14 ms·

To anyone considering switching to an induction hob and hearing anecdotal stories of how some people don’t think they are “as hot” or “slower” than gas. I guara

To anyone considering switching to an induction hob and hearing anecdotal stories of how some people don’t think they are “as hot” or “slower” than gas. I guarantee these are all related to the pans being used. It is of upmost importance that you get a really good set of pans “designed” for induction. We have found “tri-ply” stainless steel pans work really well, better than on gas. Cast iron is also brilliant, I inherited loads of them. We have aluminium none stick frying pans with solid stainless steel bases, they work well. Aluminium pans without a solid steel base are absolutely crap on induction - even the ones that say they work. Avoid them. If you have any pans with a slightly curved base they won’t work. And you will have to get a Wok with a flat bottom designed specifically for induction. Make sure you read reviews before you purchase any new pans, and if you are changing your hob to an induction one be prepared for replacing your pans - budget to spend more on them than the hob even. We are absolutely converted to induction, love it and will never go back. Planning to one day get rid of the gas boiler too.

zwily 5y ago
When we got a nice induction stove we spend years showing off to friends how it could boil a pot of water in about 15 seconds. But the thing we like most about it is how easy it is to clean. :)
mizzao 5y ago
How do I use my trusty wok on an induction stove? On gas we have a wok ring that just sits on top of the burner.
- arka2147483647 5y ago
  A good point. Alot of depends on the style of cooking you do, and how heat is used in that cooking style. I personally dont even have a wok, so the idea would never occur to me.
- samwillis 5y ago
  (Just edited my comment to mention woks, sorry) You would need to get a special flat bottom Wok designed for induction. I believe there are also some induction woks that come with a special plate or ring you place them on to make them work and still have a curved bottom, I have no experience of them.
  - asteroidp 5y ago
    The ones with the ring are junk
    - deleted 5y ago
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- m_eiman 5y ago
  There are wok pans designed for induction, eg https://www.electrolux.se/accessories/accessories/cooking-accessories/wok/infi-wok/ https://www.electrolux.se/accessories/accessories/cooking-ac...
  - samwillis 5y ago
    That looks fascinating, I would love to know the physics of that ring and how it works. I had always assumed you needed a whole solid ferrous ring touching the glass plate whereas this is only touching in three places. It must then be electrically conducting from the ring to the Wok to induct the eddy current as those three points wouldn’t be enough to conduct heat. Alternatively maybe it’s just relying on inducting directly to the Wok bottom but the surface area touching the glass plate is very small so I can’t see it working well.
    - zrail 5y ago
      Induction works with magnets. The electromagnets in the stove induct energy into the pan and that's what heats up. The ring does three things (probably). Keeps the wok supported, transfers heat to the pan, and tricks the sensors in the stove into thinking there's a flat pan on it.
- IdoRA 5y ago
  If you’re willing to use a cast iron wok, Lodge makes one with a flat bottom on the outside but curved on the inside. You have to make some major technique concessions, but it will work on induction, and if you use a butane torch while flipping food you can almost get a wok hei going. This has sort of been my experience with induction beyond woks too, it often requires technique and equipment concessions. Great for boiling water and sautéing though. The tops also have durability/longevity issues when compared to gas and that isn’t usually acknowledged.
Aaargh20318 5y ago
> you will have to get a Wok with a flat bottom If it has a flat bottom, then it’s not a wok. Personally, I hate cooking on induction. My parent have it and it never worked for me. I need to see/hear the gas to be able to control the heat properly. Once they shut off the gas lines due to the energy transition, I’m going to run a gas pipe from the kitchen to my basement and just buy it in canisters.
- samwillis 5y ago
  True, a flat bottom means it isn’t a “classic” Wok but we find them just as usable. I think there are probably still UX problems to be solved with Induction, the visual feedback on gas is better. We fortunately have knobs on ours (I hate the touch buttons on some).
- zrail 5y ago
  > Once they shut off the gas lines due to the energy transition, This won't happen. What will happen instead is that the gas to cook your omelette in the morning will cost three times more than going to a restaurant would and you'll make your own decision about shutting down your gas lines.
  - adrianN 5y ago
    Uh, no. You can make Methane from CO2 and electricity with something like 70% efficiency. So while gas will become a lot more expensive, it won't become too expensive to use it for cooking. You don't need all that much gas for cooking.
    - ashtonkem 5y ago
      You need to factor in the fact that in many areas natural gas is literally a waste byproduct of the oil extraction process, which is why it’s cheap enough for us to cook with. It’s not just that we would need to make methane at 70% efficiency, it’s that we’d be transitioning from something that’s artificially cheap to something that must be made special purpose just for cooking right as alternatives are getting cheaper. And then there’s the distribution network. That’s not free to maintain, and in a world where better electric options are available municipalities are going to want to stop paying for it. This is the same thing I say to petrol heads about gas. Sure, there might be some left for enthusiasts. But enthusiasts alone will not be able to afford the massive economies of scale that make that consumption anything close to affordable.
dismalpedigree 5y ago
Completely agree. Switched to induction cooktop 9 months ago. Aside from the health benefits (a nice bonus), we also find the cooking experience to be far superior over a gas cooktop.
forty 5y ago
I love induction and I hate gas. But aren't there possible effects of induction on health?
- maxwell86 5y ago
  What kind of effects?
  - lrem 5y ago
    Denaturation of proteins? ;)
  - willis936 5y ago
    Magic, but the "jury's still out".
- aqme28 5y ago
  Do you mean effects of gas on health? Those are well documented.
- lumb63 5y ago
  EMFs (such as from induction cooktops) absolutely have an impact on health. A study I cited in another comment indicates that a compliant induction cooktop emits 16x the amount on non-ionizing radiation that’s considered safe.
  - BenjiWiebe 5y ago
    At what frequency? At lower frequencies, you can go higher power, as more of the radiation passes through you instead of warming you up.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- willis936 5y ago
  You mean the (non-existent) health effects of non-ionizing radiation exposure? The damage feels like heat at lower frequencies (sitting in front of a fire oh no!) and a sizzle at higher frequencies (sitting in the sun oh no!). Induction stovetops emit orders of magnitude less than a fire and nothing at higher frequencies. Essentially: they get hot. The best advice I can give: if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/nonionizing_radiation.html https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/nonionizing_radiation.htm...
mhh__ 5y ago
The thing with gas for me at least isn't that the heat is better or anything like that but that I feel like I can control the application of the heat better. You can move the pan around heat-surface (or an isotherm, technically) in 3D whereas with induction (I imagine it's better if you spend enough) for the same price it seems harder to get that feel. Definitely an electric oven though.
- laumars 5y ago
  I thought that when I first switched to induction. Then I realised that induction responds instantly to any changes you set in temperature so you don’t need to move the pan about in 3D space, just leave the pan on the stove and drop the heat right down. I’m now back on gas after a house move and I miss induction so much.
  - mhh__ 5y ago
    I can believe it, maybe I've just only used bad induction.
    - samwillis 5y ago
      Or more likely bad pans ;-)
    - gibspaulding 5y ago
      My wife and I have a $200 two burner induction cooktop (Duxtop) and it definitely leaves a bit to be desired. You can tell it tries to keep temperature as conditions change, but it definitely struggles, and the adjustment is pretty coarse. I imagine $1500 Breville one someone else mentioned here is a different experience!
      - laumars 5y ago
        I bought a cheap (£200) 4 plate induction hob around 10 years and it worked really well most of the time (it only struggled if you tried to have all 4 plates on high temperatures so you’d have to think ahead a little if doing a roast). But if 1 to 3 plates running concurrently it was really reliable. So you don’t need to buy top end to get something useable.
frobozz 5y ago
I moved from induction to gas recently (not by choice). Anecdotally, the gas feels slower. It seems to take an age to bring things up to the boil compared to my old induction. Also, cleaning up after spills is a pain compared to a glass surface.
- deleted 5y ago
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- iamthemalto 5y ago
  Well the gas feeling slower to bringing things to a boil is to be expected; induction is much much much quicker at boiling things (~10 mins on gas vs ~2-3 mins using induction).
- amluto 5y ago
  You can mitigate one of these problems with a Turbopot :)
oxymoran 5y ago
Yes the stainless steel tri ply pans on an electric stove are pretty awesome. I haven’t really cooked on a gas stove to compare though. Some people think stainless steel pans are worse/cheaper than non stick, but that is not the case. Chefs use stainless steel all the time and prefer it. But the secret is learning to deglaze the pan to free anything stuck to the bottom of the pan in order to make cleaning magnitudes easier.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  Restaurants also discard things at a good clip. Stuff that isn't reactive can be well cleaned using ammonia vapor (which will break down grease and burned on grease and so on). Just put it in a bag or other container with some ammonia (no need to submerge, it's the vapor that does the work) and let it sit for a while.
KennyBlanken 5y ago
I have an induction cooktop and my cast iron pans have been terrible. Cast iron has lousy heat conduction and induction stoves do not have even distribution. They negate a lot of the benefits of induction, which is the ability to put a massive amount of heat into the pan very quickly. High carbon steel pans (the kind used by kitchen services) have been brilliant. Every time I've seen an induction cooktop in use in a commercial service (for example, at my work place cafeteria at the "rice meal" station) they use high carbon steel pans. The biggest problem: no cooking during power outages, which happen around 2-3x a year.
- rsfern 5y ago
  > I have an induction cooktop and my cast iron pans have been terrible. Cast iron has lousy heat conduction and induction stoves do not have even distribution. That’s interesting, can you compare the heat distribution problem to resistive? I have a gas range now, but when I had resistive I would preheat my cast iron in the oven for nice uniform heat distribution
- samwillis 5y ago
  Surprised to hear you have had a bad experience. We use stainless still pans for all the normal sized pans. It’s large pots/casserole dishes/Dutch ovens we have in cast iron and they work really well. We also have an cast iron skillet that is great, gets very hot very quickly. All our cast iron is Le Creuset.
- prometheus76 5y ago
  "Cast iron" and "high carbon steel" are the same thing by different names, so I'm a little confused by your comment.
  - rsfern 5y ago
    They’re not quite the same, cast iron generally has a higher carbon composition range and a different phase distribution. Cast iron has a much lower thermal conductivity
    - 5y ago
aczerepinski 5y ago
I wasn’t really aware of induction until the house I bought this year happened to have it. It’s amazing. I never want anything else.
faeriechangling 5y ago
The issue with induction isn’t speed, not even close. The issue relative to has is the evenness of the heat distribution over a large surface area. Gas isn’t even remotely worth the downsides but there’s a number of dishes I can make that are easier and higher quality to do on gas, like if I’m trying to sear a large pan full of meat.
- saiya-jin 5y ago
  You just need an induction hob that has large induction surface (or even +-the whole surface), not usual circles of varying sizes, in case you have oversized pans. From physics point of view the way you raise temperature of pan has 0 effect on what's happening in the pan.
  - faeriechangling 5y ago
    I’ve considered that should be perfectly possible in theory but in practice it seems pretty rare to see an induction stove with a coil larger than an 8” diameter which simply won’t really effectively work for a 12” frypan. By comparison it’s relatively easy to find a low to mid end gas burner that can evenly heat a 12” frypan or a wok or what have you. I think part of the reason why is the appliance being bottlenecked by its standardized electrical power source, but I also think it’s just a matter of manufacturers prioritizing cost and customers not understanding the issue. The only real solutions to this issue I could find are smaller and thicker pans, and the use of things like ovens and barbecues.
  - leetcrew 5y ago
    > From physics point of view the way you raise temperature of pan has 0 effect on what's happening in the pan. in a spherical cow sense, yeah, heat is heat. but the distribution of that heat is going to depend a lot on the implementation, and can make a big difference for searing meats or making delicate sauces. radiant glasstops are really good at even heating, but only if the bottom of your pan is exactly the same size as the burner. the edge of the bottom ends up a little cooler, because energy is radiated out from the unheated sides, but not dramatically so. I've found gas ranges to be pretty terrible for even heating. you get a hot ring where the most intense part of each flame touches the bottom, but a significantly cooler center. only the most expensive gas ranges come close to the evenness of a pedestrian glasstop. main benefit of these is you can effectively change the size of the burner, so nice if you have a lot of odd-sized pans. I haven't had a chance to try an induction range myself, but I've read a lot of ymmv type posts on the internet. the gist seems to be that the tech itself is very good, but the outcome depends on the (electical) conductivity of the pan itself. which makes sense to me, at least in a handwavy sort of way. I wouldn't expect every pan to heat itself perfectly evenly in response to a uniform magnetic field.
ectopod 5y ago
Completely agree. Also, get a hob with physical knobs rather than touch controls. Not as pretty but much less frustrating.
amluto 5y ago
I recently bought a Polyscience/Breville Control Freak, and I’m increasingly convinced this is the future. It heats dramatically faster than a supposedly high end gas stove I compared it to despite being a lowly 1.6kW or so device. (Gas stoves are stupendously inefficient. That 15kBTU/hr stove may well deliver 15kBTU/hr to the air but not to your pan.). It heats quite evenly. And best of all, it has closed loop temperature control. Want to sauté some onions? Just do it and watch the onions — there is no longer a need to fiddle with a knob to keep the pan at the right temperature. I wish this type of functionality was more widely available. There is absolutely no need for devices like this to be expensive.
- jtbayly 5y ago
  Whoah! But it is expensive! $1500 for one pan at a time?!?
  - gibspaulding 5y ago
    I'm not sure what you're looking at, but my wife and I have a mix of cast iron and some stainless steel that has been great and I don't think we paid more than $50 for any one piece.
    - sidewndr46 5y ago
      I believe the question is asking about the induction cooktop. Which indeed does seem to cost about $1500.
    - greedo 5y ago
      He's referencing the induction cooktop. It's $1499 MSRP.
      - gibspaulding 5y ago
        Ahh that makes sense! For what it's worth, the cooktop we're using was $200. It is a bit rubbish: coil whine and the temp control is pretty coarse, but serviceable. I haven't looked, but I'd guess there's a sensible middle ground somewhere in between!
eyeball 5y ago
Flat bottom wok doesn’t really work. You lose the heat going up the sides. I bought one of those butane table top burners just for wok use. Induction is great for everything else.
na85 5y ago
I've never been in a kitchen with induction that didn't have coil whine. Even really fancy high five-figure induction cooktops I can hear the whine. I could never have that in my kitchen :(
detritus 5y ago
I was resoundingly in the 'induction hobs are crap' camp until this NYE when we found ourselves staying away in the countryside in a place with a basic plug-in induction hob. I sighed and presumed my Absolutely Necessary morning tea would take until the heat death of the universe to boil, but nup, it was done in significantly less time than it takes me at home, when using gas. If a crappy plug-in hob can boil water that quickly, it can cook that quickly too. Next move I'm getting that sorted out - no more gas! (Mind you, companies are beginning trials here in the UK mixing Hydrogen with the gas supply, so there's a part of me that still wonders at the future benefit/end to end efficiency).
- kibwen 5y ago
  > there's a part of me that still wonders at the future benefit/end to end efficiency The future is in completely abandoning residential gas infrastructure, which will have immense benefits in allowing us to stop maintaining and expanding millions and millions of miles of leaky underground pipes. No amount of tweaking the mixture will change the fact that electricity is broadly useful for everything, and that gas is only useful for a small number of things that are quickly being overtaken by electricity. Hell, if we had devices that could instantly summon sufficient quantities of water from thin air, I'd get rid of my water hookup, too, even though water lines aren't nearly as bad for the atmosphere as gas lines are.
  - detritus 5y ago
    Of course, but I'm more thinking about near to mid term, where a heck of a lot of domestic heating and cooking infrastructure has been built upon the assumption of gas, so is an incumbent sunk cost. All new builds and renovations should be encouraged to deploy full-electric. - ed: Sorry, I should've specified - I meant 'in the UK' for the large amount of existing gas infrastructure.
  - yourapostasy 5y ago
    > The future is in completely abandoning residential gas infrastructure... Gas tankless water heaters are still sometimes a cost-efficient per-therm choice if you are already plumbed for gas [1] [2]. I've yet to find a calculator that figures the TCO (including costs that are externalized today, like pipe losses to the environment) between tankless water heaters using natural gas, propane, resistive electric, induction electric, and heat pump versions of those types, though. There are many different situations, so what is overall systemically efficient in one situation will not be suitable for another. It would come as little surprise to most HN readers that I have a number of very expensive resistive air heaters that we call computers laying around for my work, so in my particular situation, a heat pump water heater works extremely well. However, I'm still unsure of the TCO after all the maintenance and repair is accounted for over the decades I will own the heat pump as it is undeniably more complex than more common water heaters. So I will give a nod to resistive water heaters as a likely good TCO choice in most situations after all costs are said and done [3]. [1] https://www.ruud.com/products/water-heaters/tankless-water-heaters/energy_calculator/ https://www.ruud.com/products/water-heaters/tankless-water-h... [2] https://www.waterheaterleakinginfo.com/gas-vs-electric/ https://www.waterheaterleakinginfo.com/gas-vs-electric/ [3] https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/is-induction-heating-more-efficient-than-resistance-heating-for-a-water-heater.982621/ https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/is-induction-heating-m...
beanjuiceII 5y ago
I've always had gas, and we moved into our new home which has electric.. After using it I don't understand the fuss..I love it and will never go back!
cooperadymas 5y ago
"To anybody concerned about anecdotal evidence, here's my anecdotal evidence." Snideness aside, the fact that you have to concern yourself with what pans you buy for an induction stove is enough reason for many to not buy one. You can no longer buy any pan at a store, you must do your research first. Throw out my current pans and buy even more expensive ones? You're not exactly selling me the induction here.
- zeendo 5y ago
  FWIW - cast iron is incredibly cheap.
  - yourapostasy 5y ago
    Even cheaper if you buy from a thrift store and put in some elbow grease. If you're an especially tool- and skill-rich hacker, then arc/stick welding with cast iron welding sticks can repair even lost causes. Of course, it isn't "cheap" by then, but any excuse to scratch that hacker/maker itch is fine by me.
    - cooperadymas 5y ago
      I'm not really sure what welding has to do with any of this. A cast iron pan at Wal-Mart is roughly the same price as a non-stick skillet and will outlast it by decades. Even if you don't want the Wal-Mart brand, you can buy Lodge, which is respected enough even by cast iron fanatics, and is cheaper even than mid range non stick or aluminum/steel skillets.
      - yourapostasy 5y ago
        > I'm not really sure what welding has to do with any of this. If one is willing to perform possible repairs, they can prevent tossing out the original embedded energy cost of manufacturing and delivering the original cast iron product (and many other items), which if one is so inclined, makes choosing the non-gas stove option and re-gearing for it (assuming they have say, only ceramic cookware) for ecological reasons as one decision factor an even more energy-thrifty choice. We throw away an astonishing amount of goods that in past generations would be repaired, because we heavily externalize the costs of doing so, since we're such a poor civilization in Banks' The Culture sense. Like externalizing the pipeline leak costs of supporting the gas infrastructure that sits behind the gas stove.
duped 5y ago
My issue is not the pans, it's using duty cycle to control the amount of energy added. I can't effectively pan fry anything without using cast iron or enough(read: too much) oil to retain some heat mass, because either it gets too hot and past the smoke point of the oil or too low and the food will cool off between heating cycles. The other slight annoyance is coil whine. Absolutely unmatched for boiling water, and I'm very happy using it with a cast iron dutch oven for slow cooking and soups or stews.
- darrylb42 5y ago
  Sounds like you have a glass top electric coil stove, not induction. Induction has a very stable fast heat, cooks like gas. Glass top electric are the one that turn on for 10 seconds off for 30, never the right temp. I replaced a glass top stove with an induction one last year, couldn't be happier. I can actually fry eggs now.
  - duped 5y ago
    It is a tabletop induction burner, not a glass top electric coil. Its cycle frequency is about 60Hz, I can time it by the coil whine.
    - jwong_ 5y ago
      Low quality ones generally have that problem due to using PWM to control the temperature. I've used cheaper and more expensive ones, and the more expensive ones have much more fine control of temperature, and not just a toggle between on and off.
pkulak 5y ago
My favorite way to show people how my induction stove works is to put some cold water in a kettle, pop it on a "burner", then turn it to "power boost". You can instantly see tiny bubbles forming on the bottom, and 20 seconds later it's at a rolling boil so intense you fear it may explode. I have no idea how anyone can say induction is slower than gas. And on the other end, low will slowly melt chocolate or heat a hollandaise without needing to steam a mixing bowl.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- lultimouomo 5y ago
  All the induction stoves I've tried, here in the EU, are great at boiling one pot of water. They suck at everything else. E.g. want to boil two pots of water in parallel? No can do - after warming up seemingly forever you will have one pot boiling for 5 seconds, then stopping and letting the other pot boil for five seconds, and so on. I want to love induction - no gas pipes, so much easier to clean, so much better for air quality - but the regular stuff you can buy in stores just isn't there yet. Just the fact that they use a plug which can carry at most 3kW should be enough proof that you cannot use them for serious cooking.
  - pkulak 5y ago
    Holy smokes, if you folks across the pond plug your stoves into 3kw, you indeed should never use that for cooking. The plug behind my stove can carry 12, about 10 continuous. Now, about your issue with parallel cooking: you indeed can not send Max Power to two pots if they are on the same rail. However, even the cheapest ranges I've ever seen have 4 burners, two rails. Which means you _could_ boil two pots of water, as long as you use the correct two burners. You learn pretty quickly which burners share a rail. I'd imagine the really nice ones have a transformer per burner so it's never an issue. And as long as you're not trying to send boil-in-20-seconds kind of power, you can use all the burners without noticing anything.
  - BillinghamJ 5y ago
    So get one which is hard wired on a 32A fuse...? 3kW is on the low end for an induction hob
bjoli 5y ago
I love induction. I did however struggle with my carbon steel pan. It just wouldn't season properly. I followed the instructions from the manufacturer, online guides. You name it. The thing would start shedding its coat after a while. It was a mess. Then we moved to a house with an old electric stove. The pans turned to pure magic. More non-stick than our teflon pans. Then we moved again to a place with an induction stove and bam: the pans are shit again. It is obviously me, of course. Heat is heat. But something about induction makes me unable to use carbon steel.
randomswede 5y ago
Due to a recent-ish move, I have gone from ~20 years with a gas cooker to induction (with about 6 months of halogen in-between). Induction is pretty good. It lacks the visceral feedback of "how hard am I driving this specific ring/cooking spot right now" that a gas flame has. But, it probably offers more precision. Not tried a wok, yet, though.
sandos 5y ago
Slightly curved _undersides_ works really well on induction in my opinion. Since its contactless its better than the old cast-iron stovetops at least for rounded pans. :)

zwily 5y ago

When we got a nice induction stove we spend years showing off to friends how it could boil a pot of water in about 15 seconds. But the thing we like most about it is how easy it is to clean. :)

mizzao 5y ago

How do I use my trusty wok on an induction stove? On gas we have a wok ring that just sits on top of the burner.

arka2147483647 5y ago
A good point. Alot of depends on the style of cooking you do, and how heat is used in that cooking style. I personally dont even have a wok, so the idea would never occur to me.
samwillis 5y ago
(Just edited my comment to mention woks, sorry) You would need to get a special flat bottom Wok designed for induction. I believe there are also some induction woks that come with a special plate or ring you place them on to make them work and still have a curved bottom, I have no experience of them.
- asteroidp 5y ago
  The ones with the ring are junk
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
m_eiman 5y ago
There are wok pans designed for induction, eg https://www.electrolux.se/accessories/accessories/cooking-accessories/wok/infi-wok/ https://www.electrolux.se/accessories/accessories/cooking-ac...
- samwillis 5y ago
  That looks fascinating, I would love to know the physics of that ring and how it works. I had always assumed you needed a whole solid ferrous ring touching the glass plate whereas this is only touching in three places. It must then be electrically conducting from the ring to the Wok to induct the eddy current as those three points wouldn’t be enough to conduct heat. Alternatively maybe it’s just relying on inducting directly to the Wok bottom but the surface area touching the glass plate is very small so I can’t see it working well.
  - zrail 5y ago
    Induction works with magnets. The electromagnets in the stove induct energy into the pan and that's what heats up. The ring does three things (probably). Keeps the wok supported, transfers heat to the pan, and tricks the sensors in the stove into thinking there's a flat pan on it.
IdoRA 5y ago
If you’re willing to use a cast iron wok, Lodge makes one with a flat bottom on the outside but curved on the inside. You have to make some major technique concessions, but it will work on induction, and if you use a butane torch while flipping food you can almost get a wok hei going. This has sort of been my experience with induction beyond woks too, it often requires technique and equipment concessions. Great for boiling water and sautéing though. The tops also have durability/longevity issues when compared to gas and that isn’t usually acknowledged.

Aaargh20318 5y ago

> you will have to get a Wok with a flat bottom If it has a flat bottom, then it’s not a wok. Personally, I hate cooking on induction. My parent have it and it never worked for me. I need to see/hear the gas to be able to control the heat properly. Once they shut off the gas lines due to the energy transition, I’m going to run a gas pipe from the kitchen to my basement and just buy it in canisters.

samwillis 5y ago
True, a flat bottom means it isn’t a “classic” Wok but we find them just as usable. I think there are probably still UX problems to be solved with Induction, the visual feedback on gas is better. We fortunately have knobs on ours (I hate the touch buttons on some).
zrail 5y ago
> Once they shut off the gas lines due to the energy transition, This won't happen. What will happen instead is that the gas to cook your omelette in the morning will cost three times more than going to a restaurant would and you'll make your own decision about shutting down your gas lines.
- adrianN 5y ago
  Uh, no. You can make Methane from CO2 and electricity with something like 70% efficiency. So while gas will become a lot more expensive, it won't become too expensive to use it for cooking. You don't need all that much gas for cooking.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    You need to factor in the fact that in many areas natural gas is literally a waste byproduct of the oil extraction process, which is why it’s cheap enough for us to cook with. It’s not just that we would need to make methane at 70% efficiency, it’s that we’d be transitioning from something that’s artificially cheap to something that must be made special purpose just for cooking right as alternatives are getting cheaper. And then there’s the distribution network. That’s not free to maintain, and in a world where better electric options are available municipalities are going to want to stop paying for it. This is the same thing I say to petrol heads about gas. Sure, there might be some left for enthusiasts. But enthusiasts alone will not be able to afford the massive economies of scale that make that consumption anything close to affordable.

dismalpedigree 5y ago

Completely agree. Switched to induction cooktop 9 months ago. Aside from the health benefits (a nice bonus), we also find the cooking experience to be far superior over a gas cooktop.

forty 5y ago

I love induction and I hate gas. But aren't there possible effects of induction on health?

maxwell86 5y ago
What kind of effects?
- lrem 5y ago
  Denaturation of proteins? ;)
- willis936 5y ago
  Magic, but the "jury's still out".
aqme28 5y ago
Do you mean effects of gas on health? Those are well documented.
lumb63 5y ago
EMFs (such as from induction cooktops) absolutely have an impact on health. A study I cited in another comment indicates that a compliant induction cooktop emits 16x the amount on non-ionizing radiation that’s considered safe.
- BenjiWiebe 5y ago
  At what frequency? At lower frequencies, you can go higher power, as more of the radiation passes through you instead of warming you up.
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willis936 5y ago
You mean the (non-existent) health effects of non-ionizing radiation exposure? The damage feels like heat at lower frequencies (sitting in front of a fire oh no!) and a sizzle at higher frequencies (sitting in the sun oh no!). Induction stovetops emit orders of magnitude less than a fire and nothing at higher frequencies. Essentially: they get hot. The best advice I can give: if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/nonionizing_radiation.html https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/nonionizing_radiation.htm...

mhh__ 5y ago

The thing with gas for me at least isn't that the heat is better or anything like that but that I feel like I can control the application of the heat better. You can move the pan around heat-surface (or an isotherm, technically) in 3D whereas with induction (I imagine it's better if you spend enough) for the same price it seems harder to get that feel. Definitely an electric oven though.

laumars 5y ago
I thought that when I first switched to induction. Then I realised that induction responds instantly to any changes you set in temperature so you don’t need to move the pan about in 3D space, just leave the pan on the stove and drop the heat right down. I’m now back on gas after a house move and I miss induction so much.
- mhh__ 5y ago
  I can believe it, maybe I've just only used bad induction.
  - samwillis 5y ago
    Or more likely bad pans ;-)
  - gibspaulding 5y ago
    My wife and I have a $200 two burner induction cooktop (Duxtop) and it definitely leaves a bit to be desired. You can tell it tries to keep temperature as conditions change, but it definitely struggles, and the adjustment is pretty coarse. I imagine $1500 Breville one someone else mentioned here is a different experience!
    - laumars 5y ago
      I bought a cheap (£200) 4 plate induction hob around 10 years and it worked really well most of the time (it only struggled if you tried to have all 4 plates on high temperatures so you’d have to think ahead a little if doing a roast). But if 1 to 3 plates running concurrently it was really reliable. So you don’t need to buy top end to get something useable.

frobozz 5y ago

I moved from induction to gas recently (not by choice). Anecdotally, the gas feels slower. It seems to take an age to bring things up to the boil compared to my old induction. Also, cleaning up after spills is a pain compared to a glass surface.

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iamthemalto 5y ago
Well the gas feeling slower to bringing things to a boil is to be expected; induction is much much much quicker at boiling things (~10 mins on gas vs ~2-3 mins using induction).
amluto 5y ago
You can mitigate one of these problems with a Turbopot :)

oxymoran 5y ago

Yes the stainless steel tri ply pans on an electric stove are pretty awesome. I haven’t really cooked on a gas stove to compare though. Some people think stainless steel pans are worse/cheaper than non stick, but that is not the case. Chefs use stainless steel all the time and prefer it. But the secret is learning to deglaze the pan to free anything stuck to the bottom of the pan in order to make cleaning magnitudes easier.

maxerickson 5y ago
Restaurants also discard things at a good clip. Stuff that isn't reactive can be well cleaned using ammonia vapor (which will break down grease and burned on grease and so on). Just put it in a bag or other container with some ammonia (no need to submerge, it's the vapor that does the work) and let it sit for a while.

KennyBlanken 5y ago

I have an induction cooktop and my cast iron pans have been terrible. Cast iron has lousy heat conduction and induction stoves do not have even distribution. They negate a lot of the benefits of induction, which is the ability to put a massive amount of heat into the pan very quickly. High carbon steel pans (the kind used by kitchen services) have been brilliant. Every time I've seen an induction cooktop in use in a commercial service (for example, at my work place cafeteria at the "rice meal" station) they use high carbon steel pans. The biggest problem: no cooking during power outages, which happen around 2-3x a year.

rsfern 5y ago
> I have an induction cooktop and my cast iron pans have been terrible. Cast iron has lousy heat conduction and induction stoves do not have even distribution. That’s interesting, can you compare the heat distribution problem to resistive? I have a gas range now, but when I had resistive I would preheat my cast iron in the oven for nice uniform heat distribution
samwillis 5y ago
Surprised to hear you have had a bad experience. We use stainless still pans for all the normal sized pans. It’s large pots/casserole dishes/Dutch ovens we have in cast iron and they work really well. We also have an cast iron skillet that is great, gets very hot very quickly. All our cast iron is Le Creuset.
prometheus76 5y ago
"Cast iron" and "high carbon steel" are the same thing by different names, so I'm a little confused by your comment.
- rsfern 5y ago
  They’re not quite the same, cast iron generally has a higher carbon composition range and a different phase distribution. Cast iron has a much lower thermal conductivity
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aczerepinski 5y ago

I wasn’t really aware of induction until the house I bought this year happened to have it. It’s amazing. I never want anything else.

faeriechangling 5y ago

The issue with induction isn’t speed, not even close. The issue relative to has is the evenness of the heat distribution over a large surface area. Gas isn’t even remotely worth the downsides but there’s a number of dishes I can make that are easier and higher quality to do on gas, like if I’m trying to sear a large pan full of meat.

saiya-jin 5y ago
You just need an induction hob that has large induction surface (or even +-the whole surface), not usual circles of varying sizes, in case you have oversized pans. From physics point of view the way you raise temperature of pan has 0 effect on what's happening in the pan.
- faeriechangling 5y ago
  I’ve considered that should be perfectly possible in theory but in practice it seems pretty rare to see an induction stove with a coil larger than an 8” diameter which simply won’t really effectively work for a 12” frypan. By comparison it’s relatively easy to find a low to mid end gas burner that can evenly heat a 12” frypan or a wok or what have you. I think part of the reason why is the appliance being bottlenecked by its standardized electrical power source, but I also think it’s just a matter of manufacturers prioritizing cost and customers not understanding the issue. The only real solutions to this issue I could find are smaller and thicker pans, and the use of things like ovens and barbecues.
- leetcrew 5y ago
  > From physics point of view the way you raise temperature of pan has 0 effect on what's happening in the pan. in a spherical cow sense, yeah, heat is heat. but the distribution of that heat is going to depend a lot on the implementation, and can make a big difference for searing meats or making delicate sauces. radiant glasstops are really good at even heating, but only if the bottom of your pan is exactly the same size as the burner. the edge of the bottom ends up a little cooler, because energy is radiated out from the unheated sides, but not dramatically so. I've found gas ranges to be pretty terrible for even heating. you get a hot ring where the most intense part of each flame touches the bottom, but a significantly cooler center. only the most expensive gas ranges come close to the evenness of a pedestrian glasstop. main benefit of these is you can effectively change the size of the burner, so nice if you have a lot of odd-sized pans. I haven't had a chance to try an induction range myself, but I've read a lot of ymmv type posts on the internet. the gist seems to be that the tech itself is very good, but the outcome depends on the (electical) conductivity of the pan itself. which makes sense to me, at least in a handwavy sort of way. I wouldn't expect every pan to heat itself perfectly evenly in response to a uniform magnetic field.

ectopod 5y ago

Completely agree. Also, get a hob with physical knobs rather than touch controls. Not as pretty but much less frustrating.

amluto 5y ago

I recently bought a Polyscience/Breville Control Freak, and I’m increasingly convinced this is the future. It heats dramatically faster than a supposedly high end gas stove I compared it to despite being a lowly 1.6kW or so device. (Gas stoves are stupendously inefficient. That 15kBTU/hr stove may well deliver 15kBTU/hr to the air but not to your pan.). It heats quite evenly. And best of all, it has closed loop temperature control. Want to sauté some onions? Just do it and watch the onions — there is no longer a need to fiddle with a knob to keep the pan at the right temperature. I wish this type of functionality was more widely available. There is absolutely no need for devices like this to be expensive.

jtbayly 5y ago
Whoah! But it is expensive! $1500 for one pan at a time?!?
- gibspaulding 5y ago
  I'm not sure what you're looking at, but my wife and I have a mix of cast iron and some stainless steel that has been great and I don't think we paid more than $50 for any one piece.
  - sidewndr46 5y ago
    I believe the question is asking about the induction cooktop. Which indeed does seem to cost about $1500.
  - greedo 5y ago
    He's referencing the induction cooktop. It's $1499 MSRP.
    - gibspaulding 5y ago
      Ahh that makes sense! For what it's worth, the cooktop we're using was $200. It is a bit rubbish: coil whine and the temp control is pretty coarse, but serviceable. I haven't looked, but I'd guess there's a sensible middle ground somewhere in between!

eyeball 5y ago

Flat bottom wok doesn’t really work. You lose the heat going up the sides. I bought one of those butane table top burners just for wok use. Induction is great for everything else.

na85 5y ago

I've never been in a kitchen with induction that didn't have coil whine. Even really fancy high five-figure induction cooktops I can hear the whine. I could never have that in my kitchen :(

detritus 5y ago

I was resoundingly in the 'induction hobs are crap' camp until this NYE when we found ourselves staying away in the countryside in a place with a basic plug-in induction hob. I sighed and presumed my Absolutely Necessary morning tea would take until the heat death of the universe to boil, but nup, it was done in significantly less time than it takes me at home, when using gas. If a crappy plug-in hob can boil water that quickly, it can cook that quickly too. Next move I'm getting that sorted out - no more gas! (Mind you, companies are beginning trials here in the UK mixing Hydrogen with the gas supply, so there's a part of me that still wonders at the future benefit/end to end efficiency).

kibwen 5y ago
> there's a part of me that still wonders at the future benefit/end to end efficiency The future is in completely abandoning residential gas infrastructure, which will have immense benefits in allowing us to stop maintaining and expanding millions and millions of miles of leaky underground pipes. No amount of tweaking the mixture will change the fact that electricity is broadly useful for everything, and that gas is only useful for a small number of things that are quickly being overtaken by electricity. Hell, if we had devices that could instantly summon sufficient quantities of water from thin air, I'd get rid of my water hookup, too, even though water lines aren't nearly as bad for the atmosphere as gas lines are.
- detritus 5y ago
  Of course, but I'm more thinking about near to mid term, where a heck of a lot of domestic heating and cooking infrastructure has been built upon the assumption of gas, so is an incumbent sunk cost. All new builds and renovations should be encouraged to deploy full-electric. - ed: Sorry, I should've specified - I meant 'in the UK' for the large amount of existing gas infrastructure.
- yourapostasy 5y ago
  > The future is in completely abandoning residential gas infrastructure... Gas tankless water heaters are still sometimes a cost-efficient per-therm choice if you are already plumbed for gas [1] [2]. I've yet to find a calculator that figures the TCO (including costs that are externalized today, like pipe losses to the environment) between tankless water heaters using natural gas, propane, resistive electric, induction electric, and heat pump versions of those types, though. There are many different situations, so what is overall systemically efficient in one situation will not be suitable for another. It would come as little surprise to most HN readers that I have a number of very expensive resistive air heaters that we call computers laying around for my work, so in my particular situation, a heat pump water heater works extremely well. However, I'm still unsure of the TCO after all the maintenance and repair is accounted for over the decades I will own the heat pump as it is undeniably more complex than more common water heaters. So I will give a nod to resistive water heaters as a likely good TCO choice in most situations after all costs are said and done [3]. [1] https://www.ruud.com/products/water-heaters/tankless-water-heaters/energy_calculator/ https://www.ruud.com/products/water-heaters/tankless-water-h... [2] https://www.waterheaterleakinginfo.com/gas-vs-electric/ https://www.waterheaterleakinginfo.com/gas-vs-electric/ [3] https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/is-induction-heating-more-efficient-than-resistance-heating-for-a-water-heater.982621/ https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/is-induction-heating-m...

beanjuiceII 5y ago

I've always had gas, and we moved into our new home which has electric.. After using it I don't understand the fuss..I love it and will never go back!

cooperadymas 5y ago

"To anybody concerned about anecdotal evidence, here's my anecdotal evidence." Snideness aside, the fact that you have to concern yourself with what pans you buy for an induction stove is enough reason for many to not buy one. You can no longer buy any pan at a store, you must do your research first. Throw out my current pans and buy even more expensive ones? You're not exactly selling me the induction here.

zeendo 5y ago
FWIW - cast iron is incredibly cheap.
- yourapostasy 5y ago
  Even cheaper if you buy from a thrift store and put in some elbow grease. If you're an especially tool- and skill-rich hacker, then arc/stick welding with cast iron welding sticks can repair even lost causes. Of course, it isn't "cheap" by then, but any excuse to scratch that hacker/maker itch is fine by me.
  - cooperadymas 5y ago
    I'm not really sure what welding has to do with any of this. A cast iron pan at Wal-Mart is roughly the same price as a non-stick skillet and will outlast it by decades. Even if you don't want the Wal-Mart brand, you can buy Lodge, which is respected enough even by cast iron fanatics, and is cheaper even than mid range non stick or aluminum/steel skillets.
    - yourapostasy 5y ago
      > I'm not really sure what welding has to do with any of this. If one is willing to perform possible repairs, they can prevent tossing out the original embedded energy cost of manufacturing and delivering the original cast iron product (and many other items), which if one is so inclined, makes choosing the non-gas stove option and re-gearing for it (assuming they have say, only ceramic cookware) for ecological reasons as one decision factor an even more energy-thrifty choice. We throw away an astonishing amount of goods that in past generations would be repaired, because we heavily externalize the costs of doing so, since we're such a poor civilization in Banks' The Culture sense. Like externalizing the pipeline leak costs of supporting the gas infrastructure that sits behind the gas stove.

duped 5y ago

My issue is not the pans, it's using duty cycle to control the amount of energy added. I can't effectively pan fry anything without using cast iron or enough(read: too much) oil to retain some heat mass, because either it gets too hot and past the smoke point of the oil or too low and the food will cool off between heating cycles. The other slight annoyance is coil whine. Absolutely unmatched for boiling water, and I'm very happy using it with a cast iron dutch oven for slow cooking and soups or stews.

darrylb42 5y ago
Sounds like you have a glass top electric coil stove, not induction. Induction has a very stable fast heat, cooks like gas. Glass top electric are the one that turn on for 10 seconds off for 30, never the right temp. I replaced a glass top stove with an induction one last year, couldn't be happier. I can actually fry eggs now.
- duped 5y ago
  It is a tabletop induction burner, not a glass top electric coil. Its cycle frequency is about 60Hz, I can time it by the coil whine.
  - jwong_ 5y ago
    Low quality ones generally have that problem due to using PWM to control the temperature. I've used cheaper and more expensive ones, and the more expensive ones have much more fine control of temperature, and not just a toggle between on and off.

pkulak 5y ago

My favorite way to show people how my induction stove works is to put some cold water in a kettle, pop it on a "burner", then turn it to "power boost". You can instantly see tiny bubbles forming on the bottom, and 20 seconds later it's at a rolling boil so intense you fear it may explode. I have no idea how anyone can say induction is slower than gas. And on the other end, low will slowly melt chocolate or heat a hollandaise without needing to steam a mixing bowl.

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lultimouomo 5y ago
All the induction stoves I've tried, here in the EU, are great at boiling one pot of water. They suck at everything else. E.g. want to boil two pots of water in parallel? No can do - after warming up seemingly forever you will have one pot boiling for 5 seconds, then stopping and letting the other pot boil for five seconds, and so on. I want to love induction - no gas pipes, so much easier to clean, so much better for air quality - but the regular stuff you can buy in stores just isn't there yet. Just the fact that they use a plug which can carry at most 3kW should be enough proof that you cannot use them for serious cooking.
- pkulak 5y ago
  Holy smokes, if you folks across the pond plug your stoves into 3kw, you indeed should never use that for cooking. The plug behind my stove can carry 12, about 10 continuous. Now, about your issue with parallel cooking: you indeed can not send Max Power to two pots if they are on the same rail. However, even the cheapest ranges I've ever seen have 4 burners, two rails. Which means you _could_ boil two pots of water, as long as you use the correct two burners. You learn pretty quickly which burners share a rail. I'd imagine the really nice ones have a transformer per burner so it's never an issue. And as long as you're not trying to send boil-in-20-seconds kind of power, you can use all the burners without noticing anything.
- BillinghamJ 5y ago
  So get one which is hard wired on a 32A fuse...? 3kW is on the low end for an induction hob

bjoli 5y ago

I love induction. I did however struggle with my carbon steel pan. It just wouldn't season properly. I followed the instructions from the manufacturer, online guides. You name it. The thing would start shedding its coat after a while. It was a mess. Then we moved to a house with an old electric stove. The pans turned to pure magic. More non-stick than our teflon pans. Then we moved again to a place with an induction stove and bam: the pans are shit again. It is obviously me, of course. Heat is heat. But something about induction makes me unable to use carbon steel.

randomswede 5y ago

Due to a recent-ish move, I have gone from ~20 years with a gas cooker to induction (with about 6 months of halogen in-between). Induction is pretty good. It lacks the visceral feedback of "how hard am I driving this specific ring/cooking spot right now" that a gas flame has. But, it probably offers more precision. Not tried a wok, yet, though.

sandos 5y ago

Slightly curved _undersides_ works really well on induction in my opinion. Since its contactless its better than the old cast-iron stovetops at least for rounded pans. :)