Domestic cooker-top burners operate at low pressure and low Reynolds numbers. They do not usually have a flue, and are fired with impinging premixed natural-gas/air flames. There are two major considerations in using such burners, namely, poor energy utilization and indoor-air pollution. Because of the large number of cooker-top burners being used, even a slight improvement in thermal performance resulting from a better design will lead to significant reductions of domestic and commercial energy consumptions. In view of the need to raise the thermal performance and to reduce indoor-air pollution, advanced statistical experimental designs have been applied in the present study to evaluate the individual and combined effects of the major cooker-top design parameters. The experimental study was carried out using a 4-factor and 3-level Box-Behnken design-method, utilizing a premixed gas-fired impinging-flame. A cooker-top burner, with circular nozzles with an inner diameter of 3 mm, was used in this experiment. Design parameters of the burner under consideration include Reynolds number, equivalence ratio, nozzle-to-plate distance, and jet-to-jet spacing. Based on an analysis of the experimental data, variations of the thermal efficiency and the carbon monoxide (CO) emission with each of the above mentioned parameters have been reported. Multiple regression models of the thermal efficiency and the CO emissions were obtained in terms of all the major design parameters. Some of the 2-factor interactions on the thermal efficiency and the CO emissions were significant. The findings are important for the designer of a fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly cooker-top burner. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.