need to buy stovetopbr- suggestions? advice?

rovacat

Sun, Oct 14 2012, 5:24 am

my sauter stove top broke. I'm looking to buy a new one, and I'm surprised at the wide price range there is out there. does it really make a difference which brand I buy? which features are important?
any advice is great. tia!

fiddle

Sun, Oct 14 2012, 7:11 am

my friend left the country and I took her stovetop to sell. she bought it a year ago, its a sauter stovetop. glass, beautiful, easy to clean, and sells anywhere from 1400-1800 shekel. http://www.zap.co.il/model.asp.....50523

are you interested? im selling it for 900 OBO. let me know

merelyme

Sun, Oct 14 2012, 7:18 am

A glass stovetop looks lovely but you cannot use a "blech" (metal sheet for Shabbos) on it.

I would look for a stovetop that's easy to clean, with a "turbo" flame - a triple flame that heats quickly.

merelyme

Sun, Oct 14 2012, 7:24 am

fiddle wrote:

why cant you use a blech? it will shatter?

Yes, the blech causes the stovetop to heat up too much. When mine (Scholtes) was delivered, the installer/repairman told me never to put a blech on it because the insurance doesn't cover ones that shatter as a result.

Karnash

Sun, Oct 14 2012, 7:45 am

I have a glass stovetop for years and am also in the market for a new one. Mine is a DeLonghi - which I would NOT buy again. But - after having glass, I wouldn't buy anything else - easy to clean and it always looks good.
I don't use a blech - so that's not a problem for me.
I've been looking at the bigger stovetops - that hold 5-6 pots. At first I didn't consider them because I certainly wasn't about to mess up my granite countertop, but then I saw that the underpart that has to fit in the shayish is the standard size - same size as the 4 burners!
I also learned that the difference between a cheap stove top and a more expensive one also has to with the delivery of the gas to the burner. A well-designed burner burns hotter and more efficiently - and so cooks more quickly.

rovacat

Mon, Oct 15 2012, 5:19 am

fiddle wrote:

is the color black?

fiddle

Mon, Oct 15 2012, 5:25 am

It's black yes. You can put an electric hot plate on top, but there is no cover over the grates. So you would need to level it out. The bottom of a hot plate does not get hot, there are peg legs. I put mine on top of my glass cover of my oven/stove.

etky

Mon, Oct 15 2012, 5:53 am

Are we talking electric or gas here?
I put my plata directly over my ceramic (electric) stove-top - no problem whatsoever.
Other pros/cons of electric stove-tops, in case anyone is interested:
Very easy to clean and always look nice
Safer than having an open fire
You can maintain a very low flame w/o fearing it will go out.
No gas issues
Easy to kasher for Pesach (according to some poskim - others hold it may not be kashered. Best to check this before purchasing!)
OTOH - Takes a bit longer to heat up, though mine is over 12 years old and maybe newer ones are different.
Pots have to be suitable though most, except for the cheapest types, are.
Has to be left on the entire yom tov if planning to cook on chag - you can't "l'haavir esh" to it.
If your electricity goes off you have no way to cook - big issue where I live.
Bottom line - I like my ceramic stove-top, have had it for 12 years and have never met the repairman.
Looks like new.
OTOH - there is an ineffable, hard to define, something about cooking over an open fire that is missing. Can't really explain it.