Thank you for all the replies!
I have some Lagostina pot (also somewhat flat, but less flat than the
Calphalon) that takes 18 mins... so the time seems to be highly variable.
I will experiment with various pots, in the hope of getting finally a
"fast pasta pot", but overall I am now quite happy with the GE range.

Peter

"Peter Aitken" > wrote in message om>...
> "Peter Lampione" > wrote in message
> om...
> > Is 13 minutes normal for bringing 3.5 quarts of water to a boil?
> >
> > I have recently (today!) purchased an electric ceramic top range
> > (a GE unit), and compared with my older electric-spiral Jenn-Air
> > unit, I find it takes quite a bit longer to bring water to a
> > boil.
> >
> > I am using a Calphalon pot, which is reasonably flat bottomed
> > (with a ruler, I can detect 1mm of space between the ruler
> > and the center of the bottom, but I have not seen pots
> > that are better than this). I fill it with 3.5 qt of water.
> > It takes 13 minutes to bring the water to a boil.
> > Is this normal? I notice that once the water is hot (but not yet
> > boiling), the "burner" cycles, perhaps 30 seconds on and 8 off.
> > This, I am told, happens when the pot is not perfectly flat,
> > but the Calphalon seems to be as flat as they come.
> >
> > Is the cycling normal? Is the time reasonable?
> > I would also appreciate comparisons with the time people are
> > getting from gas ranges.
> >
>
>
> I am not about to get out a stopwatch, but that seems in line with what I
> experience on my Dacor. The cycling is normal too - as you probably know it
> is to prevent the burner from getting too hot and damaging itself. You have
> also seen that not-perfectly-flat pots are perfectly usable on a flattop
> range even if not quite as efficient as one that is perfectly flat. Given
> that metal expands when heated it is probably unrealistic to ask for a pan
> that is flat when cold and when hot.