Solid element ranges in commercial setting

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fan-of-fans

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I was wondering, why do commercial electric stoves tend to have solid elements if they take so long to heat and cool down. I was in a school and it had a two burner stove with these in the kitchen. And I think but not sure that Wendy's has solid element ranges to heat the chili on. Also my local Publix grocery store deli had a two burner solid element range at one time behind the counter, never saw it being used though.

Basically all of the household stove here in the US no longer seem to have these elements, I have seen a few hotplates with them though. And I stayed at a motel once and it had a kitchenette with a two burner cooktop that had them, white glass with two solid elements. Princess was the name on it.
 
They work fine

In a commercial setting because they stay on all the time, GE and Hotpoint used to make a solid top commercial range that many schools used, My Grandmother, who worked in the school lunchroom in the 50s said it cooked evenly but was slow to get hot.
 
The old Vulcan electric range our church kitchen had until last year had the solid elements, though some of them had been replaced with GE Calrod units in later years.

The range was replaced with two residential models with glass tops (GE).
 
Growing up, our church had a Hotpoint solid element commercial range. Most were afraid of it, but when I was doing spaghetti for our Youth Group suppers, I loved using it. In later years, they had it and a 40" domestic Hotpoint range removed and replaced them with two 30" Hotpoint MOL ranges.
 
1975 Hyde Park, N.Y.

The Culinary Institute of America when I was there had I think 2 but definitely 1 Electric Kitchens.  One was General Electric. The other was a foreign brand.

In the GE Kitchen there were 2- 6  "Burner" type ranges and a Flat Top. Took longer to boil water and get hot for searing and then took forever to cool down to simmer. Once you lost the simmer, it was an "Adjust o thon" to get it right.

Of course Yachts and Cruise Ships are all Electric as Coast Guard Regulations prohibit an Open Flame on board.
 
The Hotpoints I remember

At school and in our church kitchen , were both flat tops...slow, but very even heating, I seem to remember the oven thermostats going kerthunk! when cycling on and off.
 
The only one I saw was in the kitchen of the Magnolia Room at Rich's North DeKalb. A lady came into the Housewares Dept. with a defective Presto pressure gauge, but could not clearly describe the problem. I took the cooker up the back stairs and into the kitchen where I explained that I needed a cup of water and a hot burner. We added the water then they took me to the range with black plates that seemed to be like 1 ft X 2 feet and hotter than blue hell. I placed the cooker on the plate and in a couple of minutes steam started squirting out of the regulator where the little plunger with the three rings is supposed to rise. I thanked them, poured out the water and rushed back down to sell the lady a new regulator. I guessed that they just kept them hot and at different heats during mealtimes and shifted pans around. Having induction ranges must be like the second coming in commercial kitchens. Of course, it would not have been worth a damn with an aluminum pressure cooker.
 
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