I think I mentioned that we bought a new stove a week ago. I had looked through the Consumer Reports ratings, but we couldn't find the exact models they had recommended anywhere. They had one at Home Depot that seemed like a similar model to a Consumer Reports "best buy," but when I lifted off the burner to make sure it was easy to clean, this burner tray underneath clattered loose and we couldn't get it correctly seated. We stood there for several minutes trying to figure out how the parts fit together, but it was always loose and uneven. I certainly don't want to be dealing with that every time I wipe down the stove! So we passed it over, "best buy" or not.
So we ended up getting one from Sears that wasn't mentioned in Consumer Reports, but had everything we wanted (like cast iron burners and knobs that turn all the way instead of just 90°). Also we went ahead and got the extended warranty -- the salesman said that they'll fix anything, even if it's our fault, and they'll come out once a year to do a maintenance check. That seems well worth $30 a year to me.
On Tuesday the people from Sears brought the new stove and took away the old one. Goodbye, old stove! You served us well, or as well as an ancient electric range could. Sorry we never managed to get those stains around the burners off you.
The gas company didn't come to hook up the new stove until Wednesday afternoon, which would have worked out perfectly -- Georg was out at the station and I had a dinner meeting that night -- but I had to reschedule my meeting. It wasn't a big problem though; I had leftovers heated in the microwave on Tuesday night and a sandwich for lunch on Wednesday.
The new stove is gas, which Georg had when he was growing up but I had never used before. It's a bit of an adjustment. I've only used it a few times and I'm still figuring out what settings to use for "medium low," "medium high" etc. Also the noise of the gas kind of freaks me out. I'm just now getting to the point where I don't feel compelled to turn it off and on each time I use it, to make sure there isn't a leak. It's really nice to be able to turn off the heat and just leave the pan on the burner. We have so little space in our kitchen that finding a safe place to remove a pan from heat was at times a major problem.
The guys from the gas company were very nice and helpful. They liked the dogs, showed me how to use the stove and oven, set the clock and even made sure the stove was level. I asked them if I could give them a tip, and the one who seemed to be in charge said "We can't accept tips, but if some money happened to find its way into my pocket, I wouldn't say no to that!" We all laughed and I held out the money, but the guy really meant it! He would not take it from my hand, I had to put it in his pocket. Ew! He had work gloves sticking out of his pocket so I just kind of stuck the bill into the gloves. If he had expected me to actually put my hand into his pocket, I wouldn't have done that.
They said that the oven won't work in a power outage because of the electronic thermostat, but the stovetop will. He demonstrated lighting it with a regular match, which looked a bit risky. I think I'll be using a long butane lighter if and when I ever need to light it that way. Still, it will be very nice indeed to have hot food (and even small quantities of hot water) during a power outage.
So what's the best way to clean a stovetop? I don't want this nice shiny new stove to get all gross like the old one did.
i had a gas stove in my first apartment and haven't since, but man i would love to have one again! it's just so very much better than electric for cooking, especially as much as y'all cook.
anyway, i had to light mine many times with a match, it was old and for some reason the pilot lights were always going out. it's scary at first but i never hurt myself. however, there's no reason not to use the butane lighter if you would rather.
i can't tell you how jealous i am! i've come to the conclusion that there's no point in doing anything in my kitchen besides a complete redesign by a professional, so that means i'm stuck with my ancient, ugly electric stove indefinitely.
i think you can just use windex or some equivalent to clean the stove, i doubt you need any special cleaners.
we really like those clorox wipes, but who knows what your stove manufacturer recommends for cleaning the surface. read the manual, that's what i always say.
when i was in college, i shared a huge (huge huge) apartment with 5 other girls. the apartment had a gas stove. you had to physically take a match to both the burners and the oven. no part of this stove was self-lighting.
the burners were never a problem to ignite... but once, one of the roommates (who didn't cook very often) forgot that you had to light the pilot light in the oven, and she just turned on the gas and walked away. she remembered a few minutes later.
the dingbat actually took a match to the gas-filled oven and got blown back 10 feet when a huge fireball came rolling out of the oven door. she singed her hair & eyelashes, but was otherwise unharmed. still, she was scared shitless of the oven for months after that.
thank goodness gas stove technology has developed so far in the last 15 years! :-) no need to worry about anything like that now!