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The gas industry sponsored Julia Child's TV kitchen

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I just moved from my home with an induction to a home with a gas hob (a nice one, even!) and I really, really miss my induction. Temperature control is a lot harder, I can't dial in the values I know work for a given dish, and I notice that some of my pans are just... dirtier than they were before. Also it's emitting poison in to my air.

Just accept the profit gas emitted by your overlords.

The first time I used an induction stove I set it to maximum, because I set my gas to maximum. I waited a while for the pan to warm, then I poured in some cold water for boiling.

I was amazed at how much heat induction could put out. It instantly boiled the water touching the surface of the pan and it was at a rolling boil shortly after.

If there weren't such health and safety risks, it would be great to let customers just have a go with an induction cooktop in a showroom.

Along with most people, I'd thought of induction as a substitute for gas, when really it's an upgrade.

Good gas has temperature control feature (at here in Japan), though IH is better for such use case

It’s funny because my experience is the opposite. I have used many induction stoves whose temperature junps are too big. E.g. my brother’s stove basically can’t make Swedish style pancakes because one setting is too cold and the next is too hot. This is obviously not something inherent about induction stoves, but weirdly something I’ve seen there quite a few times.

That said, does anyone know if induction stoves could work with a continuous knob? Like with some variable resister maybe? If that’s possible has anyone seen such a stove for sale?

We recently built out our dream kitchen, we've got a full gas hob with an industrial amount of ventilation. We also have an induction hotplate which is great for keeping sauces warm or boiling water faster, although I've noticed that induction doesn't have the fine grain control that I've come to expect from gas.

I wonder why all these health issues weren't more widely observed back in the day when every gas stove and gas-powered water/room heater had a continuously burning pilot light. Shouldn't the additional combustion 24 hours/day have magnified the effect to the point where no one could ignore it?

I grew up in a house with an electric coil stove, not because of worries about exhaust but more about leaks in the gas supply line. The house actually had a powerful vent fan built right into the exterior wall above the stove location.

The house also had a coal-burning gravity furnace, and directly across the street was a railroad with diesel engines for both freight and commuters passing by many times a day. And one of my parents was a cigarette smoker, which I was exposed to every morning. And yet somehow I don't have asthma. But now when I cook I do run the vent fan to outside that is in the microwave mounted over my stove.

Older houses “breathe” aka leak air like sieves. Air pollution from a small source like a pilot light is quickly diluted by air exchange with the outdoors.

also for many areas the rest of the pollution you were exposed to made it relatively trivial in the scheme of things, like it may have contributed but all that smog outside had a much more drastic effect. As we clean up other sources more minor ones will stick out.

I definitely miss my gas for lots of stuff but on the other hand besides having a cast iron grating instead of glass like surface pretty much every benefit of it is matched by induction, except on cheaper models it can be hard to see what's hot or not (capacitance touch on kitchen appliances is beyond stupid)

Gas with proper ventilation is fine. The problem is most American kitchens have garbage to no real ventilation.

When I was house hunting I saw a house built in the mid-90's that the range vent vented into the kitchen. They did a lot of deep frying and every surface besides the counter was coated in grease.

Like I can understand it not being required on existing houses from years earlier but how was a house built in the 90's with that...

Also seen ones that vented to the attic with pretty gross results in the attic too.

Edit, oops mixed up LPG and natural gas, which is methane, ignore

Gas stoves release all kinds of nasties, from N02 to unburnt gas [1]. You don’t need an anaerobic environment for combustion to be incomplete. And natural gas is a mixture of gases; it doesn’t burn into just C02 and water vapour.

[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/have-a-gas-stove-how-to-...

Yeah made a quick edit when I realized that NG is methane

But here’s something from your link that completely reframes the problem:

> The Stanford study tested gas stoves in 53 homes. All of the stoves leaked methane gas, even when turned off.

Wtf? Are these health effects mainly from (unburnt) gas poisoning and have little to do with actual burner usage/combustion?

> Are these health effects mainly from (unburnt) gas poisoning and have little to do with actual burner usage/combustion?

It’s a combination. You’re never going to get a perfect seal. But a good range hood will still draw those gases away from your lungs.

The PR push by the climate activists against gas stoves is remarkable to watch.

Everything I see seems very one-sided. I listened to a podcast about gas stoves and the marketing behind them. It mentioned in passing that before the gas stoves people were using wood burning stoves, but never mentioned that a gas stove is a significant improvement over a wood stove. Not only does it burn cleaner, but it also allows someone to control the temperature much easier. It was a better stove in every way. They also seemed to gloss over the shortcomings of the standard electric stovetop everyone knows and hates. Gas is easier to cook with than a normal electric (coil) stove. They also just assume everyone is just going to know to move to induction (without really bringing it up), but it also has it's shortcomings... price, not all pans work, and if you're unlucky, some buzzing while you cook. Awareness is another big issue with induction. My sister has a gas stove and can't cook on electric without cursing the whole time. I mentioned induction and she had no idea what I was talking about. When these hit pieces on gas come out, if they fail to educate on induction, they aren't going to win over die hard gas users, as they have all used old electrics stoves by now and know that they didn't like it. When I was last looking to buy a home, the realtor even pointed out a gas stove as a selling feature for a home, which it is for many people.

There is no perfect stove, and gas was an improvement and the clean option when it came out... yet all these stories paint it as purely a marketing move with 0 redeeming qualities. I can't take these people seriously when they aren't honest about the situation.

All that said, I have a traditional electric stove right now and hate it, to the point of not using it. I plan to replace it with induction and will hope for the best. I don't have a big investment in cookware currently, but already know I'll have to throw out/donate at least 1 or 2 pans (one is my favorite one and I'm not excited about losing it).

I always find it interesting when the climate activists pick causes that people are really passionate about, as it serves to put up walls to action, rather than getting people on board.

It's also remarkable that none of these pieces (and this is no exception) ever seem to talk about proper air extraction. You would have thought that would be the first thing anyone researching this topic seriously and objectively would look at. The relative damage done by pollutants emitted by cooking oil and food on a stove (regardless of type) is also rather larger and better documented (though still not huge in the grand scale of things), which gives another reason to talk about extraction.

The article does in fact mention that inadequate ventilation is part of the problem.

But only very briefly as a caveat on the description of harms (because those aren't otherwise substantiated where there is adequate ventilation).

I have been an environmental activist at various times, and I love my gas stove; I have no interest in replacing it. Cooking with gas falls so far down the list of climate-change problems we have to deal with that I can't bother to care about it. Campaigning against gas stoves seems wholly counterproductive: it drives home the message that progress on climate change involves a reduced quality of life, without offering any significant progress toward decarbonization.

It's not just global environmental that's effected, at least in america *LOTS* of homes have really crappy ventilation, and even when they have proper ventilation way to many people don't actually use it (either cause they're noisy or the person's just forgetful), so you end up breathing it in in a lot higher concentration than people expect cause the tests around them being safe are all done with proper ventilation.

I think the people who push these articles don’t know how to cook or use a stove, and always buy their food from the likes of grubhub anyways. One of the top voted comments in this thread is someone who claimed to have turned on the element under their pot and waited to pour water in. Who does that, and that can cause serious injuries.

Exactly. If you actually cook whole meals from scratch you generally will know induction is a much worse experience.

If you have no idea how to create a meal without calling it in or hiring a private chef but enjoy a spotless kitchen you don't ever use besides water vapor flashpoint experiments I imagine it would be easy to think induction is a great replacement for gas though.

Or....induction stoves work better, produce fewer hazardous byproducts from cooking, and are way easier to clean. There's basically no reason to plumb a utility line transporting flammable gas into your kitchen if you can do it cheaper, easier, and safer with newer technology.

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