Gas or Smoothtop Range; Black or Stainless Steel?

Hi C.. I have a smoothtop from Sears. I love a lot of things about it, and I think its very pretty but as much as I swore the top would always look brand new, I ended up having some burn rings (over flowing pasta water) that burn instantly brown and havent been able to disappear completely. The cooktop cleaners work pretty well, but do not remove everything entirely. You cannot scrub the tops or you will scratch away the speckly finish. Having said that, I would still buy another smooth top. One of my biggest features is that because it is totally flat like my counter, in my small kitchen it acts like more counter space for parties, buffet eating, etc and I love it for that. I am not a fan of black appliances, so I may not be the person to give an opinion.. but I say stainless. Good luck

2 years ago I had to replace my electric european stove(2nd stove in this house after almost 50 years)and went back to the smooth top. I grew up with gas stoves and when I married, my house is all electric(so no choice there) my
m-i-l had the old corning top.
It takes a while to get use to electric cooking, but now I love it.
Sears has a cleaning cream for the smooth top elec stove/ranges (which is also where we bought the stove). It's about $8 for 20oz. A little goes a long way.
The black smooth top has gray specks, I think to help hide. I think as long as you clean up any major spills instead of constantly cooking them on, no problem.
With cooking for my family of 6 and making soy candles, clean up is easy.
Good luck on your choice...

Hello. Sorry to just now be responding, but I wanted to let you know that I have the best of both worlds with a glass top gas range---yes, you heard right! Kenmore came out with one in their "Elite" line and I absolutely LOVE it! I get the ease of cleaning with the glass top, but I also get the advantage of the gas burners for better cooking. We have had both the gas and the electric and I will, personally, never cook with anything but gas again...but, I too am a clean-freak and hated having to try and clean a typical gas range. So, when we saw this a year ago (when we purchased it), I was so excited to see that Kenmore had combined the best of both! The top cleans easily and it has a good enough edge that you need not worry about spills. It is also a convection oven and has the ability to convert times for you. It has a warming drawer, and comes with its own grill/griddle. I am STILL finding many uses for it! I will copy and paste some info below for you and then you can look into it a little more. To date, we've had no problems with it. I sure hope this helps! (Oh, and we got the stainless steel--and I have a 10 mos. old---and it isn't a bother to clean it at all.)

"Kenmore Elite 30 in. Gas Convection Self-Clean Freestanding Range"

DescriptionSpecs

Elite style and function combine to deliver a superior cooking experience. The ceramic gas-thru-glass cooktop features sealed burners and full-coverage dishwasher-safe matte grates. A unique 27,000 BTU bridge burner may also be used as 2-9000 BTU or 1-18,000 BTU burner. True Convection cooking with Auto Conversion feature to convert traditional recipes. Click here for recipe cards.
True Convection cooking w/assist element and Auto Conversion feature
Gas-through-glass ceramic cooktop with 5 sealed burners and dishwasher-safe grates
One 17,200 BTU power burner, one left side bridge burner with three 9500 BTU zones
One 500 to 5000 BTU precise simmer burner
Easy Set 565 electronic integrated glass touch controls w/10-key touchpad
Control options: Delay Start, Slow Cook, Hold Warm, Recipe Recall, Flexible Clean & more
5.0 cu. ft. oven with heavy-duty porcelain racks
Warm & Ready drawer with bread proofing feature
Gourmet package includes a searing grill, roasting rack and a cast aluminum griddle

It all kind of depends on what your cooking needs are.

If you are really into cooking, you might wish to stick with the gas stove. I have a gas stove, but recently had to spend a week with my dad and cook for him on his electric cooktop. It absolutely sucked. The heating was uneven and unreliable. Of course, if all I had was a cooktop I'd get used to it eventually.

Personally, I never want to have to use an electric stove again, be it coils or cooktop. I have grown accustomed to using my gas stove and absolutely love it.

I noticed you said you have young boys...the only thing I did not like about my smooth top is that it looks like a counter top to the kids. The burners actually take a while to cool off. If they put something up there, it can damage the smooth top. I know that they make the "cool touch" smooth tops, so if you can I would suggest those.

I do prefer the gas burners, though. I had electric for several years and never got used to it.

I would take stainless over black/white, but would take integrated over all.

I love having a gas range. We have a countertop gas range and electric wall oven. It was a selling point for this house, to me.

Look at the "sealed burners" gas style before you make a final decision. I don't have them, but they look a lot easier to clean.

On the color, I think it depends what you already have. I wouldn't go out of my way to pay more for stainless, but I don't have anything against it. (our kitchen has black appliances, but we didn't pick them.)

With an electric flat surface, if you spill, sometimes it gets burnt on, and once that happens, it can get ugly. Currently I have a couple burnt on small rings and spots. I've tried everyhing and they're not budging. You can't use a scouring pad, or softscrub(though now I do) if you want to keep it looking nice. It's a pain to get used to, and I almost ruined the first few meals I made using it. Stick to a gas range, though careful with stainless, the fingerprints are really annoying and it only looks clean for five minutes after you clean it.

Smoothtop is great for keeping cllean. It may be an adjustment but you would probably get used to it. Stainless steel is so OVER! Geez have you seen a house without it? I'm not one to have what everyone else has plus, my husband works for a high end German cabinet company, they don't use much stainless, integrated is the way to go! (or, if it's an either or, my vote is black).

We updated from a gas stove to a smoothtop electric stove/oven. There are pros to the gas, for example it gets hotter quicker.

But overall I'm happy with my electric stove. I haven't had any problems with it scratching or cracking (our stove or my mom's). The cleaning is ok, EXCEPT when dealing with burnt on food/liquid (on the burners). I personally have the black cooktop and I think it does hide "dirt" pretty well.

They do have special cleaners for smoothtops. I don't know if they actually help enough to make it worthwhile. I tend to get off what I can with the rag and call it at that.

Good luck with whichever choice you make.