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How bad is my gas stove?

carbonswitch.co

281–290 of 541 posts

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#281
post #243

To anyone considering switching to an induction hob and hearing anecdotal stories of how some people don’t think they are “as hot” or “slower” than gas. I guarantee these are all related to the pans being used. It is of upmost importance that you get a really good set of pans “designed” for induction. We have found “tri-ply” stainless steel pans work really well, better than on gas. Cast iron is also brilliant, I inh…

I recently bought a Polyscience/Breville Control Freak, and I’m increasingly convinced this is the future. It heats dramatically faster than a supposedly high end gas stove I compared it to despite being a lowly 1.6kW or so device. (Gas stoves are stupendously inefficient. That 15kBTU/hr stove may well deliver 15kBTU/hr to the air but not to your pan.). It heats quite evenly. And best of all, it has closed loop tempe…

Whoah! But it is expensive! $1500 for one pan at a time?!?

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#282
post #40

I can sympathize with the desire to have gas but what I can't accept is people who want massive BTU stoves with inadequate ventilation or worse none. Honestly, I'm surprised that a lot of building codes are so lax. My preferred setup would be 4 induction burners with one or two gas burners. I understand if you have a house without gas, it does't feel worthwhile to just have one or two burners. Induction would be the…

In Europe (or at least big tea drinking Nations like Ireland and the UK) electric kettles are in every home, and they can boil 1l of water in just over 2 minutes. So while I have a gas range stove, I actually use the kettle to boil water for tea, coffee, rice, pasta, stock etc. Other small appliances like air fryers and standalone induction hobs reduce reliance on the has burners. And from a "green" perspective, switching to an induction stove would mean junking a 100kg stove. I'll probably never change my stove.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#283
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We bought a single profesional induction stove, 4.5 kW for a single plate, on ebay, barely used, for 100$. The thing is a beast. You can heat a pot with 50L of water in ~10-15min with it to like 60 + degrees celsius. With gas it takes an hour.

It’s very bizarre to me how you can get very inexpensive single burner countertop induction plates ($50-100), but multi-burner built-in cooktops are dramatically more expensive ($1000-4000). Anybody know why this is?

Is the US most homes use combination stove/ovens called ranges. These are the cheap option because they are mass produced. Stovetops are more common in bigger, more expensive homes which is why the stovetops at Best Buy are the "premium" models.

Also, at least in the US people have been told over and over how a kitchen remodel actually adds value to your house. "Every dollar you spend you get a dollar twenty back!" Well maybe so or maybe not, but if you don't sell your house before you need to remodel again, you are never realizing that gain.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, no. You can make Methane from CO2 and electricity with something like 70% efficiency. So while gas will become a lot more expensive, it won't become too expensive to use it for cooking. You don't need all that much gas for cooking.

You need to factor in the fact that in many areas natural gas is literally a waste byproduct of the oil extraction process, which is why it’s cheap enough for us to cook with. It’s not just that we would need to make methane at 70% efficiency, it’s that we’d be transitioning from something that’s artificially cheap to something that must be made special purpose just for cooking right as alternatives are getting cheap…

I argue that the price for fuel essentially doesn't matter because you don't need all that much. Electricity costs a couple of cents per kWh, so it's very unlikely that synthetic Methane will cost more than a few dozen cents per kWh. So you can run a stove for an hour a day for one or two bucks or so. I guess that's several times more than you pay for natural gas, but a lot cheaper than going to a restaurant.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#285
post #249

"The more likely norm is unused range hoods, furnace flues that spill chemicals into the air we breathe, and ultimately higher rates of illness..." The range hood on average American houses are weak, because they are the cheapest. Till I got a range hood built by an Asian manufacturer(Fotile) did I know what I was missing out. Range hoods are measured by the amount of air it can move, CFM. Futile starts out at 850...…

> there are range hoods near the price of Fotile which still only do 400 CFM!

Ok, but having just shopped for range hoods (and purchased a 1000 CFM Thermador hood) there are plenty of good hoods in the same price range by various manufacturers that do 800-1000 CFM. I'm not trying to say the Fotile hoods aren't good, I honestly didn't look at those. But I don't think there's anything particularly unique about the fact that they do 800+ CFM.

You're right though, there are plenty of underpowered hoods out there also, and one should definitely pay attention when purchasing, along with other factors such as source of make up air.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#287
Regardless of gas or induction, whenever you fry, have the oven on, or burn something, air quality drops dramatically. I have a pretty robust air quality meter and see PM2.5 go as high as 400 when I fry food. The most microwave vents only recirculate air. You really have to cut a hole in the wall to properly vent cooking fumes. I think this is a bigger issue of gas vs induction for indoor air quality.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you will have to get a Wok with a flat bottom If it has a flat bottom, then it’s not a wok. Personally, I hate cooking on induction. My parent have it and it never worked for me. I need to see/hear the gas to be able to control the heat properly. Once they shut off the gas lines due to the energy transition, I’m going to run a gas pipe from the kitchen to my basement and just buy it in canisters.

> If it has a flat bottom, then it’s not a wok. It has a flat bottom "outside", inside it has the same shape as a normal wok.

Really? I’ve never seen a wok like this. Most flat bottomed woks are just flat bottomed.

A wok with a flat bottom outside and curved surface inside would also be heavy.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#289

Regardless of gas or induction, whenever you fry, have the oven on, or burn something, air quality drops dramatically. I have a pretty robust air quality meter and see PM2.5 go as high as 400 when I fry food. The most microwave vents only recirculate air. You really have to cut a hole in the wall to properly vent cooking fumes. I think this is a bigger issue of gas vs induction for indoor air quality.

[deleted]

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I happened to buy a used quality induction stove, that has knobs. At the time I didn't think a lot about it, but to me it's the best stove I ever used. I honestly don't know thw reasoning for using toch controls on induction stoves. They are a pain to use for most people.

Please can you tell us which one you bought ? I’ve scoured the market in the UK for a decent beknobbed induction stove and come up with nothing !

Currently scouring the US. No joy here either.
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