Induction hobs?

[the snail]

I find the induction hob better than gas, heats food more quickly, easier to control, easier to clean, and my partner doesn't have to worry about me forgetting to turn it off. Only minus points are it beeps loudly when I clean it, and my coffee pot doesn't work.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Interesting Kev.
I am downsizing and will not have an oven or hob.
I have an airfryer, a toaster, microwave and toasty maker.
Was thinking along the lines of a portable induction hob. It would mean new pans......shame as my present ones are a good set but not compatible.....but I am willing to make that sacrifice if its worth it.

We just had to swap out a couple as we have been steadily replacing our old pans with Stellar " Rocktanium " and " GreenPan " ones.
At the moment the Solar and battery are going really well and that's why we are looking to replace our existing gas with Electric where practicable. I've switched of the HW program on our CH Boiler and use the Immersion heater, we have a coal effect gas fire in our fireplace and I'm looking at suitable electrical fires. I've looked at " Mini Ovens " which are about the size of a large Microwave and they look promising too.

 

[mistyoptic]

Had our induction hob now 6 years. Still love it. Only real drawback, as @KnittyNorah said above, is it’s not as good as gas for a wok. Fast, easy to clean and no waste heat.

I get that gas is still cheaper but a lot of waste heat goes up the side of the pans. Not with induction

 

[Dave7]

Had our induction hob now 6 years. Still love it. Only real drawback, as @KnittyNorah said above, is it’s not as good as gas for a wok. Fast, easy to clean and no waste heat.

I get that gas is still cheaper but a lot of waste heat goes up the side of the pans. Not with induction

I was just googling and the Tefal portable one has (I think) 7 settings and one of them is 'wok'. No idea how that works but I assume it must if its a specific setting.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Thanks for the comments folks, lots of love for induction hobs! Good point about the touch controls though, we have those on the oven and it can be a pain. Really good point about the aperture size, something to check as the worktop is granite. I’m so pleased I asked as now have some pointers to look out for.

Oh, forgot - check how much the intended hob draws and how much the circuit you plan to connect to can give you - some of them need a separate spur running, so cost can escalate.

 

[TheDoctor]

Our induction hob is brilliant. It's a Smeg, but that's largely based on what was cheap and fast on AO.com IIRC. So much easier to clean than anything else, as stuff just doesn't burn on.

 

[figbat]

Another gas-to-induction evangelist here too. We moved to a house with no mains gas about 10 years ago. We replaced the kitchen and had a new cooker with induction hob - 10 years later and it is still functioning as intended and I wouldn’t go back to gas.

Ours has knobs for control but it is part of the cooker (a Rangemaster) - however a quick Google for “induction hobs with knobs” turns quite a few up.

 

[KnittyNorah]

I've looked at " Mini Ovens " which are about the size of a large Microwave and they look promising too.

I love my mini oven. Compared to my conventional oven, it uses WAY less electricity, yet cooks small-ish things very nicely indeed.
When I bought it I could've bought a slightly larger one with a rotisserie function for a few pounds more but wasn't sure about the concept of the mini oven at all, so went for the cheaper one. In hindsight, I wish I'd bought the other one, but even so, I don't regret buying the one I have and don't plan on replacing it.
OK you can't cook a turkey or a giant batch of biscuits on one, but how often do you need to? If you have the space, keep the big oven available, but switched off at the mains, then if you ever do need to bake six cakes or roast a giant turkey, all you'll need to do is switch it back on and take out all the baking tins and chopping boards you've been storing in it.
I regularly bake a small loaf cake in my mini oven, or half a dozen cupcakes, muffins or biscuits. Also make my own rissole/potato cake types of things, salmon in puff pastry parcels, reheat flatbreads I've made on the (induction) hob, etc. Mine has a decent grill too, so I can easily get a nice crispy top on stuff I make or reheat in the microwave, grilled fish etc.
I have needed to buy more small tins and dishes for it, though, than I needed to buy new pans for the induction hob!

 

[midlife]

More love for induction here, I'll have a look at what I was going to upgrade ours to (more power), ours is on its own circuit and is wired in although some do come with a 13 amp plug

Edit. Was looking at AEG for fairly good bang per buck. This has two meaty induction 'rings'

https://www.aeg.co.uk/kitchen/cooking/hobs/induction-hob/ikb64311fb/

 

[Tenkaykev]

I love my mini oven. Compared to my conventional oven, it uses WAY less electricity, yet cooks small-ish things very nicely indeed.
When I bought it I could've bought a slightly larger one with a rotisserie function for a few pounds more but wasn't sure about the concept of the mini oven at all, so went for the cheaper one. In hindsight, I wish I'd bought the other one, but even so, I don't regret buying the one I have and don't plan on replacing it.
OK you can't cook a turkey or a giant batch of biscuits on one, but how often do you need to? If you have the space, keep the big oven available, but switched off at the mains, then if you ever do need to bake six cakes or roast a giant turkey, all you'll need to do is switch it back on and take out all the baking tins and chopping boards you've been storing in it.
I regularly bake a small loaf cake in my mini oven, or half a dozen cupcakes, muffins or biscuits. Also make my own rissole/potato cake types of things, salmon in puff pastry parcels, reheat flatbreads I've made on the (induction) hob, etc. Mine has a decent grill too, so I can easily get a nice crispy top on stuff I make or reheat in the microwave, grilled fish etc.
I have needed to buy more small tins and dishes for it, though, than I needed to buy new pans for the induction hob!

Thank you for your detailed reply, can I ask what model you have. I've been doing a bit of research and reading reviews. We don't need a rotisserie as Mrs Tkk and I are both vegetarian ( though I just thought of halloumi and red pepper skewers 🤔)

 

[KnittyNorah]

Thank you for your detailed reply, can I ask what model you have. I've been doing a bit of research and reading reviews. We don't need a rotisserie as Mrs Tkk and I are both vegetarian ( though I just thought of halloumi and red pepper skewers 🤔)

Yes, I am veggie, with occasional ventures into wild-caught salmon. That's why I mentioned the charring of pepper skins! (Edit - sorry, charring of pepper skins was mentioned re induction hob, NOT mini-oven!)
My oven is a Lidl special, the Silver Crest brand. I think it's worthwhile getting a pretty basic one to start with as some people are surprised at how 'mini' they are and are disappointed.
TBH, if you're not cooking for a family, or doing regular big 'batch' cooking, a mini-oven should be plenty big enough for most normal daily meals for one or two people.

 

[Sterlo]

Looks like I'm on my own here. Switched to induction when we put the new kitchen in about 3 years ago. Hated it from day one but stuck with it until it packed in after just over 2 years. We've gone back to gas and unless they stop selling them, I'll get gas in the future.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We are looking at changing teh gas hob out to Induction

Seems to me that we would need a new electric line brought from the fuse box due to the highe rpower requirements for any decent hob

Is this true??
I know there are ones that would run of the 13A socket that the current gas hob uses for its ignition - but are these lower powered ones OK?

Will we need an electrician to run a whole new cable - of can it be done more easily?

Thanks

 

[Bonefish Blues]

We are looking at changing teh gas hob out to Induction

Seems to me that we would need a new electric line brought from the fuse box due to the highe rpower requirements for any decent hob

Is this true??
I know there are ones that would run of the 13A socket that the current gas hob uses for its ignition - but are these lower powered ones OK?

Will we need an electrician to run a whole new cable - of can it be done more easily?

Thanks

Some do, some don't as I said in my earlier post. We have a 5 zone hob with 2x boost rings so yes it was factored into our kitchen refit. A sparky will confirm.

 

[Sterlo]

We are looking at changing teh gas hob out to Induction

Seems to me that we would need a new electric line brought from the fuse box due to the highe rpower requirements for any decent hob

Is this true??
I know there are ones that would run of the 13A socket that the current gas hob uses for its ignition - but are these lower powered ones OK?

Will we need an electrician to run a whole new cable - of can it be done more easily?

Thanks

We had to have a new feed put in, that said, our kitchen electrics were in a bit of a mess. If you think about it, if you had all 4 "burners" working at the same time on a high power level, there would be a large power draw so it did make sense.