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The case for induction cooking

nytimes.com

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Re: The case for induction cooking

#561
post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Miele induction cooktop is physical buttons/knobs and has no auto offs. Honestly, I was confused by all of the replies with complaints about induction UI's because it's the first induction cooktop I've owned and it's been a joy. I couldn't go back to gas.

Miele doesn't make any with real knobs anymore sadly. All the current models are touch controls only.

I bought a HR1622 3 months ago and it's knobs for the induction elements. It's touch for the oven, I suppose.

https://www.mieleusa.com/e/30-inch-range-hr-1622-3-i-clean-t...

Re: The case for induction cooking

#562
post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By what measure? Induction wins hands down for control, responsiveness, efficiency, and heat output: https://youtu.be/hX2aZUav-54 Doing a super low temp simmer on gas is hard. Double boilers are only something you need with gas. Induction imho and experience is just better all around. What the video for someone putting it far more eloquently then I ever could.

Try stir-frying with a wok, lift the pan to shake it without losing all heat or not having to be gentle when setting it back down because it's metal-on-metal not metal-on-glass. Or how about my 11" cast iron; the induction only heats the middle 7". Half the pan is useless.

For the majority of tasks for the majority of people in NA induction is better. Wok cooking is the only one that it makes tricky (not impossible) and your not doing proper wok cooking on basically any NA home gas cooktops anyway. for that you should be using a proper commercial propane burner. If your not doing that the correct pan (one that will hold and spread the heat) and cooktop will be pretty close to gas, unless you want to bash when putting it down I guess.

As for your cast iron maybe use the correctly sized induction element then? It’s cast iron and it doesn’t spread heat well, that’s how it works. You would have the same issue on a resistive element.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are not replacing gas stoves with portable induction, surely.

FWIW the portable ones are great when you live in cheap apartments with shitty stoves. One of the few good investments I made in college...

I have a portable induction for the vehicle, if I am camping in an emergancy it works great to boil water extremely fast.

Though, as a student, if I lived in an apartment with a gas hob I don't know if I would have bought a portable induction unit to replace it.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By what measure? Induction wins hands down for control, responsiveness, efficiency, and heat output: https://youtu.be/hX2aZUav-54 Doing a super low temp simmer on gas is hard. Double boilers are only something you need with gas. Induction imho and experience is just better all around. What the video for someone putting it far more eloquently then I ever could.

You do realise heat transfer works completely differently in each case ? Therefore you cannot possibly replicate what they do. They are not equivalent and yes there are things you can do better in induction but the opposite is also true.

There are few things gas is better at the induction, and for most of them there are workarounds. I would argue that the default for hikes and people just shouldn’t be gas. Induction is safer, cleaner, easier to clean, and more precise.

As I said watch the video it says it better then I

Re: The case for induction cooking

#565
post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try stir-frying with a wok, lift the pan to shake it without losing all heat or not having to be gentle when setting it back down because it's metal-on-metal not metal-on-glass. Or how about my 11" cast iron; the induction only heats the middle 7". Half the pan is useless.

For the majority of tasks for the majority of people in NA induction is better. Wok cooking is the only one that it makes tricky (not impossible) and your not doing proper wok cooking on basically any NA home gas cooktops anyway. for that you should be using a proper commercial propane burner. If your not doing that the correct pan (one that will hold and spread the heat) and cooktop will be pretty close to gas, unle…

Those propane burners are wicked. I still can remember the sounds of when they are turned on and off (Chinese hole in the wall restaurants usually have the kitchen right next to dining).

They make induction cooktops for woks (they are basically slightly bowl shaped), I’m not sure how popular they are in Asia, however.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.amazon.in/Pigeon-Stovekraft-Cruise-1800-Watt-Ind... dunno about the US but in india we use these. converted to US$, its like $18. they last about 2-5 years with good usage and if you are really unlucky with your spillovers and frayed cables, maybe less but other than that these things are reliable as fuck.. why do you have to buy thousands of dollars worth of equipment?

I have one of these and it's good for a portable unit but it takes about 10 minutes to boil water, whereas a high end unit will do it in a fraction of the time. I was also looking at replacing the entire stove, not just a burner, so something like this: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/bosch-800-series-4-6-cu-ft-self...

you do understand the boiling of water and basically everything done on an induction cooker is dependent on the energy needed? this one is at 1800W 220V so your high end machine might be 3x or 5x that.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW the portable ones are great when you live in cheap apartments with shitty stoves. One of the few good investments I made in college...

I have a portable induction for the vehicle, if I am camping in an emergancy it works great to boil water extremely fast. Though, as a student, if I lived in an apartment with a gas hob I don't know if I would have bought a portable induction unit to replace it.

How did you power it from the vehicle? Not from the 12V outlet, right? Don't those stoves draw hundreds of watts?

Re: The case for induction cooking

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Induction also heats up the power electronics inside the cooker. That's why they need a beefy cooling fan. I have done the math... Induction is 84% efficient, and gas is 40% efficient. So for most people, gas is still cheaper, unless you live in an area with very cheap hydroelectric.

Gas is 40% efficient at heating food? Where are you getting these numbers? I have no counter information here, but that just doesn't seem intuitively correct at all. With gas, you're creating a fire that is heating up everything around it!

Source: https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2014/data/papers/9-7...

Note that the 84% number is for a prototype model... 77% is for an on-the-market model, and it is beaten in efficiency by conventional electric for cookware matched in size to the heating ring.

Also, while gas is 'just a flame', the heat mostly rises, and right above it is the pan. Noticing that the pan, the hob, and the room feel warm/hot afterwards can be deceptive because the specific heat capacity of metal is 8x lower than that of the water in the food you're cooking, so you'd likely underestimate the efficiency.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get them with knobs: https://www.smeg.com/cookers/electric Spilling have to be a gas thing? I experience it maybe once every three months on a induction oven (what I have at home). I hated the gas oven when I studied in US, impossible to control the temperature accurately and boilover almost every time. Not even any faster.

Suggesting Smeg to someone concerned with quality undermines your point.

Could not find any of the products I am used to with knobs

Re: The case for induction cooking

#570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> would love to see an induction stove with a usable UI. I bought an AEG stove last year (similar to [1], but an older model I think). Physical knobs for temperature control, no auto off on spills. Touch interface only for a few convenience features and the extra power mode, which is fine by me. I'm very happy with this stove and like cooking with it just as much as I liked gas when I had it a few years ago. [1] http…

Your link doesn't work for me; I get redirected to a "Choose your Country" page, perhaps because I'm in the USA. (FYI...)

I replaced ".de" with ".com" hoping it would then work internationally/display the information in English, but yeah it seems AEG doesn't have a US presence. That's a shame.

It doesn't really matter much as I mainly linked it as an example, but I experimented a bit with the countries and the specific model isn't on the UK site either (they have other ones with knobs there though). If you want to see the one I linked you can choose "Germany" in the "Choose your Country" page and click "Hausgeräte" (top left) followed by "Standherde" and "Standherde" again (what a weird navigation). In the filters select "Kochfeldart > Induktion". It was the first result left.

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