The Most Reliable Cooktop Brands From The Last 10 Years, According To Consumer Reports

Buying a new cooktop for your kitchen is an intimidating decision that has only gotten more complicated in recent years. There were already quite a few brands to choose from, but the traditional choice between electric and gas got a wrench thrown in it by the rise of induction cooktops. Using electromagnetic waves, induction cooktops directly heat compatible pans, and combine many of the advantages of both older cooktop styles, with the downside of often being more expensive. That makes dozens of brands across three different types of cooktops. So when you need to make this tough choice, it really helps to narrow things down by learning which brands and styles are the most reliable, because nobody wants to invest in a pricey kitchen overhaul only to have their centerpiece fail them in a few years.

Enter Consumer Reports, that stalwart of product testing that has been helping shoppers make decisions for 90 years. It has reams of data over the decades about both consumer satisfaction and the reliability of every big-name cooktop. Its ratings, which it calls "predicted reliability," are gathered directly from surveys of customers, reporting repair and breakage rates going back 10 years to 2015, and factoring in the overall brand reliability score. The end result is graded on a 1-100 scale, with higher being better.

Unfortunately, there is no one clear winner across all three types of cooktops, with only Bosch managing to show up more than once. LG also tends to score highly in overall reliability and tops the induction rankings. Consumer Reports has also been helpful by naming the worst performers as well, so you know brands to avoid. But this is a field where each category deserves to be investigated separately.

First off is the cooktop of the moment, induction. This was a tough category, with only Consumer Reports' top three brands, LG, Frigidaire, and Bosch, landing in the highest level of reliability. LG was the clear overall winner, finishing almost 10 points ahead of second-place Frigidaire and third-place Bosch. The two runners-up received almost identical scores. The LG model CBIH3013BE was also the top overall choice for induction cooktops, which uses a score combining reliability, expert tests, and consumer satisfaction, as some brands that score well in one category fall short in the other. LG was also the most affordable of the top three options, on top of the superior scores.

For the standard smoothtop electric, Bosch once again placed near the top, and was joined by Thermador and Maytag. Thermador actually placed number one overall for reliability, but Maytag and Bosch were very close behind it, creating very little distinction. On the consumer satisfaction side, Bosch and Thermador scored well above Maytag, and were in fact the only two electric cooktops to earn solid scores at all. Yet Maytag received the highest overall score among the reliable electric cooktops, perhaps reflecting that electric cooktops in general got low consumer satisfaction scores, and is considerably more affordable than the Thermador option. So the final choice here will come down to whether you prioritize price, reliability, or performance.

Faring worst of all from Consumer Reports was actually the gas cooktops. Only two brands, KitchenAid and GE, posted above-average scores in reliability, with KitchenAid being one and GE being two, ranked closely together. Of those brands, only GE cooktops are actually recommended by the CR team when taking performance into account. The only other recommended brand that has a solid reliability score is Monogram, but the option tested costs twice as much as the GE options. At least you won't have to shop around too much.

Unfortunately, there were quite a few poorly ranked cooktops when it came to reliability, a definite red flag. The worst overall of JennAir, which Consumer Reports ranked worst for both the induction and electric smoothtop categories. Combined with poor overall scores for consumer satisfaction, and being one of our most overpriced appliance brands, those are cooktops to stay away from for sure. Rounding out the bottom for induction were Ikea and GE Profile, while Whirlpool and Samsung were the others at the bottom in reliability for electric. Neither of those brands scored great in induction either.

Scoring worst for reliability in gas cooktops was Fisher & Paykel, which had a dismally low score that was less than half of even the worst induction and electric scores. Miele was ranked second worst with another terrible score. It may be the darling of traditionalist home cooks, but it seems like, at both the top and bottom, gas cooktops just don't have the reliability of the electric and induction options. But at least with gas cooktops, you get those satisfying flames.