For Those with Flat-top Stoves

[ChrisB]

Our current stove/oven is failing so we're on the look out for a new appliance.  We have a coil-top electric stove, basic self-cleaning oven.  It's been good to cook on, not as much control as a gas, but decent control.  When I went shopping a few months back, I saw mostly gas or flat, glass electric stoves, and if I want a coil-top, I'd have to special order it.  We don't want to run a new line for a gas range, so we're pretty well limited to coil or flat electric stoves.  

My question to you, if you cook regularly on a flat-top stove, or have regularly cooked on both flat and coil-tops, what is your overall opinion about how they cook?  My parents have a flat-top, and it isn't my favorite.  However, I don't know if that's because I'm used to something else or I'd never like the flat-top.  If my parents cared about the nuances of cooking surfaces like I do, I'd ask them.  So, anyone have an opinion? 

Also, I have several younger children and a very heavy enamel cast-iron pot that I use every day.  How do these work on glass surfaces?  Is it easy to shatter? 

[Bluegoat]

I have a glass topped one, and i've not had any trouble with it, even though I also have kids and heavy pans.  My dh is pretty diligent about cleaning stuff that gets burned on, which he says is important.

I don't find it substantially different to cook on than a coil top.  One difference is you can't really use a big pan that goes well over the burner area, say to make gravy, as it will damage the surface.

[Pawz4me]

Pros of my glass topped stove: I find it MUCH easier to keep clean than the coil stoves I've had in the past. I also think it looks much nicer.

Cons: The burners are slower to respond to temperature changes. Mine heats up quickly enough but it takes the burners a long time to cool off. For example, if I bring a big pot of soup to a boil and then reduce the heat so that it simmers it takes a long time for it to stop boiling. I've learned to turn the heat down in advance--when the pot is almost boiling instead of waiting for it to boil.

You do have to be careful not to slide cast iron on it or it can scratch the surface. I don't know about the weight of a heavy cast iron pot. The largest thing I use is a 10" frying pan.

All in all--I'd never go back to a coil top, I don't think.

[historically accurate]

I've had my glass top for about 10 years now. I use a heavy cast iron skillet on it. One burner looks bad because I am lax about cleaning, but it works just fine. Like Pawz, I find it slow to cool, which means that I often don't get around to cleaning the stove top because it's still warm when I'm cleaning the kitchen. 

 

Edit: mine is white, which I think is better for cleanliness than the black tops.

Edited January 20, 2019 by beckyjo

[ChrisB]

13 minutes ago, Bluegoat said:

I have a glass topped one, and i've not had any trouble with it, even though I also have kids and heavy pans.  My dh is pretty diligent about cleaning stuff that gets burned on, which he says is important.

I don't find it substantially different to cook on than a coil top.  One difference is you can't really use a big pan that goes well over the burner area, say to make gravy, as it will damage the surface.

 

My pot 13 qt. round dutch oven would probably hang over the burner area, I'm guessing?  So, are you saying it would eventually damage the surface?

[ChrisB]

14 minutes ago, OKBud said:

gas>flat top> coil 

A woman after my own heart...so succinct!  Thanks! 

[Bluegoat]

1 minute ago, ChrisB said:

 

My pot 13 qt. round dutch oven would probably hang over the burner area, I'm guessing?  So, are you saying it would eventually damage the surface?

 

I haven't found slightly bigger pots a problem. Usually one or two of the burners are fairly large as well, larger than a coil top.  But for example, when I used to do gravy I'd do it in the roasting pan, over two coil burners, and it didn't damage the metal stove surface. You aren't supposed to do that with a glass top.  I usually do gravy in a separate regular pan now.

We've never had any issues though with damaging the glass top, even when my dh makes beer in a very large pot at high temperature, so I'm not sure how big a problem it really is.

[Selkie]

We've had glass topped stoves for several years. I spend a lot of time cooking - a couple hours on most days - and I really like ours.

We just did a kitchen remodel and our new stove is a GE with four burners - one 9", one 8.5", one 6.5", and one 6". I use big pots all the time, like 16 qt. stockpots, with no problem. My dutch oven is wider than the biggest burner (about 12" across) and it has not caused any damage to the stovetop.

I've never had a gas stove and it's been many years since I cooked on a coil stove, so I can't compare. As someone else already mentioned, a glass topped stove is so much easier to clean than a coil stove, and looks so much nicer, too.

[LuvToRead]

17 minutes ago, Bluegoat said:

 

I haven't found slightly bigger pots a problem. Usually one or two of the burners are fairly large as well, larger than a coil top.  But for example, when I used to do gravy I'd do it in the roasting pan, over two coil burners, and it didn't damage the metal stove surface. You aren't supposed to do that with a glass top.  I usually do gravy in a separate regular pan now.

We've never had any issues though with damaging the glass top, even when my dh makes beer in a very large pot at high temperature, so I'm not sure how big a problem it really is.

I just bought a new glass top stove, and it has a bridge burner.  The left front and left back, plus the area in between can all be used as one big burner.  I don't have a rectangular pan, so I haven't had the chance to try it out.

[LuvToRead]

I just bought my 2nd glass top stove, so I do like them.  However, I would not recommend a solid black top.  It is lovely, but every.little.mark, smudge, piece of lint, etc. shows up.  I am constantly cleaning it.  

[Bambam]

We purchased this house with a glass topped stove top. I hate it.  It is probably fine for an electric cook top, but I really miss gas and the instant heat and control. 

I do have a solid black top. If anything overboils, it is a pain to clean. And you need to wipe it off regularly to keep it looking decent. And just water does not clean it if anything has been cooked on. 

[Pawz4me]

I have a hate/love relationship when it comes to keeping my black cook top clean.

Yes it shows everything.

But it looks so nice when it's shiny clean!

I look at it like white cabinets--they're a pain to keep clean but at least you know when they're clean or not. There's no hiding smears and smudges. I much prefer that to a surface that hides gunk and I constantly worry and wonder if I *really* got it clean. That's how I always felt with coil top stoves.

I don't find spills and boil overs particularly hard to clean, though. I let the burner cool (usually while we're eating) and use the stuff in this kit. A nasty mess can be cleaned up in less than five minutes. To me it's much easier than pulling the coil out, scrubbing a burner pan, cleaning under the burner pan and still not feeling sure I got it all. I do use a good microfiber cloth meant for windows on the final wipe/polish of the cook top. I've found that works much better at getting rid of any remaining smears than paper towels or other types of cleaning rags.

[Selkie]

My previous stove was black and yeah, it was a pain to keep it looking good. The new one is white and is much easier.

[Pen]

I love my flat top.  Second one I’ve had.  This one has black and grey speckle top which is easier than white top of prior one.  (The front and sides of both were white).  I am careful to not drag or drop things on it as much as possible. Haven’t had any problems.

 I have a Lodge cast iron griddle that (almost) covers a front and back burner at same time, and works fine for things needing more space.  

The biggest burner is almost 12” diameter and if something is a little bigger, that doesn’t seem to hurt the stove, though an edge beyond the 12” won’t heat evenly.    This however stopped being an issue as larger items now get the griddle or instant pot.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Pen

[Chris in VA]

Loathe is not a strong enough word to describe my feels about glass topped stoves. 

 

[ChrisB]

This is great stuff!  And, Chris, why loathe?

[ChrisB]

The one thing that likes to boil over for me is my pasta water. Would this be hard to clean?

[1GirlTwinBoys]

1 hour ago, LuvToRead said:

I just bought a new glass top stove, and it has a bridge burner.  The left front and left back, plus the area in between can all be used as one big burner.  I don't have a rectangular pan, so I haven't had the chance to try it out.

Yes mine is like this too.  Makes it very nice for cooking in larger pans.

[*****]

We have a completely black one. My dh is the one to polish and keep it clean. I would caution about using cast iron pans, as they can scratch it.  If you have several kids or others doing the cooking, they may not be as careful as you would.  I am usually the only one to use cast iron, so we don't have many if any scratches yet as I am pretty careful.   My neighbor has a slightly older model, and hers has like a painted texture, so hers doesn't show as much accumulation as ours would.  Idk if they still make this kind.

I also haven't done any canning since we got it. I heard the high temp. for so long is not good for it.  This may be something to check on if you can food. 

[Loowit]

I had one for years and really liked it a lot.  We replaced it a few years ago with a coil top and I hated it.  I found it much harder to keep clean.  When we moved a few months ago the new house has a glass top, and I am so happy to have one again.  I don't find it too hard to keep clean, as long as I take care of it every evening or if there is a big spill or something.

[PrincessMommy]

I've had coil -flat - coil and now back to flat top.  There's pluses and minuses with both.  I am a committed cast iron cooker, so I'm not changing that.  So glass top doesn't look great.  I try to keep it clean but I can't seem to get the dark ring around the larger burner to go completely away.  But, otherwise, it's much easier to clean.  So easy to wipe down with water to get the worst of the gunk, then cleaner to make it sparkle.   I hated having to take apart the coils to clean down under.  But, they are easy to replace if they look gross after a while. 

Upgrade will switch us to gas.. can't wait.  

[Ottakee]

My new house came with a flat top stove.  It is easy to clean, very easy, but I don't love it at all.  It is ok, but no love.

I greatly miss my gas stove and when I finish off the basement later this year I will have them run a gas line for a gas stove.  I so miss my center griddle on my gas stove.  I rarely used my pans as I used that much more.  I

 

[fairfarmhand]

47 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

The one thing that likes to boil over for me is my pasta water. Would this be hard to clean?

So here’s what I do. Let the top cool, and then use a dishcloth to drop water in a puddle on the stove top. Let it sit while I wash pots of something, about 10 minutes. Then I can go wipe it off, easy peasy.

[cjzimmer1]

2 hours ago, OKBud said:

gas>flat top> coil 

Induction>gas>flat top>coil 

46 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

The one thing that likes to boil over for me is my pasta water. Would this be hard to clean?

I hate regular glass tops but induction is awesome.  I'm a very messy cook and induction is fabulous to clean,  Boil something over, lift pot, wipe burner (while still on) with rag, set pot back down, no burns on rag or you.  

Induction works with magnets under the class the "excite" the molecules in the pot itself.  Thus the pot becomes the heat source.  While the glass gets warm, it's never hot enough to burn yourself or your food to the surface, so clean up is so easy.  It is also the most energy efficient method as there is no heat loss transfer from the heat source to the pot since the pot "is" the heat source.  This also means your kitchen is less likely to overheat because very little extra heat is wasted/produced is in the process. This energy efficiency also mean it is very fast,  my old coil stove took an hour to boil a pot of water for water bath canning, induction does the job in 18 minutes.  It is also as fast or faster than gas in responsiveness to heat changes.  So that pot of water that is on the verge of boiling over, instantly stops the moment I hit the slider to change the temperature.  Cast iron "can" scratch a glass surface but with induction this is super easy to solve.  I put my cast iron pan on a silicon mat and set the mat on top of the burner.  The magnets still activate the pot right through the mat and the mat protects the glass from getting scratched.  Drawbacks are they are expensive and all your cookwear has to be magnetic (meaning a magnet will stick to it).  But it is by far my favorite method of cooking.  I'm on my second unit and my husband knows that until I die, this is the only type of stove we will have in our house.

[stephanier.1765]

I use these to keep my stove clean.  You can often buy them at Ross or TJMaxx for less.

https://www.amazon.com/Weiman-Glass-Ceramic-Cooktop-Cleaner/dp/B073BK2KG7/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1548017910&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=glass+stove+cleaner&psc=1

I always clean after doing the dishes which gives the stove time to cool. I usually use the soapy water to clean most messes including over boiled liquid from cooking rice. I use the spray many times to pre-clean the stove before I use it because my dh insists on using it as a counter and then not cleaning up after himself. Makes me crazy! But cooking on a dirty top makes it more difficult to clean later. I use the polish for any stubborn spots which isn't often so that bottle goes a long ways. Shoot, the spray would go a long ways if my dh would only stop making a mess on the top. There are also razors you could use to scrap off the super stubborn stuff. I only do that a few times a year and right now I can't even think of what it is that sticks so badly. 😄

[KungFuPanda]

I think it’s like cooking on any electric range once you get used to your own stove. I use cast iron daily with no problem. If you can, you’ll need a flat canner for it to work. The bonus is that when you’re not cooking you have extra usable counter space. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, ChrisB said:

The one thing that likes to boil over for me is my pasta water. Would this be hard to clean?

It isn’t hard, but you ought to clean it. 

I have one; it is black and it’s fifteen years old. I am very diligent about cleaning it. I use the Weimens clean Pawz linked. Things that boil over or burn on must be cleaned off before you cook on it more so you can return it to perfect. If you let stuff burn on repeatedly, it may not be possible to return it to perfect at some point. 

[G5052]

In the house we sold last summer, we had an older gas cooktop that drove me nuts. It was fine for the first ten years and then got very quirky and difficult. I was convinced that it didn't cook as evenly too. We had to update the kitchen to put the house on the market, so that went. I like gas, but I remember the same thing with my parent's stove. At a certain point the burners either have to be replaced or you need a new cookstop.

Our rental house has a flat-top stove that was only a few months old when we moved in. We really like it. It also has a bridge burner and is very easy to clean. I would expect that it would hold up well because it still looks new a year later.

[Scarlett]

I have had electric smooth top for about 15 years. Love it.  I did find out that leveling is important......we had one crack because the stove wasn’t level.

it is so easy to keep clean.  Love it. 

[Katy]

Glass is awesome, they are so much easier to clean. Just get a razor blade scraper with regular glass top cleaner for big spills and the scotch brite pad for glass cook tops for burnt on stuff and you will never have a problem. If you inherit a glass top with burnt on gunk when you buy a different house don't bother cleaning until you get the scotch brite cleaning pad.  It will get off YEARS of burnt on gunk with very minimal elbow grease.

The main advantage of gas over glass is more precise temperature control. I've never found it to be worth the enormous plumbing bill to add a gas line where one didn't exist though.

One thing I've been wanting to try is induction - as easy to clean as glass, as precise as gas with temperature control, and safer because it never gets actually hot.

[MEmama]

We had one in our previous house. I thought it was super easy to keep clean (I only use water), I canned a ton, and it cooked just fine. It was pretty (all black) and I preferred it in every way to the gas range I had before. IIRC it had one extra large burner that was perfect for my canning pot.

I'm not one who cares if a stove is gas or electric, though. I can go either way and don't have any trouble adjusting to the minor differences. 

[Pawz4me]

8 hours ago, Katy said:

 

One thing I've been wanting to try is induction - as easy to clean as glass, as precise as gas with temperature control, and safer because it never gets actually hot.

 

Ditto. I'm hoping induction units gain popularity and the prices come down. I'd be really tempted to try one when our current stove needs replacing. The "pros" seem like they'd make it worth buying new pots and pans.

[DawnM]

We have a glass top stove.  If I can't have gas (much preferred) then I like glass top over coil.  It just looks nicer IMO.  But yes, it does take longer to heat up (than gas, haven't compared it to coil).

I am hoping our next house will have gas.  

[StaceyinLA]

I love my glass cooktop. I had a Maytag Gemini (stand alone with double oven and glass cooktop) for years until we did our remodel. I remember when I first bought that (used from my sister when they were moving), I felt like I’d won the lottery - it was SO nice, pretty and easy to clean vs my coil cooktop.

When we remodeled, I put in a Kitchen Aid that is very similar, with double ovens, etc., mainly because the fridge I wanted for my space (counter depth French door) was only made by KA and Samsung, and Samsung didn’t make other appliances I liked as much. Because I wanted matching appliances, I went with all KA (plus they had the second quietest dishwasher on the market at the time).

Anyway, long story short, I LOVE the KA. I LOVE my glass cooktops.

Disclaimer: we do NOT have the option for gas, so that was never a consideration, even though I’m not positive I’d go there based on experiences of a couple of my daughters.

[Pen]

19 hours ago, ChrisB said:

The one thing that likes to boil over for me is my pasta water. Would this be hard to clean?

 

It may depend some on exact model.  My current one is easier than one house came with because it has no crevices where things get stuck.  The old one had a metal edge around the flat top which could catch things at the joint.  The new one is raised at outer edge so a normal spill over won’t go onto floor, but with a gentle raise that doesn’t catch debris like the old one did.  Also the new one being speckled, it doesn’t show things like the totally white top of the old one.

 

Both are easier to clean up than with gas or coil I had experience with in childhood or early adulthood because they are flat—nowhere for stuff to drip into and nothing to take apart.  

A friend who had a flattop showed me her technique of not being afraid to use a sponge or rag to get up most messes like that while still wet (and hot), but  very easy to clean other than the heat issues.  

I am more fearful of burns than she was, but even when cool, process (for me) is get rid of most such mess with a sponge, then sprinkle on Barkeeper’s Friend and wipe residual mess with a damp paper towel (sometimes after letting wet Barkeepers Friend sit on it awhile—if any burnt on boil over residue remains after that, there’s a technique to use with a safety razor blade.

That said, I am now cooking pasta mainly in Instant Pot.  

The difficult cleaning area on new flattop stove is if anything gets between inner and outer layer of glass on oven window. This is probably not unique to it as a flattop. I have a problem with this now and I don’t know how to solve it.  Anyone?

Edited January 21, 2019 by Pen

[Pen]

Btw, flattop holds heat longer after being turned off, but technique for cooking seems to adjust easily to learn to turn off burner and finish something (scrambling eggs, or stirring pudding, for example) on retained heat.  I thing it’s like driving two different cars with different feel to steering and brakes, you kind of just get a feel for adjusting to the different machine.  

I’ve learned also to do more things like heating up soup on a medium heat so it doesn’t boil over.  I also use the stove’s beeping alarm extensively to remind myself about things so as not to have boiling over so mucc in first place.  

[Scarlett]

My dss wants to be a chef and I know he would prefer gas but I just love the ease of clean up with my smoothtop electric.  When we build our. Ew house I think we should plumb it for both. 

[barnwife]

New cast iron is bumpy, sand those bumps off with a random orbit sander, inside for making it easier to season, and on the bottom so they don't scratch your glass top stove.  Gas is wonderful, unless you have propane and then the precision control is gone from the burners, there's a very narrow band between off and full on all the propane stoves I've used.  Not like natural gas where you can adjust the burner without looking at the flame and using both hands to steady. 

[MEmama]

40 minutes ago, barnwife said:

New cast iron is bumpy, sand those bumps off with a random orbit sander, inside for making it easier to season, and on the bottom so they don't scratch your glass top stove.  Gas is wonderful, unless you have propane and then the precision control is gone from the burners, there's a very narrow band between off and full on all the propane stoves I've used.  Not like natural gas where you can adjust the burner without looking at the flame and using both hands to steady. 

 

Our current stove used propane until we converted to natural gas when it became available in our area. There was no difference in heat adjustment or function.

[barnwife]

3 hours ago, MEmama said:

 

Our current stove used propane until we converted to natural gas when it became available in our area. There was no difference in heat adjustment or function.

I could be way out of date.  Have used only electric for a long time now. 

[ChrisB]

Thanks for all your comments!  I went shopping yesterday, and we're looking at this GE, true convection oven, glass top range in black.  I had a whole list of questions that my salesman got to answer for me...his lucky day...lol   I need a new stove by the end of next week because I have 3 birthday cakes to make the following week.  It's the "month of cake" at our house in February. 

Chris in VA, here's your chance to talk me out of it...

Edited January 23, 2019 by ChrisB

[Pen]

That looks like a bigger, newer, fancier and with more features version of the stove I have and love!  (Mine also GE and about 12 years old, has regular oven, only 4 burners, no steam feature, only 2 shelves, etc).  

[katilac]

Love my flat top. I put all sizes and weights of pots, pans, and baking pans on it with no problem. On the cooking areas and off. 

I spill and overflow lots of things that dh gets the joy of cleaning up 😄

when it's cool, he puts a bit of Soft Scrub on it, lets it sit for a bit if it's a real mess, says it cleans easily. 

You get used to the quirks of whatever you use, methinks. 

[ChrisB]

There are a few features I've never used before, for instance the steam cleaning or convection.  There'll definitely be a learning curve with the convection. The salesman confirmed that is a "true" convection vs. "just blowing hot air around", so we'll see.  I read that with convection I will need to decrease the cooking temp by 25 degrees and/or reduce the cooking time by 1/4th.  

Did you notice that the bottom oven coil is housed underneath the bottom oven panel?  It may be a common thing now, but this is the first I'm noticing it as an option and love the idea.  My girls will want to bake cookies as soon as we get it and see what our baking capabilities are--maybe 3 trays in at once?!!  

The third back burner is a warming burner only for sauces, etc.  I'm not sure how much I'll use it...

And, thanks for all the cleaning tips!  I'll keep coming back to this thread for ideas.

You're right, I'll get used to whatever I have, but a short learning curve with the chance of loving it is my goal.

[LuvToRead]

1 hour ago, ChrisB said:

There are a few features I've never used before, for instance the steam cleaning or convection.  There'll definitely be a learning curve with the convection. The salesman confirmed that is a "true" convection vs. "just blowing hot air around", so we'll see.  I read that with convection I will need to decrease the cooking temp by 25 degrees and/or reduce the cooking time by 1/4th.  

Did you notice that the bottom oven coil is housed underneath the bottom oven panel?  It may be a common thing now, but this is the first I'm noticing it as an option and love the idea.  My girls will want to bake cookies as soon as we get it and see what our baking capabilities are--maybe 3 trays in at once?!!  

The third back burner is a warming burner only for sauces, etc.  I'm not sure how much I'll use it...

And, thanks for all the cleaning tips!  I'll keep coming back to this thread for ideas.

You're right, I'll get used to whatever I have, but a short learning curve with the chance of loving it is my goal.

I use the warming burner to melt chocolate or butter.  

[ChrisB]

51 minutes ago, LuvToRead said:

I use the warming burner to melt chocolate or butter.  

Good point!

[Petrichor]

We've been renting for the past decade and have had gas, coil, and flat glass. Glass top is easier to clean than the others. It's flat, so you just wipe the gunk or oil off, no need to lift up burners or anything like that.

One time, DH put plastic down on the glass burner. It was a sour cream or yogurt lid. The printed image was transferred to the burner, but once we got brave enough to use it again, the image burned away. It's only been about a month since it happened, and it looks normal now.

We use heavy cast iron on a daily basis. Works fine on the glass top, and I haven't seen any scratching. Burnt stuff around the edges is easy enough to scrub off if you use the right stuff (special glass stove cleaner(or baking soda) and non-scratch sponge).

I don't like that my oversized pot is too big to cook evenly on one burner, but too small to benefit from being on two burners at once. That's the only down side I've seen, I think. Well, that and that the burners stay hot for quite a while after turning them off.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

My first choice will always be gas stove with electric oven.  I have a dual-fuel Jenn-aire range now that I love, love, love.  Unfortunately, no one makes dual-fuel anymore, unless I go with Wolf or Viking.  So, it's conceivable that I will someday need to make a choice.  I won't give up the electric oven, so I'm probably going to have to give up the gas stove.

When that happens, I will go with an Induction range.  My friend, who is an awesome cook, switched from gas to induction, and she LOVES it.  It boils a pot of water in about 1 minute.  Yes, it was expensive, and she had to get new cookware, but that would be my choice over regular resistance heat.

[Reefgazer]

I have cooked on gas ranges, coils, and my current electric flat-top, and I strongly prefer the flat-top.  It is much easier to clean and when I am cooking, I have an extra surface to use to set things on if I am not using all the burners, and the temperature is easy to control.  There is also a feature on the stove where a red light stays on until the burner cools once you turn it off, to let you now the cooktop is still hot, even though the burners are off.  I have used heavy cast iron cookware on my flat-top and it's been fine, but I did break a burner once because I was careless about something.

[skimomma]

I had a glass top for about 15 years.  The oven died a dramatic and spectacular death in the middle of Christmas cookie baking a few years ago and now I have a gas stove, with I much prefer.  One thing I do miss about my glass top was using it as extra counter space.  That is probably a huge no no, but when it was off and cold, I could put buffet dishes on it when we had guests. Or pile up the groceries to go in the fridge (which as next to it) after shopping.  This was great in my small kitchen.  

It took some effort to keep clean.  But no more effort than my gas stove and less than coil electrics.

But the real reason I posted is to chime in on the canning.  I can a LOT of food every year.  I never had a problem canning on the glass top, both water bath and pressure canner.  The directions for my stove did not say not to and I started well before I could easily borrow trouble via Google.  I had no idea it was a no no until I had been doing it for years.  My only beef was the slowness to cool meant having to move the pressure canner off the stove at the end of each cycle, which always made me nervous.  Same with cast iron.  I cook almost exclusively in cast iron of all sizes.  After 15 years, there was minor scratching from all sorts of things, but it still looked really nice as it was being loaded up in the recycle truck.