Hello all
I noticed the previous thread stopped in 2013 so I thought to start a new one. I 'm investigating induction vs ceramic hob and my initial decision to go induction has been set back by various comments and reviews.
I went to Which? to see what they suggested for best buys and ended up thinking their Bosch hob would be ideal only to find its only a 13A and despite any claims, will have to distribute the available power around however many hobs you have going at one time so full heat setting might not be full heat.
Also people complaining about annoying bleepings and clicking noises from the magnets and pulsing heat - not continuous - and consequent splutterings and overspills when it pulses on again which then turns off the hob and also wiping over the control panel also turns it off. That it is tedious to have to keep pressing the touch panel controls to set the temp and re-set after wiping/spills - sliders are better but come only in much more expensive models, or Ikea's (Electrolux) models.
Cleaning should be the same on ceramic or induction but the touch panel controls are hard to see and often require a good hard press and/or a few secs holding to set the temp.
All in all, it seems some people are having no problems and love their induction hob which IS cheaper to run than ceramic but in the overall scheme of things, your hob isn't that much of a power draw when considering all your appliances and electricity bill, so shouldn't be the main reason for going induction.
Also it is very important not to get a 13A "plug-in" hob unless you hardly do any cooking ! as you will notice that your power is limited for the reason stated above. So you need to know your power availability and the expense of an extra independent circuit may be required to accommodate a hob that is 20A or 32A which will give you much better cookability. Alternatively use your cooker circuit for the hob and get a 13A oven that can be plugged into a spur or directly into a 13A socket but I'm not 100% sure that it's the best thing to have a 13A oven if you want to use it for some real cooking and baking - - still researching that one.
It seems it is important how much you spend on your hob and what make/model it is - apart from the 13A vs 20/32A issue. In all the previous discussion nobody mentioned what model or how much they paid, so it's hard to assess and decide whether induction or ceramic is good or better or what.
My sense it that if you spend above £550 you will get a hob you will be more likely to be happy with. But I don't want to spend that much.
Halogen definitely uses more power by the way.
So my question is :
Can anyone recommend an induction hob they are using that is moderately priced (less than £400) and behaves like you would want without a lot of noises and fussing and splutterings.
thanks !