Induction cookers vs. Gas - Page 2

I am a poor college student and just got a single burner induction plate for christmas (2000 watt). I must say that it beats the pants off my old electric hot plate, it is a bit finnicky in certain ways though, namely the temp. controls.

It can be adjusted via wattage or Celsius, each setting raises or lowers by 30 C. I am now making a mulligatawny that calls for a 1 hour simmer. The induction does not seem to stay at a constant simmer, rather it boils for 10 seconds, then detects itself and stays cooler (no simmer at all) for about a minute.

So while it may have some hitches, it is a great option for those who need functionality in a small space.

By the way, my first post here, I look forward to learning and contributing here.

I believe it depends on the manufacturer. I have a Circulon and there is no issue at level 1 (simmer).

This sounds like a problem with the temperature controller rather than the induction itself - It`s my primary issue with radiant electric stoves that heat in that manner, the heat is not constant, and Ì`m not in control.

I really like induction cooktops, and if I ever for some reason have the money to install one in my home kitchen, I would do so in an instant.

Gas cooking has long been recognized as superior to electric when considering the control you have in the heat input to the product. In order to debate the merits of induction over gas one must use the technology properly. If you use induction properly, objectively compare the pro's and con's of gas and induction, you will become an advocate for induction. Unless you eat pasta every meal, the comparisons of how fast water boils is not the most important consideration. When using a 3500 watt induction unit, which can be found on most residential cook tops today, induction boils water considerably faster than a 16,000 BTU/hr gas burner which is typical for the residential gas cook top. At the end of the day the use of compatible cookware is the only real requirement for induction cooking to excel over gas.

In my opinion, the most compelling reason not to use gas has not been mentioned in any of the previous posts. Gas consumes oxygen and gives off toxic byproducts which you breathe. Lung disorders have been attributed to using gas stoves. Just search the net for health concerns related to the use of gas.  As an asthmatic, I have found  the I am even affected by the pilot light in our gas fireplace.

You can use any cookware that a magnet will stick to on the bottom of the pan.

All Clad, Caphalon, Cast Iron all work

I own a restaurant and have been using induction cooktops for over 5 years.  Originally I went to induction because I did not have a gas line into my space.  But I believe when I open my next place, I will go with induction there as well.  They are much cheaper to operate than gas, they do not heat up the space, they perform as well as gas (these are commercial units), and are easier to keep clean.  The only significant drawback is that you cannot use a lot of the common cookware.  However, since induction is heavily used in Europe, international cookware is often induction compliant.

i am canadian and worked on gas my whole carear  now i live in austria and almost everything is induction.  dont know if i would go back to gas.  if you have the money to spend induction is the way to go.  quick, clean, and safe to use.  in a busy kitchen with all the equipment on the induction gives of no heat itself just the pans are hot.  but at home i am not sure what the quality is like. i know some induction are slower than others but mine at work will smoke oil in a cold pan in 10 seconds on high heat.  the slider system lets you move the pan along a induction plate from left to right to get more heat or less heat.  so many options here in europe to choose from not sure what it is like in north america now with the enduction.  gas is very expensive here and austira has almost all its energy from water so it is the cheaper way to go.  

Both have their place. Induction is good at the station, in other words if the Garde Manger needs to cook something he can stay at his own area and do it quickly as some inductions are portable.  Only think I dont like about electric  or induction is its hard to control heat  you have hi /med/ lo  also if you have a blackout you are in the weeds

True you could run out of botteled gas in some places, but most refill companies check and fill for you weekly.

It is cleaner and less expensive to use as it cooks so quick . same as microwave is less costly to operate because it draws power a shorter time. .

since moving to ausrtria and seeing the induction systems they have here i would never want to go back to gas unless i had too. they have a slider system it is 1 meter long or longer or shorter depending on your line and the futher you move the pan to the right the hotter it gets.  a cold pan can smoke oil in 15 seconds and catch on fire in 20 i know because the learning curve for me caused some smoke outs in the kitchen.  it is clean safe no hot handles no burnt hand hair from the gas flame and easy to clean.  they have put much effort to the enduction systems here because gas is expensive and energy saving is important.

I live in Tampa florida so whe I needed a new roof I chose a hurricane grade white metal that had 4 inchs of marine foam in them and had a heat exchange on my AC system that use to provide 100% of my hot water from march to october but after the roof went on it only worked 100% in july and august as the air conditioner ran so much less.

as far as cooking I curently have a soild surface electric oven which I not found of and a small brevile oven which I love as it does not heat up my kitchen like my oven does and cooks 30% faster but now looking for gas or induction to replace my full size stove  

When I'm next in the market for a cooktop, it will be induction. I have gas now which I like and would go with Induction over gas. Costs quite a bit more though for induction.

I recently had to purchase a new range and tried cooking with induction at a few places (friends and family). I decided against it after I realized it was nearly impossible to, say, poach or simmer something. Even though there are digital settings allowing 12 different positions with 1/2 position increments - so really 24 different settings - at some point one setting was too weak and the next one was too strong. For example trying to simmer a chicken stock, I'd get one position which wouldn't create any bubbles at all (below simmer) and the next would boil too hard. 

 

I can adjust my gas range exactly as I need it to get the exact amount of simmer I want. This, to me, was the deal breaker. 

French Fries:

 

This is THE big issue with induction, I've found, after a great deal of research. For the home cook, the options -- especially in the US, but to some degree in Europe and Asia as well (don't know about elsewhere) -- tend to be limited on this crucial thing, the heat settings. Basically we normally get X number of settings; pros, especially in Europe, get an open-ended dial or slider. There is in fact no special reason why an induction burner can't have a dial, rheostat, potentiometer, etc., but apparently the manufacturers think that the home cook who's considering induction doesn't want this. So it's hard to find.

 

For me, that's a deal-breaker: if I can't have the heat the way I want it when I want it, then I'm dealing with an electric range, and I don't care how clever the technology is. An induction range becomes just an electric range with a high price-tag and weird limitations on what pans you can use. But if you can have a proper open-ended setting, well, that's quite a different matter.

 

HOWEVER there is a saving grace.

 

In many, possibly most jurisdictions in the US, the code limitations on installing professional cooking equipment in private homes have to do principally with fire safety. Thing is, this isn't an issue with induction: to cause a fire, you have to work at it, and you can do the same thing with any home range if you try equally hard. So you can have professional equipment if you want it, and nobody can say it's not code-legal. It's not going to be cheap, but you knew that with induction, right?

 

So what you have to do is to buy professional in-set tops, and install the sliders or dials someplace convenient. Don't get the freestanding things: they're hideously ugly and, more importantly, not built with the measurements of a home counter in mind. But an in-set top is what it is: you cut a hole in the countertop, drop the unit into it, and then plug it in below. There are no special high-voltage outlets, no fancy tricks, no fire-safety issues. In fact, this is one cool thing about induction: you don't have to buy a 4-top or 6-top range. Buy individual or paired units (in the latter case, get "bridge" units that allow you to put a long pan over) and install them where you want them. As to installation, if you're handy and have the right (expensive) tools, you could do this yourself. You might possibly need a second circuit-breaker if you're installing a lot of burners, but that's a very small thing to have your electrician do.

 

Full disclosure: I currently rent, and my landlords, who plan to retire to the apartment, are very leery about anything new, so I can't install anything, but I use small freestanding induction burners when I can. Otherwise I have a glass-top electric, which is horrible beyond belief -- simply the worst cooking surface I have ever used in my life, and that's saying something. So I do this research in order to plan out what I will do when I'm given the green light or move to a place I can change.

Living here in Florida I am forced by my community to use electric which is the worse form of cooking. I grew up with and learned everything on gas. To me it is still the best. A one burner self contained induction is good to have.

Chef, can you not get a propane tank in your neighborhood to fuel a gas range? This is what I had to do since no natural gas lines are in my subdivision

I live in a condo  and it is illegal to store propane inside or out. If I could have I would have.

I took delivery of my first induction burner today, a Duxtop 1800 watt single burner that runs on 120V current, which I bought as an alternative to gas because I dislike gas for its fumes and explosion hazard, and the kitchen in my rental has no 220v cable for an electric stove. The Duxtop cost $75.99. 

 

I immediately tried it out and all I can say is WOW- I have never, ever experienced such fast cooking. My hot chocolate heated to the desired drinking temperature inside 3 minutes with the temp set at 360 F. The only downside to induction is that half my cookware did not work, including 3 Cuisinart stainless steel pans, which unfortunately have aluminum bottoms. Newer models of Cuisinart and All-Clad stainless cookware are induction ready. My enameled cast iron works great with it, as do a couple of cheap stainless pots I have on hand. Unfortunately, my collection of lovely copper does not, but there is a solution for that. Rather than buy all new cookware, get an Induction Disc or "template"- a round , heavy stainless disc with a pot handle specifically made to allow you to use otherwise useless cookware on your induction cooktop. Max Burton, another manufacturer of fine induction cooktops, makes one that sells for a little less than $50. You might want to get two. I'll be getting one of these with my second burner.

 

Even considering the cost of the disc and/or more cookware, these little 120V beauties are great and make electric more than equal to gas in the speed and precision of cooking. I'm hooked and never want to cook any other way ever again.

Induction is so much safer than gas, there can be almost no discussion.

 

I had my landlord pull my gas stove out because there was ALWAYS gas leaking, giving me headaches and endangering my cats. Well, one less explosion hazard in the world now.

 

As Chris mentioned, this isn't always the case with induction. You were, apparently, using inferior equipment. I don't have an expensive induction range - just a Kenmore that I picked up a the Sears Outlet for a reasonable price. It has a couple of design flaws, but lack of ability to adequately control temperature is NOT one of them (burner placement is a bit annoying and can make juggling four burners a bit difficult due to sizing). 

 

I don't have one of those infinite scale/dial types, either. Mine starts at Low, then 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2., 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, High, and PB (Power Boil - it's exactly what it sounds like). I can't imagine and have not yet run into any situation where I wasn't able to adequately control temp. This Consumer Reports review of my range is pretty accurate in the gripes (including the intermittent inverter sharing/buzzing):

 

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appliances/kitchen-appliances/ranges/first-look-kenmore-elite-9991-with-induction-cooktop/overview/first-look-kenmore-elite-9991-with-induction-cooktop.htm 

 

I paid less than half of that in March 2011. 

 

I also only lost four pieces of cookware when I switched, two of which were non-issues:

 

1 & 2 - cheapo non-sticks for eggs - just replaced them with some Ikea ones that did work (at a slightly higher cost but noticeable improvement in quality, too)

 

3. Calphalon Commercial Everyday Pan - hard anodized doesn't work - I replaced it with a Denby enameled cast iron braiser

 

4. Woflgang Puck S/S 5'ish qt Saute Pan - odd that it didn't work, as all of my other S/S pieces did. That being said, it was $39.99 so wasn't irreplaceable. I most used the above noted Denby but have now just added an All-Clad to the arsenal. 

 

I already had simple Lagostina encapsulated base pots and some other pans that all worked just fine. I dealt with the shift just fine and at very little cost. I was also able to get the induction range for about the same price as it would have cost to run natural gas to the kitchen. And then I still would have had to buy a range. I'm pretty sure I came out on top and now love induction.

 

My parents both have gas ranges (one propane and one natural gas) and I often cook at their places and I actually find it harder to get just the right flame than to get the right setting on my induction. 

 

No regrets here at all. 

 

 

Actually, just last night, I said to my wife how I was reminded of why I love induction...I braised some chicken thighs and, when I took the pan out of the oven to reduce the liquid down into a sauce, I put it on a cold stove top and turned on the burner and it was boiling in about 3 seconds because the liquid and pan were already both hot. Unlike gas or electric, where the grates or element would have had to heat up, this was ready to go right away. Truly a great system. 

I love Induction I have Lp where I live and I was disappointed with its performance compared to natural gas.

I bought my induction cooktop and have been thrilled ever since I cannot believe how long it takes to cook on a restaurant stove compared to my induction cook top. melt chocolate without a double boiler or sear several pieces of fish without them sticking. At first you will have problems with burning food and  boiling over and such however once you become used to it you will find it hard to go back to gas.

We have an induction similar to Deputy's and the only range top that's its equal is at the restaurant. Setting it to simmer for stocks is one of the many places it shines. We had to replace over a dozen pots and pans, but it was worth it. Induction is a breeze to clean, quick to cool down and with 20 settings, easy to control.