My wife says the last thing she needs an advice about from me, is the gas-stove in her kitchen. Nevertheless, this review of mine, being written on Mouthshut after a long time, is from the perspective of a middle-class Indian trying to find a decent gas-cooktop(or more simply put, a gas-stove) for his modest kitchen.
Most of my generation had their first exposure to gas-cooktops in the 1970s as kids in their parents’ homes. These were made of cast-iron, were heavy and rusty, and were available usually in two standard colours, red and green. The paint faded away after few years. The stoves only had two settings to offer, high flame and low flame(marked’sim’, probably for the word’simmer’), and were manually ignited. But moms swore by their reliability, and kept them forever. Servicing them was a simple but messy affair. It involved taking out, and soaking the burners and pipes in kerosene for a while.
In the early 1980s, I saw a shiny, stainless-steel, Butterfly gas-stove in a neighbours house in the small town we were living in then, and thought it was a technological marvel. The lady of the house was proud of it, and moms of the neighbourhood went in groups to have a look at it. These were also the days when electrical, battery-operated, and battery-less crystal lighters were becoming widely available. But you always had to have a matchbox as a back-up in case the lighter stopped working.
In the 1990s, when I started my own family, I became the owner of a stainless-steel Mayur gas-stove. But I had to replace it within five years or so, when it dangerously started smelling of leaking gas. My servant maid happily carried it away(don’t know what happened to her afterwards), and I became the owner of an “auto-ignition, ” three-burner, Gilma gas-stove. The company, Stovekraft, as I understand, had just then come out from being the OEM stove manufacturer for BPL, and started marketing under its own brand. This stove, which I bought for a mere Rs.1, 800/-, I must admit, was a work horse! It never infact gave me trouble. The “auto-ignition” was of single-spark, battery-less type, and the stove had blue-flame control, i.e., you could alter the ratio of L.P.G. to air in the combustion mix for optimal performance.
After nearly ten years of using this stove, I recently had an itch to buy a new “cooktop” as the gas-stove is now called. But after visiting a few outlets selling these, I was flabbergasted to know that buying a gas-stove no longer remained a simple affair! There was the sales talk of glass-topped gas-stoves, multi-spark auto-ignition, spill-proof burners(which could either be conventional, high-flame, or triple-ring, and may be made up of either brass or aluminium alloy), and flame-failure protection. I went around asking people, did my research, and put a few tips together as follows.
In the gas-stove terminology, HF in the model number refers to high-flame, CB to Conventional Burner, TR to Triple-ring, and AI to auto-ignition. The high-flame burner is specifically meant for that occasional high-flame cooking, where high heat upto 15, 000 BTUs needs to be continuously supplied to the pan for quick cooking. If you are a regular guy who is not into this kind of cooking, then a conventional burner would very well do for you. A triple-ring burner is useful in case you frequently use the wide kadai or wok in your cooking, as it has three rings of holes instead of the standard two. On the other hand, contrary to what is being claimed by some brands, it does not matter whether the burner is made up of brass or aluminium alloy. Both are good.
Not withstanding the sales pitch, cooktops with toughened glass-tops are troublesome. The toughened glass is impact-resistant to some extent. But it has no defense against its own expansion due to heat. Beautiful black looks not withstanding, if a hot vessel’s bottom touches the glass-top, you would get to hear a reasonably loud boom, and then see your wife running out of the kitchen! Fortunately however, most of these glass-tops are designed to shatter safely much like a car’s wind-shield, without causing serious injuries. Also, if you hand over the cleaning job to your maid, which most of us do, the beautiful black glass will be mauled once she has a go at it with detergent and Scotchbright in hand. So unless you are ready to have one extra item to take care of in your kitchen, avoid glass-top gas-stoves. As a matter of fact, many dealers I visited had cracked glass-top stoves piling up for replacement during the warranty period, and were complaining about it. Stainless-steel cooktops still reign supreme durability wise, and so are preferable. While choosing a stainless-steel cooktop, choose one with dull or matte finish. If you choose one with glossy finish, finger-prints and scratches on the cooktop will be too obvious.
Multi-spark auto-ignition is a good option. But please note that it needs batteries to supply power unlike the single-spark auto-ignition. So always keep spare batteries of right size in hand if you do opt for a multi-spark auto-ignition model, lest your stove not light up when you need its services.
Flame-failure protection is a good safety feature. It automatically cuts off the gas-supply in case the flame goes off during cooking due to wind or a spill without you noticing it, and thus can be life saving. I wonder though, when would cooktops with built-in gas-alarms appear in India!
Please pay attention to the design of the cooktop while choosing one. The spacing between the burners should be good enough to cook with two large vessels(kadai+ presssure cooker) simultaneously. In general, the depth and width of the cooktop needs to be compatible with the dimensions of your kitchen platform, and therefore before you go in to the showroom, measure your kitchen platform. Height of the cooktop though, is your personal preference, and slim cooktops have better appearance than the regular ones.
The location of the gas-pipe connector should not be odd causing sharp bends in the gas-pipe. A swivel-type connector is more desirable. Do check whether the unit is built out of a single sturdy sheet of metal, or is a flimsy assembly of low-gauge metal. There should not be much rattle in the unit. Likewise, smooth operation of the knobs is mandatory, and the knobs should not get stuck in one position during operation.
One frequent complaint seen with cooktops with more than two burners is that, the burners cannot light up all at once. Please check up this aspect. Also, many fancy looking cooktops do not have the holders above the burners of rigid construction and practical shape, and may actually be inconvenient to use! So ask the dealer to place a larger vessel on the cook-top, and see whether it wobbles. The holders should be able to take both flat-bottom and round-bottom vessels, the latter being more common in Indian cooking.
Even if you are not buying international brands, atleast look for the B.I.S./ ISI tag for safety. Some brands which offer value for money are Sunflame, Gilma, Glen, Faber, Prestige, Pigeon, Butterfly, Padmini, Elica, Nirlep, Inalsa etc.
All the best, and enjoy the experience.