Gas or Electric?

[lulu]

By ideal would be a range (solid fuel is what I am used to, never had a gas one but oil was a nightmare) with an electric cooker for standby, an in summer and for the hob. But I would be happy with either gas or electric really. I'm not fussy!

I searched out this thread because I have just found myself with what might be Vera' old cooker.....it has to be lit with a match. My London hob has occasionally needed help with a clicker, but never the oven, and never a match. I am a bit wary of doing this, dispite everyone in Italy assuring me this is quite normal.....but I guess the best thing is to use the longest piece of spaghetti I can find. My sister was a severe burns victim and although we have always had ranges aand open fires I have a healthy respect for fire. I feel a LITTLE reassured that others have done this and lived to tell the tale!

 

[Robo410]

I have used both, but my homes have always had electric, (not by my choice). I've even spent time in the UK and had the experience of Aga radiant heat cooking. I prefer gas for top of stove cooking and convection for oven cooking. I am getting a dual fuel soon...about 9 weeks to go!

 

[mish]

I grew up with an electric stove and oven, convinced that a gas stove would blow me to kingdom come (my Mother's words, not mine). Then, when I got married and got an apartment I was finally introduced to gas. I had to light the oven with a match each time, again convinced I'd blow myself to kingdom come, but I never did....

Now, I don't think I can ever cook on anything except gas. It would be a dealbreaker if my next home purchase didn't have gas..

What are you using and how do you feel about it.

I prefer a gas stove. My first apt in NYC, I cooked on an electric hotplate. It was amazing the dishes I could concoct on that gizmo, but electric I will never do, if I can avoid it. I've had some old stoves (in a duplex I rented) that were gas, and had to use a match to light the pilot and burners. The stove had character, but cleaning up all the matches was a pain.

Wanted to sell my home for the longest time, and noticed the homes for sale that are less expensive, have electric stoves. One realtor said, I'll check to see if it can be converted to gas. Just, not worth my while or $. I want gas!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I too have cooked with both. I grew up with electric but have used gas almost exclusively as an adult. I love the instantaneous heat response of gas, but as B.T. stated, cooking pan types and materials and their response to heat must still be taken into consideration due to time lag of temperature change.

My ultimate would be a gas range with a smooth induction cooktop. You get the instantaneous temperature control with a smooth, heatless, flameless easy-clean cooktop that works with SS, and cast-iron, the only cooking vessels in my home. I'd have to say that from an engineering standpoint, temerature would be very easy to control, from a gentle simmer, to a rolling boil, or searing hot skillet. Plus, unless the pan was on the stove, even if left on full power, nothing gets hot.

Oh the beauty of electro-magnetic induction. But alas, my pocket book isn't likely to grow enough to allow me the luxury of change, and my gas range works fine, though I'm soon going to have to replace the main burner as the spark igniter is giving me problems. A match works for now though.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[bethzaring]

Like a tank used on an outdoor grill? I have lived in the suburbs of NYC my entire life. Without sounding offensive or worse, nitwitish, how much propane does it take to run a kitchen?

LP (Liquid Propane) 90 pound tanks are similar to outdoor grill tanks, only bigger. I go through about two 90 pound tanks a year. Depends on how much canning I do. We keep two tanks at all times, so when one runs out, it is easy to get the other in gear quickly. Then I get the empty one replaced pronto. I have cooked on electric, wood, and gas. Must say, my favorite is wood, but had to give it up with the present house . So gas is my next favorite fuel to use. I never did give electric a fair chance though, didn't like it from the start.

 

[mish]

Re propane - no answers here. Back to gas vs electric, the only thing I am concerned about is a monstrosity of a furnace in a closet -- that controls central air and heat. I imagine it controls my gas stove. It's probably a throw back from the 70's; but it's a pain to change the filter. I'm sure? it came up to code? So no fear about lighting an oven pilot light or blowing up -- except with this furnace from outer space. If I ever buy another home again, & I hope it's soon, Never will I buy a home with a furnace in a closet.

 

[Katie H]

I've cooked using both electricity and gas and have cooked using old, new and anything in between. I much prefer a gas cooktop and an electric oven.

When we moved into this old (1880) house it hadn't been lived in for some years and the people we bought it from only bought the house to "flip" it, so they never lived in it. Consequently they never used the kitchen. The stove they put in the kitchen could be categorized as something between a campfire and an Easy Bake oven. It was all electric, with three small burners and one large one, no timer for anything, no light in the oven. The most basic of the basic.

A couple of years later, a friend remodeled their kitchen and gave us their old stove. It was a glorious step up. Two large burners, two small burners, lift-top for cleaning under burners, timer, oven light, continuous clean oven. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. However, I still missed cooking on gas.

A couple of years ago I had the chance to buy NEW. Hooray! We already heated with gas, so there was already a line in. We bought a gas cooktop and an electric self-cleaning oven. LOVE them both. The grids on the gas burners are huge and easy to remove for cleaning and the flame area is sealed, so cleaning any spills is as easy as pie. Plus, one of the large burners is a souped-up one with a gazillion BTUs.

I love the way I have infinite temperature control with the burners and the oven is a dream. If anyone's interested, the cooktop and oven are Whirlpool.

 

[bullseye]

We had gas growing up, but changed to electric when I in my teens somewhere. My mother adjusted. The thinking then was that electric was cleaner, more efficient, and less dangerous. Since I've been on my own I had first natural gas on a cheapo apartment unit, a larger and better electric range, and now my grandparents antique Magic Chef that runs on propane. I can work with any of them, but I like my current set up the best. I find that I can adjust the temp more quickly on the stove, and the oven heats up quickly and evenly. Admittedly, my grandfather modified this to get more BTUs out of propane.

Like a tank used on an outdoor grill? I have lived in the suburbs of NYC my entire life. Without sounding offensive or worse, nitwitish, how much propane does it take to run a kitchen?

VB: It's basically the same fuel, but larger tanks that a truck comes and fills. Costs me about $120/yr. to cook nearly every day, often for one, but often for more.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

...VB: It's basically the same fuel, but larger tanks that a truck comes and fills. Costs me about $120/yr. to cook nearly every day, often for one, but often for more.

With reference to natural gas and propane, propane burns much hotter than does natural gas. 1 cubic foot of propane delivers about 2,500 Btu (British Thermal Units), while Natural gas, which is mostly methane, delivers about 1012 Btu per cubic foot.

So, propane is better than twice as hot as is natural gas.

Just so's ya knows.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[VeraBlue]

By ideal would be a range (solid fuel is what I am used to, never had a gas one but oil was a nightmare) with an electric cooker for standby, an in summer and for the hob. But I would be happy with either gas or electric really. I'm not fussy!

I searched out this thread because I have just found myself with what might be Vera' old cooker.....it has to be lit with a match. My London hob has occasionally needed help with a clicker, but never the oven, and never a match. I am a bit wary of doing this, dispite everyone in Italy assuring me this is quite normal.....but I guess the best thing is to use the longest piece of spaghetti I can find. My sister was a severe burns victim and although we have always had ranges aand open fires I have a healthy respect for fire. I feel a LITTLE reassured that others have done this and lived to tell the tale!

Hi Lulu
Don't use spaghetti, get wooden skewers. Look for the kind you'd use to make kabobs. They don't burn as quickly as wooden matches, and are usually at least 6 inches long. Just remember to work quickly. Depending on how difficult the knobs are to work will determine if you turn on the gas before lighting the skewer. Ideally, you want your 'match' lit before you turn on the gas. But, the machine needs to be primed a bit, so I always turn on the gas first, then light the match. If it doesn't catch immediately, turn it off and wait a moment before trying again. Don't worry or you'll tremble. Good luck.

 

[VeraBlue]

LP (Liquid Propane) 90 pound tanks are similar to outdoor grill tanks, only bigger. I go through about two 90 pound tanks a year. Depends on how much canning I do. We keep two tanks at all times, so when one runs out, it is easy to get the other in gear quickly. Then I get the empty one replaced pronto. I have cooked on electric, wood, and gas. Must say, my favorite is wood, but had to give it up with the present house . So gas is my next favorite fuel to use. I never did give electric a fair chance though, didn't like it from the start.

Wood?? That must require a skill and talent most lack. Where is 'ahia'?

 

[Harborwitch]

We tried to rent a house that had a wood stove, outhouse (with a window overlooking the Pacific Ocean), and only rudimentery electricity. There was also a propane cooktop. They turned us down, I showed up in heels and they thought we were "too city". I was so looking forward to it.

We had electric when I first go here - we pulled it out and put in a propane stove. Just before Thanksgiving last year my old gas stove died and we got a new one. Whoooooeeeee. It had two big power burners a regular burner and a tiny little simmer burner that would keep a pot of stock simmering all night.

Now that we're on the houseboat we've got a little apartment size plain Jane propane stove. I've adapted to it's size but I do miss my huge oversized oven. On the sailboat we've got an alcohol stove. Told Bob there will be nothing cooked on that stove. It's scary - you can't even see the flames - that makes it a very common cause of fires on boats. In the storage unit we have a gimballed propane stove a friend gave us to put on the sailboat - but it's not there yet.

 

[bullseye]

With reference to natural gas and propane, propane burns much hotter than does natural gas. 1 cubic foot of propane delivers about 2,500 Btu (British Thermal Units), while Natural gas, which is mostly methane, delivers about 1012 Btu per cubic foot.

So, propane is better than twice as hot as is natural gas.

Just so's ya knows.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

Thanks for pointing that out, Goodweed; you are certainly correct volume for volume; it is a function of the relative densities of the two gasses. I should have been more explicit. What happens is that most ranges are designed with the less dense natural gas in mind. When you order the range for propane, they simply throttle back the gas pressure regulator and orifices to compensate. (I think there are a few exceptions nowadays.) That's why you'll see lower BTU ratings for the same range using propane vs. natural gas. What my grandfather did is order the unit for natural gas, and increase the available oxygen intake, thereby compensating for the higher density of the propane. He also did some modification of the pressure regulator, but I forget exactly what. At any rate, both stove and oven still perform very well, 70 years later.

 

[Crash]

I have used both, but my homes have always had electric, (not by my choice). I've even spent time in the UK and had the experience of Aga radiant heat cooking. I prefer gas for top of stove cooking and convection for oven cooking. I am getting a dual fuel soon...about 9 weeks to go!

Robo410
What dual fuel range are you getting?
Thanks.

 

[philso]

i grew up on electric. working in restaurants of course was all gas. when i moved to california, i had a great gas range, probably from the '50's. unfortunately, the name escapes me. somehow, "wedgewood" comes to mind, but i think it's wrong. anyway, it had two large and two small burners and a griddle in the middle, great for pancakes, homefries, etc. i'd say it was one of the best home model ranges ever built.

here in japan, gas is standard. i count myself fortunate in having not only a gas range, but also an oven as well. very rare here. baking is not part of the traditional repetoire here, so home baking is largely done in a combo microwave/electric convection oven.

my most adventurous cooking set up was when i lived for about a year as a "homesteader" in manhattan's lower east side. cooked and heated my apartment with a woodstove made out of a steel drum and fired up with waste wood from construction sites, chairs and tables people threw out, etc.

by the way, after a quick search, i found it. check out the 50's wedgewood 1/2 way down the page:
http://www.classicranges.com/store.html

 

[bethzaring]

Wood?? That must require a skill and talent most lack. Where is 'ahia'?

Cooking on a woodstove is a no brainer, the skill lies in managing the fire in the firebox, and that takes a wide range of skills. You need to know what woods will split, what the heat giving properties are of the various species, how to store seasoned wood, how to build and maintain a fire.

The cooking surface on a wood stove is incredible; large, flat, smooth, with varying degrees of hotness. I had three cookstoves in the 8 years I cooked with a wood stove, and all three had the firebox on the upper left side of the stove. The two " burners" bove the firewood box will be the hottest on the entire cooking surface, with the back "burner" being hotter than the front one. The last cookstove I had was a Home Comfort and a combination wood/gas stove. That stove was just the berries. I would keep a low fire in the firebox to simmer soups and such, but when I wanted to bake something in the oven, I only had to turn the dial to get the gas to heat the oven. Since the oven was partly pre-heated, it took very little gas to bump up the heat to 350 degrees F.

I live in the foothills of the Applachian Mountains and am surrounded by deciduous hardwood forests. Ahia is the local pronunciation for Ohio.

 

[Robo410]

Robo410
What dual fuel range are you getting?
Thanks.

Wolf 36" ... 6 gas burners, 1 large double fan electric convection oven. The house will also have a wall oven, standard electric, and a microwave built in.

 

[college_cook]

I grew up using a gas stove,but all of my apartments since I've been in college are electric.. AND I HATE THEM! The thing I hate worst about electric stoves is that the rings are so hard to keep level. After cleaning an electric stove (chore enough in itself) it's nearly impossible to insert the rings back in at all, much less at the exactly correct angle. So my favorite burner (yes, none of them heat the same, or evenly) sits about about a 10-degree angle, and my pans wont sit evenly on that burner anymore. Throw in the fact that it takes forever to get water boiling or maintain a good high heat, and you've got an appliance that I just dont get along with.

Whenever I build/purchase a new home, the first thing I'll be doing is building my dream kitchen. I'd like to have a gas range with 15,000 BTU burners, preferably 6 of them (though I don't know if they make tops with 6 burners), and double ovens. I also thought about having a deep fryer and a small griddle installed into my counter-tops, but I really need to think about those, because while they would make certain tasks so much easier, I just don't know if I would use them enough to justify having them built in.

 

[Andy M.]

...(though I don't know if they make tops with 6 burners), and double ovens...

Check out the post just before your last one.

 

[bs004417]

I have a ceramic top electric. Its easy to clean and pretty powerful. Wouldnt use anything else.