Most and Least Reliable Cooktop Brands
With data on more than 18,000 gas, electric, and induction cooktops, Consumer Reports’ member surveys reveal the brands that last
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Each year, CR’s engineers test dozens of new cooktops in our lab, capturing data on everything from how fast burners heat to how well they melt chocolate and how steadily they simmer water and tomato sauce.
But we also look into how appliances hold up outside the lab, in the real world of our members’ homes. We survey them every year about the products they own, with a particular focus on what problems arise, whether they had to pay for a repair, and if so, how much it cost. Then we use that data to make projections about how new models from a given brand will hold up over time, which is how we calculate a predicted reliability rating.
Common Cooktop Problems
On the whole, serious problems for cooktops are few and far between. Electric and induction cooktops appear more problem-prone than gas, but those problems tend to be just surface-level, literally, according to our survey. Getting a scratch or chip on the cooking surface of these types of cooktops was the most commonly reported problem, affecting 11 percent of CR members. But only 2 percent reported their glass top actually cracked or shattered.
For gas cooktops, ignition problems were the most prevalent, with 9 percent of respondents reporting a broken ignition. Broken knobs and faulty burners (on gas cooktops) or elements (on electric and induction cooktops) round out our list of most common problems; each was reported by 4 percent of those we surveyed. (To learn about which problems can be easily fixed and whether it’s best to replace your appliance, read about whether to repair or replace a broken cooktop.)
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