You must use flat-bottomed pots and pans with these burners and the elements also take more time to heat up and cool down. Furthermore, the elements don t change color when they re hot, as do electric coils, which increases the likelihood of their being left on and causing accidental burns. Smooth cooktops have concealed heating elements beneath a flat ceramic glass surface, usually black or grayish white. These are easy to clean. Smooth cooktops come with any of the three following types of heating elements.
Radiant elements are basically electric coils below a ceramic glass top.
For efficient heating, they require the use of flat-bottomed pots and pans with bases of the same diameter as the element. Since the coils themselves can t be seen, an indicator light is usually provided to signal a hot surface. They heat up faster than solid disk elements, though not as quickly as conventional coil elements. Radiant elements are more energy efficient than coil or solid elements. They use halogen lamps under a glass surface as a heat source.