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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)

#61

Post by expedition32 »

foco_tubi wrote: post #28
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…

Tradesmen typically are paid to offset the health effects of their profession, but you get benzene for free.

Professional kitchens have way better exhaust than your typical modern apartment.

If your kitchen is in your living room (and nowadays they all are) I would definitely switch to induction.

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

#62

Post by micromacrofoot »

stevenkkim wrote: post #50

I feel like it should seem obvious gas stoves create unhealthy pollution in an indoor environment. What is less obvious and what I would personally like to know is how much pollution remains if you have a hood above your gas stove that exhausts outdoors that is operating while cooking.

some definitely does linger and most consumer kitchen hoods are not strong enough, you can get a pm2.5 meter and find out yourself... in my experience a couple hours

the craziest thing is no hood at all, if you cook once a day that stuff lingers all day unless you open a bunch of windows

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

#63

Post by comrade1234 »

We love our induction stove top. The "burners" go from 1 to 9 but also have an L and P setting.

4 is the same as gas low. 7 is the same as gas high. 8 is wok hot. 9 is too hot. P is power - for heating up water. It's amazing.

It can melt your pan but it has a sensor to not let that happen. It does sometimes give the metal that blue color you get when you heat metal with a blow torch.

The sensor is also used for pan frying. It has presets for light to heavy frying and keeps the pan at the temp the whole time.

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

#64

Post by Zanfa »

mort96 wrote: post #15
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 hate it but I think the reason might be regulations? I have family who recently had to replace their stove setup, they used to have a combined oven + stovetop thing where dials on the front of the oven controlled the stovetop. They wanted the replacement to work the same way but there were no options, and when they asked, they were told it's no longer legal for the stovetop and the oven to be electrically connected…

I’m skeptical about the reasoning being regulations. There are still a few Italian manufacturers who have a combined oven & stovetop models (“range” in US terms) including induction, but they’re really expensive and with questionable reliability / warranty support. I think all manufacturers just care about cutting costs and putting out a “sleak” design.

I can’t wait for knobs to make a comeback.

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

#65

Post by beej71 »

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…

I'm a pretty bad cook which probably explains why I never had a problem cooking on any kind of surface.

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

#66

Post by pkulak »

chomp wrote: post #45
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.

Can’t (properly) cook a tortilla on an electric burner, though you can get subpar results in a pan Can’t char a pepper on an electric burner Can’t heat a nabe on an electric burner Also during hurricane season, my gas burner still works when the power goes out. The list goes on of things that electric simply cannot do. To claim one is superior over the other ignores a lot of the ways people cook. They are just simply…

Does the list _really_ go on though? I think we basically exhausted it (and one on that list is solved with a $10 torch, one with a cast iron pan, the other with an induction-friendly nabe). You can make lists for induction too:

- Can't temper chocolate, cook a hollandaise, or do anything that requires low heat without using a double boiler.

- Can't boil a large pot of water in under 20 minutes (unless you have a high-power/commercial burner that will absolutely murder indoor air quality/conditioning).

- Can't set the temperature of the pan (or even the contents), rather than just the power level. Think, maintaining an oil temp for deep frying, or a surface temp for browning.

That last one is a really big deal. Imagine if ovens still just had power levels (low/med/high) instead of thermostats.

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

#67

Post by Zanfa »

jghn wrote: post #33
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…

> 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.

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

#68

Post by Ekaros »

beej71 wrote: post #65
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…

I'm a pretty bad cook which probably explains why I never had a problem cooking on any kind of surface.

I don't remember even cast iron electric causing any big issues. Maybe I just don't have skills either...

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

#69

Post by p_j_w »

jedberg wrote: post #36
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…

Many professional cooks who are building new kitchens are doing it with induction. Induction gives you even more precise control, especially since they can put more sensors on the cook surface since it doesn't get as hot.

Some people are just resistant to change and will bitch and moan even if it’s better. Professionals can’t afford to do so.

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

#70

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #36
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…

Many professional cooks who are building new kitchens are doing it with induction. Induction gives you even more precise control, especially since they can put more sensors on the cook surface since it doesn't get as hot.

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