Cast iron cooking on electric stove

[Ford850]

Bar Keepers Friend cleans up the glass in seconds. Really tough areas take a couple minutes.

 

[Alan W.]

We have had ours since 98 and if my dear destructive wife hasnt even scratched it yet then it must be tough. She has used all kinds of cookware including cast iron, and we even use an American canner on it.
She likes the Weiman cleaner and polish. Really makes it shine.

 

[clemsonfor]

what scratches them is if you put a glass or ceramic bowl or plate on it, and move it around, some people use the cooktop as a mixing or serving surface.. that's what scratches the cooktop!. I use a razor blade to remove burnt on food from my cooktop, and it NEVER scratched the surface!..

Wife uses razor blade too. What must do it then is when she slide ceramic casserole dishes up there when she takes them out of the oven? I just know there scratches. I don't care really. We bought it to use and cook on not to show off as a fancy appliance like people do these days. She cooks, it's her kitchen and she was happy with the glass cooktop we bought to replace the old drop in Range that was there when we bought the house. I cut it out so that a normal free standing range would go in the place.

 

[bunyip]

The joy of induction is the pprecise control, really low simmer is the same each time and high heat is really fast.
As I put in an earlier post our SS cookware has several rings of ferrous slugs in the base to transfer heat evenly.
Gas can go out at low temps if there is a hint of a breeze although our will turn off the gas if this happens so there is no build up.
There are also single 'burner' portable cooktops if you do not want to replace the whole stove.

 

[radios1]

Wife uses razor blade too. What must do it then is when she slide ceramic casserole dishes up there when she takes them out of the oven? I just know there scratches. I don't care really. We bought it to use and cook on not to show off as a fancy appliance like people do these days. She cooks, it's her kitchen and she was happy with the glass cooktop we bought to replace the old drop in Range that was there when we bought the house. I cut it out so that a normal free standing range would go in the place.

"she slides ceramic casserole dishes up there when she takes them out of the oven" THAT will do it, it's not just cosmetic, the ceramic top can be weakened, and may crack!..

 

[aczlan]

Our six year old cooktop gets intensive use and still looks like new (with some cleaning). Cast iron frying pans (with the ridge around the bottom perimeter) get used often, as well as a gigantic pot used for prepping bottles after "canning" jam, etc. I can't imagine that thing balancing on a coil heating element. My wife doesn't drag pots along the cooktop like on her old gas cooktop with the cast iron grills, so the ceramic top doesn't get scratched.

Same here, we have a "glass" top and have had no problems with cast iron cookware. I use a cast iron pan on it every day (the stove was used when we got the house in 2011) with no problems.
We also use it for canning sometimes with no problems.

Slightly off-topic:
Many North Americans don't know that there is a better electric cooktop alternative available (Richard just mentioned it). We don't have natural gas available where we live now, but the lack of control in a typical electric cooktop wasn't going to cut it for my chef wife (ie. turn the element from high to low but the change isn't instantaneous, like with gas). We were planning for propane, with the hassle of dealing with refills until we learned about induction cooktops:
Induction cooking - Wikipedia
With the instantaneous control like with gas, but with a surface that doesn't get hot and other advantages over gas and traditional electric, my wife says that she wouldn't switch back to gas if it were an option now. Induction electric is more expensive than regular electric, though (and there are a few other disadvantages).

When ours finally dies, it's replacement will be either induction or gas.

Aaron Z

 

[goeduck]

I use cast iron everyday and have used it on induction glass tops and radiant glass tops. No issues whatsoever. To qualify that, my cast iron (I am a cast iron nut) is almost all 100 year old Griswold or Wagner and not warped. Warped cast iron pans are called spinners since they sit on the low point of the pan and easily spin. Mine are flat and sit stable. This is more of a problem with radiant and not a problem with induction since induction does not require physical contact. I do avoid using cast iron with heat rings on radiant to some extent but I do not worry about it on an induction cooktop.

 

[tomplum]

Thanks for all the input folks.

 

[dmccarty]

We have had ours since 98 and if my dear destructive wife hasnt even scratched it yet then it must be tough. She has used all kinds of cookware including cast iron, and we even use an American canner on it.
She likes the Weiman cleaner and polish. Really makes it shine.

Us too, though our range is only from 2005. No scratches at all and I have used Weiman and similar cleaners without a problem.

Just bought an single burner induction unit to try out. I have been roasting my own coffee and it does smell up the house. I like the smell but the family, and most importantly, the wife does not. :confused3::laughing: So I bought the induction burner to try out. I think it will work with my huge SS pan but I am going to try my wife's grandmothers huge cast iron frying pan too. It has a ring on the bottom so I won't use it on the smooth top stove. THOUGH, I have done so without a problem but figured that might be risky so I stopped.

Later,
Dan

 

[goeduck]

I tried using a disk on an induction top so I could use older non-induction rated pans that we had prior to the induction top. Not so good performance. Got rid of the pans.