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How bad is my gas stove?

carbonswitch.co

71–80 of 541 posts

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#71
post #29

I enjoy cooking a lot and I cooked on gas stoves, electric ones (the ones that have those red hot spiral things under a glass) and top-of-the-line induction ones. In my opinion (and probably many restaurants' opinions from what I can see through their reactions on bans for gas appliances in new buildings), a gas stove is just unmatched in how much easier and better it makes cooking. I totally get the desire to switch…

I love induction. The main annoyance, for me, are the touch controls. You regulate up or down in steps, and the controls sometimes have trouble recognizing your fingers if they are wet. There’s also no tactile feedback. I’d much rather turn a knob. Then it would be perfect.

I don't know how anyone can cook with these things for exactly the reasons you mention. Cooking can be chaotic with many things to keep track at once. Fingers are wet, or greasy so buttons don't work. Something overflows with just a few tiny drops the thing switches off leading to a problem with something else on the stove that requires constant stirring because now you're forced to clean your hands, dry to spillage from the stove before you can continue. Lift a heavy pot from the stove and put it back down (because it was a wee bit too hot to handle) - BAM! the fucking glass is broken. (I broke already 1 induction stove from my brother and my own Ceran this way).

WTF designed these things? Certainly not a chef!

A bialetti (moka) pot will not work because they're made from aluminum (no induction).

The whole thing upsets me so much that it's very high on my list for deciding if I can live in that country. If there is no gas cooking (most of North of Europe) un/-surprisingly the food is also terrible. Maybe there is sample-bias in my statement but I know literally nobody in my family or friends who owns a ceran/indusction stove and who is actually a great cook.

The only things better for cooking than gas are wood or coal fires. But gas is the next best natural flame.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#72
post #20
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was able to get the most even heating with a high quality (but not insanely expensive) induction stove. Boiling water in about a minute, insane. And because the heating element is necessarily closed loop you don't have the regulation problems you do with an ohmic heater. A gas stove is a lot more powerful (10-60kW vs 1-3kW) but a lot of that heat simply escapes upwards.

Its not about power or speed for me. Whenever i visit my parents i hate cooking anything because the electric stoves release heat in bursts then turn off for a bit then a huge burst. It’s impossible to cook anything the way you want . Normally i just go for overcooking everything. But in general i find cooking relaxing and that stove turns it into something that makes me mad every morning. Maybe this is specific to t…

You are comparing a cheap electric radiant hob to a gas one.

The GP was praising an induction hob, which is the third type.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#73
post #57
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tactile feedback? Knobs? What do you think this is, the 1950s? No no. Your next stove should have a touchscreen, maybe not even a screen at all - control everything via your phone using a cloud based platform that connects to your stove./s

Haha. Exactly! Or just use Alexa. „If you don‘t subscribe to Amazon Music now, I‘ll burn your food!“.

Alexa. Turn lights on.

: Ok, burning house down.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#74

Can anyone recommend (ideally inexpensive) devices/kits to measure CO2 and NO2 levels in a residential home? Ideally capable of sending data to be stored & processed locally (Home Assistant or similar).

I got a MH-Z19 co2 sensor attached to an esp with esphome, works really well.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#75

I enjoy cooking a lot and I cooked on gas stoves, electric ones (the ones that have those red hot spiral things under a glass) and top-of-the-line induction ones. In my opinion (and probably many restaurants' opinions from what I can see through their reactions on bans for gas appliances in new buildings), a gas stove is just unmatched in how much easier and better it makes cooking. I totally get the desire to switch…

Induction is very good, in different situations than gad. With induction, you have a reliable temperature control and can heat the whole pan uniformly, even at low temperatures. It’s very easy to let something simmer for hours or heat something just so it does not cool too much.

One of the main issue with common domestic gas stoves is that the heat is not well distributed, and good pans don’t necessarily have a great thermal conductivity. This is a problem when what you’re hearing is not liquid enough to redistribute heat by convection. Another is that you don’t control the temperature of the flame, just its size. So temperature control is always finicky, particularly at low temperatures.

So personally I go for induction most of the time, and a barbecue when I need a flame.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#76
post #29

I enjoy cooking a lot and I cooked on gas stoves, electric ones (the ones that have those red hot spiral things under a glass) and top-of-the-line induction ones. In my opinion (and probably many restaurants' opinions from what I can see through their reactions on bans for gas appliances in new buildings), a gas stove is just unmatched in how much easier and better it makes cooking. I totally get the desire to switch…

I love induction. The main annoyance, for me, are the touch controls. You regulate up or down in steps, and the controls sometimes have trouble recognizing your fingers if they are wet. There’s also no tactile feedback. I’d much rather turn a knob. Then it would be perfect.

Yeah tactile controls are rubbish. I can’t wait for the next design fad where we’ll go full circle and have dials and knobs everywhere.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#77
post #74

Can anyone recommend (ideally inexpensive) devices/kits to measure CO2 and NO2 levels in a residential home? Ideally capable of sending data to be stored & processed locally (Home Assistant or similar).

I got a MH-Z19 co2 sensor attached to an esp with esphome, works really well.

Fantastic tip, thanks!

I have a dozen or so ESP32 boards littering my desk left over from a work project, so that sounds perfect :)

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#78
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love induction. The main annoyance, for me, are the touch controls. You regulate up or down in steps, and the controls sometimes have trouble recognizing your fingers if they are wet. There’s also no tactile feedback. I’d much rather turn a knob. Then it would be perfect.

I don't know how anyone can cook with these things for exactly the reasons you mention. Cooking can be chaotic with many things to keep track at once. Fingers are wet, or greasy so buttons don't work. Something overflows with just a few tiny drops the thing switches off leading to a problem with something else on the stove that requires constant stirring because now you're forced to clean your hands, dry to spillage…

Apparently you can use propane tanks. That's what a family told us that wanted to move into our last apartment. They swore by their cherished old gas stove, and said one of those tanks lasts them... well, I don't remember exactly, but it must have been half a year or something. In any case, much less of a hassle as I would have thought.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or worse none I've never seen a stove without a vent hood above it...?

I have. I've also seen vent hoods that don't actually dump to the outside, they just pass through a small filter and dump the air right back inside...

Which is okay if it's a carbon filter to remove smells and nox you're going to change every year.

But many are just mesh grease filters and are never changed.

Re: How bad is my gas stove?

#80
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do a lot of cooking and I prefer electric. I'm sure it's because I've cooked on electric ranges my entire life, the kind where the pan sits directly on the spiral heating element. I only ever cook with gas when I'm visiting a friend or relative. Gas stoves are great at bringing a pot of water to a boil. But they are not so good at very low heat, like leaving a covered pot to simmer. Most gas ranges don't go as low…

A proper induction range will boil water much faster than gas. Under two minutes to take a full pasta pot—8 quarts (7.5L) of water—from tap-cold (50F/10C) to a rolling boil. Do not confuse them with resistive coil electric stoves, which are inferior in every way! Unless you're dead set on aluminum cookware.

I like induction cooking as well, but it's not _that_ fast. Assuming a 3 kW (usually it's less powerful) induction stovetop, 7 kg of water, 4 J/(g.c) specific heat and 90 C temperature increase, that would take at the very least 14 minutes. Should take longer if you include heating the pan itself, phase change energy and heat losses. If you wanted to do it in two minutes, that would take twice as much power as a home Tesla charger. Heating water just takes a ton of energy.
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