Loving my new GE Café

[jetcone]

Somebody Slap John for me

my hand hurts already !

 

The KM cooktop will go on consulting at the Cape so it won't have to work as hard.

The heat sensors are starting to fail and so the power burner will fail in the middle of cooking. Its done 30 years of meritorious service now it can work part time in retirement.

 

 

[foraloysius]

I wonder how John would insulate that cooktop. Put an insulation blanket on top of it? lol

 

[jetcone]

Yes Louis

 the "how" has crossed my mind as well.

 

But I do have new ideas about the 1-18 Frigidaire, so John better be trembling in his shorts!

 

 

[jetcone]

Tonights induction

feast-- Udon with shrimp, crab, chicken & shaved steak.

 

 

 

[Brandon]

Nice. Something I envision on Star Trek.

Can cook faster than light!

 

[frigidareu]

Absolutely beautiful cooktop.
Does anyone know the reliability and life span of induction cooktops ?
Just wondering because I'll be in the market for a new range soon. And I think that you can only use steel cookware.

 

[jkbff]

Jetcone, I saw your video with the coils turning off when the cooling fan kicks on.

Did you get that solved? What was going on?

 

[vacerator]

Love it John,

and your pho' also looks delicious.
I have used one GE induction unit back in the early 90's. It was awesome as well. Very expensive back then. It was a 36 inch "profile" model.
My friend sold that house shortly after remodeling it, so I don't know if it had any problems.
I would think, if a fan fails, it could be replaced. Under glass controls are very reliable these days. Magnetic coils last a long time.
Maybe you spend more up front, but longevity is better. Most energy efficient way to cook also.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Congratulations, Jon

When you were here at the wash in, I thought that you said that you had to use your gas cooktop all summer because of induction cooker problems, replacements and exchanges or was that the summer previous to this one?

 

Big question, how did you use that old pressure cooker, which I thought was all aluminum, on the induction range? My oldest Kuhn-Rikon is not induction compatible.

 

I found a piece of non-stick All Clad for cooking brown rice with none of the cleanup hassle of regular stainless steel.  Once the water boils, I turn the power down to 4%, set the timer for 55 minutes and forget about it until it is ready to serve.

 

I think it would help new induction users if, in the instruction manual,  they printed the old 5 heat electric range heat percentages: High =100%, Medium High = 1/2, Medium = 1/3 or 30%, Low = 1/7 or 14% and Simmer = 1/10 or less.  If you have a control that allows 100 settings those are easily used. If you have a 20 setting control you just convert so that half is 10, at third is 5 or 6 or 7, low is 3 or 4 and simmer is 1 or 2, depending on the quantity of food.

 

[brisnat81]

Jon has crossed to the European side and has a beautiful Miele Induction hob now. I'll wait for him to chime in with the full story, but the GE was a bust

 

[tomturbomatic]

Mystery solved. Thank you very much, Nathan.

 

[foraloysius]

I guess we missed the pictures of that Miele hob?

Ducking and running!

 

[toploader55]

Ah Hem .......

 

[earthling177]

Tom:

Thanks for that power table, now I understand a bit better what they were trying to do with the Electrolux free-standing range that I got.

It goes from Lo to 3 in 0.2 increments, 3-7 in 0.5 increments, 7, 8, 9, Hi and Power Boost (23 levels). It seemed weird to me, because in the tech specs they claim Lo is 3%, 3 is 10%, 5 is 21%, 6 is 38%, 7 is 45%, 8 is 54%, 9 is 64%, Hi is 100% and Power Boost is 123-133% depending on the burner.

It seems to me that they figured out most people will try to follow recipes and when the recipe says "medium" or "medium-high" people will want more or less the same heat output most ranges will provide, and whoever actually wants 2,000-3400W will simply choose Hi or PowerBoost and be done with it.

Initially I was also questioning the large increments once you pass 7 and the tiny increments under 3, but after 3 years or so with this range it seems to me that it has worked better than my friends' stovetops that have a more linear power distribution.

Hugs,
-- Paulo.

 

[kb0nes]

The silly thing is that the power control is all done in the digital world. The programmers could easily skew the software a bit to allow the user interface to represent the power levels in a more expected fashion. The way you describe this non-linear relationship would be poor affordance of design in my mind.

 

[panthera]

I used induction in Germany

My last years there and loved it. Had a little hob to run the one or two pots which didn't work with induction. The best part of induction is that it takes you back to the days of cooking with gas. Instant high heat. There when you need it and gone just as quickly when you don't.

Induction cooktops are also the only ones I've ever used with sensors that actually work well in the low (milk sauces) range. Congratulations!

 

[earthling177]

Phil:

Maybe I did not express myself properly. I'll try again.

From the user's perspective, there's a pad (On/Off) to flip the power to the burner, then a LED with two characters, and three pads: Hi/+, Med, Lo/-. You turn on the burner, and press either of the 3 pads and you are taken straight to PowerBoost (Pb), Med (5) or Lo. After that first press, Med continues to take you to 5 at all times, but the other two pads become + or - to raise or lower the power.

If you cycle thru the power, what you see is Lo, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6... until your reach 3.0, then 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 etc until you reach 7, then if you press + you see 8, 9 or Hi.

It's more or less like a rotary knob on a standard electric burner, except that you use +/- to go up and down and you see the numbers on the display.

Behind the scenes, it does what you suggested, which is, the controller offers more gradations on the lower power range than on the top. It seems to work relatively well, I rarely miss an intermediate step between 7 and Hi, and I always find a convenient setting to keep food just at the melting point of butter or chocolate, for example, without burning. It's easy to bring a pressure cooker to operating pressure/temp and then find a setting that keeps it there without cycling up/down.

What I did not know is why they did not make the power linear with the numbers instead of the strange curve they picked. If they are trying to behave more or less like the old 5 step burners for people following recipes, it kinda makes some sense. Also, I had no idea the power curve is what it is until I looked at the tech sheets.

For what's worth, I never actually measured the power in a burner with infinite heat knob. For all I know, they cycle linearly (7 is 70% of the time on) but the effective power might be 50% like Tom says Med-Hi should be, I dunno?

In any case, yes, I agree with you the affordances are suboptimal, a knob or a control more like what Jon showed here from the Café is better.

 

[toploader55]

Immer Besser.