Stoves & Cooktops

Gas ranges, built-in hobs and the firewood griddle stove:

the freestanding range, gas burners on top and an oven below, is the stove most families start with. A built-in hob does without the oven and drops into a cut-out in the worktop, which suits a fitted kitchen with the oven in a column; a separate one is listed under ovens. Countertop gas burners with two or three rings cover a rented room, a market stall or a second kitchen out the back. The firewood griddle stove has no real equivalent elsewhere. An improved firewood stove burns its wood in an insulated chamber under a steel plate and sends the smoke out through a galvanised chimney, so the plate does the job a clay griddle once did over an open fire. Concrete models sit on blocks and stay put; metal ones such as the Noya or Chispa can be moved. Up in the western highlands the wood stove also warms the kitchen, which is one reason families who buy a gas range keep the old one for tortillas, beans and the big pot.

Gas, glass or induction on a cooktop:

a gas hob takes any pot and keeps cooking through a power cut. Look for electronic ignition on every knob and cast-iron grates rather than thin enamelled wire. Induction heats fast and leaves the surface cool, yet it only works under pots a magnet sticks to, so aluminium pans and clay cooking pots are out. Hybrid hobs pair three gas burners with one electric plate. A full electric range or a large induction hob wants its own 220-volt line, so confirm you have one first, and whatever you fit, the extractor hood above it should be at least as wide.

Paying for a wood stove or a glass hob:

a portable metal wood stove with its chimney starts at around Q1,300 new, and an ordinary four-zone glass hob, gas or induction, runs about Q1,500 to Q3,500, with professional stainless 30-inch hobs far above that. Used, a hob’s value rides on its glass. An unmarked top keeps a good share of the price; a cracked one leaves burners and knobs nobody wants, because a new panel is rarely worth fitting. A wood stove loses less to age than to its plate and chimney, which both wear out long before the body does.

Burner caps, glass edges and chimney joints on a used stove:

on a gas range or hob, lift each burner cap and look for warped or corroded spreaders, turn every knob to hear the igniter click, and make sure the knobs turn smoothly instead of sticking. Run a fingernail round the edge of a glass top, where chips start, and look across it under a light for hairline cracks. An induction plate should recognise a pan within seconds and its fan should run quietly; an error code at start-up is a repair, not a quirk. On a wood stove, sight along the plate for warping and look for cracks, above all on older cast-iron plates, check that the rings sit flush, and pull the chimney sections apart, because galvanised steel rusts through at the joints first. Check the firebox for a cracked chamber too.

A wood stove leaving Quetzaltenango, or a hob out of a remodel:

say what it burns, how many burners or zones it has and how wide it is. For a hob, give the cut-out size, since that decides whether it fits the hole the buyer already has. Photograph the top under a low light, the burners lit, and the rating plate. For a wood stove, show the plate, the rings, the firebox and every length of chimney, and say whether the body is concrete or metal. Someone coming from Santa Cruz del Quiché will ask how heavy it is and whether it comes apart, so have the chimney down and bundled, the rings tied together, and two people ready to lift the body.