REFLECTOR PANS

Reflector pans are those things that go underneath the burner on an electric stove.  They're easy to remove for cleaning; just lift the element itself up and pull it out, and then just pick up the reflector.

Trouble is, they're not so easy to clean.  In general, they are only available in two types: steel or teflon-coated.  The steel ones rust and start looking awful very quickly.  Cleaning does no good, because it's the metal itself that looks awful.  This is probably what led to the introduction of the teflon-coated reflectors, but there's a fundamental problem there: they don't reflect.  The purpose of the reflector in the first place is to reflect the infrared radiation off the bottom of the element back up onto the bottom of the pan.  The teflon-coated reflectors are black, and therefore don't reflect well at all.

Some people wrap their reflectors in aluminum foil.  Perhaps not a bad idea; it doesn't look very nice and it'll need redoing every now and then, but it should work OK.  But wouldn't it be easier if you didn't have to?

This should be a slam dunk.  Stove reflectors should be made of stainless steel.  Stainless steel is the ideal material for kitchen use in general; no matter how dirty it gets, you can get it clean and pretty -- by scrubbing it with steel wool or sandpaper if necessary.

There are dozens of companies making stainless steel kitchen sinks that go in the counter just a couple of feet over.  Any one of these companies should be able to use the same tooling and materials to just start stamping out stainless steel stove reflector pans.  There are also dozens of companies making stainless steel pots and pans for use on top of the stove; any one of them should be able to produce stainless steel stove reflector pans.



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