If you are looking to buy a smooth top range, BEWARE!! I have a General Electric with a white smooth top. Within 3 months use, it turns dark. I love the way it cooks, but the main burner which is used 90% of the time, has turned a DARK gray. I have used only the recommended cookware and cleaned as suggested, but it still will not return to white like the rest of the cooktop. General Electric has replaced this top twice, but each time the discoloring happens. The only color smooth cooktop I would suggest would be a gray one if possible. I have seen gray ones where the burner area is speckled as well as gray. This is the only logical color that should have ever been used on smooth tops. Black shows everything.

I wonder if there is a miracle product recommended instead...

My grandmother had one of these stoves and did not experience this problem as far as I am aware. Very strange.

Did she have a white cooktop? My stove is only 2 years old. It was in a matter of 2 months that it started turning dark on the one main burner. I have a set of stainless, flat bottomed cook ware that I use, as recommended. I also cleaned it with the cleaner that they supply when I purchased it.

I am not sure, but I don't remember hearing anything about special cookware or cleaners. I believe my mother-in-law has such a stove top, and I don't remember any restrictions. That is very unfortunate. What did GE say was the cause?

We have a smmoth top in a charcol grey color...It is pretty and if I recall there were suggested cookware...ours looks like new but I am not fond of it at all....It is hard to simmer anything because it stays too hot...also after you turn it off it takes FOREVER to cool down.

I too would like to know what GE has to say...That shouldn't happen....maybe they can replace your stove for a grey topped one since this one keeps going bad.

my parents have one of these. They've had it for about 6 years now. They have a Kenmore. The glass top is dark gray w/ speckles. They do have some discoloration on it. Mainly on one burner. My mom uses a soft scrubbing kind of cleaner everytime she cleans it. It doesn't scratch the surface but then not all of the discoloration comes off either. I know they do make cleaners specifically for glass top stoves but my mom says that the soft scrub stuff she uses is just as effectivie at a much better price.

Yes, Kitty. I agree, sometimes it is a pain in the behind. It is hard to simmer and it takes forever to cool down.

General Electric can give no reason. It is explained in detail that using cast iron pans will cause this. I ONLY use cast iron when cooking cornbread which is always in the oven. I have a set of really heavy expensive "Towncraft" stainless cookware with a flat bottom that I use, as they requested for the consumer to use. I have done everything just like the instructions said to do. I received a response from GE today in reference to a letter that I sent to their consumer complaint dept. They called and of course I got someone on the phone that knows nothing about my issue with the stove, and I had to explain the entire thing to this person who has no authority whatsoever to do anything. It came down to where there is absolutely no solution to this problem. They actually wanted me to pay part of the cost of a new replacement. I told the girl I was talking to, that GE was crazy if they thought I would go along with that idea.The stove top has been replaced with a new white one twice, and every time the same thing happens again after a period of a few months. I even requested a black one once, thinking this would solve the problem, but it looked terrible since there was not one other single part of the stove that was black. I replyed back to them by letter this evening and told them that if they could not come up with a solution by Dec. 1 that I would be on every website there is, letting other consumers know about this product and how little concern GE has showed. My only solution would be for them to come and get the stove and refund me my money so I could buy one that doesn't have this problem; or they could send me a new top every year for as long as I have this stove. We both know, that neither of these ideas are going to fly with them. Oh well, we'll see what happens from here. Thank you for your concern. I am glad to know someone cares anyway.

Kitty, I have asked if they have a grey top to replace this one with, and they claim that they don't make one in grey to fit this "Profile" series. Grey would be a great solution as it would not stand out like the black top would and certainly wouldn't show the discoloration mine has. I just can't believe no one else has complained about this. Maybe they think it is just part of owning a glass cootktop.
If there are other people complaining about this, you can bet your boots that GE is not going to admit it.
It takes some getting use to, to cooking on this type of stove. I love the way it cooks, but not the way it looks. You just have to remember not to start with a high temperature, because the heat is relayed to the material your cookware is made of a lot faster than cooking on coils or gas.

Esencia, Interesting to know that your mom's grey cooktop discolors as well. I thought a grey one would solve the problem, but they don't make a grey to fit my style of stove.
I told GE when I wrote them that the Cerema Bryte Cleaner they say to clean with is a ripoff. It is all I used for the first 2 months and it still discolored. I clean it to perfection every evening after supper. The Soft Scrubb cleaner you buy in the grocery store is the same, exact cleaner.