Induction ranges - Future, fad or fool?

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

qualin

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
1,108
Location
Canada
A while ago, I considered the idea of replacing our range, only because it doesn't have a self cleaning oven and using Easy-Off isn't good for birds. (Or for me)

Then I started salivating over the idea of replacing it with an induction range.

Supposedly, they have all of the advantages of gas with none of the drawbacks. (As long as you don't actually cook over the open flames.)

At first I was hesitant to even consider one because my wife has some classic 80's era glass cookware she loves cooking with, but then I found out that one can purchase special "plates" with a handle which you put between the pot and the element. So now I can't see any reason not to get one.

Does anyone here have experience with using an induction range? What were your thoughts? Which brands would you recommend?

Another motivator is that our current range is one of those contractor special Roper ranges, so the kitchen gets really hot when using the oven, probably because they skimped on the insulation. The range works fine now as it is, so I'm not in any rush yet to consider anything.

So, opinions? Thoughts? Flames? :-)
 
I don't have an induction RANGE but I do have a portable Duxtop 1800W induction cooktop.  Normally I am partial to gas and have been since my mother converted to gas cooking in 1992.  Everything I have is gas fueled...water heater, dryer, pool heater, backup heat, central heat, outdoor grill, and kitchen range.  But....ever since I bought my portable induction cooktop...the only time I use the gas stovetop is for holiday cooking when I need more than one burner going at the same time.  Induction does NOT heat the whole kitchen up when I cook, there's no wasted heat.  I bit the bullet and bought myself a stainless cookware set that is induction friendly as well as have cast iron to use on it.  I'm so pleased with it that when we do build our new house, I'm going to have another gas range on one side of the kitchen and have an induction cooktop permanently installed on the other side of the kitchen so I can have the best of both worlds.  Induction cooking truly is instantaneous and it will boil water much faster than gas.  After living through an ice storm where our electricity was knocked out, I will always have gas as a primary source for heat, cooking, and hot water.   This is the model I have


 

Have you seen the Samsung induction cooktops that use LED indicators to visually show the user the "power" level as a "flame" level?  I don't like Samsung but I think this is so neat!

 
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
I'm the one Glenn is referring to.  My new KitchenAid KFID500 double oven range was installed May 23rd.  In fact, I was cooking last evening when Glenn called me formy birthday.  I live in an all-electric house and a radiant flat surface was never a consideration to replace my 1984 Hotpoint.  I knew of friends who had one of the Kenmore Induction ranges from the 1980s like Jetcone has.  I love my range.  It's extremely responsive.  And I grew up with gas and had gas ranges until I moved into my current house.  I ended up replacing all my Revere Ware cookware.  I have Visions & Corning Ware that will now just be used in the ovens.  Using one of those "special" plates defeats the responsiveness of induction.  Takers a bit for the plate to reduce its heat being radiated -- thus no better than a radiant flat surface cooktop.  Yesterday when I was cooking, it was 100 outside with a heat index of 111.  I boiled a large pot of noodles and never felt any heat radiating from the cooking--unlike my coil top.  And clean up is a breeze.  I'm an unintentional messy cook and nothing has stuck on at all after cooking a full meal on 2 or more burners.  My surface unit controls are upfront between the two front burners and I love not having to reach oven pots & pans.  I believe induction has been gaining popularity in Europe for quite some time.    
 
Happy Birthday, Bob :-)

 

Congrats on  your new range, I'll call you soon for a full update.  A full report!

 

I've used several induction ranges and know several that have them.  I can't think of any "bad" reports I've heard but it is a different method of cooking and takes some getting used to.  I would guess this is true with any range, really.  

 

I have one of the single induction units and have used it numerous times, a friend has one and uses it for canning because his canner will not fit on his smooth-top radiant range.  I'd bet he'd go full induction if buying another range now.  

 

I'm with you on the Samsung products in general but they do have some really neat ideas, the flame thrower lights on their range is probably helpful in getting used to the induction method.
 
I have an induction double cooktop and I really like it. Only bad thing compared to a full fledged induction range is that the burners are limited in size. When using a larger pan it creates hot spots...something the range would not do because they have various size burners. My oven is not that old and works fine so it was a good compromise. I keep it right on top of the stove (it's a glass cooktop). I'm very happy with it since I don't have gas lines in my building.
 
The only induction cooktop I have used with regularity is John Lefever's. It is very easy to get used to and is very responsive. Problem is, I have a pacemaker now, and I am told to stay away from induction cookers. Other than that, If I had to buy a new electric stove today, I would switch to induction just from my experience at John's. I believe his cooktop is a Kenmore from the 1980's.
 
I absolutely love induction cooking. I never needed it for control and I still use my electric range when I fry hash browns which is about the only frying operation I perform. French frying, I perform on induction because the units also have thermostatic settings as well as power settings. The power and efficiency are beyond belief.

 

If you go with induction, put a small magnet in your wallet or coin purse to test  the base of any pan you consider buying. It needs to be magnetic to work on induction.

 

The Wattages on my units vary downward from 3500 to 1800. If you need power, you can start a pan over the high wattage units and them move it to a lower wattage unit to maintain the boiling or simmering temperature. If you are used to electric cooking, you will have to get used to not switching the heat as soon as you do with resistance units. Pressure cookers, for example, have to come up to full pressure before you lower the heat. 

 

Some induction cooktops have two induction units and two radiant units. This is not a bad compromise. You can get things up to cooking temperatures quickly on the induction  units and then transfer them to the radiant units to finish. The radiant units would also work with the glass cookware.
 
Pacemaker implant & Induction Hobs

Correct. Pacemakers and induction hobs are incompatible.

Similarly, those induction coils fitted to shop and department store doorways for detecting theft of valuable goods, are also incompatible with pacemakers.
 
No experience. But I have honestly had mixed feelings based on what I know. I'd like to try induction, and have even thought at times it would be nice to have an induction hotplate to play with. I saw one, in fact, at Goodwill this week and was tempted...but my budget is seriously limited. Plus one wonders if it's at Goodwill what's wrong with it. (One can get good electrical things. But I've noticed that newer stuff that shows up often is either broken, or doesn't work well due to design.)

 

At the same time, though, plain electric burners work just fine. The control of induction is attractive, but nothing I do these days really requires it.

 

I also don't like the fact that cookware choices are (for practical purposes) limited. While most of what i have is induction ready, I do have a few pieces that aren't. I don't like having to add another item to the Must Have list when cookware shopping.

 

 
 
I believe that a reason why people who are accustomed to cooking with gas can have trouble with induction is not only are they not prepared for the speed, but they also are not familiar with the ratios of energy used in electric cooking. Medium High is half power, Medium or Medium low is 1/3-1/4 power, low is 1/7 and simmer is 1/10. You get these based on the doing some math with the power levels levels like if you have 20 settings, 10-12 is medium high, medium is the 7 to 4 range, low is  3 or 2 and simmer is 2 or 1 depending on the quantity of food. There is a lot more power than you need except for bringing water to a boil.
 
OK, I will give you the "bad" news first: the "interface" metal disks were designed to use with the portable cooktops, which tend to be at most 1,800W. An induction range will probably be much more powerful than that.

My experience is that the interface disk works rather well, but reacts at least as slowly as a regular electric burner, both on the portable cooktop (it came with it) and the regular induction range. Then again, I do not use high power (and certainly not Power Boost) on the range. My husband tends to forget (he turns the range on HI) and the range overheats the disk, beeps and shuts down in no time flat. After a few times of this, I bought him an electric hotplate for the 2-3 remaining things we have that are not induction compatible and not worth replacing: a stainless steel "espresso" coffee maker, a 1 qt visions pot and a Pyrex vacuum coffee maker. Yes, you read that right -- there are stainless steel things that are non-magnetic, *check* everything before buying.

With the "bad" experiences out of the way, well, I grew up with gas. I got used to electric burners just fine, but I always noticed the time lag to adjust temperatures.

When induction ranges became less expensive, we kept an eye on the market. Around 2013 the prices got good enough to think about it, and the market for pots which are induction compatible became really attractive. In particular, there are now a lot of pots which are not necessarily stainless steel, but they are non-stick (or "ceramic" coated) and have a very responsive stainless disk on the bottom, which makes them ideal pots for us (we only need 2-3 pots which let the food stick, and we have them). And this style is not nearly as expensive as the high-end all-clad, and our pots and pans were worn out anyway, so we took the plunge.

You will need to adapt. In particular, everything is much faster -- changing temperatures is faster than gas, for example, and trust me on this, you do *not* want to leave the kitchen if a burner is on Power Boost. Lower the power if you leave the kitchen. Just to give you an idea, long gone are the days when I'd put a frying pan on the burner (gas or electric) to "preheat". If your burners defaults to turning on to Power Boost or High, the frying pan will be at 350F in no time flat, your best bet is in fact to turn on the burner on Power Boost, wait 20 seconds (check with one of those Infra-Red laser thermometers), turn off the burner for another 20 seconds or so to let the heat spread/equalize on the bottom of the pan, then turn the burner back on to say 7-8, depending on your burner and start frying. Regulate the heat from there. Note that this is *significantly* faster than "preheating for 5 minutes on low or med-low" because with the old-style burners, you can't easily get rid of excess temperature, and now you have only the pan hysteresis to deal with.

The other "bummer dude" I found out is that while a lot of the portable induction burners have a thermostat to keep the temp constant (some better than others, depending on how well calibrated they are), most of the induction ranges and cooktops don't have such a feature, they only have a LO-1-2...9-HI/PowerBoost control. Very expensive cooktops have had a thermostat in the past, not sure if they are for sale currently in US.

Another thing to keep in mind, some cooktops have at least 20 steps between LO and HI, some only 9 or 10. Some people don't mind fewer steps and don't complain, some people complain that 7 is too cool and 8 too strong.

As a personal anecdote, I got my induction range in 2013. My parents were building a new home and I warned them to get both gas and electric lines to where the range was gonna be installed in case they wanted induction at some point. They figured they had only used gas their entire lives and so they had only a gas line put in. They visited me at the end of the year in 2013, saw our range and mistook it for a regular smooth top, did not pay much attention to it. In 2014 they came to visit, but we had a large family gathering then, and one of my brothers went "oh, WOW!, is this induction?" and I told him yes. So of course, my brothers and sisters-in-law wanted to try it and cooked a bit, so my parents tried it too. My parents have been a bit sour since then, every time they come to visit they play with the range and go "we should have installed an electric line there too, so we could switch!", which I find funny, because *usually* they don't pay any attention to my suggestions.

So, in case it's not clear, I'm all for "get an electric hotplate or even better, if you often have power failures, get a gas camping stove for the pots/pans that aren't induction compatible, get a new set of induction pots and an induction range/cooktop".

I know I get annoyed with how slow other folk's gas stoves are now. No, it has nothing to do with how powerful they are: you can have a 20,000 BTU/h burner, but it will come equipped with heavy cast-iron grates that take time to cool down and make you have to remove/move the pot just the same as old electric stoves. I truly love it now that if I turn off my burner, it's *off*, a second or two later the pot is not boiling anymore and nothing will burn/stick to the bottom because the grates/coil/smoothtop is still too hot.

It's also *much* easier to clean.

Good luck!
 
My two cents

Induction might be fine, but something tells me being around that much electrical force will prove bad for you, just as cell phones are becoming suspect, I personally don't want one, I like gas but don't like the extra heat in the summer, I try to keep the house as cold as I can get it in summer as I DESPISE hot weather,What I like about gas most is the oven, I think a gas oven is far ahead of a electric oven,But ...I have no problem with my 58 Kenmore electric.
 
Hey, thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to keep researching what models to buy, but your input is very encouraging to hear! I've heard lots of positive things about the Bosch and Samsung models. If there's anything I've learned from reading the reviews is to get the longest warranty available.
 
Check out Sears.. possibly some deals coming soon with the so called bankruptcy.. I was in Sears the other day and they have one for around $1900.. but it's been on sale before for much less.  And I saw a Samsung at Best Buy awhile back that had 2 induction & 2 regular burners. My next stove will be an induction model and for me the 2 induction / 2 regular burners type would be preferable. We don't use the stove top all that much and I like the option of  being able to use any type of cookware.  Also , look into the apparent noise issue with them.. I've read some can be somewhat annoying with a constant "buzz" of fans or something.   
 
I've had some opportunities to use/play with an induction hot plate at work, and while it's nice, it isn't perfect. Of course you have to use induction compatible cookware, which has been an issue. I broke the handle on our only induction capable 10" frypan and set out to find a replacement- not easy if you're not willing to spend a mint! I checked all the thrift shops and goodwills in our area and actually bought a very nice pan, that was most certainly steel or stainless by it's weight, it didn't work. I ended up buying one of the "as seen on TV" "copper" pans (which by the way is as amazing as they say) but ended up dropping nearly $20, which was more than I'd planned for a pan that may only get used a couple times a day. There's also the fact that you can't remove the pan while it's cooking to add something or "flip" the food, lest the thing give you 4 warning beeps and shut down completely, you can't set low/medium/high, only temperatures (say 375 degrees etc.) Which takes some getting used to. It seems a bit anemic in high heat cooking or boiling water, but I guess that can be expected considering it's a 120v unit. Then there's the slightly unnerving buzz/crackle from the base of the pan, which can actually be quite loud at times. It has proven to be extremely easy to clean though, even after boiling things over it only needs a quick wipe with a dishcloth. It does have the same issue I've had with smoothtop electric though, where pans skate and slide around like they are on a block of ice. I nearly slid an omelet off the burner and onto the floor. I probably wouldn't switch to induction 100%, but if I caught a good deal on one of the induction single burners at goodwill I might bite.
 
the only really annoying thing I've noticed with induction and the owner's manual warned me about it, is certain clad cookware will emit a very high pitched squeal when used.  My pressure cooker does it as well as a couple of my Tramontina stainless pans.  My ears are very sensitive (I can hear bats sonar at times) and sometimes it just hurts my ears. 
 

Latest posts

Back
Top