Curious, as you have never cooked with gas before, is there a reason you have not looked into induction, cept for maybe the need to flame chillis? With induction you dont need to worry about it getting hot enough for whatever, or low enough for simmer.I have both gas & induction, and there is NO contest about boiling water or heating something up fast----the gas hasn't even left the starting gate when the water is boiling on the induction.
Just Curious--Good luck with your choice!!!

Gary

I think there's a thread that deals with amount of BTUs needed on either the kitchen or appliance forum. I don't have one of the newer cooktops yet, but as I remember reading, the advantage of the higher BTUs is that you can add something to boiling water and keep it boiling instead of having to wait. Apparently keep stuff like fresh pasta from going mushy. Searing and stir-fry is supposedly better with higher BTUs, too. I also remember comments that the large size of the higher BTU burners sometimes precludes use of a small pan because the flames go up the sides of the pot instead of heating the bottom.

dodge makes some very good points about induction vs gas. Speaking as a long-time gas range owner, you have to take some mfg claims about burner power with a dose of skepticism. That said, yes, higher can be more efficient IF:
- you are cooking large amounts in large pans
- realize that open burners are more efficient in getting heat evenly to a pan/pot than closed burners, simply from a functional design standpoint

My modest Kenmore (closed burners) has 2 Powerburners: 1 at 15K and 1 at 12K. The 15K is noticeably more powerful than the 12K and thus more difficult to simmer well on - I often switch pans from one burner to another depending on whether I'm searing or simmering. I like having the two smaller burners as they work well for small pans, such as when I'm frying 2 eggs instead of 6!

You can stir-fry at 15K but only small amounts, and I'd use a really heavy wok to even out temps. My nephew has an 18K burner Bluestar (open burners) and the difference when stir-frying or boiling is very noticeable.

Induction has come on strong recently and depending on how you cook, might work very well for you. Anyway, HTH!

I'm going to get on my 'open burner' soapbox for a minute here. :) When comparing BTU rating for various gas ranges, please consider the difference between open and sealed burners. Open burners heat much more efficiently because the direct most of the heat to the center of the pan rather than the sides. The highest BTU consumer range I know of is Bluestar (22k) and, luckily, they are also the only manufacturer that produces a open burner drop-in cooktop. The problem of smaller pans on the higher power burner is usually caused by sealed burners than the BTU rating. I've used pans as small as 6' on the large 22k btu burners and it did have a bit of heat escaping up the side but not as bad as on my old Viking sealed burner. The idea of using anything smaller than a 12' pan on the large sealed burner would have been unthinkable.

I think the thread riverspots was referring to is the one linked below. Recovery (reheat) time is, IMHO the most important benefit of higher BTU. Nothing like doing a saute and getting a tongue of flame as you flip. I'd say 16k for the largest burner is the minimum I'd go. I would suggest at least 18k if you do any stir-frying.

With regard to induction. I've heard great things and am actually considering getting a portable hob for travel and such but for my main cooking, I'm just more use to gas. I'm sure I could use an induction cooktop but I have a hard time imagining it'd be better for wok or saute where the pan/wok is often lifted from the surface to flip the contents.

Here is a link that might be useful: BTU thread

I have the Bluestar cooktop. 2 18,000 btu burners. They are fabulous to cook on and yes they do make a difference.

Go to Eurostoves web site. Trevor has a couple of good videos showing closed versus open burner comparisons and impact of the high power burner.

If you buy Bluestar, would highly recommend Eurostoves. They are near Boston and I am in So Calif and their price and service was great.

Good luck

pvrick,

Just curious... Which Bluestar cooktop do you have? I thought all Bluestar cooktops had their 22k burners. The only product they have that don't is the RCS ranges. You must be Bluestar owner from the pre "Nova" burner days.