Use an induction cooktop anyone? Anyone?

[wdfifteen]

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?

[Chocaholic]

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.

[Cajundaddy]

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

[masraum]

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.

[JavaBrewer]

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!

[908/930]

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.

[vash]

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.

[red 928]

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.

[908/930]

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

[vash]

Originally Posted by 908/930

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.

[beepbeep]

...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.

[mjohnson]

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.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by john70t

Induction stoves usually have a glass countertop.

Slam a heavy cast iron pan down full of pasta and liquid...~30lbs....it breaks....and shatters.

Stove kaput.
No hot cooking anymore. You starve or eat cold foods until replacement stove arrives three weeks later from overseas. Maybe
Stove kaput.

Bad design.

Unless I'm missing something here.

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

[masraum]

Originally Posted by beepbeep

...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.

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.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by masraum

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

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.

[G50]

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).

[onewhippedpuppy]

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.

[NYPorsche]

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.

[wdfifteen]

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.

[911 Rod]

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