Induction stoves should be Mandatory in mew construction. Coil electric works just fine but we need to introduce people to tech that’s superior to gas to get the switch to stick
mew construction
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I got an induction maybe 10 years ago or so. It is amazing how fast I can boil water or just get going in general. Lovely tech
I think that electric cooking speed is only limited by how much power you can draw from your wiring. And if you have good wiring, cooking speeds can be extremely fast. It’s a bit like with cars, where people get excited about having a lot of HP (horse power) where idk (i’m not a car expert) sth like 100 HP is considered “crazy good” and everybody wants to have it (that’s combustion engine cars). Then, an electric vehicle comes across the corner (and it’s not even an expensive EV, just a cheap one) and it easily has 700 HP. Like, the acceleration power is immense, it’s enormous. EVs accelerate crazy fast, and it would actually be dangerously powerful if they didn’t have software control to throttle the maximum engine power.
Suddenly, everybody stopped talking about HP. All these car-crazy friends i had when i was in school, the moment EVs appeared on the stage, they stopped being impressed by HP.
The same is with electric appliances like cooking stoves. They can be crazy fast and there’s no upper limit on power if you get good wiring. It’s only limited by the device so you don’t accidentally burn your food all the time.
I think that with gas flames, the flames are more-or-less always the same size, while for electric cooking, there’s a much greater range in heating power, both up and down. You can also have very small, very gentle heating, that is difficult to get with gas.
Modern electric heaters are also superior to gas in any way. And yeah, induction is just a new level of superiority.
I don’t get why there’s such a huge push from self-declared “left-wing” people to prescribe others what to do. Supposedly, “left-wing” people don’t like being told what to do, i.e. by employers (who are making them work in bad ways) or by “main-stream dominant right-wing culture”. At the same time, the very same people who don’t like being told what to do, tell others what to do. Such as by wanting to force everyone to switch to a specific type of technology that’s supposedly superior. I don’t get this behavior.
Renters don’t get a choice, and pollution affects everyone
renters don’t get a choice in practice, but they should in theory, and pollution from gas stoves is less than from combustion cars, just that it’s densely concentrated in your apartment, so levels are still high for you. but it does not affect everyone
a better move would be to actually build social housing, instead of prescribing others what they should build. otherwise you’re simply seen as “the party that wants to forbid others from doing what they like”, instead of being seen as “the party that actually does some meaningful construction and adds to society that way”.
We shouldn’t create decades of priced in emissions or have to pau twice to rip out the gas and put in electric later. Might as well do it right the first time
I wish someone pointed this out 20 years ago (enough to be heard). I raised two kids with occasional asthma in a house with gas stove, and maybe that could have been different.
I recently converted from gas to induction, and find it a much better cooking appliance in every way. Pans on the stovetop heat up faster than with gas, and I can boil a pot of water faster. The oven has more options and more consistent heating, especially on the broiler.
The only problem was the cost. Way too much money to get a new circuit installed but also the range was double or more what I would have spent on gas. There were very few options at appliance stores, and I never did find one on display, of any brand. In the US, it’s unnecessarily difficult to make this switch.
When I was shopping for one I was told to pay attention to coil sizes. Sure enough experimenting with a large skillet on small coil shows very uneven heating. I did find one or two reasonable priced ranges but with only tiny coils. Even at spending way too much, I only have one coil that works well with 12” skillet or stock pot. I know ikea now sells an induction range for more reasonable price but coil size is critical and the first thing I’d look at
Having a proper exhaust hood that sucks air outside mitigates this to a huge degree, but a lot of us have hoods that “filter” the air through nothing and then shoot it up towards the ceiling.
The flippers who did my house disconnected the outside air vent, I’m still pissed and mean to get it fixed, cause I can’t afford an induction range either.
If you think you can’t afford an induction range, you also can’t afford to hire contractors to have your new ductwork put in and/or unborked.
Much as I hate to recommend Frigidaire for various reasons, the FCFI3083AS is I think the most economical freestanding 30" induction range on the market at the moment and has an MSRP of $1099. You can probably score one from some discount or independent appliance retailers (i.e. not Home Depot, Lowes, or Best Buy) for a little under a thousand.
As a taller guy who wears glasses, I’ve had the horrible experience of some of these filters blowing greasy air in my face and settling on my glasses. Not pleasant
Mine has a vent, but no hood so there’s only so much it can do. And the way they built out the kitchen means there’s no good way to install a hood without remodelling.
But now I don’t care as much. The current vent (and window) is good enough for induction
A lot of us
Everyone I know has a microwave. Is that a class thing?
It’s a failure to read the manual thing. Every OTR microwave ever manufactured functions as a hood by definition, and basically all of them (I can only think of like two exceptions) have the option to be configured for either recirculation or to duct outside. It’s just that most models come out of the box already configured for recirculation and most people ('s contractors) are so averse to reading that they fail to realize you can flip the blower motor over and thus cause it to actually accomplish something (provided a duct is in place) rather than just blowing stale air back in your face.
The ducting behind a microwave is not that common in my experience. It makes sense for microwaves to come preconfigured to recirculate instead of trying to exhaust to a sheet of drywall because most people are going to install it how it comes out of the box. I’ve installed dozens of microwaves and only twice has ducting existed to flip the venting for. Higher end houses typically have dedicated exhaust fans and lower end houses never seem to have ducting for a microwave. I installed a dedicated fan that exhausts out the roof at my house. Even with ducting those microwave exhaust fans barely provide anything of value. I’m sure my experience is very regional but it seems like a really niche middle ground where someone would bother venting out of the kitchen but also not care enough to have a purpose built exhaust fan.
Part of the problem there is I have guys just absolutely insist at me that a microwave “can’t” be vented outside so they don’t bother to install a duct, and tell me that in order to vent outside you “have” to get a hood instead. This is obviously bogus.
This also leads to the inevitable Contractor Special where a duct was there, often when the user is replacing an old hood with a microwave, but the installer just shrugs and slaps the microwave on the wall as-is where A) it is inevitably too tall and now way too close to the stovetop, and B) covering the duct outlet while still recirculating back into the room. Whenever I unearth one of these in my travels it makes me want to track down whoever the hell installed it and then punch them so hard they come clean out of their socks.
People are for some reason hyperfixated on getting appliances off of their countertops, which is why the over-the-range microwaves became so prevalent in the first place. (And then they all immediately filled the spot where their countertop microwave used to be with a countertop air fryer instead, but that’s a whole different discussion.)
Yeah that would drive me insane to run across. It’s not even particularly hard to tell that the exhaust fan motor is reversible just by looking at the top/back of the microwave before it is installed. Every one I’ve seen looks pretty damn modular in comparison to the rest of the microwave shell.
Edit: reversible is the wrong word, able to be unscrewed and rotated, I’m sure you know what I meant but on a reread of my comment I wanted to clarify.
I have gas and would fight anyone who tries to tell me otherwise. I rented a place with an induction range and now I want one so bad.
If you have a gas stove and can’t afford, or don’t want to switch to electric, keep a window open in the kitchen while you cook. This is especially important if your over-the-range hood does not vent to the outside (yes, that’s a thing.) If your hood does vent to the outside, turn it on every time you cook and you’re golden.
Yeah, I’m going to open a window every time I want to fry a couple of eggs or bake a loaf of bread at -25F/-32C.
Just how many hours a day do you think any stove is continuously on? That 3D printer you might own runs far, far longer.
If you don’t want to poison yourself with fumes, then yes.
Then you must only breathe the finest purified filtered canned air. And not the dirty polluted air in whatever big city you live in.
I actually have more air quality measures in my home than most and I have multiple sensors measuring the quality of the air. I be been measuring it long enough to know exactly what causes my air quality to decrease.
I also do not live in or near a big city.
Your ignorance is not equal to my knowledge situation. I wouldn’t expect a willfully ignorant person to believe this.
real men use diesel stoves
I just keep a lump of sub-critical plutonium in the kitchen.
A quality electric makes a big difference fwiw. I’ve gone through several types depending on where I lived. I gotta admit that gas is my favorite to cook on. Just so many ways to control heat, where the heat is, and how quickly the heat can be changed. Most electric cooktops and ovens are shit unless you buy an upper tier brand, and even then heating a big coil under a glass top is inefficient AF.
Just switched to induction. While not the same as gas, and it does have a few peculiarities, it is by far better than standard electric cooktops. Way fast, more efficient, easy. These need to come down in price to help win over people used to gas.
I have found gas consistently shit for cooking at low temperatures because you can’t turn it down low enough. Minimum power on the lowest ring, nope, still far too hot right in the middle of the pan.
Sounds to me like you need better pans that don’t have paper thin ass bottoms
So put the pan on the edge of the burner…
Now the edge burns instead, while the other side remains cold. How is this helping?
Seems like a pretty shitty gas stove, to be honest.
Guess I was lucky? Our burner had a very low setting, perfect for low heat and reducing things like jams or whatever.
Electric is horrible. It’s either full on or off. No moderation other than time.
Huh, never seen an electric cooker that is full on/off. That sounds terrible.
Yeah, a good number of electrics do that. 100% or 0%, and they pulse between the two.
I think the core thing I have learned is getting a decent gas stove is easy. But it’s real easy to get a shit electric.
Staying indoors during rain can dramatically cut wetness.
I switched from gas to a 200v induction cooktop and I don’t think I would go back. Quality definitely matters. I have a cassette gas stove for power outages or if I have something that absolutely must use gas (so far, it’s never been pulled out).
A I understand it the temperature control with an induction stovetop is just as good, if not better than gas. Is that your experience?
In my experience, yes. The only difference is that you don’t have a visual flame so it takes a little getting used to which setting means what (unless you have the type with a knob and a temperature readout, but I do not).
Ok cool thanks for the info!
It depends on the stove. The gas stoves in my building are much better, but that is because this place is ancient and the electric cooktops in question are whatever crap they find secondhand.
Depends on the quality of the stove. The bad ones regulate like most resistive glass ceramic stoves in on/off pulses, which is fine for ceramic because the thermal capacity smoothes everything. I’ve got a mobile induction plate like that tho and it is absolutely horrible to work with.
My decent quality stove top goes from just hand warm (keep warm function) to the fires of mount doom (power function for boiling water) in 17 silky smooth steps. On top of the pulses there is some power regulation as well (you can hear the coil hum change depending on power).
Ah ok thanks for the explanation.
I’d rather have health than maybe marginally better cooking experiences
It’s not marginally. It’s a superior all issues aside.
Gas? What are you talking about?
Yeah gas is amazing.
Gas is dogshit. You’ve never used induction.
I have. You haven’t used a proper gas stove.
LOL if you have to get a “proper” stove to beat a 49$ IKEA portable induction cooktop, you’ve already lost.
GTFOH with your bullshit. Gas. FFS.
Wow calm there buddy. Ask any chef and they’ll tell you why the use gas. Inductions… a fancy gimmick if you have a good set of pots. Try using a wok on an induction stove 🤣
Having a gas stove certainly came in handy when we’ve had blackouts.
Electricity is expensive in my state but gas is relatively cheap.
get a camping stove for those occasions. I was worried about the same, that’s what I did.
you don’t say, captain obvious is on it again today
but i guess it’s nice that we now have quantitative data on it
I just like being able to put tortillas directly on the flame burner.
Gas stoves have a place, and I’m not about to take away anyone’s choice on the matter. With all that being said, to the title of this article, I say “duh”… Honestly, who thought that cooking using an open flame inside your home was somehow safer than the alternative?
I use electric, I’ve pretty much always used electric. I will continue to use some form of electric stove. I want to have complete control over the heat going into my cookware, and while it may not be as flashy or as quick to use electric, I can’t see any situation where electric would not be safer.
How often are yall getting power outages?
Regardless of that, higher end modern gas stoves won’t allow you to use the stovetop during a power outage anyway even if you match light them, because they have electronic flame presence sensors for safety. And no modern gas range or gas oven with electronic oven controls will allow you to use the oven without power.
Every month or so. Every two if I’m lucky
Once a year maybe? Almost always due to storm damage.
A couple days a year typically, between hurricanes, tornadoes and winter ice storms.
the question might be more properly phrased as:
what is better, using electricity + backup power generator, or using gas stove in the first place?
A backup power generator that will run a household stove is kind of a tall order; most of the portable gasoline models on the American market won’t put out 220v.
I’ve got an electric stove, and I’ve got a backyard grill that runs on propane and propane accessories. Ain’t no power outage gonna starve me.
and I’ve got a backyard grill
yeah that’s what i meant with “backup generator” :-)
One long enough to be worth considering in the last 7 years.
We had maybe one in the past 12 years where I live. A lot of people around me have had more, but my house specifically hasn’t had a major one that I can recall. We’ve been thinking about switching away from gas stove eventually.
I’ve had one in the past 2 years.
I have cooked on gas, induction, infrared and the old style resistive elements. Currently I have a Wolf duel fuel range which is one of the best you can buy in the U.S. and I love it.
I’ll just come out and say it…
Gas has seen its day. I say that as a current gas cook top user.
A good quality induction cook top is fantastic. It gets a lot hotter faster than gas while also simmering better. Responsiveness is off the charts too, depending on how heavy your cookware is, which is gas’s major advantage over older electric cook tops. The only issue I personally have with induction is that cheaper units make a weird buzzing noise with some cookware and settings. I did get to cook on a Viking induction cook top a few times and did not notice that issue.
Every elective stove I’ve used has sucked for controlling the temperature. I’ll deal with a little air pollution to have my food actually come out how I want it. Maybe induction ones are better but those are expensive.
That’s a skill issue.
Honesty it is, I feel bad for anyone struggling with poor tools but once you really learn to cook, you can turn any source of heat into good cooking.
I lived for nearly a decade with a rusty old piece of shit from the 80’s, loose coils that only worked when you pressed down on one side, weird temperature controls that I eventually had to override, lots of problems to overcome. Did some of the best cooking of my life on that thing.
Congratulations, I’ve cooked on all sorts of things too. Doesn’t mean some weren’t objectively better than others. I personally don’t want to deal with a shitty heat source that I have to fight with to get it to work properly and is slow as shit to actually heat up.
I lived for nearly a decade with an old stove with loose coils, did some of my best cooking in my life on that piece of rusted shit.
Seriously, give me a goddamn heat source and I will turn it into the finest shit you ever ate.
I think it might simply be a matter of getting used to it. For example, i can cook well enough with an electric (induction) furnace but it’s difficult for me to use a gas stove without burning my food.
Yes, induction stoves are the solution. The way I went about it is I bought a secondhand hob for just $110. Works brilliantly, controls just as well as gas. As a bonus, pumping all the energy straight into the cookware makes it heat things up REAL fast.
Regular electric stove is very inert, making it straight up impossible to do a lot of stuff.
Never heard of these limitations. All I know is you can’t prep a tortilla the right way on gas stoves.
I know little of cooking tortillas, but to me the main limiter with gas cooking is that it cuts off at certain gas pressure, not allowing you to use it at very low heating.
Also, it mainly heats in a certain ring and not equally through the whole surface, which might probably be critical for tortillas unless you have a big cast iron pan.
Either gross incompetence or lack of proper pans is at cause. Electric stoves are perfectly fine.
Curious how taking 20 minutes for a pot of water to boil could be “gross incompetence”.
Try: putting it on the highest setting, Use less water (10+liter is a lot and can happen quickly in big pots), Plug it into 3 phase power Make sure to use the highest power section
In a lot of cases ceran cooktops have higher power delivery to the pot than gas. Also read the manual for how much power each burner has.
Bullshit
