Is it worth to buy individual induction hobs

Cheap gas cookers have a risk of exploding in your face anyway.

BTW I have found that in some cases you don't even need special induction-capable cookware. Some of my plain simple metal bowls that consist of nothing but a single thin stamped sheet of stainless steel work perfectly fine on my induction plate. They heat up so quickly that they will instantly burn anything except water or stock, but they are brilliant for quickly some water for a cup of tea or coffee. They can easily replace an electric kettle.

>Set ... by temperature

Yep, I love that function. Especially the 60°C setting. Perfect for keeping a pot of tea or coffee hot, or some Glühwein. Or reliably heating some sausages, like Munich White Sausages while making sure they don't burst, which is the greatest sin for any Bavarian.

Yeah, East Asian countries have been slowly replacing gas cookers with induction cookers for their steamboats, where they need a heat source right at the dining table.

Enjoy!

Forgot to mention another (pretty great) advantage: cleaning. Just wipe a cloth and you're done.

Yeah, that's pretty much the only advantage they have over gas.

I've got one and it's awesome. So yes.

Safer. Also handy if you make a hotpot. Way faster than gas. Just buy a good quality Induction pan.

That's nonsense, gas is great, but induction has more than just cleaning as an advantage, like the speed, or timer, or temperature controlled cooking. Good luck finding such features on gas stoves. And like said, it's safer too.

>faster
Yeah no. Gas is still fastest and has the best heat distribution. Induction is almost as fast but doesn't heat the pan/pot as evenly. Still better than any other electric solution. Also cheaper to use.

i had a decent one when i lived in a country where the hobs sucked. it was very good. got hot very quickly and really helped with my cooking

>like the speed
Most gas ranges are substantially more powerful than induction
> or timer
I don't need one.
>or temperature controlled cooking.
Irrelevant because the device measures the heat of the hotplate itself, not the food. This is a silly gimmick, nothing more.

Meanwhile, gas has the following advantages:
-much more powerful
-works with any size or shape cookware, including rounded ones like woks
-works with any material cookware--no need to buy special "induction only" ones
-has no trouble maintaining an even low simmer
-can instantly see the amount of heat by looking at the size of the flame
-provides a source of flame for roasting the skins on peppers, toasting, and flambeing
-works even in the event of a power outage

Induction is easy to clean. That's it. Otherwise I'll take gas any day; it easily wins in all other categories.

>>Also cheaper to use
Maybe if you're in a very unlucky part of the world. On average in the USA gas costs approximately 1/3 that of electricity for the same amount of energy used. Of course that might vary depending on exactly where you live but in most of the world gas is much cheaper than electric.

Gas is not the fastest, unless you have one of those Chinese wok burners that are like a jet engine on full afterburner. Not even with an ordinary 2000W induction plate. Induction will still be faster, a lot faster. And if you are willing to shell out the cash you can put a 3500W industrial grade top in a modern kitchen, powered from any wall outlet. Then it will be REALLY fast.

You have no clue what you're talking about.

>> Not even with an ordinary 2000W induction plate
My cheap gas stove has "large" and "small" hobs on it. The small ones are 10,000 BTU (roughly 3000 watts equivalent) and the large ones are 24,000 BTU (roughly 7 kw). That's substantially more powerful than most induction cooktops.

W industrial grade top in a modern kitchen, powered from any wall outlet
If we are talking about North America here then no, you can't plug that into a normal wall outlet. You would need a special outlet to be installed for commercial grade equipment. A standard NA wall outlet can only supply 120V at 15A, or roughly 1800 watts, for the whole circuit.

An induction cooktop that could be plugged into "any wall outlet" would be closer to 1500 watts. Meanwhile even a lowly propane camping stove is substantially stronger.

Induction can be pretty good but make sure your cookware isn't too thin and cheap. My induction hob was garbage when I was cooking on the cheapest aluminum "nonstick" pan I could find because it would heat a specific circle which must have been where the heating element was and stuff that wasn't on that circle would cook super slow and stuff that was on that circle would burn so I needed to keep everything cooking moving at all times. But when I actually started caring about my cooking I bought a cast iron pan and it distributed the heat a lot better. I've since bought a few more pots that aren't cost iron but are thicker than that aluminum piece of shit and it worked ok before I moved to a flat with gas hobs which I use now.

>Meanwhile, gas has the following advantages:
>-much more powerful
BS. Look at his video:
youtube.com/watch?v=2SDWkGx0ako

Gas is BTFO, and that despite the fact that he is using just an 1800W top, not 2000W like any in Europe. "Our" Veeky Forums webm Jack has done a similar test, and the outcome was exactly the same. Look at the gas burner, you can see that like 90% of the heat goes into heating the kitchen. Great fun if you live someplace hot.

>That's substantially more powerful than most induction cooktops
Look at what I wrote here:
Most of that heat is wasted and heats up your kitchen, and you. Efficiency is extremely low.

I looked at the video.
That guy is not using his gas range correctly. He is using far too small (diameter) a pot given the size of the flame he has set. Using a wider, shallower, pan will get a lot more heat out of the gas.

That video only proves the person making it is an unskilled cook.

>>Look at the gas burner, you can see that like 90% of the heat goes into heating the kitchen.
Yep, I can see that. As I said, the person doesn't know how to size cookware properly. This is operator error, not a valid comparison of anything.

This may sound like a stupid question, but can I use an induction oven if I have a metal rod in my finger? I broke it real bad when I was a kid and the end half is more metal than bone

>Meanwhile, gas has the following advantages:
>-works with any size or shape cookware, including rounded ones like woks

Didn't you just say that ...?

Besides, yes, the pot may be a little too small, but unlike the induction heater the flames will also heat the sides of the pot. And the water stands higher in the smaller pot so it absorbs even more heat through the walls.

The size off the pot may have made a small difference, but you could see that induction was way more than twice as fast. Not even the most careful choice of pots would have changed the results of the experiment by more than a few percent.

Yes. all the energy is absorbed by the pot. Even if you pressed your finger directly against the plate, without the pot and switched it on I doubt it would work. Not enough metal

>Didn't you just say that ...?
Yes. The point of gas is that you can adjust the flame to suit the size and shape of cookware that you are using. Having the flames heat the sides of a straight-walled pot would be a silly mistake. Operator error. It's no different than someone mashing the accelerator on a fast car and then complaining "I'm not going anywhere, the tires are just spinning". They're blaming the machinery for their own inability to operate it properly.

>>The size off the pot may have made a small difference,
A very large difference.

>>Not even the most careful choice of pots would have changed the results of the experiment by more than a few percent.
I disagree. You can read up on this. Modernist Cuisine, Vol 1, page 272.

Depends on what kind of metal and how magnetic it is.Titanium should be fine I suppose.

The plate also stops heating when you lift the pot like half an inch.

>all the energy is absorbed by the pot
That's outright false.

An induction heater is a like a big electromagnet that constantly changes its magnetic field. That's how it works--that changing magnetic field induces an electric current in nearby ferromagnetic materials. That electric current, in turn, generates heat because no metal is a perfect conductor and the natural resistance inside the metal results in heat. Ohm's law, basically.

The shape of an induction cooktop tends to keep the magnetic field very flat. That's why it doesn't work very well to try and use a round-bottomed work on a flat induction cooktop. But there's no magic that suddenly stops the magnetic field once you get a certain distance away. It just naturally falls away with distance. So it's certainly possible for an induction cooktop to heat up an implant. How effective it would be at that depends on the material the implant is made from and how far away it is from the cooktop. But it's absurd to suggest that somehow the pot absorbs "all the energy".

The good news is that most implants are made of metals designed to resist corrosion in the body and those metals are usually not very effective at absorbing the energy from an induction top. But you'd be prudent to talk to your doc first. There have been cases of other medical devices using magnetic fields interacting with implants or even iron-containing tattoo ink. Do your homework!

>The plate also stops heating when you lift the pot like half an inch

I fucking hate that "feature". It makes it less effective to cook on whenever you lift the pan to toss the food inside.

So ... the water would have heated faster if he had turned the heat DOWN? You don't seriously believe that do you? Or it would have boiled faster if he had a used a wider pot - what if I actually wanted to boil my milk in my milk pot, for instance? Those are usually even smaller and taller than the pot in the video. Should I just throw away all my smaller pots then and boil everything in pans to get acceptable results? You can see how dumb that sounds. And I have just looked up page 272 of Modernist Cuisine, it is nothing but a very general explanation of about units of power and energy, nothing on that page pertains to our discussion here. Yes, gas may generate more energy, but like I said, most of it gets wasted. Gases in general make for extremely poor heat transfer. there is a reason high performance combustion engines aren't air cooled.

Do magnets stick to your finger?

No, but I was under the impression induction ovens worked on metal regardless. Stainless Steel and aluminum aren't magnetic either but they work just fine.

I think the rod in my finger is titanium

>it is nothing but a very general explanation of about units of power and energy
PS: it is a very bullshit eplanation too. Quote:

"In the kitchen, cooks usually don't concern themselves with energy as much as they do with power: the rate at which energy flows from one thing to another."

That is plain wrong power has basolutely nothing to do with heat transfer of flowing things. It is simple energy per amount of time. One kg lifted a distance of 1m equals one Joule. Do it in one second and you have generated one Watt of power.

blog.metrokitchen.com/what-makes-cookware-induction-compatible/
read the part

How do you know if your cookware is compatible with induction cook tops?

>"feature"
What did you fucking expected from MAGNETIC INDUCTION?

Ah thanks, that cleared it up

>I fucking hate that "feature". It makes it less effective to cook on whenever you lift the pan to toss the food inside.
I don't get what you are complainig about here. Gas and electric ranges also stop heating the food when you take the pan off to toss the food.

>So ... the water would have heated faster if he had turned the heat DOWN
no, it would have been more efficent if he turned the heat down.
It would have boiled faster if he used a wider shallower pan on gas.

>>what if I actually wanted to boil my milk in my milk pot, for instance?
Then boil it in your milk pot. Who cares if it isn't as fast as a different container? An academic discussion is not the same thing as what we do practically in the kitchen. I often grab pots/pans that aren't the "fastest" but have a better shape for the food being cooked, for example.

>>And I have just looked up page 272 of Modernist Cuisine, it is nothing but a very general explanation of about units of power and energy
Keep reading. It's not on that exact page, but it is in that chapter. I don't have my books with me (I'm at work), but there is a discussion of heating efficiency between different kinds of stoves, cookware materials, and shape/size of hobs/flames.

Not him but it should still work even an inch above the plate. Magnetic fields don't decay that quick.
But i suppose manufactures designed a switch to shut the coils.

>Gas and electric ranges also stop heating the food when you take the pan off to toss the food.

Electric becomes weaker when you lift the pan because there is no direct contact to the pan anymore, but it's not totally gone since the element itself is still hot and you can feel heat rising from it. Gas doesn't become weaker at all, unless you move the pan a very large distance away from it.

Any my main complaint is that many induction tops that I have used will turn themselves completely off if they detect the pan has been moved. So then every time I toss the food I have to turn the element back on again. I'm sure not all brands do that, but the one in my old apartment did, and one that I bought for a potluck does it too.

>Most gas ranges are substantially more powerful than induction
No, they're not. 3k is usually very high (the wok pit) for a good stove, and since most of that is lost to the air, it doesn't heat up as fast as induction. Induction heats up so fast it can bend pans, you won't see that with gas quickly.

>I don't need one.
It isn't about you.

>Irrelevant because the device measures the heat of the hotplate itself
You don't seem to know how induction works. The hotplate measures the bottom of the pan which is the heat source, and this will be just as hot as the floor of the pan. It won't be perfect, but close enough.

>gimmick
It's not, but even if it was, it's still an advantage, which is what this is about, simple as that. Still, I found it extremely useful, and so did that other user. Together with the timer it's life made easy. Set it to target temperature, set time, walk away, come back when you hear the beep: a bit more than a gimmick.

>Meanwhile, gas has the following advantages
Doesn't matter. This was about the advantages of induction. We all know the advantages of gas.

>Easy to clean, that's it.
Nope, just dismissing the other advantages because personal preference is no argument. The world doesn't revolve around you.

>cheaper to use
That wasn't my comment. I don't know whether it's cheaper or not, I don't really expect it to be (yet).

>You don't seem to know how induction works. The hotplate measures the bottom of the pan which is the heat source,
I would tell you the same. What is the name of this technology that can somehow measure the pan itself without a sensor present?

The answer is, that's impossible, without a thermometer or similar sensor to be inserted into the food itself. The best an induction cooktop can do is have a temperature sensor inside the cooktop itself. And that's meaningless because the temperature of the food itself will vary depending on the type and size of the cookware, how much food is in the cookware, and so on.

>>Set it to target temperature, set time, walk away, come back when you hear the beep: a bit more than a gimmick.
I think it's a gimmick because if I'm doing any sort of serious cooking I won't be leaving the kitchen. A timer or whatever is useless because I need to rely on my senses to determine when to flip the fish, when to transfer the chop into the oven, when to add the stock to my risotto, etc. Sure, for lazy simple shit a timer can be nice, but I've already got one on my oven and my microwave anyway so what's the benefit of another?

>Magnetic fields don't decay that quick.
Yes of course. It's not the magnetic field decaying, it's the device detecting that the pan has moved and then choosing to switch the coils off.

I suspect it does this by monitoring the current in the coil. When a pan is removed that current would be expected to spike slightly, which is probably what the cooker is detecting.

>no, it would have been more efficent if he turned the heat down.
doubtful ... yes the flames would probably have transferred a greater percentage of their energy to the pot, but at the same time losses would have increased considerably because it would have taken more time and the pot and the water would have been radiating and losing heat for much longer.

>Who cares if it isn't as fast as a different container?

If I just want make myself a quick chocolate milk or a pudding in the evening there is a pretty big difference between 2,5 min and 6+ mins. And heavily sugared milk isn't exactly the stuff that you can leave to heat on a full gas flame and walk away and do something elese in the meantime ...

I'll just quit here because it is beginning like a typical internet agument waste of time. If you don't believe me just get and try out an induction hob yourself and see if you aren't blown away. You can always give it back if you don't like it.

>many induction tops that I have used will turn themselves completely off if they detect the pan has been moved
Well, I admit that would suck balls. Mine doesn't do that. I probably would have returned it if it had.

>I would tell you the same.
But you would be wrong. You still don't seem to get it. We're not measuring the food, we're measuring the heating platform. If you set an oven to 350 degrees you aren't measuring the food either, but the environment. And we can have a long discussion about the theory, but I've got an induction plate here here and it works. If I set it to 100C it'll go to 100C. Good luck doing that with gas.

>I think it's a gimmick because if I'm doing any sort of serious cooking I won't be leaving the kitchen
Again, not about you.

If you just want to boil an egg or anything else simple this is and advantage even to a cook who just likes to be able to do multiple things at once. It's an advantage, no matter how much you're waiting for it or not. There are advantages with gas I don't care for, doesn't mean they're not an advantage. It's not just about me and it's not just about you.

Maybe they fixed that but my stove emits quite a high pitched noise when heating. Never bothered my but I heard some people complaining.

>If I set it to 100C it'll go to 100C.
I like induction and the temp control setting, but there are instances where it really doesn't work. Unless you are right at or even below sea level the 100°C setting won't keep a nice simmer going, it will be going full power almost continuously because the water will never reach 100°C. Also, if you set a pan, a carbon steel pan for instance, to 180°C or so for searing meat, it will get way, wayyy hotter because the pan heats far quicker than the heat can be transferred though the glass to the sensor. It is also useless for deep frying, because it responds way too slowly, and for the same reason. Hopefully we will soon get bluetooth cook tops where we can infinitely adjust and fine tune the power and temperature settings with an app.

>We're not measuring the food, we're measuring the heating platform.
Right. That's my point. What possible benefit is there to measuring the heating platform for a "Stovetop" sort of application? Can you give an example of how this is helpful? It seems like useless information to me so I'm wondering how you are finding it to be beneficial.

>>boil an egg or anything else simple this is and advantage
How is it any more of andvantage than using the timer on your oven, microwave or elsewhere?

>>It's not just about me and it's not just about you.
Lol. Yeah, I get that. I'm trying to figure out what you are doing such that these things are actually advantageous to you. I'm having a hard time understanding how they could be relevant to anybody at all.

>Hopefully we will soon get bluetooth cook tops where we can infinitely adjust and fine tune the power and temperature settings with an app.

Why do you need an app? Can't you just look at the food and adjust accordingly? I can't fathom what sort of benefit an app could actually provide.

Let's think through a real simple cooking procedure. I want to get a pork chop out of the fridge and pan-cook it. With a normal pan I'd start by cranking the heat to full blast. Meanwhile I'll season the chop. By the time I'm done seasoning the pan will be hot enough, or very close to it. I put a little oil in the pan, then the chop goes in. I stand and monitor it so it has a good sear. Then I flip and repeat the process. When the 2nd side is done I turn the heat down so it can finish cooking through. When I determine (from feeling the texture of the chop) that it's nearly done I'll add some preserves or honey or something else that's sweet to finish the chop with a little glaze.

How would a temperature control or a timer help that process?

>app for frying shit
You better be baiting son

>How would a temperature control or a timer help that process?
my cooking top gives me the choice between 1000 and 1200 Watts. One is a little too low, the other a little too high for perfect frying. Or the lowest power setting on mine is 400 Watts, which is still much too high a to keep a nice simmer going, eventoo much for a rolling boil. I evaporate a shitload of water each time, even with a pot big enough to hold potatoes for four people. I want a cooktop that lets me adjust the power in 20W steps, from 200W or 160W upwards.

So in other words, you want what a plain 'ol electric (non-induction) or gas stove already does?

What you described was neither a timer or a temperature controller. You just described a finer range of settings on the heat output, which is something that:
a) existing non-induction stoves already do
and
b) has nothing at all to do with timers, controllers, or apps.

I'm not keen on an app (I don't ven own a smartphone nor have I ever sent a text message in the 43 years of my life) but realistically speaking that is what we will get. An actual twisting knob would likely be too expensive in production and too dificult to clean. You wouldn't need to adjust the setting each time you cook for instance, but you would be able to program and save the wattage for each of the ten available power setting for example. One for just keeping stuff exactly hot enough to serve, one just right for a nice simmer with your favourite stockpot etc.

Get a better stove then.
Mine has 18 intensity settings and the control is almost as good as with gas. I'm on 230 Eurovolts though.

All electric (non-induction) stoves have limitless settings. The knob might be numbered 1-10 or 1-18 or whatever else but those numbers are just for reference. You can set the dial to in between settings. If you set the dial to between 14 and 15 you'll get an in-between setting.

Even this lowly piece of junk that costs less than $10 from Wal-Mart has infinite temperature adjustments.

forgot pic like a moron

I was talking about induction tho.

So even the higher end induction stoves are less precisely adjustable as the old-fashioned shit. That's what I seem to be learning here.

My brother constantly complains that his induction stove doesn't work well for low simmers. The settings are either too low for it to simmer at all or they are too high and things burn.

I never had that problem with mine but again i don't know how the american 110V affect the scaleability in induction stoves. I barely passed EE in college.

The voltage difference wouldn't affect anything at all except for the maximum power output.

The number of power levels is a design choice. There could be two or they could be two thousand...or any other number. It's all up to how they designed it. And part of the problem we see is that things are designed (at least partially) by marketing people that want to keep things looking nice. There isn't so much practical input from actual cooks. This is one of the big things that differentiates "home" cookware from commercial.

I have a Duxtop. It's awesome.

Yep, that i exactly the biggest gripe I have with my cooktop. It has nothing to do with the voltage, I live in Germany and all the induction hobs I have ever looked at on ebay have at best ten settings. And almost none of them have less then 400W of power, which is way too much for a low simmer. the only exception is the IKEA Tillreda hob, which has 150 and 300W. I wish I could justify buying it, but my old POS one still works perfectly.

because im bored & drunk here is boiling 500ml of water with induction
youtube.com/watch?v=HSwSzmSkQqw

Now let's see one of the gasholes in this thread post a vid of themselves boiling 500ml water quicker than that.

There doesn't seem to be anything in particular which requires an induction surface to operate at max wattage. After all, it's the same base technology as for wireless phone charging, and I guarantee you the tables at Starbucks aren't giving your Samsung 400 watts.

What it is is a deliberate design decision, and probably a demand side one that the market wants because people are dumb - I've only had induction hobs in weekly rentals in Japan where most have been smoothly adjustable, it appears to be Americans specifically that go "reeee recipe says low the numbers don't help me" and demand a cooktop with 3 or 5 buttons.

Apart from it only affecting maximum output like said, it's very common in US construction to have a specialized 240V/50A socket installed in kitchens for electric ovens anyway. Even if you're replacing a gas unit, it's not particularly more expensive to run one of those than a separate 120V/15A line, almost all of the cost is in a sparky's time and possibly redoing drywall rather than in the slightly more expensive cable and socket.

I also wanted to show that you can simmer perfectly at low temps but i should have waited longer to show that.

I got one to use during my kitchen remodel. Worked fine except for lack of fine control at low levels. Last time I used it was during hurricane Harvey when the power went out and I discovered that my gas stove needs electricity to work. WTF? Kind neighbor with generator let me plug in 250 feet of extension cable with induction hob on the end and life was good again. Pic very much related.

>Japan where most have been smoothly adjustable
Was the wattage simply more finely adjustable, or did the hobs also have genuine power regulation, (that is, not adjusting the wattage by going full on/full off in various ratios for different wattages like ours do)? The latter would be truly neat. I'd buy such a hob in an instant.

maybe it's a matter of price. I admit my stove
is a premium solution plus it's also flex induction (which activates 1 or 4 coils depending on the size of the pot)

I'm not actually sure, since I rarely end up doing much "serious" cooking there - just certainly more control granularity. A number of them have been induction/glasstop electric hybrids for which full granularity definitely makes sense, though.

What's a good method to determine the active area of an induction cooktop without looking inside of it? None of them seem to have any clearly defined indicators.

put a thin layer of water on the bottom of a pan and watch where the heat bubbles up from

Anything that can conduct current should work. It heats by electrical resistance so all it really needs is something conductive.