Iinduction Hobs: Are they really any good ?!

[ifeelfine]

Help Please:
We are considering the replacement of our current gas hob with an induction hob.

I have read many conflicting reviews on the web, by purchasers complaining that these types of hobs are not reliable, either in their performance or reliability, and that they don’t work as depicted.

EG: Some say that:
A: They have been unable to get their hob to work with some or all of the steel-pans that they have tried, regardless of the quality of the pan.

Or, pans that worked perfectly OK on their previous induction-hob, don’t work on their new induction-hob.

B: Or the pan has to be at least the size of the pan-circle-size indicated,
yet quite often they are demonstrated in online videos with smaller pans.

C: Or not being able to regulate the cooking temperature, with food either not cooking or boiling over, etc., etc.

D: Or that they are noisy.

E: Or using more than one pan at a time creates odd/poor performance and/or reduces the power to each pan.

All this confusion over a basic product !

So it’s difficult to know if these problems are just down to cheaper versus more expensive models and/or makes...

OR: If the technology in general is not worth the trouble of the much greater expense !?

So I dont know what make to trust/buy (if any).

I dont want to spend a fortune on what is quite a simple technology !

SO: I would appreciate comments from anyone who can recomend or not recommend specific makes & models.

Many thanks:

I have a stoves induction hob and I love it.
I bought some basic pans that were suitable for induction hobs and had no problems with them.
It can be noisy if it's on the lowest setting for heat but not noisy enough that it annoys me.
Mine doesn't stain when I leave the water to boil over but the one we have at work does (not sure why)
I have no problems with cooking/simmering on it.
It's so easy to clean I don't think I could do back to a traditional gas job.

I've got a Neff induction hob, the only problem I find with it is that sometimes if something boils over it upsets the controls and can turn the rings off - but a quick dry-off soon sorts that out.

It's a lot better than the previous electric hob; however, I think if I'd had a gas hob I'd have stuck with it.

I did have to get a complete new set of pans (it came with 3 quite decent ones) - my old ones were copper-bottomed or aluminium unfortunately, the only one which still worked was a Le Cruset cast iron casserole. But I've not had any difficulty finding good new ones.

I would say that if you've got kids who want to be involved in cooking, induction is probably the safest option. And it's very easy to keep clean.

I have a hotpoint induction hob and it's fantastic.

I had to buy new pans as my old ones were aluminium, I bought mid-range ikea ones and they are fab.

No issues with pan sizes vs hob size - it's less energy efficient if you use the wrong size but works fine.

There is no noise at all?!

Very fast, very controllable, very easy, very amazing :)

our NEFF induction hob is great - works with our regular john lewis pans. It is quick, efficient, safe and easy to keep clean. I strongly recommend it.

Thanks everyone for the info so far, anyone else have info ?

Also actual model-numbers would help me greatly, as the issues mentioned in my original post seem to be model-specific.

Many thanks.

We have an ikea one, bought when we put our new (ikea) kitchen in 6 years ago. It's fantastic, would never go back to gas or normal electric now. It does make a slight clicking noise in use but not very noticeable and certainly not noisy. So easy to keep clean too.
Had to buy new pans, very reasonably priced ikea 365 ones (you may notice I quite like ikea!), they still look brand new after 6 years, as does my lovely hob.

I have a Neff
ao.com/product/T40B31X2GB-Neff-Induction-Hob-Black-27389.aspx
Very happy with it so far after 35 years using gas. Very easy to clean, no noise, very fast. I got a free set of pans from Neff which are grest and I have supplemented these with a couple of my old pans which still worked and a new frying pan. Only problem is you cant really use a wok well unless you buy one with a specific ring which adds pounds.

fussychica: Thanks, that was really helpful.

Anyone else have recommendations good or otherwise ?

Many thanks.

Not quite what you are asking but it may be relevant...

We considered an induction hob last year when we needed to replace our old gas cooker. I have always hated electric hobs because of the slow reaction time compared with gas, so we looked at induction. But in the end we went for a Which best buy electric cooker (zanussi) at about half the price, taking a punt that the technology had improved.

It is great. The hob is so much more responsive than they used to be, I wasa die-hard lover ofngas but I'm really pleased with it. And the temp control and insulation of our oven are superb.

Of course you may be looking at induction for different reasons, but just some other thoughts to chuck into the mix!.