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How bad is my gas stove?

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Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#441

Post by detritus »

Sharlin wrote: post #385
detritus wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was resoundingly in the 'induction hobs are crap' camp until this NYE when we found ourselves staying away in the countryside in a place with a basic plug-in induction hob. I sighed and presumed my Absolutely Necessary morning tea would take until the heat death of the universe to boil, but nup, it was done in significantly less time than it takes me at home, when using gas. If a crappy plug-in hob can boil water t…

But… Why did you think induction hobs were slow? It's almost their whole point that they're fast! Now, admittedly I'm speaking as someone who has never used a gas cooktop, and accustomed to coil-plate or glass-ceramic cooktops (gas hobs are very rare around here), and I guess anything is fast compared to a coil-plate, but still.

My experience with these goes back decades, and my experience - outdated as it clearly is - was not positive.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#442

Post by zeendo »

cooperadymas wrote: post #369
samwillis wrote: post #110

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…

"To anybody concerned about anecdotal evidence, here's my anecdotal evidence." Snideness aside, the fact that you have to concern yourself with what pans you buy for an induction stove is enough reason for many to not buy one. You can no longer buy any pan at a store, you must do your research first. Throw out my current pans and buy even more expensive ones? You're not exactly selling me the induction here.

FWIW - cast iron is incredibly cheap.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#443

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

darksaints wrote: post #434
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's what we've been talking about. 120V 15A is not enough to run two burners at any kind of reasonable heat output, much less four. That's 900W->3000BTU/h per burner, assuming the electronics work optimally. Even accounting for the fact that induction is 100% more efficient than gas, you're talking about the equivalent of two 6000BTU/h gas burners, effectively. For reference, that's less power than the simmer…

Gas stoves transfer very little of that heat to your food, most of it goes around your pans and into your kitchen. And the thing with high heat is that it gets drastically less efficient. Large flames push way more heat around the pot than they push into it. We're not not talking about 100% differences, we're talking closer to 400%. At least that's what I've found when measuring boil times for a 1200w plug in unit co…

> We're not not talking about 100% differences, we're talking closer to 400%.

The number I cited came from some random website that I Google searched. If you have a more authoritative number, I'm happy to see a citation, but I won't be convinced by you just saying so. FWIW, the low power claims I made r.e. 2 burner plug in induction cooktops match my personal experience using them.

> Almost every home in the US has at least one 240v connection in the house, and it's usually $200-300 to get one installed.

I would be impressed if you could get 240 run from your breaker to your kitchen for $200, unless the breaker box is right next to your kitchen. The cost of the job is mostly going to depend on how time consuming it is to run the wires, assuming the wires already present are not sufficient for carrying 240v 40A. A brief search on the internet indicates a very wide range of quotes, probably dependent on site conditions and the local electrician labor market.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#444

Post by smokey_circles »

JasonFruit wrote: post #386

Well, that was a nice read. Now I'm going to go cook lunch on the woodstove. To me, not everything is about safety and health; some things are about what my family likes . We like to work together cutting wood and stacking it for the winter. We like the feel of wood heat. My kids are proud that they can cook on an appliance most people never even attempt. We like the feeling of a tie to the past, that we're doing tas…

> I'd prefer seventy years of living to eighty years of not dying

You're going to be disappointed then. Closer to 40 years of living, 30 years of being imprisoned by your failing health.

I support your right to make stupid decisions but at least make sure they're accurate and informed stupid decisions.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#445

Post by occz »

oxymoran wrote: post #215
occz wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like someone who has never used an induction burner in their entire life. I've used both and induction clearly comes out on top, by a huge margin. As for home heating with gas: wrong again - heat pumps are the superior method, and come with the benefits of being air conditioners as well.

Heat pumps only work on their own in mild climates. Cold climates still require furnace in conjunction with the heat pump. Good luck convincing anyone in the northern United States of getting rid of their furnace or hot water heater. Spouting this sort of head-in-the-clouds, wrong information only weakens your cause. “WHERE DO HEAT PUMPS WORK BEST? Heat pumps are more common in milder climates, where the temperature…

Gas is still an inferior solution in those cases - wood pellets are better for those climates. Better yet, a combination of heat pumps and wood pellet furnaces gives you the best of both worlds - very energy-efficient heating while the temperature is still not too far below freezing (iirc heat pumps still beat alternatives as far down as negative 10-15 C), and wood pellets to handle the most extreme colds of the year.

There's also the alternative of putting the outlet of the heat pump below ground, where the temperature never gets that far below zero.

It's entirely incorrect to say that heat pumps only work in mild climates. I live in a country where we do not have a mild climate, and heat pumps are becoming more popular each day, owing to their technological superiority.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#446

Post by duped »

darrylb42 wrote: post #392
duped wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue is not the pans, it's using duty cycle to control the amount of energy added. I can't effectively pan fry anything without using cast iron or enough(read: too much) oil to retain some heat mass, because either it gets too hot and past the smoke point of the oil or too low and the food will cool off between heating cycles. The other slight annoyance is coil whine. Absolutely unmatched for boiling water, and I…

Sounds like you have a glass top electric coil stove, not induction. Induction has a very stable fast heat, cooks like gas. Glass top electric are the one that turn on for 10 seconds off for 30, never the right temp. I replaced a glass top stove with an induction one last year, couldn't be happier. I can actually fry eggs now.

It is a tabletop induction burner, not a glass top electric coil. Its cycle frequency is about 60Hz, I can time it by the coil whine.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#447

Post by fma »

briHass wrote: post #277
fma wrote: 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...…

The problem is, you need a source of makeup air entering the building to actually move that much CFM out. Even with my basic 400 CFM (likely overstated) hood, it's only when I crack a window on the other side of the kitchen that I clearly see all the steam fly up the hood.

Good point, and true even if people were to open windows to fresh air (open 2 on opposite ends of the house).

Entirely possible I have a source by default...I do have a chimney and even with the flute closed I feel a draft. All I know is in the past, before replacing my hood I can smell the cooking from upstairs...now I can't.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#448

Post by maxwell86 »

542458 wrote: post #178
maxwell86 wrote: post #165

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?

The professional machines don’t look nice, don’t have fancy buttons or electronics. They are not fashion items for fancy looking kitchens.

Instead, They are practical. They have insane power (4.5kW is low range… and it goes directly into the pan…). They are easy to clean, and they have physical knobs: one for on/off, and a dial for power, which they display in a cheap display in kWs.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#449

Post by maxwell86 »

leobg wrote: post #323
maxwell86 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I love induction. The main annoyance, for me, are the touch controls. We bought a professional induction stove from a restaurant online on ebay for very cheap. One of the reasons is that all controls were "manual" and with "knobs". The amount of electronics on these is minimal.

Do you have a link to a picture or product page? Just to get an idea. I've been looking for something like that for a while.

https://rover.ebay.de/rover/0/0/99?loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eba...

Something like that is what I bought.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#450

Post by maxwell86 »

danw1979 wrote: post #91
sirwitti wrote: post #84

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 !

I got a similar to this one, can’t find mine: https://rover.ebay.de/rover/0/0/99?loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eba...
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