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Decor & Renovating Interior Design // Kitchen Designs // Cooktop Buying Guide
If you’re considering a kitchen cooktop there’s an important consideration you need to keep in mind. A traditional stove appliance with the oven and cooking elements combined into a single unit is much cheaper to buy. With a cooktop you’ll also have to have dedicated wall ovens. Why spend more on a cooktop with separate wall ovens?
If you use your kitchen for entertaining, wall ovens offer the huge advantage of a double oven. Most combination stoves today have single ovens, and the few with double ovens tend to be so small many avid cooks find them unsuitable for their needs.
Before you go off in search of specific brands of cooktops you need to make a few decisions. The first is gas versus electric. For many, gas is preferred by a wide margin due to their precise temperature control.
Electric cooktop elements retain their heat when you shut them off so the food continues to cook. People who have switched from gas to electric find they have to alter the way they cook; either learning to turn off the burner a little before the food is fully cooked or getting into the habit of removing the pan from the burner once it is shut down.
Once you’ve decided on gas or electric you’re ready for the next decision: where will you place the cooktop. If it’s going along the regular cabinet run, a standard vented or vent free range hood will work just fine to remove cooking smoke. A great space saving alternative here is to us an “over the range” microwave, available for both vented and vent free installations.
If you’re planning on installing the countertop in an island within the kitchen you’re going to need to search for a downdraft model. While a typical vented range hood draws the smoke up from the cooktop and vents it to the outside, a downdraft cooktop has a self contained fan placed between the burners, which draws the smoke down through the floor where it is then vented to the outside. Obviously, downdrafts will not work in most second floor kitchens.
Now you’re ready to consider features. Although they are more expensive to buy, cooktops with burners sealed in ceramic glass are far preferable to open gas burners or electrical coil elements when it comes to cleanup. Look for frameless edges on these sealed burners as the more old fashioned style with stainless frames allow food particles and grease to build up between the frame and the ceramic glass.
For maximum flexibility, consider cooktops with interchangeable burners. An indoor grill burner is a true luxury, as are griddle elements. A final warning about cleanup when it comes to some control panels bears mentioning. Greasy fingers make for greasy controls and some panels have buttons that are not easily removable for cleaning. Most cooktops come in four burner models, but for larger kitchens six burner models are available.
