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Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

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Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#101

Post by kevincox »

lkramer wrote: post #6

I find it significantly harder to cook with electric than gas, and the first hurdle these days is always that for some reason all modern stoves use awful touch interfaces instead of just plain knobs. I don't understand how we got there. It should be obvious to anyone that it's a terrible interface when you are trying to multitask several pots and might also have greasy hands

I usually hate touch controls. But for the stove I actually like them. I always hated cleaning in and around the knobs. When cooking on the stove you almost always get some sort of splatter so it is nice to clean them every time (something I often put off with knobs. So for something that so regularly gets dirty a flat surface can be very welcome.

So it is definitely a tradeoff, but I am happy I picked a stove with touch controls. Although I did pay attention that they were good touch controls (touch anywhere on the arc to set that temperature directly for example). Although there is a small annoying delay after turning on before you can set the temperature. Almost perfect.

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#102

Post by kevincox »

Zanfa wrote: post #67
jghn wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nothing but an open flame gives me the kind of control I need to cook with the precision I do Please explain how an induction cooktop doesn't give you the control and precision you need as compared to gas flame.

To be fair, induction doesn’t heat the sides of the pan at all. So carbon steel pans are more annoying to use and keep uniformly seasoned. Woks don’t really work by default either. It’s also more susceptible to slightly warped pans exacerbating uneven heating.

I consider this a downside. Now whenever I am cooking on a gas stove I keep burning myself because everything in the vicinity of the stove is so hot. I love with induction that I can always grab the handles of the cookware and don't have to worry about stuff nearby on the stove getting hot (example my bowl of pancake batter next to the pan doesn't cook on the near side.

You are right about the wok, it isn't quite the same on the induction stove (at least the flat ones, there are wok-shaped ones but these are generally only found in professional units). If you cook most of your meals in it then you are probably right to go gas (or get a gas burner).

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#103

Post by shimman »

chomp wrote: post #84
shimman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can literally do all these (except nabe, don't understand what's happening there) with a basic cast iron pan + induction stove top. They may be different cooking tools but if one is ruining the quality of your life + possibly children, wouldn't you rather do it the safe way? Or are your habits more important than your health?

You absolutely cannot do the same thing with a cast iron, I promise.

Char food? I do that several times a week. You realize things get hot and you can cook right? Gas stove tops aren't the only thing capable of generating heat. Induction is simply better. Way safer too.

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#104

Post by hagbard_c »

I've used natural gas stoves, propane stoves, petrol stoves, kerosene stoves, naphta stoves, spirit-burning stoves, resistive electrical stoves, 'halogen' electric stoves, induction stoves, campfires and wood-burning stoves. I cook nearly every day for our family of 4 on... the wood-burning stove. It is the most powerful one of the lot, the most versatile and the most reliable. I can cook when the power has failed, I don't need infrastructure other than a way to gather wood of which we have plenty seeing how as we're living on a farm in the Swedish countryside, the thing heats the house while I'm cooking, in combination with a wok it is the clear winner to make anything stir-fried while it is just as useful to slow-cook rice pudding in winter time. The resistive electric stove next to the wood-burning one only sees use as a parking area for the stack of cast-iron pans I use. The induction plates sometimes see use when I'm cooking outside but otherwise I leave them be 'cause they're just not strong enough to my taste.

Wood. That's where it's at, at least for those living like we do. I understand that it won't work for those living in densely populated areas but for those who live in the sticks I'd say get yourself a wood-burning stove and learn how to use it. I suppose Stanford won't approve but that's their problem...

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#105

Post by Hikikomori »

pkulak wrote: post #71
Zanfa wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, induction doesn’t heat the sides of the pan at all. So carbon steel pans are more annoying to use and keep uniformly seasoned. Woks don’t really work by default either. It’s also more susceptible to slightly warped pans exacerbating uneven heating.

Heating the absolute hell out of the sides of the pan used to be a disadvantage. That's why everyone moved to crazy-expensive, fully-clad cookware. I like how well cheap, disk-bottomed pans work on induction. But yes, I've also basically given up on carbon steel with induction. Cast iron seasons really well though.

Did you try form black rust/magnetite rather than doing typical cast iron seasoning?

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#106

Post by Hikikomori »

sm-silversight wrote: post #7

I don't care. Quality-of-life. I cook in a pan every day. Nothing but an open flame gives me the kind of control I need to cook with the precision I do. Whatever the harmful effects on my health are, that is a trade I make consciously. My life would be noticeably worse without my open-flame stove. I'd wager anyone who opines otherwise in this thread barely cooks or doesn't cook in a serious fashion. A gas stove is a…

[dead]

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#107

Post by tencentshill »

sm-silversight wrote: post #7

I don't care. Quality-of-life. I cook in a pan every day. Nothing but an open flame gives me the kind of control I need to cook with the precision I do. Whatever the harmful effects on my health are, that is a trade I make consciously. My life would be noticeably worse without my open-flame stove. I'd wager anyone who opines otherwise in this thread barely cooks or doesn't cook in a serious fashion. A gas stove is a…

There are imprecise gas ranges, usually cheap units found in apartments. They go from "nothing" to "max" far too quickly. Gas regulators are tricky to do right. Proper ventilation is essential either way.

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#108

Post by minetest2048 »

My thoughts as several things can be true at once:

- This study is the source of LinkedIn ads from climate change where they try to convince people to move from gas to electric because of bad health effects

- But it doesn't invalidate the study, because of course burning something indoors creates some sort of emission, which may causes asthma in kids

- But its not relevant for me because I'm a single adult not a child and I don't cook that much anyway

- And even when I used to have a gas stove, I used my induction burner more often as its more powerful and makes less waste heat compared to my gas stove

- and the reason I bought an induction wok burner from aliexpress, it can go much hotter than my gas stove

- But one thing that gas stoves excel is even the cheapest gas stoves have a smooth analog control, making it possible to gently heat things, which is important for cooking omelette. For the induction burners I have, it uses on off control, which will scorch the food if your setup (food + cookware) have low thermal mass to smooth it out. You think with the advancement of power electronics because of EV, ebikes, drones and AI data center power supplies someone is able to make a cheap induction burner with analog power control

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#109

Post by acdha »

PhotonHunter wrote: post #92
syntaxing wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No way. I cook everyday and induction is vastly superior than gas. The only time fire is vastly superior is when I use a wok which I have a stove I use outdoors. Most induction stoves have temperature maintained too. So it can keep your oil at a specific temperature let it be frying or confit or roasting spices.

Except that on all but the most expensive hobs, "simmer" is on-off and scorches the sauce. And on all but the most expensive hobs, the coil is much smaller than the pan you'd want to use (and many times much smaller than advertised). And the sides don't heat up like gas. And you can't use copper or clay pots like gas. And like many electronic things but unlike gas or the old resistive coil tops, induction seems to ha…

Those are either artifacts of a bad stove or using extremely thin pans. We have a fairly low-mid range model and the low mode doesn’t burn anything and the coils match the sizes of the pans we use.

I agree it’s not great to get rid of a pure copper pot but those (and even many of the Korean dolsot pots) seem to be easily available with induction bases now. The flip side was that our cheap $5 IKEA cast iron works even better so we use it more, and this was also true of some Costco ceramic skillets which weren’t trying to be so light that they didn’t have a hefty iron slug.

Between air quality and child safety, my general decision tree is simple: “are you a chef doing things like wok cooking?” Induction is probably better if you don’t have a specific technique requiring unusually high BTU output. I have had to learn to stop saying “come on” when we visit relatives with gas stoves, though.

Re: Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution (2025)

#110

Post by acdha »

hellisothers wrote: post #86

If you do the deep research on this there are many qualifiers to get the result they’re purporting. The main issue is you have to have little to no ventilation to make their numbers work. If you have a hood and or good indoor airflow to a window then this is all propaganda.

> If you have a hood and or good indoor airflow to a window then this is all propaganda.

In other words, it’s not propaganda. Since the researchers specifically called for prioritizing ventilation improvements in smaller / worse ventilated units, it seems like an odd line of criticism: they’re not saying it can never be safe for anyone ever but that in practice it isn’t safe for tens of millions of people.

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