Gas and electric stoves reviews

All previous stoves were fueled by wood (or other biofuel), charcoal, or coal. The first gas stoves were developed already in the 1820s, but these remained isolated experiments. (James Sharp in Northampton, England, patented a gas stove in 1826 and opened a gas stove factory in 1836.) At the World Fair in London in 1851, a gas stove was shown, but only in the 1880s did this technology start to become a commercial success. The main factor for this delay was the slow growth of the gas pipe network. The first gas stoves were rather unwieldy, but soon the oven was integrated into the base and the size reduced to fit in better with the rest of the kitchen furniture. In the 1910s, producers started to enamel their gas stoves for easier cleaning. A high-end gas stove called the AGA cooker was invented in 1922 by Swedish Nobel prize winner Gustaf Dalén. It is considered to be the most efficient design and is a much sought after kitchen "must have" in certain circles—despite the hefty price tag.

The AGA, and similar products such as the Rayburn Range are examples of always-on stoves which continue to burn fuel even when cooking is not being performed. Stoves (or ranges as they are also known) such as these are often used instead of boilers or furnaces to supply hot water and central heating to the rest of the house.

It was in 1906 while working for the Washington Power Co. that Lloyd Groff Copeman divined the mechanics for his first truly remarkable invention - the electric stove. In 1912 the Copeman Electric Stove Company was established in Flint, Michigan and produced the Copeman electric stove. Copeman established several electric range patents during this era. Copeman Electric Stove (also marketed as the "fireless cooker"). Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought the company in 1917, moved production to Mansfield, Ohio, and continued to develop and improve the stove.

Thomas Ahearn invented the electric cooking range in 1892 and installed one in the Windsor Hotel in Ottawa. The electric stove was showcased at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where an electrified model kitchen was shown. But like the gas stove, the electrical stove had a slow start, partly due to the unstable technology, and partly because first cities and towns needed to be electrified. By the 1930s, the technology had matured and the electrical stove started to slowly replace the gas stove, especially in domestic kitchens.

The electrical stove technology has developed in several successive generations:

The first technology used resistor heating coils which heated iron hotplates, on top of which the pots were placed. Though the technology is slowly fading into obsolescence, coil ranges still provide the best durability out of all electric cooktop implementations.
In the 1970s, glass-ceramic cooktops started to appear. Glass-ceramic has a very low heat conduction coefficient, but lets infrared radiation pass very well. Electrical heating coils or infrared halogen lamps are used as heating elements. Because of its physical characteristics, the cooktop heats quicker, there is less afterheat, and only the plate heats up while the adjacent surface remains cool. Also, these cooktops have a smooth surface and are thus easier to clean, but they only work with flat-bottomed cookware and are markedly more expensive.
A third technology, developed first for professional kitchens, but today also entering the domestic market are induction stoves. These heat the cookware directly through electromagnetic induction and thus require pots and pans with ferromagnetic bottoms. Induction stoves also often have a glass-ceramic surface.
The iron hotplate technology is still in widespread use, although newly equipped kitchens nowadays usually get a stove using one of the later technologies.

Electrical oven technology has also advanced: in the convection oven, a stream of hot air is used for heating food instead of the heat produced by coils directly as in a conventional electrical oven.

Gas and electric stoves are the most common today in western countries. Both are equally mature and safe, and the choice between the two is largely a matter of personal preference and preexisting utility outlets: if a house has no gas supply, adding one just to be able to run a gas stove is an expensive endeavour. In particular, professional chefs often prefer gas cooktops, for they allow them to control the heat more finely and more quickly. On the other hand, chefs often prefer electric ovens because they tend to heat food more evenly. Today's major brands offer both gas and electric stoves, and many also offer dual-fuel stoves combining gas cooktops and electric ovens.