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> Induction stoves are bloody awful and a huge regression from gas, even electric coil You must have used an underpower induction plate. Gas carries a lot of e

> Induction stoves are bloody awful and a huge regression from gas, even electric coil You must have used an underpower induction plate. Gas carries a lot of energy, a standard house power outlet cannot deliver that much energy. Induction stoves with enough power are slightly less reactive than gas, and can only use cookware that is magnetic, but MUCH more energy efficient (you only heat the cookware, not the air around it) and much easier to clean than gas stoves. Electrical coil are so slow to react to heat change that cooking in them is a different skill altogether, and makes some cooking more difficult.

scottlocklin 7y ago
I listed as an aesthetic difference. Maybe some people like induction plates. My experience with them (in rentals, hotels and my present apartment) is they deliver very little heat, slowly. If there is some "not underpowered" variety, they're not used very often, and coil stoves work better. They also scratch easily; adding planned obsolescence to your stove experience. There's nothing scratchable in coils or gas stoves; and I'm pretty sure that's why the latter two have gone away.
- Jommi 7y ago
  I've had induction for over 10 years at my parents place and there are no scratches. I have never even seen scratches on inductions stoves. Compared this to the residue/grease that piles in hard to reach places when using gas, its completely different.
- ppergame 7y ago
  I use a Duxtop 9100MC 1800W induction plate for most of my cooking and it's quite powerful. Settings above 6 are only good for searing steak and boiling water. No scratches after five years. Bought it because the apartment's dopey coil stove takes forever to do anything.
- dorfsmay 7y ago
  Full induction stove tops typically require higher amp line. I'm sure hotels don't put in special cabling just for that, and imagine the same with lots or rental place. As other posters, my experience with mid quality fill induction tops is that they don't scratch (had the same one for over a decade). Needing special cookware was the one thing that made us hesitate between gas and induction when we re-did our kitchen, but we let milk overbook one morning on an electrical coil stove and the decision was made to go with induction while we spend an hour cleaning that stove!
grawprog 7y ago
My problem with induction burners is half the cookware I own doesn't work on them. Turns out, even a lot of stainless steel pots and pans have aluminum bottoms. I also don't like the way the heat changes instantly, or near instantly. It changes the 'feel' of cooking. I don't really know how else to word it. I notice it most when bringing things down to a simmer. The pan cools down instantly instead of slowly cooling so I end up slowly lowering the temperature instead of just dropping it down. They sure are great for boiling water though and I do find they work really well with cast iron pots and pans.
- dfox 7y ago
  It can be just that simply your stainless steel cookware simply is not magnetic as opposed to having aluminium bottom, as about half of all stainless steel alloys are in fact not magnetic. On the other hand it infuriates me that the cookware has to be magnetic in the first place. It should suffice that the cookware is conductive. I suspect that the only reason why it has to be magnetic is that the stove uses the magnetic properties to detect that there is some cookware. (In fact in industrial practice induction heating is mostly used to heat non-magnetic and often even “questionably conductive” materials)
  - grawprog 7y ago
    Magnets stick to the top of the pan but not the bottom, i've checked. There's a dividing line across the middle of the pan separating the bottom from the top. From what i've read, they'll make the bottom of some steel pans aluminum because it'll help the pan heat up quicker than steel alone. >I suspect that the only reason why it has to be magnetic is that the stove uses the magnetic properties to detect that there is some cookware. I could see this. My main experience with an induction burner is with a single burner hot plate, but it seems to be pretty heavily safety oriented. It defaults to a timed mode when you turn it on unless you select otherwise, you can't leave it on high heat for longer than a certain time or it'll shut off automatically regardless of the setting, and it shuts off after about 30 seconds when you take the pan off or when you put non-magnetic cookware on. For something that produces no heat itself and seems to lack many of the fire hazards of normal burners it sure seems designed to ensure you're going to burn your house down.
leetcrew 7y ago
> Induction stoves with enough power are slightly less reactive than gas, and can only use cookware that is magnetic, but MUCH more energy efficient (you only heat the cookware, not the air around it) and much easier to clean than gas stoves. I kinda disagree on the cleaning bit. the induction stoves I'm familiar with have a glass top, which is great for cleaning off bits of food gunk, but terrible for doing stuff like seasoning a cast iron pan. on a gas burner, you just put a thin coat of oil all over the pan and put it on medium-high for 15 minutes or so. if you try this on a glass top, you end up "seasoning" the glass itself with a layer of polymerized fat. it's really difficult to get this off.
- cma 7y ago
  You can season it in the oven, or on an outdoor grill. That's a pretty infrequent thing to need to do.
- malandrew 7y ago
  Aluminum foil should solve that problem. The induction should still work and the polymeruzation should only end up on the pan and the aluminum foil.
- JetSetWilly 7y ago
  Why would you season underneath the pan? The only part you need to season is the part that comes into contact with food?
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    the whole pan needs to be seasoned if you don't want it to rust. the actual cooking surface needs to get "refreshed" more often though. in any case, the same problem occurs if any random drops of fat get sandwiched between the pan and surface, which happens pretty often just from splattering.
- ska 7y ago
  For what it's worth, seasoning in the oven is overall more effective in my experience.
labawi 7y ago
> MUCH more energy efficient (you only heat the cookware, not the air around it) They can be even more efficient, if you put insulation between the glass and your cooking pot. The pot is about 1cm from the coil even when directly on the glass, so additional ~3mm is no issue. I reduced the fan speed due to noise, so I keep 3mm pot-sized cardboard on my induction plate as a precaution, to reduce underside heat loss. Without cardboard, the plate's lowest setting is slightly more than I would prefer for cooking (~100C, minimal boil-off). With the cardboard, I need to periodically turn it on/off or it's just too wild for cooking with cover on. Maybe better designs waste less, but there is significant heat transfer through glass, which is then fanned out the back.

scottlocklin 7y ago

I listed as an aesthetic difference. Maybe some people like induction plates. My experience with them (in rentals, hotels and my present apartment) is they deliver very little heat, slowly. If there is some "not underpowered" variety, they're not used very often, and coil stoves work better. They also scratch easily; adding planned obsolescence to your stove experience. There's nothing scratchable in coils or gas stoves; and I'm pretty sure that's why the latter two have gone away.

Jommi 7y ago
I've had induction for over 10 years at my parents place and there are no scratches. I have never even seen scratches on inductions stoves. Compared this to the residue/grease that piles in hard to reach places when using gas, its completely different.
ppergame 7y ago
I use a Duxtop 9100MC 1800W induction plate for most of my cooking and it's quite powerful. Settings above 6 are only good for searing steak and boiling water. No scratches after five years. Bought it because the apartment's dopey coil stove takes forever to do anything.
dorfsmay 7y ago
Full induction stove tops typically require higher amp line. I'm sure hotels don't put in special cabling just for that, and imagine the same with lots or rental place. As other posters, my experience with mid quality fill induction tops is that they don't scratch (had the same one for over a decade). Needing special cookware was the one thing that made us hesitate between gas and induction when we re-did our kitchen, but we let milk overbook one morning on an electrical coil stove and the decision was made to go with induction while we spend an hour cleaning that stove!

grawprog 7y ago

My problem with induction burners is half the cookware I own doesn't work on them. Turns out, even a lot of stainless steel pots and pans have aluminum bottoms. I also don't like the way the heat changes instantly, or near instantly. It changes the 'feel' of cooking. I don't really know how else to word it. I notice it most when bringing things down to a simmer. The pan cools down instantly instead of slowly cooling so I end up slowly lowering the temperature instead of just dropping it down. They sure are great for boiling water though and I do find they work really well with cast iron pots and pans.

dfox 7y ago
It can be just that simply your stainless steel cookware simply is not magnetic as opposed to having aluminium bottom, as about half of all stainless steel alloys are in fact not magnetic. On the other hand it infuriates me that the cookware has to be magnetic in the first place. It should suffice that the cookware is conductive. I suspect that the only reason why it has to be magnetic is that the stove uses the magnetic properties to detect that there is some cookware. (In fact in industrial practice induction heating is mostly used to heat non-magnetic and often even “questionably conductive” materials)
- grawprog 7y ago
  Magnets stick to the top of the pan but not the bottom, i've checked. There's a dividing line across the middle of the pan separating the bottom from the top. From what i've read, they'll make the bottom of some steel pans aluminum because it'll help the pan heat up quicker than steel alone. >I suspect that the only reason why it has to be magnetic is that the stove uses the magnetic properties to detect that there is some cookware. I could see this. My main experience with an induction burner is with a single burner hot plate, but it seems to be pretty heavily safety oriented. It defaults to a timed mode when you turn it on unless you select otherwise, you can't leave it on high heat for longer than a certain time or it'll shut off automatically regardless of the setting, and it shuts off after about 30 seconds when you take the pan off or when you put non-magnetic cookware on. For something that produces no heat itself and seems to lack many of the fire hazards of normal burners it sure seems designed to ensure you're going to burn your house down.

leetcrew 7y ago

> Induction stoves with enough power are slightly less reactive than gas, and can only use cookware that is magnetic, but MUCH more energy efficient (you only heat the cookware, not the air around it) and much easier to clean than gas stoves. I kinda disagree on the cleaning bit. the induction stoves I'm familiar with have a glass top, which is great for cleaning off bits of food gunk, but terrible for doing stuff like seasoning a cast iron pan. on a gas burner, you just put a thin coat of oil all over the pan and put it on medium-high for 15 minutes or so. if you try this on a glass top, you end up "seasoning" the glass itself with a layer of polymerized fat. it's really difficult to get this off.

cma 7y ago
You can season it in the oven, or on an outdoor grill. That's a pretty infrequent thing to need to do.
malandrew 7y ago
Aluminum foil should solve that problem. The induction should still work and the polymeruzation should only end up on the pan and the aluminum foil.
JetSetWilly 7y ago
Why would you season underneath the pan? The only part you need to season is the part that comes into contact with food?
- leetcrew 7y ago
  the whole pan needs to be seasoned if you don't want it to rust. the actual cooking surface needs to get "refreshed" more often though. in any case, the same problem occurs if any random drops of fat get sandwiched between the pan and surface, which happens pretty often just from splattering.
ska 7y ago
For what it's worth, seasoning in the oven is overall more effective in my experience.

labawi 7y ago

> MUCH more energy efficient (you only heat the cookware, not the air around it) They can be even more efficient, if you put insulation between the glass and your cooking pot. The pot is about 1cm from the coil even when directly on the glass, so additional ~3mm is no issue. I reduced the fan speed due to noise, so I keep 3mm pot-sized cardboard on my induction plate as a precaution, to reduce underside heat loss. Without cardboard, the plate's lowest setting is slightly more than I would prefer for cooking (~100C, minimal boil-off). With the cardboard, I need to periodically turn it on/off or it's just too wild for cooking with cover on. Maybe better designs waste less, but there is significant heat transfer through glass, which is then fanned out the back.