3 ms·
Induction is as responsive as gas, faster to boil water (no wasted heat, or need to heat the pot before heating the contents) and more energy efficient.
by kondro 15y ago
Induction is as responsive as gas, faster to boil water (no wasted heat, or need to heat the pot before heating the contents) and more energy efficient.
- tptacek 15y agoIt's marginally slower to boil water than a good gas burner (my tests, but also Cooks Illustrated's, and they're not usually wrong about stuff like this), but they the two are so close that it's not worth comparing. Also, not sure how energy efficient. It may depend on the specific cook top. At max power, the things drain a lot of power. It's possible that they consume less "energy" than gas but are still more expensive, right? Gas is very cheap. It's very trippy to sear meat or boil water on a burner, lift the pan off, and have the cooktop surface be cool to the touch.
- kondro 15y agoGas may be very cheap, but we pull it from the ground. We may pull a lot of our electricity from the ground at the moment too, but there are options for renewable sources of electricity. GE rates their induction cooktops are being able to boil water about 25% faster than their gas cooktops with similar gas output. But I have seen other scores that show that induction is only slightly faster at boiling water.
- tptacek 15y agoI think I agree with all this; I'm just making (or actually regurgitating) an argument for why induction isn't as popular here as it is in Europe. Again: induction is awesome. But I've done my own tests and so has Cooks Illustrated and it doesn't look like the typical induction unit boils water faster than gas. On the other hand: who cares?