Pesach Faqs

Q. I love my glass stovetop and want to know how to kasher it for Pesach.

A. It has been suggested that the proper way to kasher a glass stovetop would be to (a) clean and leave unused it for 24 hours, (b) cover with water while the stovetop is cold until there is a sheet of water on the glass surface, (c) lay a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil over the entire stovetop loosely forming a dome-like hood, (d) put a crumbled ball of foil in the middle of the burners to support this hood, (e) turn all the burners on and wait until you see the water start bubbling, and (f) remove the tin foil to prevent potential cracking of the glass.

Unfortunately, we cannot agree to this creative suggestion because: [A] It assumes hag'alah is effective on glass, when in fact at least libun kal is required. [B] It is not clear that the suggested method will actually be successful in getting boiling water on all surfaces or will just result in pockets or puddles of boiling water with other surfaces unaffected. [C] One may not kasher if there is a fear that the process will break the utensil, as the person will be reticent to continue the kashering until completion; see Shulchan Aruch 451:1. That is plainly the case if one covers this type of stovetop with foil and turns on the burners.

Instead, we recommend you see elsewhere on the cRc website for our recommendation of how one should kasher (part of) a glass stovetop and use it on Pesach.