We are looking to replace our old coil electric cooktop with something new.  I started out thinking I wanted gas, handsdown, no discussion.  Our kitchen isn't currently plumbed for natural gas though, and a plumber quoted me $850 today to run a gas line and connect a gas cooktop.

So upgrading to gas would be no less than $1200 after line run, new gas cooktop purchased and installed.  We also don't have a vent hood vented to the exterior. All we have is a microwave with the recirculation fans above the range.  I am concerned that a gas range would heat up the kitchen more when cooking.

I am intrigued by the induction electric cooktops.  Cost to get into them start at about $1,000 at a big box store, but Amazon has the same cooktop for $800.  Who has experience with induction electric?  I am concerned about the longevity of these since the market is relatively new.

Pretty sure I am opposed to the plain electric cooktops.  We have coils now, the smooth glass top ones sound like they are a pain to clean, and I hate waiting on my skillets to get hot.  The only thing that plain electric (coils or glass) cooktops have going for them in my mind is the cost is much lower.

Money IS an object, and the $1200 is about the upper limit of what we will do.  That involves THIS GAS COOKTOP on sale for $299.  

What advice would you give me, esp. those who have experienced gas vs induction electric?

We had a gas line run about 2 years ago..... the cost breakdown looked like this....

$800     run line from main to meter
$350ish line from meter to Water heater (also outside drop for grill, and drop for stove installed)
$1500   renai tankless water heater
$150     electrician subcontractor to hookup water heater

$$2800 total to the gas company
-$$800 "new customer discount" 
We had to drop 2k at the time of install (we were also buying a 1200 dollar appliance though....    

So, they waived the gas line fee for us to buy their overpriced water heater (I think it was about $1200 had I bought it ala carte from cheapest place)

Point being, the startup in gas is high, but my electrical bill has gone down by $80 a month, and gas is $25-$30 a month....  it will take about the lifespan of the tankless to recoup the difference......    When i put in my stove however, all I had to do was rewire my 220 outlet to 110, and plug her in.....   same when we buy a gas dryer.....   and if I ever go back to gas grilling......     

Call the gas company to see if they offer the stove you have in mind.... it may be cheaper to pay their inflated prices to get a discount on running the house line.....  They almost all offer a payment plan also to ease the cost burden.....   

Also shop around, you may find an independent plumber who can do the work for you at a better price.  Honestly the hardest part of the whole install was digging the trench.....     

Have the gas line run.  That is a cheap quote.  Mine was $1200. 

Thanks for the reply.  My gas company doesn't sell appliances that I am aware of.  

And house is already supplied with gas to the water heater, fireplace logs, and furnace.  The $850 estimate from an independent plumber I got today would simply be tapping into an existing line in the attic, dropping down inside the kitchen wall, and connecting under the cooktop counter.  

I'm kind of surprised that it costs that much, but while I can do ordinary handyman jobs myself, I'm not willing to deal with gas lines.

I love induction.

@BUCK1911 How long have you had yours?  Any problems with it?  I am curious as to their longevity.

How would you compare it to a gas cooktop, if you have experience with both?

I went induction based on the advise of my contractor. High end unit. It is a bit of a PITA regarding different cookware types and the sensors in the "burners".
If I had it to do over I would go with gas.

I was all set to go with gas, just about had my wife convinced, then the plumber quoted a higher than expected number to extend the service line and I got worried about not having an exhaust vent above the cooktop.  

How hot does it get around a gas cooktop with no vent hood?

Gas is far superior when it comes to cooking.

Like, not even close.

And I have a microwave with the recirculating fans above mine too.  Using the oven makes more heat than the stove, honestly.  Yeah, it heats things up a little, but so does electric.  

It sounds worth it.  It's not like your plumber gave you the when you showed him the area, and he's aware that there's no vent, so he see's the same rigs in your area.

I know that is the conventional wisdom when it comes to gas vs. regular electric, but does it also hold true for gas vs. induction?  Apparently induction can boil water faster than gas and you have the same immediate temperature control as gas.  Almost sounds like all of the benefits of gas with none of the concerns.

I prefer a dual fuel setup... Gas on top, electric for the oven(s). Gas ovens kind of blow, they heat up the house and are usually slow. ETA this doesn't really apply to cooktops

Induction I just found odd to work with, but I've never owned one.

Grew up with coils, hate them now. Glass top was almost as bad. The last rental I was in before I moved in to my house I'm in now, we had one that was pretty new. A bitch to clean, and a few spots that were permanent on the surface even with the fancy cleaners.

That's the best of both worlds IMO.  When I build my retirement home I want a commercial four burner stove with a griddle.

Well I think our decision has just about been made.  

I would love gas, but to install the line and purchase the cooktop, would cost a minimum of 1/4 of the entire budget that was originally earmarked solely for granite countertops and a new dining table and chairs, and came to include a new sink and faucet and cooktop as well.  

Similarly, while induction cooktops sound awesome, I recently found out they generally require a 40 amp circuit, and my house only has 30 amp wiring to the cooktop.  To upsize the wiring would surely exceed the cost to install gas.  There ARE some induction cooktops that are rated for 30A circuits, but they are more expensive than the gas option as well.

So as much as it sucks, we may just punt and save a thousand dollars or so and just put in a crappy glass top regular electric cooktop.  

I guess I'll always have my gas grill on the patio if I need to cook on gas.

I don't even have a range hood.  Have one of those old shitty hole in the wall fans across the other side of the kitchen that's near the ceiling

Or find something else other than granite for countertops. I know, go be poor somewhere else and Im not talking Formica, but Im sure there are other alternatives that look nice and cost less.

Money for the upgrade is coming from a modest inheritance from the wife's family.  So she's the final say on what we're getting, and she wanted granite countertops.  She would have put in smooth top electric no questions asked, until I first started pushing for gas.  Since then, seems like we've been all over the map just to end back up at electric.  

She's not going to give up on granite countertops to put in a fancier cooktop when she doesn't care that much about the cooktop.

There's a reason that professional kitchens almost never use electric, in any form.

Oh, please, enlighten us all!!!!


For those that have worked in professional kitchens and home kitchens extensively, it's very easy to see the differences and WHY a professional kitchen doesn't necessarily care about the advantages of electric appliances. Unless you're cooking professionally out of your home you don't need a professional kitchen. Most professional/commercial kitchens have extensive requirements that don't easily transfer to a home kitchen, nor the other way around.

I would find a way to go gas. Updating kitchen and going back to a coil type stove is not something I would do.

We have the black glass electric cooktop, and the only issue I have with it is that it can be scalding hot, but doesn't LOOK hot.  There is a little red light that tells you it's hot, but it's easy to miss.  As a result, my wife numerous times has accidently set something plastic down on top of it to have it melt into the cooktop.  We have also burned ourselves a couple of times, because the flat black surface looks like countertop, when it is really hot as hell.  I doubt that would happen with a traditional gas or electric coil burner.  The mind would treat those different.

My parents just put in a non-induction electric kitchen aid range. This thing is awesome. I'm a gas cooktop fan but this thing can boil a large pot of water in about 4 minutes. Gas for me never came close to that. however, any of the good electric ranges are going to require 40+amp.

So, you believe that professional kitchen's near universal use of gas has nothing to do with the superiority of gas, but rather because of other factors not related to the actual cooking?  

Superiority of gas? I think you've missed my point. My point is that gas is ONLY superior in specific situations, most of which fit commercial kitchens.

No, I don't believe, I KNOW the reasons. Can you please enlighten us to this supposed superiority of gas? I'm curious as to your reasons.

I have a proper carbon steel Chinese wok.  I can't use it on residential gas, electric, or induction stove tops. I have to go out to the patio and set up my propane turkey fryer burner to get proper wok cooking.  A commercial stove would do the trick.

Don't  know about induction.
I had a gas line put in a long time ago.
Glad I did.

I still have an electric dishwasher :-)

This.

Ever see electric or induction in a professional kitchen? Yeah, didn't think so.

Gas.  No other answers are correct. 

Running gas line is fairly easy and straightforward.  My dad and I extended the gas line from our hot water heater over to under the kitchen, ran a line up for the cook top, and down for the dryer.  Some black pipe, some flex lines, pipe dope, ta da!  Probably spent about $100-150 on parts.  My wife and I own a ranch, though, so it was easy to get to everything in the basement.

Interesting! Not going to proclaim I was the first to do that, but having read the cooking forum here since it was started, I NEVER saw another person suggest using a turkey fryer for their wok until after I had done it and suggested it here...

That being said, I believe you'll be sorely disappointed if you picked up a commercial gas stove just so you can use your wok inside. #1, unless you have a proper hood you'll smoke your house up within minutes cooking on a wok. #2, My turkey fryer is 170k BTU, I use it on high fairly regularly when cooking with the wok. You won't find a commercial stove that has a burner NEAR the output of that required by a wok and will still offer the low outputs necessary for home cooking.

Since it looks like Potsey isn't coming back I'll just enlighten the crowd as to why gas is so popular and offers so many advantages in commercial stoves vs home stoves and why he is flat wrong in his statement. I was hoping he could possibly clarify but I guess not.

First thing is first, range/cooktops & ovens are 2 very distinctly different cooking methods so we're going to split them into separate discussion points. I'm not even going to get into the discussion of putting a true commercial stove in a home because the requirements to do so are extremely burdensome and few people even consider that. I did at one time until I learned the requirements to put a commercial stove in.

We'll start with the range/cooktop discussion. Most people don't understand the massive BTU/KW difference in home-based cooking vs commercial cooking. Unless you're regularly cooking for large parties in your home, you don't need the high end of the heat output spectrum with a few exceptions. Those exceptions can often be cured by a $20 turkey fryer (as the above wok-cooking discussion/derailment). OTOH, the very low heat level it takes to simmer home-size portions cannot be attained on many commercial ranges; some home type go as low at 500 BTU, while commercial burners rarely go less than 5k BTU (can you simmer your small portion of sauce on 10 times the heat of a normal home stove). With that out of the way, lets look at the difference between gas & electric. Many proclaim that gas ranges/cooktops have more heat, faster, and that simply isn't the case. I looked up GE profile numbers just for the sake of comparison. 20k BTU (that's the highest I know of on ANY home-type range) is the largest burner on gas, 3700 W is the largest electric. Now I know for a fact that my personal GE electric has a 5,000 watt burner. 3700 w = 12,600 BTU/hr, 5,000 w = 17,000 BTU/hr. They're pretty close, but gas does have a small margin, until you factor in the efficiency advantage of electric. If you look at the efficiency numbers electric wins out. But it also has a delay in heating after being turned on. So all things considered they're pretty close. There certainly there must be a reason gas is used in commercial kitchens right? There is!!! It has to do with delivering that energy to the appliance. For example, a 60" commercial 10 burner, dual oven has approximately 355k BTU (or more) of energy at it's disposal. An equivalent electric unit would require 400 amp electrical service TO the stove (not 400 A service to the restaurant). That is nearly unheard-of except in large industrial buildings. It's much easier to run said appliance on gas. OTOH, a home-type all-electric usually requires no more than 50 amp service to the appliance. Some older units required only 40-amp, and some newer require 60-amp. Electric is MUCH more feasible in home-based cooking BECAUSE of the lower draw. The "instant-off" explanation for a cooktop/stove is BS; just as the burner remains hot with electric, the grates remain hot with gas. The "instant-on" is a little bit more appealing for gas, but once a person learns to cook on electric it isn't that difficult. IE, turn the burner on then get the skillet out instead of get the skillet out then turn the burner on. It's not rocket-science, just takes a little getting used to.

Continuing on to the oven discussion. This will be much shorter. There is very little discussion to be had. Gas ovens are extremely inefficient and they are great at heating your home (even in the summer when you wish to cool it). The superiority of electric ovens is well known, even in the commercial cooking arena. It's routine to see electric convection ovens in commercial kitchens. The fact that commercial range/oven combinations are almost always gas points back to the fact that gas is the best way to deliver the amount of energy necessary for the range and dual-fuel versions are rare and costly in commercial cooking equipment, so all-gas it is for most places (unless they have a separate electric convection oven for baking). The fact that gas versions are adding a ton of heat to the kitchen is mostly overlooked in a commercial setting because there are numerous other heat sources in the kitchen and that's the cost of doing business. It doesn't have to be that way in your home.

All that being said, my ideal kitchen cooking setup is a gas cooktop with an electric, true-convection wall-oven. The reason I want gas for the cooktop is twofold. #1 The faster heating will give a small convenience, as well as the availability of marginally higher heat outputs in gas. #2 (this is the real reason) I want a griddle, but few home appliances come with acceptable griddle options, and electrics are almost always built-in, reducing the number of regular burners for other uses. I plan to make my own griddle from carbon steel (might spring for SS). I can place it over the burners in any configuration I desire with gas and still get good, fairly-even heating. For the oven it's no question, ELECTRIC all the way. The consistency, the efficiency, the options available, functionality (especially max temp) with electric all make electric ovens stand-out from gas; they aren't even in the same ball-park.

How often do you see gas toaster ovens or pizza ovens? Not the often because they can't hit the temps needed for the radiant heat levels. In a commercial kitchen it's easy to buy unitasking appliances dedicated for exactly what you're doing, but in a home (unless you have a mansion and unlimited budget) you're trying to do a lot more with a single appliance, so the added versatility is worth a great deal! Electric ovens have much more versatility.

Ok, I'll stop my ranting now. As for the OP, gas cooktop would be great if he could do it, but make no mistake, an electric will do just fine for him, especially considering he's already accustomed to electric.

With an electric range, the first time you warp the bottom of your favorite pan, you might as well toss it because it will no longer work well on the electric range.
With gas it will work perfect warped or not.

You might suffer a little degradation on an electric COIL type, but not on a radiant. The whole point was that a radiant (ceramic top) emits radiant heat, which hits the bottom of the pan no matter how badly warped it is... Even on a coil-top, because of how uneven the coils actually are, very little heat is transferred through conduction, the majority is still radiation. So warped pan = moot point.

Furthermore, I was told by several self-proclaimed experts here that a cast-iron skillet with fire-ring (made for wood stove) wouldn't work on a ceramic top. I've been using my skillets with fire-rings for many years on a ceramic top. One of them is even warped and it still works. It wasn't until recently I went back to a coil-top unit while my kitchen reno is being planned/executed, and surprise, they still work on a coil-top.

induction beats gas or conventional electric hands down, there's no comparison. there's a reason that most true high end restaurants these days are making the switch to induction. and I dare you to find a yacht build in the last 10 years that isn't using induction. the immediate and precise control of the heat with induction compared to gas or electric is like night and day. that being said lower end induction units are pretty shitty so if you're going to go the route of induction then you need to at least buy a mid range model. as for gas vs electric generally speaking my vote is for gas. however between a shitty low end gas range and a high quality glass top electric range I'd take the electric range any day of the week. electric coil stoves need to die and disappear forever.