Our stove is on it's last legs. DH has repaired it more times than we can remember. Now, we're researching what we want to buy. I'd like opinions on brands and features. I do want a self-cleaning oven. We rarely use that feature, but I can't see myself trying to clean it myself. I usually wipe any spills as I go. I won't get a glass topped one. If the glass breaks, it costs as much to replace it as to buy a new stove! What features do you all love or hate about your electric stove? And, what brand do you think is the best?

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), March 30, 2002

Answers

Do you mean ceramic (flat-top) stove? We like ours because it is easy to clean--usually just a wet sponge, and although it came with a little sample bottle of cleaner, I just sprinkle a little baking soda (bon ami might be a little milder), and a drop of dish liquid for any burned on stuff.

Only bad thing is that you cannot use cast iron (oven use okay) because people tend to slide pots instead of lifting them off (and that would scratch the top), and you would want to make sure that pots you have now are flat bottom (I see a lot of enamelware that is indented on the bottom, for example), so as to make the most contact with the heating element.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), March 30, 2002.

I got a Maytag a few years ago, I love it. It heats by heating from top to bottom and keeps rotating, your food cooks and browns evenly. I had gotten one from Sears in 1994 and the oven thermostat kept going out. Got my money back and got the Maytag. I wanted something that's going to last. Were retiring in a few years.

-- Jo in Central Wa. (countryjo16@hotmail.com), March 30, 2002.

My cousin got a new electric stove that has solid steel plate burners on it instead of coils. It is easy to clean because nothing can run inside the burner. It doesn't warp your pans like coils do, either.

-- Laura S. (LadybugWrangler@somewhere.com), March 30, 2002.

I too have a Maytag. Nothing fancy but it is self cleaning and has that feature where I can set it to start cooking when I'm not there. Love that! Also purchased the special canning element. I consider that a must for canning on an electric stove.

-- Nancy (nannyb@huntel.net), March 30, 2002.

Ardie-----I have a new Westinghouse electric stove & I don't like it at all---it is nice looking----but the oven doesn't heat evenly---it just is not insulated as well as the older ones I have had----as a matter of fact I have an older model stove down at our warehouse right now-(can't remember the brand name)---we have used in rental properties we have owned---& we have all of our realestate property for sale right now & I will leave this new stove with our home when we sell it---& I'll move the older stove we have used in rental houses---& use it myself!!

You know when the oven door closes---& if it is insulated well--it has a different sound----well I'm not planning on buying a new stove any time soon unless I have to---as none I have tried have that heavy insulated sound the old stoves have when the oven closes---

Have not been really pleased with anything I have baked in this new stove-

So I'm not pleased with a Westinghouse----- best wishes---

P.S. my old stove had a clock & timer that were not digital--this new stove of coarse has a new digital one---everytime the electricity goes off or flickers----of coarse I have to reset the clock on this new one----cause it flashes until I do----I never noticed the old one that didn't flash!!!! ha!

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), March 30, 2002.

When we bought ours a few years ago, they did not recommend a flat top if you can. We bought an Amana & was not impressed.

-- DW (djwallace@sotc.net), March 31, 2002.

Ardie, Ardie - hello there from the badlands of Oregon! Long time no see...

...well, I'm a'swipin' my hands against this prim white and starched apron to remove the grit of well ground millet flour (husand's allergic to wheat) and happened upon this quaint board and your post. I know - you asked about electric stoves and all - and I'm not being cantankerous with my answer. But, I figure - this is an open forum and a pretty well rounded group of open minded folks whose tastes veer sometimes way past the traditional into antiquity and sometimes even doin' things "off the grid" as they call it.

Like some of you ladies here, I have me a flat topped stove, yes I do. That's where the similarity stops, however. It's a wood burning one, this old stove - its iron grate large enough to fully load at least three large skillets, one or two pots of steaming molasses and bacon laced navy beans, and that shiny stainless teapot o'ours, large in circumference, great for steaming water for all day interludes with a ceramic teapot I keep aside with the green tea leaves I stoke it with at necessary intervals.

The oven on that wood cookstove - she is a biggun - and I love the way she slow cooks a leg o'lamb until the bone slips gently outward from juicy meat after it's been aroastin in garlic and thyme, go easy on the honey - make a sturdy tilt on that soy sauce bottle. Don't forget the lemon and onion, of course, but I need not tell you that...and a bit of homemade wine (preferably red - don't reach for the dandylion, gold but too sweet) will always add zest to the marinade...

Anyway, that oven (if you get yourself a good amount of dry kindling, and of course I like that dry ash in perfectly cut pieces that I can pick up from the local 7th Day Adventist University wood shop down the road) -- if you can keep that oven an even 350 most of your day (taking off the chill in the house at the same time -- heck, open that window and place a screen in there if you're finding the temperatures a bit heightened, or keep to the other rooms while your savory roast cooks -- just remember to add you enough of that dry wood to keep her at 350 degrees...)- you will have you a perfect roast. Beef, pork, lamb...whatever your preference, of course. Most folks do like a tender roast...

I put the potatoes on the side when its their time. Baked potatoes do well in that oven, and I don't worry about them explodin unless I've clean forgotten about 'em (which I have done a time or two, I suppose.)

I would not trade this here 1930s depression green and cream model wood cookstove for two fancy schmancy electric stoves, their hefty price tags wavin in the wind, no I would not.

But, that's just me, of course.

And what do I do for the hot summer days - since I don't have a "canning kitchen" all screened in like a lot of women do? Well, it's the propane stove then, four burner Wedgewood - its oven not quite as large so that the big roasting pan I bought for a song and dance at some garage sale doesn't fit into its midst. I'm careful with propane anyway - costs too much to use that oven. So I broil steaks outside on the grill that the husband's brother left for us so many moons ago - in the summers (unless its a cracklin tinder dry summer - which in Oregon is pretty much standard, at which time I resort to broilin meat quick in the propane stove's broiler.)

You can't go wrong with a propane stove, Ardie - no, you cannot. Got mine at an antique store - that's where you'll find the gooduns anymore.

As they say in these types o'forums - just my "two cents" now, Ardie. You take care.

Alexandra

-- alexandra (singingfalls@tymewyse.com), April 01, 2002.

Baeutiful! I really, really want a wood cookstove and you have made me want one more! I am going to start saving my money today for one!!!!

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 01, 2002.