Are There Standard Heat Settings for an Electric Stove?

Christine Gallary
Christine GallaryFood Editor-at-Large
Christine graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and she has worked at Cook's Illustrated and CHOW.com. She lives in San Francisco and loves teaching cooking classes. Follow her latest culinary escapades on Instagram.
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updated May 30, 2019
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Q: We have a rental with an electric range and coil burners. It seems to me that the burners are very slow. I have to turn it up a few notches to get the pan up to the temp I want, then turn it back down so it doesn’t get too hot.

Are there official standards for what temp a burner should get on the various settings, and how fast? Would replacing the coils help, or is there something else going on?

Sent by Jason

Editor: Unfortunately, electric burners are just not as powerful and quick to respond as gas burners, and there does tend to be a lot of variability among brands and models.

Emma has some good advice here, though, on how she made an electric stove work for her:

Readers, do you know of any official standards for burner temperatures? Do you have any advice on how to deal with the slowness?

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stovetop