I need a new cooktop - pitfalls and tips?

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

Plumber came this morning and we're not going to put in gas - $1500 just to run a line, due to some oddities in our house and how they've run the lines. Annoying.

Coincidentally, a patient of mine came in this morning who used to own an appliance store for 30 years, we talked about it a bit and I am going to go with induction. He says I can run a decent 30" induction range off a 30A line, and of course, if I end up tripping breakers at some point trying to use 4 burners at once, I can have the electrical upgraded later when we have time to get my electrician friend out.

Trying to talk the wife into increasing our budget a bit, into the $1200-1500 range to get us into higher quality units.

[jfmorris]

If you want an induction burner to play with, get the gas cooktop the wife wants, and get a counter top induction burner that plugs into a regular outlet to play with. It may be handy outside by the grill too.

[jfmorris]

Yeah, I like our other Frigidaire appliances, but have read the same online reviews complaining about the knobs being fragile as well, and I was looking at the stainless unit - not the black. Maybe the reviews for all colors are lumped together though.

I imagine anything you actually WANT will have to be ordered and take a while.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I gotta say after like 2 weeks of looking and researching, I'm not much farther along.

Our current hookup is a 30A line, but I did find some induction cooktops that will run on 30A - although the more powerful and better ones require 40A hookup, which would require a rewire from my panel box in the garage. A bit of an undertaking. However, after reading tons of reviews of the new less expensive induction models, I'm quite leery. Perpetual buzzing noises, burners shorting out, error codes, power stealing when using more than 1 or 2 burners at a time, glass surfaces shattering or cracking with minimal force, burners shutting down from a drop of water, or clothing brushing against the surface, etc.,... it's enough to make one swear off it all until the technology improves.

And the wife really doesn't want induction. She wants to go to gas. So that's an uphill battle all the way anyways.

So we FINALLY have a plumber supposed to come out this morning to give us an estimate - but the odds we're going to get the gas line run this week AND have our 220V converted to 110V (for the ignition) this week also are I would estimate in the range of winning the lottery.

And I have 3 in-laws coming to stay through Thanksgiving, they arrive this Sunday.

We went to Home Depot and Lowe's and fondled their display units. Not impressed to say the least. Nothing in stock but stainless units, anything black is special order. In addition, the Frigidaire 5-burner 30" gas unit we've looked the most at I've learned has really sh***y knobs. Like they break easily and are expensive as heck to replace. And the knobs on the stainless version in the store had the heaviest, strongest all-metal knobs in the place. But the black unit has the cheap, crappy knobs. Now that makes me even more leery knowing some companies cheap out significantly on parts just on different colors of the same unit! And the knobs on almost all the rest of the units were just plastic only, or plastic with a metal liner on the shaft. What utter cheap crap, and we're talking even into the $1500-2000 units.

And you can't see most of this stuff in stock. Lowe's had about 8 gas units in stock - all stainless - and Home Depot had THREE. Same ones we'd seen at Lowe's of course.

So I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

[ecowper]

That’s what we did with our electric range, which was 8 years old and in good dhape

[Caffeine88]

This is a pretty good idea, too. I can vouch for the fact that I was happy to let go a perfectly serviceable Frigidaire dual fuel for next to nothing, just to have it no longer in my garage when we finished the remodel.

[jfmorris]

Another idea if money is tight. Find a cheap used electric cooktop. I just checked Facebook marketplace and see all sorts of folks local to me asking $100 to $200 for used cooktops they have for sale - probably because they bought new ones. I also bet most folks will take a lot less than is being asked too, to get it out of their garage.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

Except my next door neighbor and one of my best friends is an electrician.

Only problem is getting him over to do something in less than 6 months! Hahaha!

[willxfmr]

Not sure how handy you are, but if you want to try and do some troubleshooting, I found this online

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/electric-range-burner-temperature-control-troubleshooting-20597.html

Looks simple to me, but I do electrical troubleshooting for a living, YMMV. If the control switch is actually the problem, then parts should be easy to come by because probably won't be brand specific.
While you're at your local appliance dealer, you might want to wander by the service department and ask what it would cost for a service call just diagnose the problem.

[jfmorris]

I did confirm that the cheapest induction cooktop I see at Lowea (Empava for $449) needs a 40 amp circuit. Go to the electrical panel and see how many amps the breaker for the cooktop is. I assume it and the oven are separate breakers.

If the service is only 30 amps, To me that makes induction a non-starter, as I think electrical work for that will cost more than a gas hookup. The existing 220V outlet can be converted to 120V for virtually nothing - just a new outlet and cover plate and a wire nut to cap the unused line.

[jfmorris]

Repair on something that old is going to cost more than replacement.

[ecowper]

when I am repairing an appliance, I start here for parts

https://www.appliancepartspros.com/

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

OMG, now my wife is just talking about trying to get this 20-30 year old POS cooktop repaired somehow instead of replacing it. I can't imagine any parts are available, but even so, getting someone to do it would likely be a couple hundred bucks, I don't know what the point is.



I'm just gonna bow out and let her do whatever the hell she wants. Oh well.

[ecowper]

your current electrical into your cooktop will be 220V. The problem, like jfmorris points out, is that you may need a 50A breaker on that line. For a gas cooktop, you will need a 110V line installed for the ignitor, clock, timer, etc. Since I was paying $1500 to have a new gas line run from the garage to the kitchen, I didn't worry too much about the electrical cost. It was all bundled into that price from my contractor. May be a different scenario for you.

[jfmorris]

DogFaced PonySoldier yes the gas cooktops need 120V to power the ignitor. I've got a 120V plug under the cabinet, next to the gas hookup, in the cabinet to the right of my stove. My 30 inch gas cooktop sits above a 27" electric wall oven that is installed in the base cabinets.