When you visit an appliance store to shop for a new cooktop for your kitchen, you'll see several different models for sale. While it's easy to first consider the look of each cooktop and think about how well it might suit the overall style of your kitchen, you should also give some thought to the features that are available. Today's cooktops offer a wide range of appealing features, especially when it comes to the burners themselves. Here are three ideal burner features that you should look for while you shop.
Warming Burner
Lots of cooktops are equipped with a warming burner, which is a special burner that heats up only to a low temperature. This isn't a burner that you'll cook on — instead, it's a burner that you'll use when you want to keep something warm. For example, if you've just cooked something that you need to take off a hot burner, but you don't necessarily want it to cool by sitting away from a heat source, you can turn on the warming burner and ensure that the food stays warm. If you do a lot of cooking and baking in your kitchen, you might be surprised at how often you use the warming burner.
Burner Lock
If you have children who are old enough to stay home alone, you may feel better about knowing that they aren't able to use the cooktop in your absence. A good way to ensure peace of mind about this topic is to choose a cooktop that allows you to lock the burners. When you leave the house, you can easily press a button that will prevent anyone from being able to turn this appliance's burners on. Upon arriving home, you can simply unlock the burners when you're ready to start cooking.
Expandable Burners
If you're buying an electric radiant cooktop, you'll want to choose a model that has expandable burners. This means that you'll be able to change how much of the burner heats up with the press of a button. For example, you can tap a button so that only a small area in the center of the burner heats up — providing a small cooking surface for a small pan. With another tap or two of a button, you can increase the size of the hot area one or more times, making the burner ready to handle a larger pot. This feature prevents wasted energy; there's no point in having a large burner running just to cook something in a tiny pot. Visit an appliance store to browse its cooktops for sale.
Share
