6 ms·

I never used a gas stove, so I can't compare, but I moved from a regular electric to an induction stove and it's a billion times better. I think it's quite clos

I never used a gas stove, so I can't compare, but I moved from a regular electric to an induction stove and it's a billion times better. I think it's quite close to a gas stove. Maybe someone who actually used both can chime in.

kian 5y ago
I've used both. Induction stoves are magical, and I also love gas. If you were going to electrify, go induction and you might even enjoy the fact that many things get to temperature faster.
Frenchgeek 5y ago
You have more fine control over the heat with gas, but the timer in my cheap induction plate did save my bacon a few times...
- mustafa_pasi 5y ago
  Yes that is true. I wish my induction stove allowed more fine tuning of the temperature as well.
  - dependsontheq 5y ago
    That’s the difference between cheap and expensive induction... I don’t need a Bain Marie because I can control the temperature that fine.
    - chihuahua 5y ago
      That could be useful for tempering chocolate. Have you tried this?
      - dependsontheq 5y ago
        Yes and it works fine, here is a weird Electrolux marketing photo https://www.reviewed.com/ovens/features/induction-101-better-cooking-through-science https://www.reviewed.com/ovens/features/induction-101-better... As weird as that looks I’m quite sure I could do that at home.
      - hansthehorse 5y ago
        Temper chocolate with sous vide and you'll never fail again.
Swizec 5y ago
I have used gas, fire, electric, and modern electric (the glass kind). No induction yet. Modern electric is best for consistency and control. Gas is best for fast heat. (wood) Fire is amazing for smores, great for grilling if you have the time to turn it into a radiant heat source. Old electric (metal plates) sucks and is terrible.
- philips 5y ago
  I bought an Ikea induction to try it out alongside my gas stove. And it seems to heat my cast iron and steel pots and pans just as fast or faster than gas.
z2 5y ago
I mostly use gas. I loved my induction cooktop and its precise and fast heat control when I had it, but the only thing I didn't like was that it required all pots to be flat (I have round woks with only a tiny flat area) and everything had to be compatible with induction, so no clay or aluminum. Even on the traditional gas vs electric debate, the heating power of a gas cooktop isn't guaranteed -- smaller BTU rated stoves take forever to heat with their dinky flames. I once had one that maxed out at around 350F when using a big pan.
gxqoz 5y ago
I've seen several articles recently highlighting problems with gas stoves. Some of these are environmental critiques--gas needs to be retired to deal with climate change. Another critique is around indoor air quality: "On the air-quality front, at least, the evidence against gas stoves is damning. Although cooking food on any stove produces particulate pollutants, burning gas produces nitrogen dioxide, or NO2,, and sometimes also carbon monoxide, according to Brett Singer, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who studies indoor air quality. Brief exposures to air with high concentrations of NO2 can lead to coughing and wheezing for people with asthma or other respiratory issues, and prolonged exposure to the gas can contribute to the development of those conditions, according to the EPA. Homes with gas stoves can contain approximately 50 to 400 percent higher concentrations of NO2 than homes with electric stoves, often resulting in levels of indoor air pollution that would be illegal outdoors, according to a recent report by the Rocky Mountain Institute, a sustainability think tank. “NO2 is invisible and odorless, which is one of the reasons it’s gone so unnoticed,” Brady Seals, a lead author on the report, says." https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/gas-stoves-are-bad-you-and-environment/616700/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/gas-stov...
- analyte123 5y ago
  Indoor air pollution is only a serious problem for unvented gas stoves. Current building codes require venting for gas stoves and any gas stove installed in the 21st century will have a vent.
  - lozenge 5y ago
    People don't always use the vent.
    - cwkoss 5y ago
      Vents should turn on automatically while the burner is ignited and for some amount of time after.
      - 5y ago
KineticLensman 5y ago
I've also used gas, electric (briefly, years ago) and now induction. Induction is superb: very precisely controllable for everything from long slow simmer to nuking. The flat surfaces are much easier to keep extremely clean and also serve as extra space for putting stuff down when a given ring isn't in use. The only sense in which I preferred the old gas system was the controls themselves which were rotary dials rather than long-press surfaces. But I'm used to that now.
odiroot 5y ago
I find making nice and runny scrambled eggs on electricity really hard to do. Actually induction is even harder with the pulses of energy dissipating so quickly.
- bryanlarsen 5y ago
  Kenji's method for creamy scrambled eggs works great on induction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXTnq7srJRs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXTnq7srJRs
- pat2man 5y ago
  You just need a thicker pan.
- cbovis 5y ago
  Try a pot not a pan, cook slowly, and turn often with a silicone spatula. I find this method to be fool proof! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUP7U5vTMM0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUP7U5vTMM0
  - odiroot 5y ago
    I use Gordon's way for years now but I can only make it work on gas. Thanks for the link though :)
mountainboy 5y ago
Induction stoves are the highest EMF polluting device in a typical household. In particular they emit a large magnetic field. source: https://emfcaution.com/home-appliances-emf-readings/#1_Induction_Cooktop https://emfcaution.com/home-appliances-emf-readings/#1_Induc... You can do what you want, but I'll stick with gas and a vent fan, thanks.
- throw0101a 5y ago
  > Induction stoves are the highest EMF polluting device in a typical household. In particular they emit a large magnetic field. And? You say this like the problem with this is obvious / self-evident. (Feel free to get technical: I have an EE.) The author of your source: > My interest in the topic of EMF radiation is two-fold: > I have studied Information Science and worked with router communication, Wi-Fi network, and fiber optics communication during the last 5 years. So I consider myself well-educated on parts of the technical aspects of the problem. > I am married to a wonderful girl who is hyper-sensitive. She can literally feel high levels of EMF radiation on her skin when she is near strong Wi-Fi signals or other sources of electromagnetic fields like induction stoves. * https://emfcaution.com/about-us/ https://emfcaution.com/about-us/
  - IkmoIkmo 5y ago
    And to note, no evidence in double blind tests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivi...
WalterBright 5y ago
I love gas, too, but there's a problem. I installed a CO2 meter in my office. It goes off whenever the stove is used. Going from 600ppm to over a 1000ppm, if I forget to turn on the exhaust fan.
globular-toast 5y ago
It's not close to a gas stove. Not by a long shot. It's just slightly better than normal electric because it doesn't have as much residual heat in the ring. The best thing induction hobs do is boil water, but it's still about half as quick as my kettle.
handrous 5y ago
I've looked into induction, but: 1) It seems like you have to spend a lot to approach even a cheap gas stove, as far as cooking quality; and 2) Even on (say) Reddit threads full of people posting about how great they are, the same people comment a lot about how careful they have to be with the cooktop or how many times they've cracked and ruined(!!!) theirs and had to replace it.
- cameronh90 5y ago
  Gas is cheaper if you already have a gas installation. However nowadays most gas appliances are long gone and heating installations are increasingly switching to heat pumps. At that point, the cost to install gas just for cooking is hard to justify. Indeed that’s the reason most places I’ve lived no longer have a gas stove. The cost of adding a gas supply is just too high for it to be viable.
  - handrous 5y ago
    > Gas is cheaper if you already have a gas installation. However nowadays most gas appliances are long gone and heating installations are increasingly switching to heat pumps. At that point, the cost to install gas just for cooking is hard to justify. This must be very regional. We get about 3-4 months of hot weather, and 3-4 months of cold, and gas furnaces are still installed in most new homes, because it's much more expensive to heat with electricity. No-one's replacing them with electrical furnaces, when replacing furnaces, certainly—no-one wants the extra expense. Gas stoves are uncommon on lower-end houses, becoming more common as you move up, but gas furnaces are basically standard across the board. Heat pumps are sometimes installed, but I've repeatedly been advised by local HVAC folks that, whatever their claimed efficiency, they're not a great idea in our climate. Certainly it gets too cold here to rely only on them.
- mynameisash 5y ago
  I have a ~$50 110v induction cooktop I bought on Amazon. It replaced the same thing from about 7 years before that worked pretty much flawlessly until we melted it on the other range. I never babied it - even took it camping, used it to cook in the backyard, and some very slow beer brewing with it. It's unreasonably awesome for the low price, and it makes cooking really fast and easy.

kian 5y ago

I've used both. Induction stoves are magical, and I also love gas. If you were going to electrify, go induction and you might even enjoy the fact that many things get to temperature faster.

Frenchgeek 5y ago

You have more fine control over the heat with gas, but the timer in my cheap induction plate did save my bacon a few times...

mustafa_pasi 5y ago
Yes that is true. I wish my induction stove allowed more fine tuning of the temperature as well.
- dependsontheq 5y ago
  That’s the difference between cheap and expensive induction... I don’t need a Bain Marie because I can control the temperature that fine.
  - chihuahua 5y ago
    That could be useful for tempering chocolate. Have you tried this?
    - dependsontheq 5y ago
      Yes and it works fine, here is a weird Electrolux marketing photo https://www.reviewed.com/ovens/features/induction-101-better-cooking-through-science https://www.reviewed.com/ovens/features/induction-101-better... As weird as that looks I’m quite sure I could do that at home.
    - hansthehorse 5y ago
      Temper chocolate with sous vide and you'll never fail again.

Swizec 5y ago

I have used gas, fire, electric, and modern electric (the glass kind). No induction yet. Modern electric is best for consistency and control. Gas is best for fast heat. (wood) Fire is amazing for smores, great for grilling if you have the time to turn it into a radiant heat source. Old electric (metal plates) sucks and is terrible.

philips 5y ago
I bought an Ikea induction to try it out alongside my gas stove. And it seems to heat my cast iron and steel pots and pans just as fast or faster than gas.

z2 5y ago

I mostly use gas. I loved my induction cooktop and its precise and fast heat control when I had it, but the only thing I didn't like was that it required all pots to be flat (I have round woks with only a tiny flat area) and everything had to be compatible with induction, so no clay or aluminum. Even on the traditional gas vs electric debate, the heating power of a gas cooktop isn't guaranteed -- smaller BTU rated stoves take forever to heat with their dinky flames. I once had one that maxed out at around 350F when using a big pan.

gxqoz 5y ago

I've seen several articles recently highlighting problems with gas stoves. Some of these are environmental critiques--gas needs to be retired to deal with climate change. Another critique is around indoor air quality: "On the air-quality front, at least, the evidence against gas stoves is damning. Although cooking food on any stove produces particulate pollutants, burning gas produces nitrogen dioxide, or NO2,, and sometimes also carbon monoxide, according to Brett Singer, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who studies indoor air quality. Brief exposures to air with high concentrations of NO2 can lead to coughing and wheezing for people with asthma or other respiratory issues, and prolonged exposure to the gas can contribute to the development of those conditions, according to the EPA. Homes with gas stoves can contain approximately 50 to 400 percent higher concentrations of NO2 than homes with electric stoves, often resulting in levels of indoor air pollution that would be illegal outdoors, according to a recent report by the Rocky Mountain Institute, a sustainability think tank. “NO2 is invisible and odorless, which is one of the reasons it’s gone so unnoticed,” Brady Seals, a lead author on the report, says." https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/gas-stoves-are-bad-you-and-environment/616700/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/gas-stov...

analyte123 5y ago
Indoor air pollution is only a serious problem for unvented gas stoves. Current building codes require venting for gas stoves and any gas stove installed in the 21st century will have a vent.
- lozenge 5y ago
  People don't always use the vent.
  - cwkoss 5y ago
    Vents should turn on automatically while the burner is ignited and for some amount of time after.
    - 5y ago

KineticLensman 5y ago

I've also used gas, electric (briefly, years ago) and now induction. Induction is superb: very precisely controllable for everything from long slow simmer to nuking. The flat surfaces are much easier to keep extremely clean and also serve as extra space for putting stuff down when a given ring isn't in use. The only sense in which I preferred the old gas system was the controls themselves which were rotary dials rather than long-press surfaces. But I'm used to that now.

odiroot 5y ago

I find making nice and runny scrambled eggs on electricity really hard to do. Actually induction is even harder with the pulses of energy dissipating so quickly.

bryanlarsen 5y ago
Kenji's method for creamy scrambled eggs works great on induction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXTnq7srJRs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXTnq7srJRs
pat2man 5y ago
You just need a thicker pan.
cbovis 5y ago
Try a pot not a pan, cook slowly, and turn often with a silicone spatula. I find this method to be fool proof! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUP7U5vTMM0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUP7U5vTMM0
- odiroot 5y ago
  I use Gordon's way for years now but I can only make it work on gas. Thanks for the link though :)

mountainboy 5y ago

Induction stoves are the highest EMF polluting device in a typical household. In particular they emit a large magnetic field. source: https://emfcaution.com/home-appliances-emf-readings/#1_Induction_Cooktop https://emfcaution.com/home-appliances-emf-readings/#1_Induc... You can do what you want, but I'll stick with gas and a vent fan, thanks.

throw0101a 5y ago
> Induction stoves are the highest EMF polluting device in a typical household. In particular they emit a large magnetic field. And? You say this like the problem with this is obvious / self-evident. (Feel free to get technical: I have an EE.) The author of your source: > My interest in the topic of EMF radiation is two-fold: > I have studied Information Science and worked with router communication, Wi-Fi network, and fiber optics communication during the last 5 years. So I consider myself well-educated on parts of the technical aspects of the problem. > I am married to a wonderful girl who is hyper-sensitive. She can literally feel high levels of EMF radiation on her skin when she is near strong Wi-Fi signals or other sources of electromagnetic fields like induction stoves. * https://emfcaution.com/about-us/ https://emfcaution.com/about-us/
- IkmoIkmo 5y ago
  And to note, no evidence in double blind tests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivi...

WalterBright 5y ago

I love gas, too, but there's a problem. I installed a CO2 meter in my office. It goes off whenever the stove is used. Going from 600ppm to over a 1000ppm, if I forget to turn on the exhaust fan.

globular-toast 5y ago

It's not close to a gas stove. Not by a long shot. It's just slightly better than normal electric because it doesn't have as much residual heat in the ring. The best thing induction hobs do is boil water, but it's still about half as quick as my kettle.

handrous 5y ago

I've looked into induction, but: 1) It seems like you have to spend a lot to approach even a cheap gas stove, as far as cooking quality; and 2) Even on (say) Reddit threads full of people posting about how great they are, the same people comment a lot about how careful they have to be with the cooktop or how many times they've cracked and ruined(!!!) theirs and had to replace it.

cameronh90 5y ago
Gas is cheaper if you already have a gas installation. However nowadays most gas appliances are long gone and heating installations are increasingly switching to heat pumps. At that point, the cost to install gas just for cooking is hard to justify. Indeed that’s the reason most places I’ve lived no longer have a gas stove. The cost of adding a gas supply is just too high for it to be viable.
- handrous 5y ago
  > Gas is cheaper if you already have a gas installation. However nowadays most gas appliances are long gone and heating installations are increasingly switching to heat pumps. At that point, the cost to install gas just for cooking is hard to justify. This must be very regional. We get about 3-4 months of hot weather, and 3-4 months of cold, and gas furnaces are still installed in most new homes, because it's much more expensive to heat with electricity. No-one's replacing them with electrical furnaces, when replacing furnaces, certainly—no-one wants the extra expense. Gas stoves are uncommon on lower-end houses, becoming more common as you move up, but gas furnaces are basically standard across the board. Heat pumps are sometimes installed, but I've repeatedly been advised by local HVAC folks that, whatever their claimed efficiency, they're not a great idea in our climate. Certainly it gets too cold here to rely only on them.
mynameisash 5y ago
I have a ~$50 110v induction cooktop I bought on Amazon. It replaced the same thing from about 7 years before that worked pretty much flawlessly until we melted it on the other range. I never babied it - even took it camping, used it to cook in the backyard, and some very slow beer brewing with it. It's unreasonably awesome for the low price, and it makes cooking really fast and easy.