I never thought about this when I bought my induction cooktop range a few years ago. But the ease of cleaning is simply crazy wonderful I did some stir fry last night and I know what it would have been like to clean if I still used gas. I wiped it down with a hot soapy sponge and then used glass cleaner. Shining clean. I’ve sincerely said over the years that I wouldn’t trade it for THE most expensive gas cooktop plus a thousand dollars. Just sharing in case anyone is considering switching. You’ll never regret it.
Agree, finally got a chance to use a high end induction stove recently, terrific heating speed and none of that annoying hum you often encounter in the portable units.
My perfect kitchen top configuration.
- 2 flame hobs (15k - 25k BTU each)
- 4 induction hobs
- 1 60k BTU wok burner.
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
My cooktop is actually part of a Samsung range that I got a five or so years ago for something like $1700. I did the whole kitchen (Ikea cabinets, countertops, a farm sink also Ikea and appliances) for something like $7k. And I love it all. Oh, yeah, and that includes a huge Samsung MW/convection oven. I don’t need a second oven very often so it’s perfect for me.
We’re redoing our house and I’ve been surprised thus far by how few options there are for induction ranges given the new laws requiring electric in new construction (we’re not constrained by that but I would like it both because I think it’s the right thing to do and I love not heating up the rest of the kitchen).
Assuming we want 2 ovens, does a setup with 4 induction “burners,” 2 gas burners, a regular-sized oven and a small oven feel like a doable setup? Should I sacrifice storage space and just do two regular-sized ovens on a wall?
I want to switch to induction when our stove starts to show signs of issues. Is it right that you need specific cookware for it?
Library system up here is going to loan then out for people to try
people always talk about needing specific cookware but i’ve never run into issues with that. most stainless steel is fine, cast iron is fine including le creuset, if a magnet sticks to it, it’s fine (e.g. a refrigerator magnet).
the biggest advice i could give on induction is to get one that has actual knobs for control, rather than the touch interfaces. those touch interfaces are an abomination.
Yes, when our friends switched they got rid of a bunch of things.
We ordered ours (for what it’s worth, pickings are surprisingly slim given the mandates throughout CA—apparently things will be better in a couple years when manufacturers see the demand) and basically it seems like nonstick are the pans that need to be specifically bought as induction-friendly. Regular stainless or cast iron universally works and copper universally doesn’t.
Not really, unfortunately. My impression is that lots of things get mandated w/o much consideration of cost or logistics, actually… I’m by nature an operations kind of person, so such things deeply annoy me.
I don’t have induction (I live in a condo and the work needed to redo the electrical makes it a no-go), but this is my understanding, as well. Basically, the main “large” category that doesn’t work is non-stick cookware.
Large appliances are generally in short supply due to pandemic supply-chain issues.
I don’t think no-gas mandates for new construction are in effect yet anywhere in California.
Not all stainless steel is magnetic so you will want to perform the magnet test to be sure.
https://www.frigidaire.com/Blog/Product-Advice--Education/Cookware-For-Induction-Cooking/
I don’t know about the rest of CA, but LA’s ban may not even have a timeline yet:
I think Berkeley’s was supposed to be in effect by now, but it’s on hold pending resolution of a court challenge.
There’s no ban on gas appliances per se. New construction would be required to be all-electric. If and when the laws go into effect, there will be a lot of already permitted projects in the pipeline.
I had just watched the below video re: induction cooking before this thread came back up. I wasn’t familiar with the channel except for an interview she conducted with Kenji Lopez-Alt during the pandemic but having watched a few videos in addition to this one it seems like decent enough content despite the frequent click-bait thumbnails:
I hadn’t heard her specific assertion about magnet size before but I also haven’t looked into induction for a while. It was nice to see that point illustrated with pieces of bread kind of like this pretty old blog post about cast iron from Cooking Issues (which Dave Arnold also credits as a slight variation of something Harold McGee did).
I don’t have personal experience with induction but the comments of that blog post very briefly touch on the magnet test. Seems worth doing the test as our old stainless steel cooking set is not magnetic on the sides but is magnetic on the bottom (I’m assuming because there’s ferrous metal in the multi-ply bottom).