GE Cafe CGP650SETSS 36" Built-In Gas Cooktop

Firstly, this is not the most inexpensive cooktop out there. In fact, we saw some prices from $800 to $1200, which caught my eye. But I had to remind myself of the most important point... "We use our cooktop every single day!" Much like our cars, but even more, we will be using this item for more years than we'll probably keep our cars. And because I'm the one who... "Lives to Eat!, rather than Eat to Live", I'll spend an extra $400 or $500 to get what I deem is "the best value" for our needs. I should note that one huge driving force for buying through Amazon was saving approximately $150 on the item, plus not having to pay another $120 in sales tax. And of course, with Prime... we got this item in "Two-Days!" (Yaa-Team!)Like many others, I looked online, and in the stores. One common thread regarding the GE Cafe line of gas cooktops...? ... Home Depot, Sears and other stores all carried this model in stock. I had no problem seeing, touching and comparing it to others "on the floor." Forgetting price, it won out, even over the Kenmore Elite Series, which actually was about $400 less, but not as "commercial looking."Up front, I'll share my greatest fear about buying this type of item online....... "damage in shipping, requiring a return process which wastes time." The cooktop is delivered in the orginal GE corrugated box, with the stainless cooktop surrounded and distanced from all corners of the box. There are three straps holding the corrugated together. One of our straps was missing, but the box survived, and while a few small boxed parts may shift inside, fear not......... the cooktop is "stationary" in its' foam nest. Bottom line, other than a FedEx or UPS drive dropping the box harshly to where something pierces it and the range... I have a feeling most of these units arrive in their "OEM, New condition."So, I've been cooking, literally, since I was a very young lad. And I have an electro-mechanical background, which helps as much as haunts my every decision when comparing prior to buying. I was as excited to upgrade our cooktop as my wife. And here's a few features that made this an easy choice for us, after looking at many other brands, features and appearance:BURNER LOCATION IN RELATIONSHIP TO GRIDS:Burners are distanced a bit more than you'll see in other gas cooktops. That allows for more a more efficient transfers of heat to your pans, and insures more even heating.BURNER SIZES and KNOB/VALVE CONTROL:There is a "Fifth Burner, Center", that has the highest BTU rating, and will heat a large "Restaurant Pot" of liquid quickly.The "Rear Right" burner is purposely small, and will allow cooking and melting delicates... butters, chocolates, etc.All burners have an incredibly "low simmer setting." This means GE is using high quality valves-burner controls.Overall, you have control over your burners that you may have "fought for" with your old cooktop.OVERALL BUILD QUALITY:From the heavy cast iron grids to the heavy built control knobs, this Cafe Series is closer to commercial equipment; it's not a lightweight.INCLUDES BLUE LED HALO-LIGHTING WHEN A KNOB/VALVE IS "ON":An incredibly smart feature! I'm embarrassed to share how many times I've left a burner on when making our morning pour-over Brasilian demitasse coffee. It requires an incredibly low temp simmer to keep the coffee hot, without burning the coffee... (a huge no-no). Manys the time I've forgotten to turn that burner off when I transfer the coffee to a serving urn. The blue LED halo-lighting can easily be seen, especially at night, and is an instant reminder that you're "gas is on!"SAFETY LOCK-OUT:There's actually a safety lock-out knob that allows you to disable all of the gas knobs. We only have one grandchild under one-year right now, so I'm not sure we'll have to worry about this right now. But I'm sure I'll find another reason for assigning this feature "5-stars!"INCLUDES A CAST IRON GRIDDLE INSERT:We've been cooking with Lodge-brand cast iron skillets for quite awhile. So when I saw that the griddle adapter was made by Lodge, I was impressed. And what was interesting was the specialized burner control for use of the griddle. The "Rear Left" control includes a setting that will control both of the left side burners "In-Tandem." It's specific to the use of the griddle, and gives you the even heating you'll need for golden flapjacks! Another item... like the distancing of the burners to the cooking grids, (extra distance for even heat), the griddle stands up a bit from the burners too, which adds to "even heating."While no gas cooktop is perfect, I felt like we not only got a very fair deal buying via Amazon online, but we actually got the best product for our needs. It took me two hours to remove the old (18 years) GE Profile 36" gastop with downdraft venting system.... AND ONLY 30 MINUTES to install this new Cafe Series. Of course, once you have a pre-cut hole in your counter, it's really just a matter of insuring a good fit, and customizing your sealing of the cooktop to the counter material. Outside of the "quantitative evaluations", we both feel that this cooktop... well, "Just looks so good." It's probably the stainless finish with the bold grid design and the large knobs!

When I first bought this cook top I gave it a five star review, after waiting years for a new cook top I was so happy to have five burners with a griddle, a fast boil feature and a slow simmer feature, I was on top of the world. Sadly, within a couple of months of using this cook top the valves became very hard to turn, one morning, as I happily began to heat the griddle to make pancakes, one of the knobs snapped off because it was so difficult to turn. I called for service and was greeted by a very unfriendly repair man, after diagnosing the defective valve and ordering parts, the repairman returned in about a week or so with the wrong valve.A new repairman came out a second time with the correct valve after another week or so had gone by. Imagine your shiny new cook top broken while you wait for all of this..Within a couple of months, the valves became difficult to turn . Once again, the knobs, which are plastic, began to snap off simply from turning on the heat. We now have 2 knobs out of five that aren't broken that we move back and forth to turn on the burners.Once again, I called for service. I said, I am done with this cooktop. I spent a fortune on this, I want to exchange it for a new one, I haven't had this one year and it has been a problem from the start.I was told by a GE rep they would not exchange our cook top, but they would send out a repair man.OK I said, send a different company, I cannot deal with that first company you sent here.They sent out a different repairman, this time from a great company I recognized as being in our area for at least 25 years.Our technician was very polite, I told him our problem and he ordered the parts again. That was about two weeks ago. Now we have our daughter, her husband and their 4 little ones with us, so there is a lot of cooking going on. Yesterday, I tried to turn on the burner and there was an alarm that sounds a bit like what you would hear if there was a nuclear melt down at three mile island. Now none of the burners will ignite. We have to reach under the counter, unplug it, then plug it back in again. This is no easy task unless you like crawling under your cabinet every time you want to turn on your stove. Each time we plug it in we are graced with that horrible alarm that wakes the children from their naps. I am beyond sad, disappointed, disgusted, and frustrated. Our appliance repair shop say's they've ordered more parts, they do not know when they will be in.. In the meantime, I'm trying to feed 8 people. Please do not waste your money on this product, I want to save you a lot of heart ache.

This unit arrived on time, Package was very good no damage to the box at all This unit is very nice some say the grates sets too high but to us that is not so . The flame is very hot and heats very fast .I installed this cooktop myself replacing a ten year old cooktop .Only thing is that on the electric plug the ground prong was bent very bad but not broken Also the surface had a few scratches on it but with the grates they don't show up till you remove them Also on the GE web site GE say stainless steel cleaner comes with this cooktop but in this unit it was also missing So maybe this is a scratch and dent outfit .but all in all this is a great product easy to install and to change to propane gas. the lock makes a very loud noise when in the lock position if the burner is turned on. This was a good buy and I would buy this cooktop again..the 4 stars instead of five that I gave this cooktop was for the couple of scratches on the stainless steel and the bent plug.The big central burner cooks a big pot of chili very fast brings the pot to a boil very fast.My wife loves it and she the cook so that all that counts. I try to be very honesty about my reviews . Thanks Geo