HOW DOES THIS COOKTOP COMPARE
WITH YOUR OLD ONE?
Your new cooktop has a halogen/radiant glass ceramic cooktop. If you are used to cooking with gas burners or electric surface units, you will notice some differences when you use the halogen/radiant cooktop.
The best types of cookware to use, plus
The following chart will help you to understand the differences between halogen/radiant cooktops and any other type of cooktop you may have used in the past.
Type of Cooktop | Description | How It Works |
Halogen/Radiant | Radiant: Electric | Heat travels to the glass surface and then to the cookware, so pans must be flat |
(Glass Ceramic) | coils under a glass- | on the bottom for good cooking results. The glass cooktop stays hot enough to |
Cooktop | ceramic cooktop. | continue cooking long after it is turned off. Remove the pan from the surface unit |
| Halogen: Quartz | if you want cooking to stop. |
| tube filled with |
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| halogen gas around |
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| a tungsten wire |
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| heating element |
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| under a glass |
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| ceramic cooktop. |
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Electric Coil | Flattened metal | Heats by direct contact with the pan and by heating the air under the pan. For |
| tubing containing | best cooking results, use good quality pans. Electric coils are more forgiving of |
| electric resistance | warped pans than halogen/radiant or solid disks. Heats up quickly but does not |
| wire suspended | change heat settings as quickly as gas or induction. Electric coils stay hot enough |
| over a drip pan. | to continue cooking for a short time after they are turned off. |
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Induction | High frequency | Pans must be made of ferrous metals (metal that attracts a magnet). Heat is |
| induction coils | produced by a magnetic circuit between the coil and the pan. Heats up right away |
| under a glass | and changes heat settings right away, like a gas cooktop. After turning the control |
| surface. | off, the glass cooktop is hot from the heat of the pan, but cooking stops right away. |
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Solid Disk | Solid cast iron | Heats by direct contact with the pan, so pans must be flat on the bottom for good |
| disk sealed to the | cooking results. Heats up and cools down more slowly than electric coils. The |
| cooktop surface. | disk stays hot enough to continue cooking after it is turned off. Remove the pan |
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| from the solid disk if you want the cooking to stop. |
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Gas Burners | Regular or sealed | Flames heat the pans directly. Pan flatness is not critical to cooking results, but |
| gas burners use | pans should be well balanced. Gas burners heat the pan right away and change |
| either LP gas | heat settings right away. When you turn the control off, cooking stops right away. |
| or natural gas. |
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