Well, technically BTU is the measure of energy required to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. So yes, it will boil water faster by definition. :)

In general, aside from "how fast does it take to heat up" the main advantage to more BTUs is that it can keep the temperature up while adding cold ingredients. This, IMHO, is more important than how long it takes to boil water. Obviously, stir frying (with a wok) or sauteing with a pan benefits from this when you pour in the veggies or meat and it continues to sizzle rather than sizzling out due to liquids in whatever you're adding. That's the difference between pan frying or sauteing vs poaching your food.

For cooking that requires boiling this is probably slightly less of an issue especially if keeping the temperature up is not critical. Heating up soup or making stock/soup won't benefit greatly from having higher BTU but if you are boiling fresh pasta, then it can be the difference between al dente vs mush. Again, cooking dry pasta probably won't see much difference. This can be carried over to deep frying or any other cooking methods.

I am remodeling and am going with a Bluestar range and I can't wait until I can boil water for pasta quicker than I can now - it is a real drag on my electric rings. Also, I am looking forward to faster recovery on adding the pasta so that I can set the simmer and walk away. Right now I have to wait for it to reboil, fiddle with the setting to try to keep it on boil. Inevitably it either boils over or goes off the boil...bring on the new gas range please! I am actually looking forward to cooking pasta and boiling potatoes on the thing...nothing fancy!

more btu's makes everything better, pan searing, sautee, boiling

amcook - thank you for your explanation. I appreciate all help as I'm trying to decide what I need and when to justify the extra money.

buffalotina - yes, I have those electric rings now too--I cook a lot of pasta, potatoes, and only use a large skillet for stir-fry, not a wok, so have proabably been poaching not stir-frying. I am looking forward to a new gas cooktop.

guadalupe - Thanks for your input. Ok, now I'm convinced I "need" it. Now, to convince my husband!!

buffalotina - I hope you're not disappointed with your boil times. I'd say there's a good chance your electric is faster than the Bluestar will be. That's not to say that there isn't a long list of reasons why your Bluestar will be better, I'm just saying that in my limited experience with gas burners (including both "regular" and prostyle ranges, maxing at 18K) I've always found that boiling water takes forever as compared with my electric.

ya_think,

You have a bluestar right? Or am I mistaken. I'm surprised at your observation that electric boils water faster. I will grant that some of those old coil burners put out a good amount of heat and if you've got a flat bottom pot that makes good contact, it does get pretty hot. The only thing is that it takes forever to get up to temp. So I will grant you that if you heat up the coil until it's red hot and then put the pot of water on it and start the timer, then it will give most gas burners a run for their money but from "cold" to boil I'd still have to give the bluestar 22k burner the nod. Also, there's a huge difference in my experience between sealed vs open on the gas. The open burner simply transfers more of the energy to the bottom (and particularly the center) of the pot where it's most effective.

BTW, I'm excluding induction from my definition of "electric" above.

Before I demolish my current kitchen I will have to do a test run on a pan of water to see how long it takes to boil! To be fair I suppose I would have to take the initial temperature also. But, regardless, I am sure I won't be disappointed with the Bluestar because the control will be there.

OP: I was a bit scared about the idea of the big Bluestar burners at first but Trevor at Eurostoves explained that the heat is there when you need it but you can take it right down when you don't. Also, I recently cooked on my stepmother's gas range which has sealed burners. Even though it is far from a "pro" range (I am sure the burners are not all that powerful) it was scary how much heat was coming up around the edge of the pans. It actually made it a bit unpleasant to cook on, IMO. That made me so glad I decided to go for the open burners. With electric now I never have that problem and I must say that yes, at least the heat is even across the base of the pan with the old coils. Another reason I think if I am going over to gas then I will be happier with the Bluestar than with a sealed burner. There is a really good video on the Eurostoves website where they show how hot it can get around the edges of the sealed burner and I think I found it out in practice.

CR has reported for years that electric coils are faster on boiling water than gas, albeit the BTU burner sizes were probably lower than most pro style ranges. My experience on both pro range gas and electric coil supports the CR findings. My open burners also put a fair amount of heat when on high up the sides of the pan, with the exception of 12 and 14" frypans. Gas is much quicker for temperature changes on the pan and better for wok work--which is why some of us prefer it to electric.

Around the time I renovated last year, I did water boiling tests just to see which appliance did the fastest job. I haven't kept my written notes, but I recall using about 1.75 litres of cold tap water for each trial. I used the same pot when possible. By far the fastest appliance was my electric kettle, which I use to make tea, and to pre-heat water for pasta and soups. A 1600watt stand-alone induction hob placed second, with the 17.5KBTU sealed burner of my new DCS gas range right behind. Several minutes slower was my now-discarded Kenmore smoothtop electric. The absolutely slowest way to boil this amount of water was in my old microwave. I wouldn't use a micro for any quantity larger than a mug-full.

You have a bluestar right?

Amcook - LOL I wish! No, my basis for comparison is a DCS (17.5) and the power burner (18) on a GE Profile. I never measured times or anything, I just perceived them to take a long time relative to my cooktop. I could very well be wrong, but what I'd feel very comfortable saying is that I wasn't blown away by their speed. Is 22K open burner significantly faster than 17.5 sealed? If you say so I'll believe you.

Having said that... While boiling water tests are fairly objective and easy to control within reason, a difference of a minute or two or even three would be low on my list of concerns when comparing burners.