Induction range?

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Faz

·Tues. 5:24pm

Hello dear members,

I always love to reach out to this community. The advice I get here is top notch.

My electric range has given up the ghost. Gas is not an option and I’ve been cooking on an electric range forever. Anybody here made the move to induction from electric? Pros? Cons?

Thanks in advance to all who chimed in!

Faz

 

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Dan S

·Tues. 5:35pm

We installed an induction range during our recent remodel, a Bosch. We previously had a glass-top electric range, and in many ways they are similar, but there are some nuanced differences. The induction is safer because the cooktop does not actually get hot (except for heat from the pan). Also, the heat transfer starts and stops more or less instantaneously, like gas, so it's more responsive. However, you may need new pots and pans, and they have to be ferrous, i.e. no commercial aluminum.

 

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ErichKeane

·Tues. 5:58pm

We have an induction range. They are amazing, it heats up faster and keeps temperature better. The one WE have is pretty darn annoying for a few reasons(A Frigidaire), but I'd never go back.

The only downside is you MIGHT need new pots/pans, but we ended up only having to swap 2-3.

We are stuck with the Frigidaire we have because we have small kids, which means we want 'rear' controls, and it is the only one. The 'touch' controls are a PITA.

ONE thing I WISH was that we had picked up a range where the burners were 'set to temperature' instead of 'set to power'. 'set to temperature' (instead of just some rando 0-10 knob) is one of the strengths of induction that not enough manufacturers are taking advantage of.

Want to boil water? Set the 'temperature' to 213F, and it uses full-power until the pan hits that temperature, no risk of an overly-violent boil or burning cookware/etc.

 

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Tony C.

·Tues. 6:11pm·Ωf Jury member

I installed an induction range when I renovated my house several years ago. It is an Elag (German), and has been flawless.

The only downside, having used gas almost exclusively for many previous decades, is the lack of very fine tuning, so to speak. There are 10 increments, and I would be happier with half-steps.

Cleaning is a welcome breeze.

 

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bgrisso

·Tues. 6:23pm

I was in a rental that switched from propane to induction and I absolutely hated it, and eventually asked them to remove it and put the old propane back in. It was not possible to get fine tuned low power settings for simmer and it drove me crazy. (This was a very nice rental and I think the unit was high end, and we had induction compatible pots and pans). YMMV

 

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Archer

·Tues. 7:22pm·Omega Qualified Watchmaker

Tony C.

I installed an induction range when I renovated my house several years ago. It is an Elag (German), and has been flawless.

The only downside, having used gas almost exclusively for many previous decades, is the lack of very fine tuning, so to speak. There are 10 increments, and I would be happier with half-steps.

Cleaning is a welcome breeze.

That is one of my concerns, as well as it not going low enough for a gentle simmer…

 

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ErichKeane

·Tues. 7:27pm

Archer

That is one of my concerns, as well as it not going low enough for a gentle simmer…

FWIW, I have no problem with simmering on mine, the 10 settings are well spaced out along what an electric/gas levels would be.

 

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Archer

·Tues. 8:35pm·Omega Qualified Watchmaker

ErichKeane

FWIW, I have no problem with simmering on mine, the 10 settings are well spaced out along what an electric/gas levels would be.

Do you use it to make say a clear chicken stock? To do that you basically need it to just barely bubble. It has to be very low…

 

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dsio

·Tues. 8:35pm·Ash @ ΩF

Tony C.

I installed an induction range when I renovated my house several years ago. It is an Elag (German), and has been flawless.

The only downside, having used gas almost exclusively for many previous decades, is the lack of very fine tuning, so to speak. There are 10 increments, and I would be happier with half-steps.

Cleaning is a welcome breeze.

Archer

That is one of my concerns, as well as it not going low enough for a gentle simmer…

What you do is there are these quite cheap ceramic pad things with silicon edges to ensure they don't scratch, they're often called simmer plates or diffuser plates and they sit under your pot, spacing it a very small distance in millimetres, which makes a significant reduction in the field strength.

I think ours came from a local cookware store for $40 as a three pack in different sizes, the thick one turns mode 9 into what mode 1 used to be and at low settings you can use it to just keep something warm in a cast iron pot to the extent that you could touch the bottom with your fingers comfortably.

 

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ErichKeane

·Tues. 8:59pm

Archer

Do you use it to make say a clear chicken stock? To do that you basically need it to just barely bubble. It has to be very low…

I've not made that, but I've definitely held water/sauces/etc at 'hot but not boiling' for extended periods of times.

 

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Foo2rama

·Tues. 9:28pm·Nowhere near as grumpy as he used to be...

Induction is 90% gas in terms of heat and control.

I hate my glass top electric and use a plug in induction when I need a hard sear or using a wok.

Glass top electric doesn’t effectively keep temp up when you add in items.

 

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ghce

·Tues. 9:54pm

Had induction for almost 20 years here in NZ, will never go back to standard electric.

Have gas in my apartment in China but only because the gas is reticulated and cheap as chips, I might swap that over to induction one day also as I have a fear of gas and the things that might go wrong.

 

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X350 XJR

·Tues. 10:03pm·Vintage Omega Aficionado

10 plus years with it, love our Samsung induction. It's a slide in stove top oven combination. Would never go back to a regular electric and gas was not an option.

 

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Felix_La_PuBelle

·Tues. 10:08pm

Mine’s a Bosch with half steps between each numbered power settings, so it can be set to 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, and so on from power settings 0-9. I’ve never had an issue reaching the right temp, high or low. The ability to control the heat may be limited only by the feature set the manufacture offers so I would look at high end options just to get a sense what’s possible. Case in point , the heat to temp rather than heat to power feature that another member mentioned is interesting and not a feature I knew existed. Had I known it at the time I would have considered it.

Edited: 10:33am yesterday

 

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ketiljo

·2:45am yesterday

We invested in a very nice Miele induction cook top when we renovated the kitchen a few years ago. 6 zones where you can combine them to and to. Powered with 3-phase 16 A 400 V so plenty of power😅
No problem adjusting the power so it barely simmers. In my opinion, it's more how it's designed to operate than the technology itselves. We made sure to get one with one touch slider pr zone and not a common slider for all, I hate those. You get what you pay for here.

 

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Jakeys

·3:53am yesterday

Ah this is very relevant to my interests! I'm just about to embark on a new house build and I've decided to go fully electric and eliminate the gas supply, which means a heat pump hot water system and an induction cooktop. Unfortunately you can't really test the cooktops in the stores, and reviews are pretty rare so I pretty much resorted to reading forum threads about brands and reading manuals to work out if I'd probably like a unit or not.

I ended up going with an Electrolux unit on an extremely good runout model discount, which is now sitting in a box in my spare room waiting to be installed late this year. So I'll let you know this time next year if I like it. 😜

ketiljo

We made sure to get one with one touch slider pr zone and not a common slider for all, I hate those.

Agreed, this was a mandatory feature for me too. I actually kinda wished they had induction cooktops with physical knobs to be honest, I think a couple exist but I didn't see any in the showrooms here in Aus.

 

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Tony C.

·6:32am yesterday·Ωf Jury member

A brief qualification: when I said above that I would prefer more fine adjustments, it really only applies to one context: the difference between a high and medium boil. In other words, when boiling pasta, a higher, steady boil (setting 8) tends to create foam, while 7 is what I would characterize as a low boil. It works, but a 7.5 setting would probably be ideal.

I have never had any problems fine-tuning a simmer.

 

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KeithP

·8:37am yesterday

If having a built-in extractor is a factor, I’d highly recommend Bora induction hobs. We’ve had one for 6 years and can’t fault it, and the extractor is amazing and eliminates the need for a separate head height extractor hood.

 

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hansaboy

·8:46am yesterday

I love these NON watch posts…!
😄

We did a total makeover, and renovated our entire kitchen a few years ago.
And I did a lot of studies regarding gas versus induction.
Even tried them out for some cooking etc…

And we choose the full surface induction cooktop.
Up to five pots/frying pans, and you can move them around, the entire surface is active (when in use under the pot/frying pan).
17 different levels, and instant heat if needed.

Both Miele and Gaggenau has this system, and other brands might have it as well.

One minor issue…. the controls are digital, like an Iphone….so it took some time to learn and scroll when cooking!

And pictures of course!
😉

 

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ketiljo

·8:51am yesterday

hansaboy

Both Miele and Gaggenau has this system, and other brands might have it as well.

I will cost you as much as a good Speedmaster! 😄