It depends on personal tastes (both aesthetic and flavour). Ceramic pots certainly retain heat longer which suits black tea as a pot can be on the go for a while. Clay is for the connoisseur and should be kept for one specific tea. These ideally need to be used regularly so don't suit most households (including me).
I'd personally have:
- A western style ceramic pot (or two, one small, one large) for black teas like Kenyan,
Ceylon or Assam based teas which I'd only rinse out (unless it got forgotten and grew mold! in which case it gets a good scrub)
- A glass pot for strongly flavoured teas or heavy tannin tea like Lapsang Souchong
or chai (if i make it in a pot) which would be cleaned each time
- An eastern style ceramic pot for green tea as they generally keep the larger leaves back.
The biggest difference I've found is that warming the pot is more significant when using ceramic or clay over glass as the material absorbs more heat.
All cook top safety is the same:
Keep it clean and pay attention!
Glass ranges aren't inherently any more unsafe than a gas or normal electric range. Ranges are just a tool, one that generates a large amount of heat in a small area. Like any tool, you can hurt yourself or others if you don't follow the basic rules of use. Luckily, those rules are pretty easy to follow once you train yourself.
Keeping It Clean
When you are cooking, there is no reason to have anything around the range that you don't need to cook. No papers, no cutting boards, no wine glasses, no anything else. Anything extra is an invitation to spill or something to catch on fire. Nothing good can come of it. Cook with a towel and when you spill, clean it immediately. A clean range can't catch on fire because there is nothing to burn!
Paying Attention
Don't walk away from a range that is on! Almost every kitchen fire could be stopped by the simply having someone looking at the range when the fire started. You should be prepared with the failure signs for the type of cooking you are doing (like if your oil is smoking, you need less heat, or an open flame can ignite even low alcohol content if it's boiling).
If you follow those rules, you will almost never actually need this last one. I've worked professionally in kitchens for 14 years and I've only dealt with one fire that wouldn't have been stopped by the rules above. The final rule?
ALWAYS HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER But it sounds like you already have that one covered.
In case SAJ in the comments is correct and I misinterpreted the question, your range is safe to continue using as long as you didn't crack the cook top or short the burners. The top is sealed, so you shouldn't see any particulate under the glass. If you do, you need to clean the burner assemblies before running current to them. That means wires and the infrared bulbs. Some brands will require this to be done by a trained technician. If the top is cracked, you need a new top, as the crack can redirect the heat or shatter.
Best Answer
I did some some more research and Ecnerwal is right, it is a mold identification number.
Each manufacturer numbers their molds kind of like a baseball team has unique numbers for each player. This number is placed in the center of the bottom of the bottle.