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this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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Why are they better?
Pollution and home safety aside. I found it nice to pinpoint my desired heat. It works so fast and accurate that I got consistent pancakes like i never used to before.
That's pretty cool. Can they heat a pan as fast as a gas stove? One of the major inconveniences with an electric stove is having to wait for the burner to heat up, before you can wait for your pan to heat up. I've had resistive stoves for decades now, and they're not very good IMO. But I've never had an induction stove. I've really missed the gas stove we had when I was a kid.
Simple answer: yes, induction hobs are fast, maybe even faster than gas.
That's really cool.
Back on gas after having induction (moved).
I also grew up on resistive and was as skeptical as you are. Now, I dream about upgrading to induction again once we are able to reno the kitchen. For example, boiling water on induction is more than twice as fast as gas and the temp adjustment goes so quick that even cooking eggs is a breeze.
Yeah, when I fry eggs the pan heats up to temperature in literally seconds - not a half a minute, but like 5 to 10 seconds.
Resistive stoves are slow because heat has to move from the coils, to the air above the coils, to the glass top, to the pan, to the food.
Gas stoves are fast because heat can move from the flame, to the pan, to the food.
Induction cooktops are the fastest because heat gets to move directly from the pan, to the food.
Induction uses magnetic fields to directly impart energy into the metal of your pan. Magnetic fields move energy at the speed of light. That's faster than gas can move heat. Which means your pan warms up quicker.
You can imagine an induction stove to work similarly to a resistive stove, only with your pan/pot being the resistive element. The slow part of resistive stoves is the heat transfer from the element to the cookware, so you can imagine how quickly an inductive stove heats that thing up!
it's noticeably faster than a gas stove. plus the neat thing is it's not giving you and your family cancer!
They don't require an explosive to be pumped into your house.
That's not really the type of information I was looking for, but thanks anyways.
Gas stoves also emit stuff like benzene, which has been linked to cancer, and NO2 which has been linked to asthma.
But ignoring the health issues, induction is faster for boiling stuff, and arguably more precise. You likely don't need new pans either. Flat bottom, cast iron works fine and stainless works fine for me.
It just takes some getting used to.
You have special stainless then, most won’t work.
If you can stick a magnet to the bottom it will work.
I mean, I bought the set in aldi. It was in the bargain bin for something like 60 euros for 10 pots and pans. Was worried it wouldn't work when I moved. Tried it. Worked just fine. Apparently plenty of stainless steel stuff works just fine.
This isn't particularly interesting.
But just to say, before buying new expensive ones that claim to be designed for induction, try the old ones you already own. Chances are they'll work just fine.
They're out of line but they're right
While I don't agree they're better, a key feature over conventional electric (and one of the main benefits of gas) is that the stove surface doesn't inherently retain heat. They get hot, but only because the pan is hot. When you turn down the heat, it's immediate, like a gas stove.
I don't know about how fast they can heat; gas can output a ridiculous amount of BTUs, but at 240v I wouldn't be surprised.
Have to keep efficiency in mind as well. Practically all of the heat produced by induction goes directly into the pan bottom. With gas, quite a bit of the heat doesn't end up in the pan.
In my experience, induction on high settings heats much faster than gas. Sometimes faster than is desirable actually. A pot of water will boil at the bottom when the top is only somewhat warm.
I don't know about the US, but in Germany it's common that the individual or two plates of the induction stoves have their own 380V cable and breaker.
North America has one 240v plug for the whole appliance, 120v is what's used for regular electric items.
The US often has some appliances wired for 240V; I assume stovetops are, but IDK. Large appliances have their own breakers. I was told that if we wanted to install a built-in microwave, it'd require a new, dedicated wire and breaker.
A lot of places have code requirements that the microwave have its own breaker even though they're almost all 120v; it's because they use almost all the amps on the 120v circuit so you tend to trip the breaker if you have anything else big going on, like an electric kettle or a vacuum cleaner.
Yeah, in the US for an electric range you're looking at a single 240 volt split phase 30 amp circuit.
Better air quality, otherwise they are merely not as inconvenient as other types of electric stoves.
But you need to buy new induction capable pots for them and the pulsing heat they make takes some time to get used to.
AFIAK they also work with cast iron cookware.
Any ferrous metal. Right? So anything except stainless steel. I'm guessing you probably want something fairly thick too.
Yes, very thick otherwise you get a burn spot everytime around the middle.
Also, my stainless pan works fine on my induction stove.
Does it have a fused base of other metals?
Yes, aluminium "Sleek Seamless Impact Bonded Sandwich Base with Aluminium Core"
https://scanpan.com.au/fry-pan-32cm-x-6cm/
That may be it, I'm not sure I bought it at a thrift store.
Stainless often works too IME.
From experience, they work as long as a magnet can stick to it, so yes flany ferrous metal should work.
Induction is the best cooking method to me. Faster and safer than electric and gas, (much) easier to control than electric...
Ah and so much easier to clean than gas!
Only gas advantage I could see is maybe heat "fine tuning". And even this probably depend on the system (the one I used had roughly 6 heating level, but there is system with more). And is not very important except if you're a high level chef.
Enamel and aluminum are the only ones I’ve had issues with, personally.
What they do now is "sanwchich" with a disc of induction-compatible metal inserted in the bottom of the cookware.
Allows compatibility (and better heat spread I think)
You don't necessarily need to buy new pots as the ones you have might as well already be ferrous.
I'm still using my old cast iron cookware.
The pots that did need replacing when I went from coils to induction were a set of very cheap stainless steel ones that I bought when I was a student.
That's mainly an issue with aluminum and stainless steel, but only some types of stainless steel. It's a good stuff that I have all works flawlessly on the induction.
If you buy the aluminum Japanese cookware, they are all designed for induction anyways.
In addition to the other comments about it being just as quick, if not faster and easier to get a consistent heat, I also found the noise level was way better - it'll hum if the pan isn't centered properly, and the power is turned up, but when simmering, it's pretty much silent which was weird but suprisingly nice.
Instantaneous control over temperature without the safety issues of gas
Safer, cheaper, cleaner.
Safer being no indoor air pollution and to cook surface doesn't get hot at all. You can literally put a piece of paper between the pan and the cooktop and it will cook without burning the paper.
no open flame