner elements not sitting flat in the drip pan.  

 

Several years ago when I purchased my first GE electric range the owners manual gave instructions to remove both the plug in elements and the drip pans together and to replace them the same way.

 

You simply slightly lift the drip pan (1/2”) while holding the element in place and gently pull them both out together, and replace them the same way in reverse.  I’ve not seen this advice in any other manual since, and thats too bad because its excellent advice.

 

This way the receptacle  under the stove top that the element plugs into remains in place and doesn’t move.  When people lift the elements separately more than 1” to remove the burner,  the receptacle that the element plugs into also moves up, and it doesn’t go back down when the burner is plugged back in.

 

I’ve been following this advice for over 15 years and the burners on my stove sit flat in the drip pans, pots and pans on my burners don’t rock.  Now of course if the bottom of a pan is warped then it’s not gonna sit flat on any stove top, glass or coil element.

 

If you have a coil top stove try this method, it works.  It drives me crazy when I see  a coil top stove with the burners sticking up from the drip pans and not sitting flat. 

 

Eddie

 

 

 

[retro-man]

Something I have tried and regret is I changed the drip pans on my Whirlpool stove from the shinny ones to the black enamel pans. Thought this would be great that I could put them in when cleaning the oven. Well that was fine accept the greater heat retained by the black made the coils warp. No pans would sit flat anymore. I got a new set back in with the shinny ones. Over a period of a few months they have mostly flattened back out. Will never do that again. I agree to get the coil and the pan to sit correctly they need to come out together and go back together for a solid fit.

Jon