What's The Difference Between Gas and Electric Stoves?

Finding the perfect cooktop to match your lifestyle is important. From searing steaks to simmering melted chocolate, boiling poached eggs to frying the perfect sunny-side up, the style of your cooktop will impact the end result. At the beginning of your cooktop shopping journey, you will need to decide early on if you’re going with an electric or gas cooktop. Each set up offers its own advantages to deliver the right result for you. Here we discuss the advantages of gas and electric fuels to help you make the right decision.

Hookup

It’s important to determine right away if a gas cooktop is even feasible for your kitchen. Being that it’s gas, it does require a connection to a gas source, whether that be natural gas or propane. If your home is not equipped with a gas connector - and most homes are not - it is more than likely not a feasible option as far as budget goes. If your home does have a hookup but not for your gas cooktop, just keep in mind it will require professional installation and an additional cost to install a hookup. Most homes are already equipped for an electric cooktop with a specific outlet to handle the amount of power they require and therefore don’t require professional installation.

Price

If your top 2 items on your list are feasibility and price, we’ll just jump right into the grit of it. Since electric cooktops have a wider range of options starting with inexpensive coil burner cooktops, they are generally less expensive than gas ranges. However, when you start getting into luxury brands and induction cooktops, electric cooktops can be more or just as expensive as their gas counterparts. So if you’re looking for the most affordable cooktop, an electric is likely your best option. Otherwise, you will just have to choose which features are most important to you and price compare from there.

Appearance

Gas cooktops come in a variety of finishes and colors to match your kitchen style. With individual or edge-to-edge grates, gas cooktops deliver a more professional appearance than electric cooktops. They also come in wider options, from 30- to 60-inches, to fit more burners and cooking attachments. Electric cooktops have a metal surface with coil burners or a smooth glass surface. They come in the standard width of 30 inches. Depending on the model and the price range, both cooktop options have details like LED backlit heavy-duty knobs, touchscreen displays, and more.

Chocolate Truffles

 Gas cooktops have always been known to deliver instant heat and immediate responsiveness. However, with the introduction of induction cooking technology to the electric cooktop lineup, some electric cooktops can be just as responsive as gas cooktops, if not more accurate with temperature. Coil burners and glass cooktops do rely on the source to first heat up the burner before heating the pan which takes more time and energy, while induction and gas are able to directly heat the pan from the source to speed up the process.

Shop our selection of gas and electric cooktops online here or when you visit your nearest Bray & Scarff store!