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Comment by DaiPlusPlus | Hacker News Reader

Electric coil ranges are awful, yes - but have you tried a good induction range?

And electric ovens completely beat gas ovens.

My house came with some fancy-pants 48-inch gas oven+range unit from an Italian company whose name I can't pronounce - the cool (er... hot!) and unusual range-top features are nice and it is a good gas range, no-doubt, but the gas oven just lacks all the neat mod-cons and features you can only get with an electric oven, like better temperature regulation, self-cleaning, etc... While my friends and associates with induction ranges (especially the ones you don't see sold in Best Buy) won't stop talking about how great they are while I'm dealing with another stovetop flame-out, aieee.

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I bought an induction stove 5 years ago. I cook 3-5 times a week and I love it. I will never go back to gas stoves. At this point, I see them as a fire hazard.

Induction is a game changer, just got one and also will never go back. I love showing friends that it can boil water in less than 2 mins.

So can my $10 water cooker.

I'm guessing that you're not in the US on 110v

Two phase power hookup in US has 220volts between the different phases.

Those are generally meant for single devices, hence aren't going to be on the kitchen counter. Instead you'd have to have a dedicated plug, circuit, and associated costs with that.

Can induction stoves just be set up in any kitchen that has electricity, or is there some kind of other "infrastructure" needed?

Yes, but they usually need their own electric circuit because their peak current draw is very high. That's generally not that hard to install though.

One and two burner models seem to use ordinary 120V @15 amp power. I've tested two single burner models, they both top out at 1440 watts. I think the two burner models divide the 1440 watts total between the two burners.

Larger ones need 240VAC at 30amps.

I appreciate the information, but referring to an induction set-up as a “burner” makes me die inside, and I don’t even know why. It just feels wrong. Isn’t there a better term we can use?

British vernacular here: We used the word "hob"

I'm british too (proper, innit?) - I always thought that "hob" refers to the entire unit (a "range" or "stovetop" in en-US), not each unit-of-heating.

Don't forget that "Hobbs" can also refer to one's kettle

Mine requires a 240V outlet.

You'll need special pots and pans - and not wear a pacemaker.

Where "special" just means that the pan has to be of a magnetic material. Cast iron yes, stainless steel maybe, copper no.

Looks like the Scanpans I have (and love) now might not work, but the same manufacturer does offer an induction-compatible line. Replacing them all wouldn't be cheap, but certainly justifiable if I'm already buying a house and/or new stove.

I have a few Scanpans. They work on my stove just fine.

Also, good old enamel pots work very well, and they're awesome to cook with.

Depends on a stove. My can only detect proper induction-capable pots, enameled pots don't work, stove shows "F" (like f*ck this?).

I wouldn't say so. I still use some of my old pans. Lots of new pots and pans even in cheap stores have the induction symbol on them.

A relative is a professional-ish cook; not a chef, but she writes Italian cook books and runs cooking classes from her home kitchen. She utterly loves her induction stove and finds it perfect for cooking Italian dishes.

I have a fairly high-end gas cooktop, dual electric ovens and a frickin' amazing Breville/PolyScience Control Freak induction burner. The Control Freak is considerably more precise than the gas cooktop. I have increasingly been using it in place of my sous vide setup, and the results have been excellent. I am a fan.

Right now, I wouldn't willingly give up any of them but, if I had to, I would cede the gas cooktop for the Breville induction burner, or, rather, several of them, or, better yet, a multi-burner induction cooktop of Breville quality.

The two biggest issues would be:

• Certain favorite pans of mine are not induction friendly, and…

• The extra electrical circuits that would need to be added as the Breville is power hungry

What I wouldn't give up are the electric ovens.

https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/commercial/cmc850.ht...

Good for her, but there's more to cuisine than Italian. Cantonese cooking in particular often requires wok hei, which in turn requires extreme temperatures/open flame, and rounded bottom woks don't work with flat induction cookers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei

Induction cooktops are wildly popular in China, perhaps more so than anywhere else in the world. This isn't to say that cooking with gas/open flame isn't also wildly popular, but the difficulty of using a wok with induction hasn't been an obstacle to adoption there. It helps that by no means do you need to take an all-or-nothing stance here: standalone countertop induction plates are effective and cheap (and far safer than the traditional hot plates that they resemble).

A typical home gas stove isn't even that good for wok cooking in the first place. I mean yeah it will work, of course, but it's nowhere near ideal. It's a little ridiculous that this thing it's not even that good at is the go-to defense of the gas stove. It's almost like if people who didn't like EVs always brought up cooking food on your engine.

1. typical home gas stoves in china are far more powerful than normally found in western home kitchens. they're closer to what you'd find in a restaurant kitchen in the west

2. little portable induction cookers are common in china but most people aren't doing stir fries on them. people use them for hot pot at home, and maybe to boil or steam things. they're not the primary cooktop of choice. also something that ties into all this is that eating out is vastly cheaper and more affordable in chinese cities, and even low wage earners in cities might do it for literally every normal meal. those restaurants aren't cooking on induction.

This feels like saying no because of one very specific use case. I use a flat bottom wok on my electric stove almost every day. Adapt and you'll be fine.

Induction wok burners are a thing, here is a comparison between a 5000W induction wok burner and a gas wok burner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVDSdW-dPU (look at the description for english description) If you trust their results, induction burners produces much less waste heat compared to gas burners, which makes home indoor Chinese food cooking more feasible

There are quite a few induction stoves made specifically for dome bottom woks. They heat up incredibly fast, and can be lifted up out of the field and used pretty much exactly like a gas stove.

You can approximate wok hei with a cooking blow torch, as theorized/discovered by Kenji Lopez-Alt (summary write-up / experimentation by one of his colleague here : https://www.seriouseats.com/hei-now-youre-a-wok-star-a-fiery... )

Induction ovens are a complete non-starter if somebody in your family has pace maker and cannot approach it within 1,5m range while it's on... :-(

Gas range and electric oven is the sweet spot.

How do you char the outside of things without a flame? Burrito shells for instance. I use the flame directly on my food all the time. It really seems like you’re missing out.

A grill (US aka 'broiler') or blowtorch.

A blowtorch?

Isn’t charring just… burnt flesh? That’s a carcinogen too…

I've always meant to read up on acrylamide studies and check whether they're 'in mice' or 'in humans' as I suspect that our evolutionary path might have made us a bit less susceptible to the carcinogenic effect of acrylamides from meats and such, from our out-sourcing some of our digestive tract to campfires for a few hundred thousand years.

Much like how a significant amount of humans are able to consume and digest alcohol, having mitigated some of the worst effects over thousands of years.

" Burrito shells for instance. "

What are your Burrito shells made of??

T-bone steak

Yeah, but it tastes good. It's a trade-off most of us are willing to make.

Also cost, I can buy a gas stove for 400$, how much for that induction?

$14,000+ give-or-take :(

Wrong. Approx $1200 USD for a Frigidaire induction range, $3000 USD for a higher end brand. Less than $2000 USD for an induction cooktop with 5 hobs.

Looks like the popular ones are pushing 3k at home depot with it going up to 4k, 600$ gets you a really nice gas stove..

US appliance prices are ridiculous. I paid 689€, taxes inclusive for a top of the range 24" Bosch induction top. You could add an integrated oven and still end up below ~1k€.

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