Cooktop, Gas or Electric Stove: Which One Is Best for Your Kitchen?

Cooktop, Gas or Electric Stove: Which One Is Best for Your Kitchen?

In many cultures, the kitchen has become not only a workspace, but also a meeting place, a social environment where family and friends gather for conversation and meals. Seeking to respond to this transformation from more integrated architectural plans and appliances that also have an aesthetic appeal, as well as practical, the choice of kitchen equipment, such as the stove, is no longer restricted to its technical conditions. Check out how to combine practical, technical and aesthetic aspects when choosing a stove.

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The stove, which initially was just a fire with a bucket, produced a lot of smoke and was removed from the social life of old houses, currently presents a variety of possibilities that can respond to different domestic needs. From campfires to wood stoves and ovens, today we have two different types of food cooking equipment on the market, stoves and cooktops, which can work in three different ways: gas, electric or induction.

When it comes to gas equipment, they can work together with electricity, so they have automatic activation, for example, but gas is the fuel to create the flame, and the pans are heated directly on the fire. Electric and induction equipment, on the other hand, use electricity exclusively to heat their surfaces, and pans are heated by heated surfaces. Electrical equipment works with a kind of heating element, similar to electric showers’, to heat the surface, while induction equipment works by electromagnetic waves that are produced from the electric current generated in a copper coil.

When we think of stoves, the use of gas is more traditional and old, but with the advent of cooktops, electric and induction equipment became popular as well. Gas equipment are the ones that allow the widest variety of appliances, from the traditional floor stoves, through the built-in stove, and also working as a cooktop. Electrical equipment, on the other hand, is more restricted to cooktops. Even though there are options in the market for exclusively electric floor stoves, they are few and unpopular.

Thus, in addition to the different types of heating, there is also a variety of types of equipment. Firstly, there are the floor stoves, which are the most traditional in Brazilian homes and integrate not only the table with the stove, but also have an oven, and can have 2, 4, 5 and even 6 burners. A derivation of this type of stove is the built-in stove, which, like the floor stove, also has a variety of burners size and integrates the oven together in its structure, but it is made to be built in next to the kitchen countertop.

Cooktops, on the other hand, are equipment that only have the cooking table, without being integrated into an oven and also without a fixing structure, always depending on countertops and islands to be built-in. Cooktops can also be gas-fired, featuring technology similar to that of floor-mounted stoves, with metal burners. Another option is the electric cooktop, which features a glass table on which food is heated, without reliefs or external structures. Finally, there are induction cooktops, which also feature a glass table, but have different induction hobs. They all also come in a variety of sizes, with multiple burners or hobs.

If, on the one hand, floor and built-in stoves are the most cost-effective, as they have the oven integrated into their structure, on the other hand, cooktops, despite the need to purchase two different pieces of equipment, have the benefit of being integrated into the kitchens for being installed on work benches, which can be made of different materials, such as wood or stone. Choosing which equipment to use in your kitchen depends on some important factors that need to be studied before purchasing:

• The family needs, considering routine, number of people and personal habits, to understand the demand and which equipment is most suitable;
• The area is available for this equipment and the minimum area required for installation, according to the supplier
• The infrastructure necessary and available for the installation of this equipment, considering whether or not gas is available and where it is located, as well as whether or not there is an outlet and whether the electrical network supports such equipment;
• Installation instructions for the equipment, seeking to follow them to ensure its best operation;
• Equipment maintenance conditions, from the consumption of electricity, to the ease of cleaning or specificity of pans; 
• Integrate this equipment into the existing kitchen or the ongoing project.

All these equipment have pros and cons and these factors help to understand which one is the best option. It is always important to have architects and interior designers who can guide this choice during the project, to ensure not only the best functioning of the equipment, but also the integration of the environment as a whole, in addition to the hydraulic and electrical systems, avoiding unforeseen and surprises.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on October 03, 2022.