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How bad is my gas stove?

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Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#451

Post by maxwell86 »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #238
maxwell86 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I totally get the desire to switch to electric appliances for many reasons, but I am yet to meet an electric stove of any kind that I remotely enjoyed cooking on. Is this everyone's experience? We bought a profesional induction plate, 4.5kW, 100$ on ebay. Performance wise, its ~4x better than the 4kW gas stove it replaced. The time required to heat 50L of water to 60C went down from 60min with gas to about 10-15 mi…

What kind of cooking requires raising the temp of 50L of water by 60C? I'm open to the induction stove thing but I don't understand why its proponents are so focused on the speed of boiling large amounts of water. Is this the primary cooking activity of many ordinary families?

Beer brewing.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#452

Post by maxwell86 »

oxymoran wrote: post #213
maxwell86 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good induction is light years better than good gas stoves. Ours has 4.5kW _per plate_, and its awesome. Silent, instantaneously hot, instantaneously cold, full control over the heat, no gases, etc. For heating and hot water, "remote heat" is infinitely cheaper, both in acquisition and maintenance costs, and infinitely more environmentally friendly than gas and electric heating. Sure, if you live in a remote region or…

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…

Why are you talking about heat pumps?

If you have remote heat, you don’t need a heat pump.

Heat pumps are expensive, and hard to service and maintain (though they usually have a long lifetime). Some of them use pretty toxic chemicals that you don’t really want leaking.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#453

Post by maxwell86 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #355
maxwell86 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good induction is light years better than good gas stoves. Ours has 4.5kW _per plate_, and its awesome. Silent, instantaneously hot, instantaneously cold, full control over the heat, no gases, etc. For heating and hot water, "remote heat" is infinitely cheaper, both in acquisition and maintenance costs, and infinitely more environmentally friendly than gas and electric heating. Sure, if you live in a remote region or…

> Ours has 4.5kW _per plate_ That's impressive. The top-of-the-line Bosch induction cooktop, which retails for $2500 USD, tops out at 3.3kW on the largest plate. The rest are all most like 1.7-2.2 each. A four burner range that could pull off 4.5kW per plate would probably require a 100A 240V circuit. Woof.

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

I have a similar model to that one, but can’t find mine (it’s a bit older). That one cost 140€ and has 3.5kW. Mine was cheaper (~100€) and has 4.5kW, which is insane.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#454

Post by maxwell86 »

Jailbird wrote: post #273
maxwell86 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We bought one from a restaurant on ebay. The "professional" models for restaurants don't have touch controls or fancy electronics. Just knobs. 100% recommend.

Mind naming the brand? We got a single pot model (59500P) by Vollrath to test out induction. We love it and wish all hobs had controls by single digit percentage. We cannot seem to find a cooktop equivalent. Edit: I read further and realized you got single plates too. The search continues....

I have one similar to thieving: https://rover.ebay.de/rover/0/0/99?loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eba...

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#455

Post by maxwell86 »

Jailbird wrote: post #273
maxwell86 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We bought one from a restaurant on ebay. The "professional" models for restaurants don't have touch controls or fancy electronics. Just knobs. 100% recommend.

Mind naming the brand? We got a single pot model (59500P) by Vollrath to test out induction. We love it and wish all hobs had controls by single digit percentage. We cannot seem to find a cooktop equivalent. Edit: I read further and realized you got single plates too. The search continues....

We have a model similar to this one: https://rover.ebay.de/rover/0/0/99?loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eba...

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#456

Post by jmu1234567890 »

amluto wrote: post #243
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…

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…

The problem with that is, how do I use it under a range hood?

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#458

Post by okaramian »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #381
kibwen wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're welcome to your own personal preference, but concluding that "they are very impractical devices and not fit for purpose in any way" is so clearly hyperbolic that it deflates your entire position.

I mean, they are probably okay if all you use it for is boil a pot of pasta or heat some soup. If you actually like cooking they are pretty much useless. It’s like working with one hand tied behind your back.

Or if you're on the Great British Bake Off, where they are very clearly using induction to cook.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#459

Post by askvictor »

maxwell86 wrote: post #174
askvictor wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of fine control, induction is a game changer (me resisting moving from gas for a long time). I use lower, more precise cooking techniques more now. For high-temperature (e.g. searing a steak) stuff, there's something different about how it heats. I haven't worked out what it is yet, as induction gets the pan insanely hot really fast (on 'boost mode'); almost too hot, which should be excellent, but seems wier…

We bought a professional "manual" (no fancy electronics) from a restaurant (with knobs and no touch), for 100$ each. And built our own system with that. You can set the knob, and turn it on and off with a relee, connected to a raspberry pi. We have temperature sensors on the "food side" of the pans and pots, since what we care about is the temperature that the food feels. 99% of the time we don't use it with the pis,…

What model?

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#460

Post by GuB-42 »

clusterfish wrote: post #122

Apparently unpopular opinion: despite growing up with gas stoves and cooking every day I do not find them any better at it than decent electric ones (not talking about induction). Granted, my kitchen is not Michelin rated, but I have no idea what fancy temperature control people are constantly raving over with gas. Electric has a bit of thernal inertia, yes. If you cooked more than a few times on your own, you know w…

I hated my old electric stove, took forever to heat up, and forever to cool down. Thermal inertia was a problem because I am not Michelin rated, when it is too hot or too cold, I like being able to fix my mistake quickly. I have a gas stove now, and being able to turn a knob when my pan is about to overflow and have it instantly settle down is nice.

I think there are some nice electric stoves that use infrared heating and are plenty powerful and reasonably reactive, maybe that's what you have. Induction, of course, is even better.

Maybe the problem is really about price and quality. A gas stove will always work, even the cheapest gas stove has good temperature control and power. Even a camping stove can do decent cooking. You can also put anything on top of it, including your cheap bent aluminium frying pans. Cheap electric stoves lack power, and electric stoves, induction in particular require good quality, compatible cookware to work correctly.

Another problem with cheap electric stoves (especially induction) is that a lot of them have absolutely terrible capacitive switches that work half of the time. I never had this issue with knobs on a gas stove, even the cheap ones.

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