Magic Chef CSCTE12BG2 12-Inch 2-Burner Electric Cooktop

The Magic Chef CSCTE12BG2 is a 12-inch, two-burner built-in electric cooktop with a black glass ceramic panel. It's built for the kind of galley where space is tight and you still want a real cooking surface. Twelve inches wide, just two inches tall, and 21-1/2 inches deep, it drops into a counter cutout and gives you two radiant burners without eating up the whole galley.

We see these go into boat galleys, RV kitchens, small cabins, and tiny-home builds all the time. Anywhere a full-size range is overkill or simply won't fit, a compact two-burner earns its spot. You get enough surface to run a pot and a pan at once, which covers most real cooking on the water or on the road. Coffee and eggs in the morning. A one-pot dinner at night. That's the job, and this handles it without fuss.

The surface is a single sheet of glass ceramic. No grates, no drip pans, no burner rings to pull and scrub. When you're done, you let it cool and wipe it flat with a cloth. For anyone who's fought with a crusty gas grate in a rocking galley, that flat glass is a genuine relief. The black panel hides everyday marks well, too, and the low two-inch profile sits close to flush so it doesn't crowd your counter or catch a hip as you move past.

This is an electric cooktop, so it runs on 120V. No propane, no gas plumbing, no LP locker or sniffer to worry about. If your boat or rig has shore power or a decent inverter, you're set. That matters for a lot of owners who'd rather not add a gas system, or who already have the electrical capacity and want to keep the galley simple. Radiant electric heat is steady and predictable, and there's no open flame to babysit when the boat's moving or the cabin's buttoned up.

Installation is a built-in job. You cut an opening in the counter, drop the unit in, and seal the perimeter. A few things are worth planning before you start. Wire it to its own dedicated circuit so it isn't fighting other loads on the same run. Leave ventilation clearance underneath the way the install manual calls for, since the electronics need somewhere to shed heat. And run a clean bead of silicone around the edge so water can't work its way underneath, which is just good practice in any galley that sees spray or spills. Take your time on the cutout and it'll look like it came with the boat.

On cooking, glass ceramic radiant burners like flat-bottom cookware that sits fully on the element. Flat stainless, cast iron, and heavy aluminum all work well. Warped pans or narrow camp pots won't make solid contact, so you'll get slower, uneven heat out of those. There's nothing fancy to learn here. It cooks the way a home glass cooktop does, just in a footprint that fits a galley instead of a full kitchen.

A couple of honest notes. Two burners is two burners. If you cook big multi-pot meals for a crowd, you'll feel the limit, and that's true of any compact cooktop. There's no built-in downdraft or vent, so think about airflow in the galley, especially in a closed cabin. And because it's electric, you'll want to know your power budget before you lean on it away from shore power. Size your inverter and battery bank with a little headroom and you won't get caught short mid-meal.

For the boater or RV owner who wants a clean, simple, easy-to-wipe cooking surface in a small galley, the Magic Chef CSCTE12BG2 is a straightforward, sensible choice. It's the kind of appliance you stop thinking about because it just works.