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The case for induction cooking

nytimes.com

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Re: The case for induction cooking

#91

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

buran77 wrote: post #89
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just removed the stupid efficiency comment. Not worth the agita, and I'm probably mistaken.

With induction charging you're trying to charge a battery and unfortunately producing heat in the process which is unwanted and entirely a waste. With induction stoves pretty much all the electricity is converted to heat in the bottom of the pan which is exactly what you want. A minor portion is lost elsewhere in the circuitry but not much in the grand scheme of things. Efficiency refers to the ration between what yo…

OK. I'll accept that.

My electrical bill is (a fair bit) higher than with the old electric stove, though. That's interesting.

I still love it, and have no intentions of giving it up.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#92

Post by ascar »

hades32 wrote: post #19
musikele wrote: post #5

"Although induction technology has been around for decades and is established in Europe, it has yet to catch on extensively here. According to Consumer Reports, induction cooktops and ranges are installed in only under 5 percent of homes in the United States." That's why, for a european like me, an article like this one seems totally extraneous to hacker news front page

German here. So few people here have induction because people still think that most pans couldn't be used. But I love it! But also few here use gas. It's mostly ceramic hobs

As a fellow German I didn't go induction on purpose, because I prefer the ceramic hob cooking experience. "Pans cannot be used" wasn't part of the decision. Having "control nobs" on the front rather than a touch area on the cooking surface was a hard requirement for me though and seems to be getting rarer every year.

I'm actually amazed how much people love induction here, but I guess that's also because it's mostly compared to gas?

Re: The case for induction cooking

#94

Post by bch »

noveltyaccount wrote: post #16
leoedin wrote: post #10

I fitted an AEG induction hob in our kitchen about 3 years ago. It is absolutely amazing. It's so controllable - you can go from "barely hot enough to melt chocolate" to "so hot your pans start discolouring and everything burns" - and back again - in seconds (and everything in-between obviously). I always thought gas was the best for cooking. But I was wrong - induction is. Gas is great for medium-high power cooking,…

I got a flat bottom wok that I am happy stir frying on my induction cooktop. The flat bottom gets rippin hot and the sides only warm. Have to work within that smaller hot zone but I prefer the wok to skillet for containing the mess.

Do you wrangle the wok on the surface (or a frying pan) for a sauté[0]? What I'm really trying to find out is: how durable is the work surface? Does it deal well with pans being slid over it, and on/off it?

[0] https://youtu.be/CTyV3JExDT8

Re: The case for induction cooking

#95

Post by Kon-Peki »

tedunangst wrote: post #71
azalemeth wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

120V is only standard in a part of the world. It's much more helpful to talk about power -- where I am 3 kW is limiting on a standard socket, at 230V. What is it for the US (I don't know!) Note -- electric hobs and ovens are often wired into far far chunkier circuits and the high efficiency of induction is a big boon. It's wonderful to cook on -- all the responsiveness of gas, none of the pm2.5. It's just a shame tha…

Somewhere around 15 amps is almost always the limit for basic circuits, making voltage an easy proxy for available power.

This house I just bought (in the US) has a really odd kitchen that includes a gas cooktop combined with an electric double oven. It's wired directly to the breaker box in the basement with a 35-amp fuse.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#96

Post by smiley1437 »

jamesliudotcc wrote: post #62
farmerstan wrote: post #33

I used an induction stove for 6 weeks and despised it. Maybe the one I used isn’t the same as what others are using but it would turn on and off over and over again and I found the temperature to be completely unpredictable. I hated it

I have experienced cheap induction tops that do that. The better ones don't. Mine you can tell it a temperature and it sticks it there, so I can basically tell it to slowly simmer a curry or stew and it does the simmering for me. I walk away for hours at a time. It's been more than a decade, so when I have to cook on anything else but that induction top, I find that I burn everything from neglect.

Using induction and setting the temp to 190F, I've reduced entire bottles of wine to a thick syrup with almost zero attention, never had a scorch.

I would never risk that on any other stove type.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#97

Post by phtrivier »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #79
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #61

I did not know that induction cooking is a novelty (or at least worthy of an article) in the US. When you go to an appliance shop in France they would be 90% of the offer (and 9% gas, 1% vitro-electric). BTW the big photo on the top of the article is not induction but vitro-ceramic (the first version of something that would look at glass and not have flames, but this is not induction, just heating of a tingie under t…

France moved to 100% electric in many places decades ago because of their strategic choice of nuclear energy.

As another commenter said, it was electric but "vitro ceramic", so terrible performance and pretty dangerous. This actually gave gas a "better rap".

Now I honestly only use gas at the moment because I moved in recently enough that I haven't bother to change - but it's getting higher on n my list every day...

Re: The case for induction cooking

#98

Post by jahewson »

zdragnar wrote: post #18

I recently got one, and there is a major drawback: there is a coil whine that drives my tinnitis absolutely bonkers. I like how it cooks, but hate using it.

This could be your pans, the multiple layers of cladding on the bottom can produce a very high-pitch noise.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#99

Post by gruturo »

smilespray wrote: post #52
itcrowd wrote: post #35

Induction cooking is good. UI is terrible: touch screen that only allows control over one heat source at a time. Please, please please give me knobs like the ones in gas tops

Not only is the UI terrible (wet hands and touch based interfaces are terrible), but pets may accidentally turn on the induction if they are prone to walking across your kitchen counter.

This should not be a concern (the danger due to pets, not the terrible UI, which is, indeed, terrible): All modern induction cooktops will not actually engage unless they "feel" a metallic mass which reacts to the magnetic field. If there's nothing, or anything else than an induction-compatible pan/pot on top of the hob, it won't do anything and will turn itself off after 30ish seconds.

So unless you leave pans and pots on the hobs when you're not cooking, you're good.

Re: The case for induction cooking

#100

Post by contingencies »

benoliver999 wrote: post #12
musikele wrote: post #5

"Although induction technology has been around for decades and is established in Europe, it has yet to catch on extensively here. According to Consumer Reports, induction cooktops and ranges are installed in only under 5 percent of homes in the United States." That's why, for a european like me, an article like this one seems totally extraneous to hacker news front page

I do think I could use an upgrade though, my induction hub just clicks on and off PWM style. Not great for a steady heat. Having read this article I noticed that they aren't all like this.

It may be that your cookware is no good. For safety reasons all control systems for induction appliances have a feature to automatically turn off when they detect that the generated field is not being received by a large enough target surface, since otherwise it would be a fire risk. Try changing cookware, you may find the issue goes away.
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