# Advice on buying electric stove/oven?



## zannej (Aug 21, 2014)

I need to replace my freestanding electric stove/oven. I don't have the option for gas so it has to be electric. My brother does a lot of cooking but does not clean up after himself so it has to be something that can be cleaned up later (won't cook the food on to the surface). It will need to be able to support cast iron pots/pans without breaking. It also needs to either have the controls on the front or have the back control panel be less than 10 inches high. There is a shelf above the back of the stove and we don't want to remove it or move it up again. 

So far almost all of the stoves I've seen seem to have 13" height on those back panels...

Although, I suppose if we found a nice enough stove we might have to make do.. 

We've always used the electric stoves with the coils. They can be a pain to clean and sometimes get a bit bent or don't sit flush (not sure what my brother does to them). So I'm thinking about Induction cookers.

What are the pros and cons of the various induction range/ovens?
Which brands are good?
Which brands should be avoided?
Any recommendations on picking one with a good oven?

Any other stuff I should take into consideration?

We don't want to spend too much on it and plan on just getting a plain white one (although my mother wishes they had more stuff in blue).


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## Wuzzat? (Aug 21, 2014)

Nextag didn't help me price this, so see benefits & limitations below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooking


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## jeff1 (Aug 21, 2014)

Hi,

http://www.epinions.com/Ovens
Maybe a slide in style would work for you.
http://www.applianceaid.com/electric-range-purchase.php
http://www.abt.com/category/469/Slide-In-Electric-Ranges.html

jeff.


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## zannej (Aug 22, 2014)

Thanks, Wuzzat and Jeff1.

I've heard people saying that you can use a paper towel or even newspaper underneath a pan for induction cooking, but I wonder if that is a fire hazard...

I think the slide-ins require special installation. I'm not sure what I would have to do to make it fit. Are slide-ins mostly exposed on the back and or sides?

I was just reading something about the tall control thing on the back being called the backsplash.


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## jeff1 (Aug 22, 2014)

> induction cooking



These are expensive to buy and expensive to repair!



> I think the slide-ins require special installation



Not normally.



> Are slide-ins mostly exposed on the back and or sides?



Sides are hidden by the cupboards....back has a full back panal.

jeff.


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## Wuzzat? (Aug 22, 2014)

zannej said:


> I've heard people saying that you can use a paper towel or even newspaper underneath a pan for induction cooking, but I wonder if that is a fire hazard...


Paper ignites at 218°-246° Celsius and yellows at 150.
from
http://www.tcforensic.com.au/docs/article10.html
Boiling water limits the temp to 100C, see below.

If you do this, try not to get on the Evening News. 

You can boil two or three drops of water on wax paper using a candle flame.  It takes a minute or so.

You can also dip a wet finger into a pot of molten solder for a very short time with no sensation of heat and no injury.


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## bud16415 (Aug 22, 2014)

I have experience with all 3 electric stoves from a cooking stand point. The inductions work ok but you are limited to cooking in iron pans. Or ferrous metals anyway. It&#8217;s the magnetic properties of the metal that allow the induction to heat the pan. You can lift the frying pan cooking bacon and put your hand down with no problem on the burner. Lots of people use the paper towel to keep the surface nice. I personally don&#8217;t care for them when I lift a pan the thing starts squawking an alarm that the pan is missing and will shut down. You are limited to a few settings maybe 6 and they act different depending on the pan. 

The element type are ok but collect stuff in the trays and they sell replacements  aftermarket so cheap its almost better to toss them as scrub them. 

If I had to have electric I would have the glass top (love my gas)They heat better more even IMO and are nice to wipe clean. They sell a polish to use on them if you get spills burned on. Other methods will scratch the glass with time. When I had one I would let it cool and then wipe it off with a wet towel and let the soap water set a few minutes and then wipe it clean. Worked great. Very even pan heating. Watch the lights though you turn it off and the red goes away but until the light goes out its still hot.


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## zannej (Aug 24, 2014)

Thanks for the replies and info. I don't know if our cookware has level bottoms-- my brother warped a few pans by turning the heat up too high. 

My main reservation about the glass cooktops is that I've heard they can break and my brother is not careful. He slams stuff down on the stove all the time. He'll splatter stuff everywhere and not bother to wipe it up ever. 

I think the cheap coils-- as annoying as they are to clean-- are probably less expensive to repair if something happens. I've heard that replacing the glasstops can be very pricey..
Hell, I'm actually worried about the glasstop arriving intact at my home. My road is extremely bumpy. Gives Fedex and UPS fits because they say it bounces the packages off the shelves.

So, if I go with a regular electric coil one, I need to figure out which brands and models are good...

Any recommendations? Like, are there some brands that are notoriously bad and some that have a good reputation?

I'll have to work out what features we want...
Self-cleaning (which never seems to work)
controls on the front maybe
a drawer underneath the oven to store stuff

Another thing on slide-ins: Would I have to build something for them to hang on for them to slide in? And can I put something on the sides to keep critters out?

Again, thank you for the responses.


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## nealtw (Aug 24, 2014)

The way you explain your brother I would be looking at good used, buy two have a spare.


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## zannej (Aug 24, 2014)

LOL. 
Yeah, my brother is a big doofusaurus. One day I will upload the pictures off what he did to the kitchen floor. And the microwave... We had to get rid of our old microwave because he put something in that exploded all over and I couldn't clean the smell out of it. Every time we used it, the smell would come out and fill the house. Our new one is already filthy as well.

Our mother refuses to buy used appliances. We tried looking up reviews on consumer reports, but it doesn't really keep up-to-date and most of the time the models with good ratings have been discontinued or are out of stock.


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## nealtw (Aug 24, 2014)

You bring back lots of memmories on why I moved out at 19.


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## zannej (Aug 24, 2014)

LOL. My brother actually moved out before. The first time for college. He flunked out and moved back. Then he moved out to try to get a job but just mooched off of our sister but that didn't work out so he came back. He's flunked out of college about 3 times now...

He's the baby of the family so he got spoiled and now he has issues with being responsible. I still love him though. Despite the annoyances, I would miss him if he wasn't around.


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## oldognewtrick (Aug 24, 2014)

nealtw said:


> You bring back lots of memmories on why I moved out at 19.



:agree: I left at 19 too and never, ever thought about moving back, now my 23 y/o still loiving at home...well thats another story.


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## nealtw (Aug 24, 2014)

oldognewtrick said:


> :agree: I left at 19 too and never, ever thought about moving back, now my 23 y/o still loiving at home...well thats another story.



Sometimes they need a little help, like packing. My youngest granchild is 19 and the older ones are having kids I guess I can claim greatness:trophy:


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## zannej (Aug 25, 2014)

I'm going to sound pathetic, but I'm almost 38 and I never moved out. LOL. We moved around a lot and when I turned 18 we were overseas and remained overseas until I was well into my 20s. When the government finally let us move back, my father had to go to another state and work there for a year before retiring but we had to get all of our stuff from storage moved back into our house down here and have most of our belongings that were shipped from Guam sent over here. My mother never lived on her own and my father wanted me to stay with her to help her out and make sure that she was safe. We didn't have dogs so I was pretty much the guard dog, sitting at the house waiting for thieves and going out with the rifle when they showed up to try to pilfer stuff. The dirtbag down the street would wait until he saw my mother's car leave and assume nobody was home and roll up and start looking around the yard for stuff to steal. He actually had the gall to come in when we were all home and when the movers were moving our stuff in and he tried to steal our prybar but I stopped him. So he realized he couldn't just come and get stuff when someone was watching. I scared him a few times by popping out and asking him WTF he was doing here.

Although I wish I had stayed home more because before I started doing that we changed the locks and when we weren't home he kicked our front door in and started pilfering. He even cut some of our phone jacks and stole them. We used to have our kitchen wired for a phone but he managed to completely dislodge the wire so even if we got the jack put back on, it wouldn't work. He also broke in to our workshop and went through ALL of the toolboxes-- didn't even bother to close them afterward. I had set something up with the door so I would know if someone went in there-- something would fall on the floor if a person opened the door, only he took the time to pick it up and put the object in a nearby chair. So I knew for certain someone had gone in there. Changed the locks on that thing so he couldn't open it without breaking the door (as it was, he broke the doorframe on our house).

Anyway, he was nasty to my mother and I often had to step in and mediate-- like when he was mad that she was demanding that he bring her desk back after he stole it and he was swearing at her and claiming he didn't take it. Then he finally "found" it and returned it.

I'll stop myself there because my list of grievances with that jackass is far too long.

So, my brother stayed with my father and did nothing while I was back with my mother. She cooked and I cleaned and we were getting along fine. My father retired and moved back with my brother and my mother started to do less stuff and I had to help my father fix the place up. Both of them started having health issues so I stuck around to drive them places. Also, my mother doesn't like to go places by herself very often so any time she went to the grocery store I had to go with her to carry her groceries for her.

Fast forward a decade and she barely gets out of bed so I have to do her laundry, get her food, get the groceries, feed the animals, fix stuff when it breaks, and try to clean up after my brother.

I sometimes wish that I'd tried moving out and seeing what it was like, but I wouldn't want to trade any of the time that I spent with my father while he was still alive. I talked to him about it before he died and he said he didn't want me to move out because he liked having me there with him-- even if he just wanted someone to sit next to him while he played on his computer. (Although he didn't want me to put my life on hold and did want me to go out and succeed in life, but at the same time he wanted me near him).

I really miss him.... 

And wow, that got so far off topic.... LOL.

I mentioned slide-in stoves to my mother and she whined that they are too expensive and that they cost like $300 more than freestanding.  I wonder if they make freestanding ones without the backsplash that are not more expensive than the slide-ins.


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## Wuzzat? (Aug 26, 2014)

We are the sum total of the decisions we made.

If I were you I'd start figuring out why you made those decisions, and eventually come to terms with your life as you lived it.

I'm starting a little bit late: depending on which mortality table I use I've only got between 11 and 18 years to figure this all out.  If you are a 38 YO white male you've got about 39 years.

BTW, if you are 110 YO you've got one year and the data is unreliable because so few people live this long.

And give yourself a break: "the family is the factory where people are made" and some of us have very little choice about how our lives will go, see the book 
"Scripts People Live."


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## Jungle (Aug 26, 2014)

True Induction cooker:






http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0087OWY5A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Has worked well for me, i think it is bit faster.


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## Jungle (Aug 26, 2014)

True Induction cooker:





http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0087OWY5A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Has worked well for me, i think it is bit faster.


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## zannej (Aug 27, 2014)

I forgot to mention that what I'm looking for is probably called a "range". It needs to have an oven and a stove on it.

Thank you for the replies.


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