Need a new stove - gas or electric?

My ex-husband insisted we have a gas stove when we married, both in the apartment and in the houses we owned.  I really didn't think it mattered all that much UNTIL I was visiting my parents.  They have an electric stove and I couldn't cook anything on it without burning it.  For instance,when the item was done cooking I turned off the appropriate burner only to realize that off isn't truly off in an electric, thus burning the dish I was cooking.  First I thought it was my inexperience cooking on an electric stove but it happened again while cooking at my son's apartment.      

Even my children look for places to live that have gas stoves!!!

Gas all the way.  Instant on, instant off -- can't beat it!

Plus I just love the concept of an open flame in the house.  It'll satisfy your inner pyromaniac.  

Yes, flat-tops suck for all of the reasons you listed.   Gas is vastly superior to nearly all electric stoves.     The only electric I have not cooked on is induction.   If you have aluminum cookware, you'll have to buy steel, I believe.

Being able to cook when the electric is off is also very nice.  

gas is by far better than electric!  however - if your house isn't plumbed for a gas range it may quickly become a more expensive option!  i know when i looked into replacing my awful electric stove with gas that was the point where i put the brakes on.

Ok, now I'm all set on gas.  DH says there is already a gas line in the basement right below the location of where our stove is so fingers crossed it is not a major ordeal to get this idea to work.

I looked at induction and thought that sounded like a great idea. I read you could test your current pots & pans with a magnet but none of ours worked.

Gas for sure, the house I grew up in had electric, that thing sucked. My parents finally did a retrofit and put gas in, much much better. Our house came with gas, very happy with it. 

We have a cast iron grill pan we use when it is too nasty outside to bbq, works great with the gas stove.

hee hee. 

My father-in-law used to sell Magic Chef gas ranges years ago.  To people who made the complaint that you can't turn gas down to simmer, he had a salesman gimmick to show that a gas range could simmer at a lower heat than an electric.  He would put the burner on lowest setting and put a piece of paper on it.   It would just brown a bit but not catch.  The same test on an electric range (of the day) would catch fire.  He claimed that if the burner jets were clean that you could control the flame down to a very low setting.  I know that at low flow, the burner would have a greater chance of going out.

We have a gas range in our condo and a electrical ranges in the other places.  I cook on successfully both.  Sauces do fine on our gas range.  Mostly I use a double boiler for sauces containing egg anyway.  This pretty much eliminates any concern about low simmer problem.  If you make Hollandaise, be sure to use a chrome pan.  There's no place like chrome for the Hollandaise.

It's a good thing.

MS

I cooked professionally for over 15 years. Every kitchen I ever worked in had gas stoves. It looks like you are seriously considering making the jump to gas, if it is feasible. You won't regret it. Good Luck!

You mentioned in the OP that you cooked with an "iron skillet"--cast iron absolutely works with induction.  I don't know about the rest of your pots, but cast iron works.  I cooked on two different induction stoves while on holiday, and they were "fine" but I would take gas over induction every time. 

You  may want to consider a dual fuel range--gas for the stovetop and electric (with convection) for the oven. 

I am in the process of choosing a new oven too.  So women like jewlery or shoes, I LOVE kitchen stuff :)

I prefer gas.  When you talk "gas" are you in town with natural gas hookups to the utility infrastructure or out in the country with a propane/compressed natural gas tank that you call to have filled?  I'd still lean towards gas either way, but if you have a propane tank, you risk running out if you aren't paying attention to fuel level.  

I agree that gas is better for cooking.

But I just wanted to mention that electric with the glass top is FAR easier to clean.    Cleaning under burners is no longer needed and there's a product you can buy to clean the top.  I wipe it normally for weeks and then every once in a while use the polish that removes all stains very easily. I've been using the same bottle of cleaner for more than 8 years.    I didn't know if folks knew about that.

x2

On a recent vacation (opposite of someone else's experience) we had a gas stove and the it was the WORST to try and clean. Like, we would have needed toothbrushes to get into those places. We did the best we could and left with no worries because a cleaning/management company was coming after us, but it would drive me batty in an everyday situation.

I'll chime in with everyone a love my gas stove...  HOWEVER, after talking to some local chefs, they love induction and many times, preferred it to gas.  I would never get the electric flat tops or coils, but would STONGLY consider induction if I didn't have a gas available.  Induction is efficient and doesn't have the problems that standard electric has (mostly the cycling of on or off and the abilities to run very low temps) AND super safe.  The pan get's hot, not the stove top so less chance to burn yourself or melt/damage things.

As pretty much everyone else has mentioned gas is far superior to electric in almost every way when it comes to cooking.

However, when it comes to cleaning, there is nothing that beats an electric glass top in my experience.  We've owned several gas stoves over the years and somebody always manages to boil something over on the stove and it gets to be a real mess trying to clean it up.  I've had some real science experiment stoves due to all the "gunk" that finds it's way under the burners.

We currently have an elextric glass cook top that's built into our counter and I will never own anything else.  We've lived in the same house for 11 years and that thing has had pretty much daily use with tons of boil overs and some windex and a razor blade is all it takes to make it look as good as new.  It looks as shiny new today as it did the day we moved in.
Yes, there are some drawbacks for cooking, but I've found if you get good quality pans with a thick solid base the heat distributes very evenly.  Once you get used to the heat zones it's almost as good as gas.

No matter what, it's a personal thing.  I rank being able to keep it clean way above the better cooking aspect with gas.

Sweet!  I graduated from 3rd grade to 5th grade and skipped 4th grade entirely!