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Induction Ranges


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Moving to a new house that doesn't have gas (insert "unlike the owner" dad jokes forthwith)....    As a home "chef" I'm a little dismayed by this as electric generally sucks.  But does anyone here use an induction range?  I've heard great things.  Current appliances are all Bosch and they seem to make a decent slide-in induction range.

Any insights or watchouts?

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We have a gas range but have been gifted a couple single indiction burners. They're awesome. So much faster boiling a pot of water on them. There's no energy lost to heat and they're so much faster than a gas range. I try to use them for everything in the summer. You do have to make sure whatever pot you use is magnetic. I do use the gas range for stuff like simmering and braising though. It's hard to control the heat level.

My parents have an entire induction stovetop and seem to like it. Just be careful when you leave a big pot of water on it to boil, when it does boil it's incredibly violent and can throw water at you

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For whatever reason, they didn't run gas to our cooktop.  Because of how our attic is setup and the furnace location or other gas locations, getting a gas line run is more than I want to spend.  Thought about induction, but spent the extra money elsewhere and got a glasstop electric cooktop.  Obviously, it's slower to heat up the skillets than gas, but you have a bit more time to grab things and do prep knowing that there's that delay.  It's easy to fine tune the temperature up or down, with a bit less delay.  Again, you learn to finesse it.  Only downside is that keeping it clean is a pain and no matter how careful you are, you'll get burned on spots.  Also, if you cook with cast iron and drink, eventually, you'll set the cast iron pan down hard and crack it (same danger with induction, I suppose).

Some day, I'll empty my pockets and bite the bullet on having the gas line run, but I'm not entirely unhappy in the meantime.

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One of our previous homes didn't have gas.  We did a big remodel after we bought it and went with a glass cook top.  While I still prefer gas burners, the glass top was really good.  We were able to use all of our cookware, including fish poachers, turkey pans and all of our heavy metal cast iron.  Very responsive to temperature adjustments and easy to clean.  

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Couple of things that annoying me:

 

Glass tops scratch and Mar and otherwise look bad.  Prefer an industrial surface you could scour the hell out of.

 

You may have to replace some existing pots and pans that are not induction compatible.

 

Induction (rather than gas or electric) are only on when it comes in contact with vessel.  So you cannot do a thing such as tilt the pan to baste sauce since the heating will turn off.  

 

I'm squarely on team gas.  That said, because of above, induction is way safer.  MIL had an accident with her gas stove once and now the wife vows she never wants one.

 

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10 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Induction (rather than gas or electric) are only on when it comes in contact with vessel.  So you cannot do a thing such as tilt the pan to baste sauce since the heating will turn off.    

One small clarification on this point, it's not exactly correct:

Induction needs to detect ferrous metal within a certain range, as a safety mechanism. The allowable gap differs by brand, but it will heat with a small air gap if you lift the pan, and if you tilt the pan but leave the bottom edge of the pan inside the induction pad area, it will continue to heat.

General rule with induction, esp when you first get one, is halve your "normal" heat settings. IE if you're used to cooking something on Hi, try it on Med first. Induction is far more energy efficient as it heats the pan directly as opposed to needing to heat the air and then have the air heat the pan, so the actual pan heat will be higher than you're used to (hence the comment above about water boiling very vigorously).

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8 hours ago, 52-80 said:

timely fucking post... just dropped a glass herb container onto my ceramic cooktop and cracked the whole motherfucker.

 

fuck these things.

I've got an edge crack on mine from being clumsy with a cast iron pan.  You can get replacement glass usually.  I need to do that.

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  • 9 months later...

Going to get a quote to run a gas line once again before I decide what to do about this cracked electric top.  Considering getting an induction cooktop as an alternative if the $3K quote for a gas line is the same or similar.  One interesting thing I have read is for heavier pans like cast iron, you can put a thin silicone baking sheet over the burner and it works just fine.

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13 hours ago, dcbc said:

Going to get a quote to run a gas line once again before I decide what to do about this cracked electric top.  Considering getting an induction cooktop as an alternative if the $3K quote for a gas line is the same or similar.  One interesting thing I have read is for heavier pans like cast iron, you can put a thin silicone baking sheet over the burner and it works just fine.

Change of heart and we're gonna do the same - going to induction. 

Part of the reason is being able to cook with baking paper, or paper towel, or anything else on the cooking surface.  Will come in handy for sautee where it'll absorb splattered oil.  Also the heat is only happening at the pan interface, so if any fluids (like pasta water) spills out, it won't "bake" into the glass top.

And what put me over the edge is finding induction tops with actual physical dials.  90% of the ones I've seen have heating controls as touch-buttons on the glass itself which it stupid for 2000x reasons.  But some oven+stove pairs have analog stove dials built into the oven control panel and that's acceptable to me

 

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There was an induction stove in an Airbnb we used in Ireland two years ago. I just remember how alarmingly fast it boiled water. Like, don’t walk away from the stove and be ready to jump back, fast.

It would be cool to have one as part of an outdoor kitchen but I’m not sure how well it would weather.

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2 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Change of heart and we're gonna do the same - going to induction. 

Part of the reason is being able to cook with baking paper, or paper towel, or anything else on the cooking surface.  Will come in handy for sautee where it'll absorb splattered oil.  Also the heat is only happening at the pan interface, so if any fluids (like pasta water) spills out, it won't "bake" into the glass top.

And what put me over the edge is finding induction tops with actual physical dials.  90% of the ones I've seen have heating controls as touch-buttons on the glass itself which it stupid for 2000x reasons.  But some oven+stove pairs have analog stove dials built into the oven control panel and that's acceptable to me

 

Let us know which one you get.  I haven't seen too many with dials, but I'd be interested in that for the same 2000x reasons.

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  • 2 months later...

I have the GE Profile induction cooktop on order along with a new set of stainless cookware since my old stuff was not induction friendly.  Was holding out for gas, but running the line was going to be more trouble and $$ than it is worth.  Should be here next week.

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I have a portable induction cooktop. Maybe it's a cheapo, but unless you have a good flat contact between pan and cooktop it doesn't work, i.e my teapot has a dimpled bottom and will lose contact. 

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1 hour ago, milkman said:

Take a look at the freedom induction cooktop by Thermador.

Impressive, and not to sound like too much of a poor, but $5,300 is a bit out of my cooktop budget.

Edited by dcbc
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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay, after a few days, here are my takes.

It heats up quickly, but the ultimate settings I use are similar to my old electric glass top.  It's biggest advantage and how it compares best to gas is the reaction time when I change temperatures.  Like gas, it's immediate.  Clean up is simple.  No knobs to clean around.  Surfaces are a bit too hot to touch after cooking, but not so hot they're making candy out of spills.

The down side is that I can't beat the shit out of it like I could with a gas cook top with cast iron grates.  But, oh well.  I have a couple of silicone baking circles to put under the heavier duty pans (cast iron). 

Edited by dcbc
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