Not planning on it this year or even next... but a colleague said he was thinking of putting an induction hob into his new kitchen ('they're more efficient than gas'). I laughed and said the salesman had obviously seen him coming, and that he should stick to gas - nothing to go wrong, £200 instead of £800 (or whatever), and much easier to control the heat. And then I started googling. And wondered whether I was guilty of short-sightedness.
Of course, 'more efficient' is a meaningless term. My electricity costs me about four times what my gas does, per unit. So if the electric is 85% efficient (for an induction hob) against 50% (gas) it's still considerably cheaper to use gas.
They're supposed to be much faster than gas, too. But they seem to be about 1800-2000W; against a gas ring at 3kw. So I'm not that convinced.
Anyway, what do readers think?
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I switched from gas to induction over two years ago. Will never go back.
Faster, just as controllable, easier to clean. Brilliant. Sod the cost arguments, I couldn't care if it turns out to be a bit more expensive to buy and run than gas. I prefer it and it hasn't bankrupted me yet.
Never want to see a gas or standard electric ring again.
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Been on induction for several years, a bit like diesel, I prefer it, the extra cost, or lack of it, is tiny in the grand scale. I would not go back to gas or non induction electric. Ours is just a sheet of glass with touch controls, a simple wipe keeps it spotless.
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Thirded. And with solar panels, the energy costs are lower (so long as I only have cooked meals when it' s sunny :-) )
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Fourthed.
It is very, very fast to the boil on the front rings with the Powerstufe (Neff) switched on (disables the back ring on that side and ups the power to c. 3.6kW if I recall rightly).
A good chunk of the heat from a 3kW gas ring will shoot round the sides, and it wll also fill your kitchen with water vapour.
Wipes clean, unlike gas., including the touch controls.
You will need pans with bases you can stick a magnet to.
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My IKEA hob has the P setting on some rings too. I'd wondered what the P meant. Now I know. Thanks. With small amounts of water, it boils almost instantly.
Strangely, I've noticed it seems to heat custard faster than any other substance. Starts spitting all over the place in seconds.
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Fifthed! *****
Sold on ours. Easy to clean, quick, controllable + a timer so one can set on a pot of whatever to simmer and forget it.
Ours is a Fagor and was around four hundred quid - paid for, mostly, by an insurance claim on a (legitimately and accidentally ) smashed ordinary electric hob.
Talking of kitchen stuff, in the last four months we have had to replace a kettle, a toaster, an electric oven AND a microwave.
We bought a BEKO all singing, all dancing leccie oven, a Bosch toaster & a Bosch kettle (matching) and last week, a Whirlpool MAX35 microwave - an interesting little bit of kit, which is designed to fit into a corner of a kitchen as the thing is curved at the back and all the controls are on the bottom, not the side. It looks like a small TV!
You do pay heavily for the design as it is a fairly basic machine and cost us just over £100.
Worth it for the extra space it frees up in our very small kitchen, though.
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Well all the people that bought them would say that wouldn't they.
Not faster than gas, not as controllable as gas, more expensive than gas, and with gas you don't have to buy a whole new set of pots and pans. In short really NOT worth the extra expense. (and yes I have used several)
When the professional kitchens start using them maybe the magnetic mob will have a point. They don't so they don't.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 3 Feb 14 at 19:43
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I think you're wrong on this one.
Fair point on the pans mind, but an incidental benefit of having to buy decent sandwich base pans, if you haven't them already, is even heating.
It wouldn't cost me any pride to agree, I didn't have gas available and would have got a gas hob had it been (i.e. I would have agreed with the boss).
I cooked on my daughter's fancy gas hob at Christmas. It seemed to take an age to boil stuff, and controlling the simmer necessitated peering at the flame.
On the induction, there are 18 gradations and I know where to set it for simmer rice or whatever.
I definitely prefer the induction now.
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P.S.
I imagine chefs prefer gas because they are always waving and shaking the pans around over the flames. Induction (or any electric) will allow the pan to cool if it's not in contact with the surface, whereas the flame of gas will still heat the pan if heat have it an inch or two off the hob jiggling it about.
So go for gas if you are a jiggler?
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>> When the professional kitchens
I don't need professional kitchen equipment, I rarely cook for more than 4, and usually only one sitting.
I don't ape what the local professional drivers use, a London Taxis RX4, because it wouldn't suit my domestic needs.
You stick with your gas if you like it, most of us have seen the domestic light though.
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Having used both I would have to agree with Zero. Induction hobs do have lots of advantages and they are certainly a lot better than an electric of halogen hob but for me they don't really give you much "feed back" as to how much heat you are applying.
I like to be able to see a flame. Touch controls are also pretty useless as well when you need to adjust the heat and are in the middle preparing something and you hands are covered in flour.
They are also not very good with woks where they simply don't apply enough heat.
I can understand why a lot of people like the things but I also understand why people who really enjoy cooking usually prefer gas.
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A good chunk of the heat from a 3kW gas ring will shoot round the sides...
Only if your pans are too small. I heat a Bialetti coffee pot on the smallest burner of our gas hob and pick it up by its handle. If heat was escaping up the sides, the handle would get hot.
I'm a cheffy to$$er (sorry, Aunt Mabel) too but I can see the benefit for simmering - cast iron pot and timer would give the benefit of a long cook in a slow oven for much less expenditure of energy. But I couldn't use my Mauviel copper pans on it, so I'd need gas as well. If I ever have the room (and the nine grand to spare) I'll have a combination top - five gas and two induction would be about right.
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I like them. However, unlike a gas hob if you drop something heavy on it you're looking at an expensive repair...
Not that I've done that. Ahem. A "friend"...
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I have Staff. I'll ask them. :-)
Last edited by: MD on Mon 3 Feb 14 at 22:00
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As one who remembers the power cuts in the 1970s and taking into account the predictions for power shortages in the next few years I will not be without a gas hob.
If push comes to shove you can sit in the kitchen with some light and plenty of heat.
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>> As one who remembers the power cuts in the 1970s and taking into account the
>> predictions for power shortages in the next few years I will not be without a
>> gas hob.
>>
I would be surprised if most all electric house owners don't have a plan "B". We have several LED torches, spare batteries for them, a big camping stove with plenty of gas canisters in the shed, and a car, always with plenty of fuel, to provide transport, heat and light.
Oh, and a big stick for those without a plan "B". :-)
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SQ
>> Oh, and a big stick for those without a plan "B". :-)
We have a car, eyeballs, and we simply drive to where the lights are on and find a place to eat.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 09:46
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>> We have a car, eyeballs, and we simply drive to where the lights are on
>> and find a place to eat.
>>
I think that may be covered by the "Car" and "Transport" bits of my post.
A widespread and / or long term outage might be a problem for you though.
Last edited by: Uncle Albert on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 09:26
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>> >> We have a car, eyeballs, and we simply drive to where the lights are
>> on
>> >> and find a place to eat.
>> >>
>>
>> I think that may be covered by the "Car" and "Transport" bits of my post.
>>
>> A widespread and / or long term outage might be a problem for you though.
No problem - I know where you live
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>> No problem - I know where you live
>>
And that is covered by the "Big stick" part of my post. :-)
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>> benefit of a long cook in a slow oven for much less expenditure of energy.
Slow cookers don't take much energy compared to an oven and are pretty cheap to buy.
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Well I'm not going to do my boiled eggs in an oven or a slow cooker, or boil my rice in them either!
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Well, I'm lost now. I don't know if I've got an induction hob or not.
It's black, smooth has touch controls and bleeps at me. It glows red when one of the rings is turned on and it's so easy to clean.
Am I posh or not?
Pat
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>>It's black, smooth has touch controls and bleeps at me
It probably just requires cleaning.
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>> Well, I'm lost now. I don't know if I've got an induction hob or not.
>>
>> It's black, smooth has touch controls and bleeps at me. It glows red when one
>> of the rings is turned on and it's so easy to clean.
Thats not induction, that a radiant ring - probably Halogen.
>> Am I posh or not?
>>
>> Pat
You aint.
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>> It's black, smooth has touch controls and bleeps at me.
That sounds like one of your fantasies!
>> Am I posh or not?
>>
>> Pat
Do you really have to ask? I think you know the answer to that one!
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I dunno, she lives in a classy part of the country, just look at her local Wetherspoons
www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-hippodrome-march
How posh is that!
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 08:20
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D'you get many Hippos in that part of the world these days I wonder?
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oh yes, the fens are full of them.
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>> I dunno, she lives in a classy part of the country, just look at her
>> local Wetherspoons
>>
>>
>> www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-hippodrome-march
>>
>> How posh is that!
>>
She wouldn't take you in there, that's for sure!
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Our induction hob experience is based on 5mths wih one in our rental place while we were looking for this house. Annoying that it didn't work with any of our existing quality pans. Mrs F didn't find it much better than our previous black ceramic hob to use.
Here a medium term plan is to update hob and oven. Going to keep to an elec double oven and gas hob. As mentioned above the gas hob really is a boon in power cuts however rare they migh be.
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Good, I can't be doing with being posh!
Pat
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The things that really put me off the induction hob were two 'benefits' my colleague mentioned that the salesman had used to promote it.
1. "As the rings themselves don't get hot - only the pans - they are much safer if you have children."
I asked him how often his children had burned themselves on his current hob. Or indeed how often he had burned himself on his parents' hob when he was growing up.
2. "You can boil a pan with a ten pound note between the ring and the pan."
That's a really useful feature. I asked him how often he had ever wanted to do that...
The moment a salesman starts feeding you pfd is the moment to imagine that the benefits don't exist.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 19 May 14 at 02:08
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I grew up with an Aga. Burns were par for the course.
Actually, one big advantage is that when you don't pay attention to the cooking on an induction hob and it boils over it's a helluva lot easier to clean off afterwards.
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>>The things that really put me off the induction hob were two 'benefits' my colleague mentioned that the salesman had used to promote it.
When we were looking for a new washing machine a salesman told us "you can rest a glass of wine on this machine when it's spinning and it won't spill a drop".
I replied " if I wanted to rest a glass of wine on something, I'd buy a table".
I was asked to leave!
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 19 May 14 at 02:08
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>> I was asked to leave!
>>
Wait, you don't hold dinner parties around the washing machine?
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 13:11
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BBD will be along in a moment with other washing machine suggestions...
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...the rings themselves don't get hot - only the pans...
...and everything the pan rests on, if it's made of material that conducts heat, as most magnetic materials do. That includes the hob. The same 'safety' argument was used for microwaves and, unless the cooking times are very short, it's moonshine.
The hazard to children using a hob is more to do with height and weight: they may not be tall enough or strong enough to lift heavy pans safely, putting them at risk from pan and contents, regardless of the type of hob.
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If they don't get hot why does mine have a ring hot indication and a supposedly childproof lock?
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They do get hot but only as hot as the pan. Thehob is in effect heated by the pan rather than vice versa for a normal hob. Thus a pan containing boiling water will heat the hob to 100C and the hob beneath pan containing hot fat will be considerably warmer as would the hob beneath a pan of boiling sugar (jam).
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This raises some interesting questions about whether the induction hob will be capable of inflicting serious burns. I suspect not to the same extent that a gas hob can. The material of the induction hob can have very poor thermal conductivity and very little thermal capacity. Hence the ability to transfer heat energy to skin will be very limited. An electric hob will presumably have higher conductivity (so it can work), and the thermal capacity of the heating element. Not so sure about the halogen hobs?
I am not going to volunteer for the touch testing, but have we a serious physics expert?
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We have a Gas Hob. An electric oven and two flat topped woodburners. Deer and rabbits etc. on the farm and bingo. We ain't gonna starve here.
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>> I am not going to volunteer for the touch testing, but have we a serious
>> physics expert?
>>
I am not any sort of expert but I can assure you heat is transferred from the pan to the ceramic surface in amounts capable of inflicting a serious burn. It does not stay hot for long but will boil a spill onto a very recently used ring.
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I don't want to put too much of a downer on induction hobs because I'm sure they have their place and some of the features could be useful (and I don't mean not burning £10 notes).
The magnetic field must be pretty strong and I sometimes wonder if we should be a tad more careful with magic magnetism. We still don't seem to know all about it, but it's use is ubiquitous and getting more common. MagLev trains and induction motors may be found to pose a risk to health in the future.
Pacemaker users are advised to take care around strong magnetic fields.
As I say, I'm not trying to be negative just raising a potential issue. (No electro puns intended !)
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 12:42
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Some train rolling stock produces a very strong magnetic field from the motors. I noticed this when I took my brolly on an outing and the magnetic pull was enough to tilt a brolly hooked over one's hand.
Nothing to the level produced by a hospital MRI scanner though.
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Our induction hob is currently working, cooking a piece of ham. It is halfway through its 75 minute (hob-timed) cooking cycle and I can confirm that I can comfortably touch the hob, right up to the base of the saucepan which is being used!
SWMBO is a trained home economist whose career (a third generation in the Gas Industry) was with the various Gas Boards, as they were then, as a Home Service Advisor. Part of her job was to give cookery demonstrations (one with the late Fanny Craddock - a bitch, I am told!) and she is now wholly sold on the induction hob scenario!
I agree on the benefit of gas for wok cooking, though.
Last edited by: Roger on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 13:56
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>> The magnetic field must be pretty strong and I sometimes wonder if we should be
>> a tad more careful with magic magnetism.
Fair point.
I do try to keep my better watches out of the way. Might be interesting to put an old one on the ring and switch it on, standing well back.
I'm sitting here bathed in radio waves of course, wifi all over the shop and more REIN/EMI/RFI in this house than I know what to do with - there are only about two places where an FM radio will work.
Now I have something else to worry about.
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>> 2. "You can boil a pan with a ten pound note between the ring and
>> the pan."
>>
Money laundering - smoothing out crumpled notes to make them crisp.
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I would never ever under any circumstances cook by electricity.
Ever.
What happens when you get a power cut? You cannot cook, or heat .. so you are cold AND hungry..
With a gas cooker, you can heat water and cook.
We used to get regular winter blackouts lasting hours every winter.. non se far this year. UPS for the PC, gas for cooking.
Just wait for the electricity shortages in 2016-7..
(Unless you have a BIG power generator in a BIG shed and a BIG fuel tank)
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One novelty of induction hobs is that you don't necessarily need a ferrous metal to trigger them (a hob won't switch on, generally, unless there's a compatible pan resting on it).
I discovered this when I realised that the stainless steel plate in my arm that stops my hand falling off was recognised as a pan while cleaning the hob...
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>> I discovered this when I realised that the stainless steel plate in my arm that
>> stops my hand falling off was recognised as a pan while cleaning the hob...
Let me know what flights you are on, so I can avoid.
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>> the stainless steel plate in my arm that stops my hand falling off was recognised as a pan
How can I put this delicately... did it try to start cooking the protoplasmic part of your arm?
I am heartened to find myself not alone as a cyborg in this forum. Perhaps there are others. Was it Iffy who had a steel-plastic hip joint that was giving him gyp?
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 18:10
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My ladyfriend has an induction hotplate and conventional electric oven since there is no gas in her kitchen. She likes induction but that’s what she’s used to. When she comes to our house she has to get used to older technology in the kitchen. We have an oil-fired AGA which I am used to and think is great. I can cook things and place them in the bottom oven where they keep warm to hot but do not cook any further. I find both the hot plate and the cooler plate just right for the simple things that I cook.
It’s also great since in the event of a powercut it keeps running although I think it goes into a lower temperature mode but you can turn it up manually. A sort of car limp-home mode I guess. Last night I cooked pheasant and put it in the bottom oven so it was ready and waiting when she got back.
We rarely get powercuts but we had one on Wednesday evening for about thirty minutes. I had been out playing football so came home muddy and wet. My ladyfriend ran my bath and I was enjoying relaxing in it when the power went off. Fortunately because of the AGA I was still able to have my cup of tea brought up to me and she was still able to scrub my back as usual but by candle-light. It was quite an arousing and uplifting experience.
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Don't give it all away here. Find a publisher!
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screwing in the shower is much easier. Having it off in the bath poses many issues, the least of which is displacement issues.
I'll leave pistons and hydraulic locks to your imagination.....
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Is that what snurging is? Do Jocks have baths though?
Water isn't very erotic stuff. Baby oil is preferred by many. Even that doesn't seem all that necessary.
Doubtless BBD will have a view. Ever had an Esalen massage BBD? California was a weird place when I was there in 1973, a lot of that stuff going on.
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Don't stop now ffs!!! I'm just getting going>>>>>>>
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>> Don't stop now ffs!!! I'm just getting going>>>>>>>
>>
:-)
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"My ladyfriend"...... Aye right.
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Induction hobs - Alanovich
