Almost all electric and induction stovetops today are made from glass. How can I kasher this for Passover?
Glass can be kashered easily by washing it with soap and water and leaving it unused for 24 hours, since it is non-porous and won’t absorb flavors. However, when the glass heats up, a stricter approach is traditional. The stovetop should be thoroughly cleaned with a cleaner made for glass stovetops. These cleaners contain chemicals that break down food particles, ensuring nothing remains that could be considered food. I’m confident a dog wouldn’t eat anything left on the stovetop after cleaning—that’s one Halakhic test. If a dog won’t eat it, we do not consider it food. If any food sticks to the surface, I suggest using a semi-abrasive tool, like the abrasive side of a kitchen sponge, for cleaning. Some glass stovetop cleaning brands sell special abrasive tools for this purpose. After cleaning, turn on the burners for 10 minutes. Then, let the stove sit unused for 24 hours, and it will be kashered.
The induction stove doesn’t actually heat itself, so it might seem more complicated than it is. The stove’s magnets heat the bottom of the pot, causing the stovetop to get hot in the “burner” area from the heat of the pot. As I said, glass itself doesn’t absorb any flavor from the food because it is non-porous. There’s a tradition, as I noted, to be strict about this, BUT since the stovetop itself doesn’t directly heat up, you have two options. First, we can simply clean the glass surface and leave it unused for 24 hours. If you’d prefer to be more cautious, here are the instructions: Take a Hametz pot (about the same size as the “burner”) and thoroughly clean both inside and outside. Place the pot on the “burner” and fill it at least halfway with water. Then, turn on the burner and leave the pot there for 15 minutes. This should be enough time to boil the water and transfer heat from the bottom of the pot to the glass stovetop. The glass can reach temperatures over 450 degrees and could burn paper if touched (a threshold test for koshering), so extra caution is advisable. I believe this additional stringency isn’t necessary, but if one prefers to be stricter, they can follow this process.
There is one last thing you can do with an induction stove. If you have food stains that won’t come out, you can buy a silicone pad made to go on top of an induction stove. You can place the pot on the pad. The pad is thin enough for the magnets to still work, and it prevents anything from sticking to the stovetop surface. I’ve seen these pads made translucent so you can see where the “burners” are when you’re cooking. If you use one of these pads, there is no need to do the heating process with a pot as the pad will be a barrier between your Passover pots and the stovetop.
