Induction gets even cheaper

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joeekaitis

joeekaitis

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Plop an induction cooktop on a standard (non-convection) self-cleaning oven and more of The Masses can now afford induction.

 

Frigidaire again?  Nope. Samsung.

 

Go ahead.  Search Home Depot and Lowe's and filter by price low to high.

 

Could Hotpoint be next?  Will Frigidaire cave in to pleas for a plain-Jane white or black induction stove without the Gallery moniker?

 

Things are heating up!  With the proper cookware, of course.
 
Induction range pricing and selection

Hi Joe, I totally agree it’s about time manufacture started offering some choices in this product to start with it be nice to get a black or a white range and a few higher and lower end models.

It doesn’t make any sense that you can buy a one burner induction unit frizzle is 50 bucks and the stoves are as expensive as they are.

Talked to a big appliance distributor that we buy stuff through today and they said the sales are really heating up on electric ranges including induction a lot of people in this area are heading the warnings about gas ranges and are trying to get rid of them.

One of my old customers two weeks ago ditched his gas range for a Frigidaire induction range we sold it installed for him.

John
 
I think it was in the current or previous issue of CR where they said induction stoves only account for 3 percent of sales. Can't remember if that was of all stoves including gas or just electric. Either way though it's very low. It's possible that they're just milking high prices for as long as they can for the cachet. Like the Euro car makers did for years and years in N.America only offering the medium to high price models while the rest of the world were offered lower cost models.
 
It's once again that odd US EU split.

There is absolutely no reason to go not induction over here anymore.
IKEA dropped ALL radiant heat cooktops a few years back.
You now can get a 4 zone induction cooktop for under 200€ with 5 years of warranty.

You loose some typical induction features - boost functions mainly - but you can't get renowned brand name cooktops for that price often.

Only place radiant heat plays a role anymore really is the mass rebated area of "appliances shipped with kitchens" - the kitchen that came with my flat has a bottom of the line Zanussi (rebadged ELux) appliances.
Buying the oven cooktop combi alone as a private person rings in at like 400€ - my kitchen apparently wasn't even quite 1000€ total.
 
I recall reading a story (in Business Week or WSJ or similar) maybe 20 years ago on how different cooking appliances were country by country and how it would impact the (then) consolidation of the major appliance vendors worldwide. I do recall how weird it is (as an American) to see the side-mounted elements in a UK oven (with the bottom of the oven able to be used as a shelf) and the weird side-panels covering those elements.
 
Could this have been a Westinghouse invention?

Having lived in Pittsburgh we always heard about something from them. Electrolux/Frigidaire appliances today are based on Westinghouse appliances in the past (I think).

About 50 years ago I remember I was young and saw a news report on KDKA TV (because it was a Westinghouse Broadcasting station) about a new cooktop that used magnetic energy. It was white, like a Corning cooktop, and had "sliders" along the sides that adjusted the heat. The sliders were on the cooktop but not attached to it, you could lift them off.

I never saw one of those IRL or in a store so maybe it was experimental? If it was on the market it had to be expensive at the time and people were not into Viking, Wolf, or the expensive appliances then.

This was just before WH sold off appliances so maybe this technology ended up with Electrolux which is why Frigidaire now has it more than the others.
 
The Westinghouse "magnetic" cooktop you're mentioning was a joint effort of PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) and Westinghouse. The switches were the only magnetic thing on them--they were a standard smooth-top cooktop with the PPG-variety (believe it was pebbly-finished) glass on top (not the ground-smooth mirror-finish Corning).
 
I think a number of years ago Bosch had a cooktop that had a magnetic knob to control the elements. Iirc it still had the 4 little circles representing the 4 elements along the front or to the side but you had to put the magnetic knob on one and turn it, rather than just touch with your finger as many are today. THere was also the matter of what if you misplaced that knob, you couldn't turn on the stove.
 
Louis, yes that looks similar to what I remember seeing with Bosch cooktops though I think with the Bosch you placed or moved the twist pad to one of the four spots corresponding to which element you were controling. Imagine the dog gets it. Where's the twistpad LOL
 
Induction cooking history

Westinghouse did sell a built-in cooktop around 1969 which cooked with induction energy as mentioned above it was a joint venture between Westinghouse and Pittsburgh plate glass.

They also sold a regular cooktop with the same control system which was probably more popular. I’m quite sure the technology that Westinghouse developed has nothing to do with the technology used in the current Frigidaire induction ranges. They have literally been probably more than 100 induction cooktop designs made in the last 30+ years.

They had four little magnetic trolleys that you slid back-and-forth in a groove on the top of the cooktop to select the heat and turn it on etc. the reason for this type of controller so they could lift them off and childproof it and also there was nothing to clean there was no shaft coming through the cooktop it was easy to wipe off nothing could get spilled under the cooktop.

The first 30 inch induction range I saw was made and sold by Roper in the late 70s seers also sold in induction freestanding range around 19 8688 time. The electronics and induction components were made by Sanyo.

Sanyo also made 30 and 36 inch wide built-in cooktops originally they came in white and then in the later 80s they were sold in black only, I have a 19 8730 inch Sears induction cooktop that has never missed a beat.

John L
 
Sanyo & Hitachi were the first portable single unit burners that I recall seeing for sale back in the mid/late 70s and they were expensive. In the $300 range iirc. As for standard size stoves the first one I remember seeing was at the exhibition in Vancouver so probably somewhere around that time as well. It was called the GE Magnawave and retailed for something like $9,000 at the time.
 
Gas loyalists, Samsung is gunning for you.

 

"Burner" knobs on the front, tempting price, a few hundred more for Air Fry and Convection.  Yeah, it all adds up.  Samsung is clearly aiming for the gas-replacement market.

 

Frigidaire's touch control induction stoves are still the cheapest with Air Fry and Convection.
 
I'm probably going to stick with gas for cooking as long as I can. California has announced that no new gas furnaces and/or water heaters will be sold in-state starting 2030(35?). So far I haven't heard of gas stoves/ovens being included in that category. Nor gas fired clothes dryers. I much prefer cooking with gas vs. electric. Shortly after acquiring this home in 1997, I replaced the old Corning glass cooktop in the main kitchen with a gas cooktop. Perhaps an induction electric cooktop would perform as well, for a similar cost, but I tend to doubt it.

 

We'll see.

 

My one worry is that the gas/forced air central heating system here will conk out right around 2035 or after, and then I'll be faced with a pricey challenge of converting the system to electric. In the meantime I'll be looking for a back-up gas powered forced air unit. There may be plenty of those in junk yards in 10 years.

 
 
OK, California will ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. That's what I was thinking. The gas appliance ban will happen by 2030, although while it currently applies only to home heaters and water heaters, some are thinking it will eventually extend to gas stoves and ovens.

 

This could get costly.

 
 
It’s already less expensive In California

To cook on induction, to heat your home with a heat pump, and the heat pump water heater is about the same cost as using natural gas.

I’ve never heard of anybody that’s cooked on gas and also cooked on induction and still preferred gas, it’s just so dirty and difficult to clean and hard to control compared to induction to say nothing of being much much slower.

John L
 
I was watching Holmes on Homes a few weeks ago and he had installed a hidden induction cooktop. It had the coils under the granite top. They opened the drawer below and revealed the controls. It looked neat but what happens when something needs replacing on it? I just found it interesting.
 
The actual usage or induction may be the same or even cheaper than natural gas, but what about the cost of replacing:

 

1) Stoves

2) Water heaters

3) Central heating systems

 

I'm thinking that cost could be up to $10,000 or more per residence.

 
 
Cost of going green

Hi Rich, you can install an induction cooktop for less than $1500 you probably still have the wiring there from the old electric cooktop some of this cost is now covered by federal tax credits and it may also have credit from California or your utility company.

The cost of converting to a heat pump water heater may be a little is $1000 again there are big rebates available.

The cost of adding a central heat pump on your existing system could cost anywhere from 2000 to 5000, as we age you need air conditioning it’s dangerous to your health to live without it during the heat spells that are gonna be coming in the coming years.

John L
 
Standard heat pumps are claimed to work in surrounding temperatures as low as 40F. Split-type heat pump water heaters work in temperatures as low as -25°F. I don't have any personal experience with them but there's a few here who have one. John LeFever has one.
 
heat pump w.h.s are:

1. loud, they make noise because of the fan(s) and compressor(s).
2. expensive to install.
3. Have a long recovery time, up to 3 hours.
4. expensive to fix as it has a sealed system. If any part of the sealed system that's immersed in water should spring a leak, you're screwed. Can't easily DIY that.
5. When installed in a heated space they dump cold air into that heated space adding a burden to your heat source. More $$



I'll keep my 6 gallon 120 volt 2000 watt GE water heater I got in 2010 for $44.
It just keeps going and going without noise or problem. I turn the timer knob and within a minute I've got a stream of hot water for doing dishes. If I want to take a shower or do laundry, I turn the timer to 30 minutes and give it 10 minutes. Never been disappointed. Easy to dump out and clean as its portable. Easy to fix- the element is $12 though I haven't had to replace it yet. No hassle. No ego b.s. And it's certainly green.

If it's running for 1/2 hr a day on average
using 1 killowatt(1,000 watts of steady use for an hour)
(2,000 watts x 1/2) and the rate for kilowatt hour here is $0.32 x 1
that's $0.32 a day
times approx. 30 days in a month = $9.60 a month (plus tax)

i can live with that. lol 
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As for induction cook tops.

I still got these babies, 2 of them, though I only use one these days. 

Boy oh boy, I had to strap these heavy 4 pound puppies on a dolly to get them in here.....I'm telling you it's a ball buster.

 

I've had to replace the terminals on the wires a couple of times which cost me $0

but the burner, cord, and temperature control just keeps going.

 

So how green is this?  

When it's running, maybe 15 minutes a day, it uses 1000 watts when on but it cycles so figure  half the time.

(1,000 x 1/4 x 1/2) = 125 watts or

1/8 kilowatt a day x $0.32 (the rate of electric here) =  $0.04 a day

 

x approx. 30 days a month = $1.20 a <span style="font-size: 12pt;">month </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span>(plus tax)

 

but I'm intrigued by induction.  

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Check this out

tempting.

 

But then I either have to replace my copper bottom Revereware OR

 

get a disk adapter.

 

The other thing is the wattage it states.  Is that, when it's in use, the EQUIVALENT of a traditional stove top element, or is that what it's actually using?

[this post was last edited: 11/14/2022-22:16]

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