Use an induction cooktop anyone? Anyone?
 

Looking into an induction cooktop. My son-in-law put one in the kitchen he remodeled and they love it. On that info I bought a one-burner countertop until. I like it - a lot. The only problem is that it makes a lot of fan noise.
What are your experiences with induction cooking?

We had a large one in our last home (36" I think). Wife loved it. Heats very evenly (pan gets hot, not burner). Gave her an excuse to buy new cookware too...worth getting the good stuff. Unfortunately she dropped a heavy pan and busted the glass, but that's not unique to induction.

I say go for it...you won't regret it.

Not my cup-o-tea. My wife and I enjoy preparing meals a lot and though no one would consider us to be gourmet chef quality, we consistently eat well and often cook for large groups.

Over the last 5 days we stayed with extended family in a large Air BnB outside of Phoenix for my daughter's PhD graduation and party. The cooktop was a Frigidaire induction and I found it completely non-intuitive to use. It had 5 coils and a variable heat level. You select the coil, swipe up to get the heat you want in step change from 1-12, and cook away. The problem is that #7 is a decent medium heat for most things but #8 quickly turns your food to charcoal. Did not like. I want a flame I can see visually. If you are already cooking with electric and like it, an induction range would probably be a nice upgrade.

Pros- They look nice and are super easy to clean no matter how much you might spill or splatter.

Cons- It's not a continuously variable heat control and the steps are less than ideal. I really prefer a flame I can see to moderate heat as things develop in the pan.

YMMV

There was a thread on them 3 of 4 years ago.

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1074214-induction-cooktop.html

We did the same thing, bought a one-burner counter top. I like aspects of it. The only thing that we've run into that can be a bit weird is that lower "temp" cook options work like a microwave on-off-on-off-etc...

So if you're trying to simmer something that can easily boil over, you end up with boil, no boil, boil, no boil which is usually fine, but can be a little messy at times.

I like the fact that the cook top itself doesn't get hot. It also seems to as responsive as gas. You want good pans with a beefy enough ferrous layer. We have a really cheap AL pot that has a thin ferrous plate fused to the bottom (someone gave it to us or left it here or something). It takes FOREVER to heat up. We also have a some very nice Demeyere 7 layer thick stainless pots that heat super fast. A cooktop that runs on 220/240 should cook much faster on high than this counter-top model that we have. If the wife is trying to boil a carcase to make broth/stock, or even cook pasta with a lot of water, it can take a while for the pot to boil. I think the counter top model that we have is 2500W or 3500W. I think a 220V cooktop is 5500W or something like that. I assume "high" on one of those is a lot higher than the high on our countertop model.

The house we bought had an induction cooktop. We replaced with gas when we redid the kitchen a week later. My parents had induction and loved it!

We went with induction cooktop over gas, no complaints. No noticeable fan noise on this one 36" Bosch 800 series, there is a fan located in it, there is some humming noise when in operation. This one has excellent temp control across all temperatures and on the larger burner lots of heating power for boiling water fast. The only downside I can think of is without the aluminium trim some models have the glass at the side can be fractured if hit hard with a pan. The portable 120v induction are much louder and not as powerful as the large burners of the 240v fixed.

I’m going this route soon. I need an electrician to run a line for me. We already installed an upgraded panel to accommodate it. He said to pick a unit and he can put the plug in the specific location.

I have mild asthma. My doc said gas fumes from my stove could be problematic. Dunno.

I like the ease of cleaning aspect. Hate how my cast iron may become obsolete. I thought about buying the Control Freak stove as a dry run of sorts but it’s a lot of money.

I looked into this several years ago and came to this conclusion:

Since electricity is cheap and is only going to get cheaper and natural gas is so expensive, and since electricians practically work for free, induction makes sense from an economic standpoint.

But if you have money to burn, induction will do it just fine.

Vash, Cast iron obsolete? Cast iron pans work fantastic on induction, but not great to drag them across it.

This is what I
Meant. My moms stove looks bead blasted.

...is Induction hob something new? I had one for like quarter of century. Mine is connected to 3-phase 400V. Gas is almost non-existent here. Yes, it is glass. You learn no to slam heavy pots onto it.

I guess US adoption is hampered by 110V. You need a lot of amps to make it fast enough.

Outside of a laboratory, I've only used a 3500W 220V "catering" hob. It is noisy, with the fan and it lasted about as long as you would expect from the ~$250-300 chinesium price point. I'd expect the comparable Volrath or other professional-level tool would be better, but regardless of the price - WOW that thing pumps out the joules!

Our kitchen is dual-fuel (elect/gas) and I'm still working on selling it to the other cook in the house ahead of a remodel. I do wonder if a proper cooktop would have a gradual low/medium power. That was my only real issue, being one ding against the numerous other advantages over gas. The all-or-none pulsed mode was annoying and seemed indelicate.

Do that on any of the glass top stoves and you'll have the same issue. That issue isn't specific to induction.

The US has always mostly either been gas or electric heating elements with very little induction. It's been around for a while. Most US homes that have electric stoves have 220/240V. I've never heard of 400V in a US home. THat doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, but I suspect it's very rare.

Yes, the stove I’m replacing is a glass top resistance burner stove. When I got my counter top induction model it was recommended that I get a silicone mat for it. I’ve never used it without the mat, so I don’t know if that affects it. Seems to work well with the mat in place.

I have a Bosch gas cook top in my kitchen and I’m concerned about dropping something and breaking one of the cast iron fingers off of the grate.

We went back and forth for months on the stove for our kitchen remodel last year.

For resale a gas Wolf is probably best, so that was a consideration. But the cleaning is horrendous. The grates are so heavy, and there’s little nooks, crannies and crevices everywhere. We cook breakfast and dinner on the stove top almost every day, and my wife insists on a spotless kitchen at all times, so it seemed like a daunting daily task.

We tried out a ton of different systems, and ended up with this:

https://www.thermador.com/us/en/mkt-product/cooktops-rangetops/induction-cooktops/CIT36YWBB

We’ve liked it. It is super precise in its heating. It has like 20 levels of heat, from ultra low simmer to insane raging boil, so once you learn the levels it’s easy to dial in the exact heat you need. It gets to that level almost instantly, and when you change temperatures it’s almost instant. The speed in which it gets a pot of water boiling is remarkable. It has serious power. The evenness of the heating is unbeatable, it’s straight even across the pan.

It’s interesting because the entire surface is cooktop. You put a pan anywhere on it, and it works on that spot. That’s a really cool feature that we like a lot.

Also, it cools down incredibly quickly. It’s basically instantly cool enough so it wouldn’t burn you.

And of course you can’t beat the ease of cleaning, it’s a single flat plane of glass.Even the biggest messes are cleaned in seconds.

The downsides? The glass is tough but it can be scratched by heavy and rough cast iron. You can’t really shuffle and flip on it like on a gas grill, if you like doing that. Some people prefer the aesthetic of a gas stove. The cost seems a bit unreasonable. I have some concern about the long term reliability since it seems complicated and is all touch screen (but that may be just me).

We’ve had a Bosch for probably 15 years and love it. Warms up quick, precise heat, easy to clean. My wife is one hell of a scratch cook, me not so much. If it dies we’ll replace with a newer version, no question.

We made the jump from gas last fall - I do a lot of high heat cooking, as well as running the pressure cooker or long slow cooks for long periods and other types of heavy use and we've been very happy with it. Can sear better than my gas stove ever could, and can boil a full pot of water for pasta in less than 5 minutes on high. We use mostly cast iron and they are a dream to cook on. Obviously need to take care to not slide them around or put them down hard on the glass top, but that seems pretty intuitive. We went with an electrolux that has physical knobs - I can understand the frustration above with some sort of touch panel setup.

There is a fan noise when running (which increases as more burners and the oven are turned on), but I don't find it obtrusive. Thinner pots and pans will cause a buzzing noise, especially if there isn't food in them. Freaked me out that something was broken, but apparently that's normal. Our cast iron cookware doesn't buzz at all.

Be sure to check your circuit though - ours required 50 amps. The existing old crusty line from before we moved in was 30 amps. Not a big deal to run a new circuit up from the unfinished basement in our case, but something to check before pulling the trigger.

I understand the concern above about the electrical cost - we have solar on the house, so that didn't weigh into our decision (we made the jump to an electric dryer at the same time).

The ease of cleaning coming from our previous 5 burner gas stove is amazing. Our stovetop is also poorly vented, so it's been a notable change in heat accumulation during longer cooking, and we're getting less byproducts of combustion circulating through the house.

It's certainly got a lot more complexity than the previous unit with a gas valve did and time will tell how well it holds up and what future repairs look like. Also need to consider the ability to cook during a power outage. Wasn't a concern here as my neighborhood hasn't had a power outage since 2006 but if you are in an area where power goes out on the regular, that could be problematic.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1747398439.jpg

Anyone using one of these silicone mats?

NYPorsche - thanks. I'm looking at Electrolux, it seems to be priced better than some of the others. Good to hear you like yours.

Maybe the answer is obvious, but will boil overs still burn onto the glass?

It will evaporate but it won't really burn, wet it down and it's still easy to clean.

This is the one we went with:
https://www.rochesterappliance.com/products/electrolux/ecfi3068as.html

Never used the silicone mats, but doing a bit of reading it seems they aren't really meant for high heat or extended cooking. I may (and probably am) be wrong on that. We've never used one and so far there's not been any scratching to the glass surface so far with daily use of cast iron. The stainless surround holding the glass in place has several scratches though. My take on it is that it's a working appliance, not a work of art. So - we're going to call it patina and then I'm going to sear another nice steak.

I can't imagine switching from a gas cooktop to any sort of electric.


I find the idea that natural gas is going to give someone asthma or aggravate the problem from using it to cook fairly ridiculous.

People would likely be surprised how long induction has been used in industry to heat steel parts for heat treatment and hot forging, and a good reason for that. Works just as well to heat pans in the kitchen.

We used to use them in the lab when I was working in aerospace in the 80s. It wasn’t new then. We had an induction furnace about the size of a gallon paint can.

You talking to me?

Those are the two biggest drawbacks to gas. I like using the gas cooktop, but cleaning it is a pain, and I have to be very careful positioning the small (4 inch) pan that I use a lot so it doesn’t tip over. I don’t mind the combustion by products in my kitchen because I have a half decent vent.
But every single place we’ve looked at has a free standing resistance stove and no vent. Usually there is a microwave/range hood over the stove. Whoever designs these kitchens obviously doesn’t use a kitchen. I’ve resigned myself to have to replace the stove at a minimum, and probably have to live with some kind of recirculating hood over it.

Sometimes the boil overs leave what looks like hard water spots. We have a cook top cleaner that’s almost like a polish, you apply it and buff the surface. Ours still looks like new.

You have to make the electricity first. I am unaware of any method to do this that is 100% efficient.

You can use natural gas the way it comes out of the ground to cook. How efficient is that?


We have been doing doing this for a very long time, long before asthma became a common problem. It does not seem reasonable that everyone used gas to cook in their homes for pretty much ever and you did not hear about asthma much, if at all. Smells like BS

Also, I prefer the instant heat and infinite variability of cooking with gas

We are going to try induction, but not give up gas. Wolf has a component offering whereby you can get 2 induction burners and pair them with 3 gas burners. The total width is 39". This is our current thinking anyway....

I dont know either. just a thought my doctor gave me. but you know what has been here long before asthma as well?. pollen. smoke..both those things can make me cough.

personally, I am not convinced I even have asthma. we'll know if a die of COPD. whatever. the rest of my life I will try to be less judgmental and be more open minded. you do you.

and induction. my friend in Asia has a wok burner that is induction. it is a concave surface that the wok nestles into. the heat changes so rapidly. I imagine the neighborhood lights dimming when he goes full power. it is pretty badass. he is a fantastic cook. he likes it. and he is good with it. my friend in Napa has a Thermidor induction, that simmers at a level my gas stove can only dream of. if I make polenta, I have to make a ring out of aluminum foil to get my tiniest flame to just kiss the bottom of the pan with heat. he hits a button called simmer. very dope. we all get to pick out stoves. I was just riffing.

Nope. We've probably had hundreds of boilovers (the missus trying to do too many things at once) and the glass is clean. I don't think we've ever used anything but a rag/towel to clean it.

The cooktop doesn't really get hot. The pot gets hot and is sitting on the cooktop so some heat transfers.

I suspect it would be possible for there to be an issue, but we've had enough boilovers that I think you'd have to be trying really hard to have an issue.

If a Doc says "cooking with gas may be a problem" and you have another good solution, it would seem crazy to ignore the Doc. Stay healthy, fella. Maybe cooking with gas is a problem, maybe it's not, but better safe than sorry.

Wow, that's cool, an induction wok burner!

We converted to gas at our old home many years ago. Obviously, there are aspects of cooking with gas that are great. But it's also horribly inefficient. I feel like half or more of the heat produced ends up heating the house instead of the pot. With induction pretty much all of the energy goes to cooking. Maybe some doesn't somehow, but at least it's not heating your home.

We are getting more winter ice storm power outages here, and they are lasting longer. Days not hours and I know people who were in their second week before power was restored. I want to be able to stay warm and make food and coffee. I guess a big enough generator will power an induction cooktop but I’d want that figured out before leaving gas.

We are getting more winter ice storm power outages here, and they are lasting longer. Days not hours and I know people who were in their second week before power was restored. I want to be able to stay warm and make food and coffee. I guess a big enough generator will power an induction cooktop but I’d want that figured out before leaving gas.

Propane and propane accessories might be the ticket for that sort of deal

I would think it would take a big generator to power an induction stove. If you had a gas stove, that would help heat the house (when it was running). Or an induction stove with a propane camp stove or gas grill could also be the cooking backup, but that wouldn't help with heat. Every year when unusual cold weather hits the south, someone tries to stay warm by running a gas grill indoors and all of the occupants of the home end up dead from carbon monoxide. (so why don't gas stoves do the same?)

Yes, power outages are something to consider.

My backup for power failure is a portable induction burner and my small inverter generator, it will run the gas furnace to heat the house.

I am putting solar panels on this place and probably a battery. I don't know how the battery works. Can it be a backup power supply? The solar system we have has no battery and shuts down when power from the utility goes down.
There is no natural gas and the house is not plumbed for propane. I'm going to have to spend some money on something. It may as well be something that helps pay for itself. Our natural gas generator cost $10,500 to install plus $250 a year for maintenance. It has run maybe 5 hours in 7 years. That's some expensive electricity.

I have one. The other half dropped a pot on it and now only one burner works. Time for gas.