After My Friend’s Stovetop Shattered, I’ll Never Put This One Thing on Mine Again
I absolutely love my induction range. I’ve always preferred glass stovetops over gas because of how much easier they are to clean (as long as you know an efficient technique). But it was my chef friend who convinced me to get an induction stove when we remodeled our kitchen — and I’m so glad I listened to her!
The induction range has all the benefits of an electric stovetop (easier to clean, smooth surface, no gas affecting indoor air quality) with the added benefit of also heating up super fast. It cools down quickly, too, which greatly reduces the danger of touching a hot surface. But, just like any appliance, there are special precautions that must be taken so that it lasts. I’ve discovered, for example, that you should never use ammonia on a glass cooktop because it can etch the surface and even void the warranty on your unit. This means Windex is off-limits.
I’ve also learned a major lesson from a friend’s mistake. I was at her house and noticed that her cooktop had a huge crack running through it. Cooking on a cracked cooktop isn’t safe. The glass could crack further while being used, and cracked glass on cooktops can even increase the risk of electrocution.
She told me that it was the result of setting a hot lid down on the stovetop, something many home cooks do without even thinking. When you take a lid off a pot or pan during cooking and set it on a cool glass stovetop, you’re essentially trapping excess heat, which can cause the glass to crack. This kind of thermal shock can also occur from placing hot pots onto a cool surface.
So How Serious Is the Lid Problem?
To find out how prevalent this hot lid issue is, I spoke with Frontdoor virtual appliance technician Chris Davis. “We rarely see this happen in the field where there isn’t some other underlying cause,” he says, adding that “there is usually another reason for the breaking of almost any appliance glass.” These other reasons include impact or defects from the factory, such as air pockets or undetected thermal cracking. Davis says that an issue like this “might have been magnified, prompted by the hot lid and more than likely would have proven to cause some other issues down the road.”
It seemed like common sense to me that anything dropped on to the cooktop could break. It’s glass, after all. But without my friend’s cautionary tale, I never would have thought twice about setting a lid down on my cooktop surface. While the hot lid set on the glass top alone may not cause damage, it’s impossible to know whether your own cooktop has factory defects or other small cracks that would become a bigger problem with the addition of a hot lid.
Why I’ll Never Put a Lid on My Induction Stovetop
The visual of her cracked stovetop has stayed with me and I warn and remind everyone who cooks at my house not to set hot lids on the stovetop. In fact, I don’t allow any lids to be set on the cooktop so that we don’t ever accidentally do it with a hot one. Instead, I set lids on towels or pot holders on the countertop, ideally at an angle so there’s no issue with moisture or pressure. Being aware of what can accidentally damage your appliances is one of the best ways to take care of them to make them last.
Do you also love your induction range? I’d love to hear any tips you have for taking care of it in the comments below!
This post originally ran on The Kitchn. See it there: After My Friend’s Stovetop Shattered, I’ll Never Put This One Thing on Mine Again