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May be swapping ours soon since the gas stove is malfunctioning anyway (won't hold temp, have to constantly screw with it). I'm happy about improving air quali

May be swapping ours soon since the gas stove is malfunctioning anyway (won't hold temp, have to constantly screw with it). I'm happy about improving air quality, but not happy that it's gonna be significantly more expensive than getting another gas stove :-/ I'm glad I can afford it but every time I see one of those "electric's not god-awful anymore, induction's amazing!" posts on Twitter or Reddit or whatever it's like... yeah, great solution for us folks with plenty of disposable income, I guess. Not sure how I'm going to make certain kinds of flatbread that I heat directly on the flame. I'll figure something out I suppose. Reports of the tops being easy to crack worry me, too. I don't like having to baby kitchen equipment. [EDIT] Hrm. Reading about cooking technique on them, I'm not sure I'd be able to make scrambled eggs (that didn't suck). My technique relies heavily on being able to move the pan on and off the burner. I guess... I could live with just not making scrambled eggs.

Baeocystin 5y ago
Do what a lot of people already do, and use one of those butane-powered single-burner units. Just about any asian grocery store will have them + the fuel for sale. I use one for when I need a flame char, or flame control for something finicky that my induction top can't handle, and they work great.
- brimble 5y ago
  Good solution for when I have to have a real flame. That'd let me do the handful of things I can't practically do on induction. I like it.
germinalphrase 5y ago
In addition to cost, the Main thing preventing me from switching to induction is knobs. I just know up front that digital/touch controls will be a headache (for me).
- hgomersall 5y ago
  Yeah, absolutely. Two of the touch sensitive buttons on ours no longer work. Love the induction hob, hate the interface.
- jws 5y ago
  Voice from experience: See the model you are looking at will beep annoyingly every time you pick up a pan to flip something. My mid range portable and expensive built in both do this. I get they want to let you know you've nudge a pan out of effect, but give me three seconds! That's all I want, three seconds before you fire the most annoying piezo buzzer on the planet.
  - convolvatron 5y ago
    i remove the metal disk from the pezio element. you can still hear it, but just barely. you dont actually have to unsolder it, just pop the plastic top off. not that i would want to do that with an expensive built in range. but it removes a major source of annoyance when using the little ones.
- brimble 5y ago
  Oh shit, I forgot about that part. The one time I've gotten to cook with induction, that indisputably sucked. They all want to put touch controls on something that gets water drops on it, or is operated with wet hands, with some regularity. What a terrible idea. Also, I've never met a flat-top stove that wasn't a terror to keep clean. Maybe induction's different, but that's another worry.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - vel0city 5y ago
    > Also, I've never met a flat-top stove that wasn't a terror to keep clean. To me, a flat-top stove is a lot easier to clean than a gas stove with lots of grates and uneven surfaces. Just compare these two stove tops: https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-In-Touch-Control-Electric-Cooktop-PP9030SJSS https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-I... https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-In-Gas-Cooktop-with-5-Burners-and-an-Optional-Extra-Large-Cast-Iron-Griddle-PGP7030SLSS https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-I... Same size stove, similar number of heat elements. One has a bunch of grates to move, potentially wash elsewhere. Then there's knobs to remove to clean under them, the knobs themselves having various curves and flat sides to clean. The whole thing is a bit of a pan itself, so there's stuff to clean around that. The burner heads are round protrusions from that pan so you need to clean around them and then clean them as well. Compared to the other stove, which is just a flat piece of glass. No protrusions. No edges. Just a single flat surface. To me, that single flat glass surface is way easier to clean. I don't even get how one could argue the other is easier to clean, there's far more parts with their own geometries involved. On top of that, the glass cook top is more or less flush with the rest of the counter, does not have any grates or any other uneven surfaces, so its useful even as just additional counter top. I can easily put other small kitchen appliances on top of it and those appliances have a flat, solid bottom to them instead of trying to get the feet just right on a grate and then have them be inches above the rest of the counter top. We have an older GE Profile glass cooktop with touch buttons on the right side. I was originally planning on tearing it out and putting in a gas stove when we moved in, which wouldn't have been too difficult as there's a gas line in the wall capped off as I guess a previous owner had a gas stove before they redid the kitchen with electric appliances. The benefits of it being a completely flat nearly counter flush surface and being far easier to clean in my opinion make up for the loss of more instant heat from a gas stove, so we're going to keep it for a while.
bch 5y ago
> I'm glad I can afford it but every time I see one of those "electric's not god-awful anymore, induction's amazing!" posts on Twitter or Reddit or whatever it's like... yeah, great solution for us folks with plenty of disposable income, I guess. Most of what I see isn’t necessarily cost prohibitive, but looks like it’s built to fail. What products are people using where the experience has been pleasant?
- aidenn0 5y ago
  Doubly so for people like me who don't have a 220V line to the kitchen (and we would need a new breaker panel to install one; we looked into getting an induction top when we moved in).
- brimble 5y ago
  Part of the cost factor is that it's pretty easy to find (even quite good) gas stoves on the used or factory dent-n-ding market. Electric, even easier. Induction, not so much. That can mean in effect 4x or more the price, for a similar-quality stove (effects on air quality aside). Retail prices do also seem to be somewhat more expensive at similar feature/"trim" levels, too. Unless that's changed since the last time I was thinking about this (maybe a year ago).
- softwarebeware 5y ago
  I have a GE cafe induction and have no complaints. I'm not any kind of chef or anything.
mikeyouse 5y ago
Depending on how much cooking you do, you could trial keeping your stove for anything requiring the open flame and using an induction hotplate for the majority of your other cooking. They are available for ~$50 and you can get dual-burner versions for under $200 (e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICT-60-Double-Induction-Cooktop/dp/B01JCECBPQ/ https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICT-60-Double-Induction-Coo...)
- MengerSponge 5y ago
  Ikea's portable induction plate is really nice for the price. It takes a few extra button presses to get started, but it does a great job.
- brimble 5y ago
  Well, the reason for maybe switching in the first place is that the oven interior doesn't hold temp correctly, so we'll have to replace it at some point. And the health concerns have me not wanting to get another gas stove... but I've had electric and will probably just stop using the stovetop at all if I have to go back to that. Which leaves induction.
newsclues 5y ago
Outdoor kitchen?
Spooky23 5y ago
Most of this new controversy is bullshit seeded by PR. Getting rid of residential gas is a movement of sorts now, and people are eager to sell their wares. Open a window or use the vent fan and 90% of your risks go away. Or buy an induction cooktop, which costs more, works more poorly and has a 5 year expected lifespan.
- neutronicus 5y ago
  There are lot of floor plans out there with the kitchen nowhere near a window. Certainly was true of the last apartment I rented (gas stove) and my current house (electric appliances, 1979). Probably more so than average where I live (Baltimore), since a lot of the housing here is row homes instead of detached. Just tangentially we've had a couple big gas explosions in the last half decade, too.
- brimble 5y ago
  That Twitter thread claimed the NO2 issue, at least, isn't mitigated by (proper, outdoor-venting) hoods. Is it wrong? We'll have a hood regardless of fuel source. Enough stuff comes off the top as a direct result of cooking, that I'd rather not breathe.
  - Spooky23 5y ago
    Almost certainly. Home ventilation has gotten far worse over time as energy efficiency at all costs is shoved down our throats. Poor ventilation contributes To lots of other problems more acutely relevant than the low risks associated with your kitchen.
- katbyte 5y ago
  In what ways does an induction cooktop underperform compared to gas? It dumps more heat into the pan and less waste heat into the room, doesn’t produce any combustion byproducts, can be dialled into a specific temp, including very low simmering ones, and is safer as there is no hot element or open flame.
  - deleted 5y ago
ryan_lane 5y ago
I've found my induction stove to be way more consistent in cooking eggs (and well, most things, really) than when I had gas in the past. Also, not sure which induction you're looking at, but on my stove, when I remove the pan it turns off the power to that unit, and turns it back on when you put the pan back (within about a second or so, both ways), so when I do feel the need to remove the pan briefly, it's not any different than when I do it on gas.

Baeocystin 5y ago

Do what a lot of people already do, and use one of those butane-powered single-burner units. Just about any asian grocery store will have them + the fuel for sale. I use one for when I need a flame char, or flame control for something finicky that my induction top can't handle, and they work great.

brimble 5y ago
Good solution for when I have to have a real flame. That'd let me do the handful of things I can't practically do on induction. I like it.

germinalphrase 5y ago

In addition to cost, the Main thing preventing me from switching to induction is knobs. I just know up front that digital/touch controls will be a headache (for me).

hgomersall 5y ago
Yeah, absolutely. Two of the touch sensitive buttons on ours no longer work. Love the induction hob, hate the interface.
jws 5y ago
Voice from experience: See the model you are looking at will beep annoyingly every time you pick up a pan to flip something. My mid range portable and expensive built in both do this. I get they want to let you know you've nudge a pan out of effect, but give me three seconds! That's all I want, three seconds before you fire the most annoying piezo buzzer on the planet.
- convolvatron 5y ago
  i remove the metal disk from the pezio element. you can still hear it, but just barely. you dont actually have to unsolder it, just pop the plastic top off. not that i would want to do that with an expensive built in range. but it removes a major source of annoyance when using the little ones.
brimble 5y ago
Oh shit, I forgot about that part. The one time I've gotten to cook with induction, that indisputably sucked. They all want to put touch controls on something that gets water drops on it, or is operated with wet hands, with some regularity. What a terrible idea. Also, I've never met a flat-top stove that wasn't a terror to keep clean. Maybe induction's different, but that's another worry.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- vel0city 5y ago
  > Also, I've never met a flat-top stove that wasn't a terror to keep clean. To me, a flat-top stove is a lot easier to clean than a gas stove with lots of grates and uneven surfaces. Just compare these two stove tops: https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-In-Touch-Control-Electric-Cooktop-PP9030SJSS https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-I... https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-In-Gas-Cooktop-with-5-Burners-and-an-Optional-Extra-Large-Cast-Iron-Griddle-PGP7030SLSS https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-Built-I... Same size stove, similar number of heat elements. One has a bunch of grates to move, potentially wash elsewhere. Then there's knobs to remove to clean under them, the knobs themselves having various curves and flat sides to clean. The whole thing is a bit of a pan itself, so there's stuff to clean around that. The burner heads are round protrusions from that pan so you need to clean around them and then clean them as well. Compared to the other stove, which is just a flat piece of glass. No protrusions. No edges. Just a single flat surface. To me, that single flat glass surface is way easier to clean. I don't even get how one could argue the other is easier to clean, there's far more parts with their own geometries involved. On top of that, the glass cook top is more or less flush with the rest of the counter, does not have any grates or any other uneven surfaces, so its useful even as just additional counter top. I can easily put other small kitchen appliances on top of it and those appliances have a flat, solid bottom to them instead of trying to get the feet just right on a grate and then have them be inches above the rest of the counter top. We have an older GE Profile glass cooktop with touch buttons on the right side. I was originally planning on tearing it out and putting in a gas stove when we moved in, which wouldn't have been too difficult as there's a gas line in the wall capped off as I guess a previous owner had a gas stove before they redid the kitchen with electric appliances. The benefits of it being a completely flat nearly counter flush surface and being far easier to clean in my opinion make up for the loss of more instant heat from a gas stove, so we're going to keep it for a while.

bch 5y ago

> I'm glad I can afford it but every time I see one of those "electric's not god-awful anymore, induction's amazing!" posts on Twitter or Reddit or whatever it's like... yeah, great solution for us folks with plenty of disposable income, I guess. Most of what I see isn’t necessarily cost prohibitive, but looks like it’s built to fail. What products are people using where the experience has been pleasant?

aidenn0 5y ago
Doubly so for people like me who don't have a 220V line to the kitchen (and we would need a new breaker panel to install one; we looked into getting an induction top when we moved in).
brimble 5y ago
Part of the cost factor is that it's pretty easy to find (even quite good) gas stoves on the used or factory dent-n-ding market. Electric, even easier. Induction, not so much. That can mean in effect 4x or more the price, for a similar-quality stove (effects on air quality aside). Retail prices do also seem to be somewhat more expensive at similar feature/"trim" levels, too. Unless that's changed since the last time I was thinking about this (maybe a year ago).
softwarebeware 5y ago
I have a GE cafe induction and have no complaints. I'm not any kind of chef or anything.

mikeyouse 5y ago

Depending on how much cooking you do, you could trial keeping your stove for anything requiring the open flame and using an induction hotplate for the majority of your other cooking. They are available for ~$50 and you can get dual-burner versions for under $200 (e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICT-60-Double-Induction-Cooktop/dp/B01JCECBPQ/ https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICT-60-Double-Induction-Coo...)

MengerSponge 5y ago
Ikea's portable induction plate is really nice for the price. It takes a few extra button presses to get started, but it does a great job.
brimble 5y ago
Well, the reason for maybe switching in the first place is that the oven interior doesn't hold temp correctly, so we'll have to replace it at some point. And the health concerns have me not wanting to get another gas stove... but I've had electric and will probably just stop using the stovetop at all if I have to go back to that. Which leaves induction.

newsclues 5y ago

Outdoor kitchen?

Spooky23 5y ago

Most of this new controversy is bullshit seeded by PR. Getting rid of residential gas is a movement of sorts now, and people are eager to sell their wares. Open a window or use the vent fan and 90% of your risks go away. Or buy an induction cooktop, which costs more, works more poorly and has a 5 year expected lifespan.

neutronicus 5y ago
There are lot of floor plans out there with the kitchen nowhere near a window. Certainly was true of the last apartment I rented (gas stove) and my current house (electric appliances, 1979). Probably more so than average where I live (Baltimore), since a lot of the housing here is row homes instead of detached. Just tangentially we've had a couple big gas explosions in the last half decade, too.
brimble 5y ago
That Twitter thread claimed the NO2 issue, at least, isn't mitigated by (proper, outdoor-venting) hoods. Is it wrong? We'll have a hood regardless of fuel source. Enough stuff comes off the top as a direct result of cooking, that I'd rather not breathe.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  Almost certainly. Home ventilation has gotten far worse over time as energy efficiency at all costs is shoved down our throats. Poor ventilation contributes To lots of other problems more acutely relevant than the low risks associated with your kitchen.
katbyte 5y ago
In what ways does an induction cooktop underperform compared to gas? It dumps more heat into the pan and less waste heat into the room, doesn’t produce any combustion byproducts, can be dialled into a specific temp, including very low simmering ones, and is safer as there is no hot element or open flame.
- deleted 5y ago

ryan_lane 5y ago

I've found my induction stove to be way more consistent in cooking eggs (and well, most things, really) than when I had gas in the past. Also, not sure which induction you're looking at, but on my stove, when I remove the pan it turns off the power to that unit, and turns it back on when you put the pan back (within about a second or so, both ways), so when I do feel the need to remove the pan briefly, it's not any different than when I do it on gas.