PeteFree.comGeneral Electric GE Cooktop Model JP346 (JP340, JP356, JP655) — Review
© 2011 Peter Free
22 August 2011
Deliberately bad?
This cooktop illustrates what happens when engineering airheads design something that the manufacturing clueless make.
It’s that bad.
The other model numbers listed in the title to this review are listed on the instruction book that came with JP346. I assume that they are equally undesirable.
Background
The cooktop being evaluated is two years old. It’s located in military housing. I’ve had three months of experience with it.
The previous family took good care of the home and everything in it. Consequently, the appliance’s shortcomings are not due to two years of abuse.
Negatives
The black cooktop surface scratches very noticeably in normal light use. The scratches are white. So they are very visible against the black surface. This defeats the purpose to having an attractive cooking surface in the kitchen.
The JP346 cooktop also forms visible, permanent bubbles just below its top veneer, for no apparent reason. These look as if the cooktop material might be out-gassing when heated, and the emitted gas gets trapped between layers.
Temperature control is almost non-existent. The control knobs have to be turned literally almost to the off position to lower the temperature enough to simmer (much less keep something warm).
The way the knobs are mounted directly into the cooktop surface (rather than on a raised control panel) makes the unit unnecessarily difficult to clean.
Positives
The cooktop cooks food, provided one doesn’t need or want any control over the process.
Not recommended
This is a horrible cooktop.
It has no virtues and very significant resale-defeating minuses.