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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

Induction hobs - do they look scratched and battered after a while?

53 replies

Housemum · 08/06/2019 23:26

Looking at getting a new hob and have always used gas. The induction hobs look lovely and shiny (and I have pans with magnetic bases so don't need to get new ones), but my worry is that after a few months' use they will look all scratched and battered?

Also, the touch sensitive controls look hard to read on most - just thinking of when my mother wants to cook on there, her eyesight isn't great so whereas she can feel the knobs (oo-err, missus) on a gas cooker she'd have no chance on induction?

OP posts:
Lougle · 08/06/2019 23:34

I have a second hand (4 year old?) Induction hob. Still beautiful. There's an electronic display, but the knobs still have markers to show you what setting you have it on. They are so amazing to use. I can make a white sauce in approx 3 minutes on an IH, using butter and flour roux. Incredible. Water boils incredibly quickly from cold.

Sicario · 08/06/2019 23:40

Nope. Looks as good as new after 5 years.

MotherForkinShirtBalls · 08/06/2019 23:46

10 years and looking fine here

Wildorchidz · 08/06/2019 23:47

Mine is perfect. Looks brand new still .

springgreensunshine · 08/06/2019 23:48

I knocked a tin of soup out of a cupboard onto mine and it cracked. It's not scratched at all through everyday use though, just has a big chip out of one side. We've had it about 8 years.
Not sure if that's helpful or not....

Original poster
Housemum · 09/06/2019 00:05

Sounding good then! I thought I might not be appreciated walking into Wren with a pan and scraping it around to test which is why I asked here!

OP posts:
Sicario · 09/06/2019 07:22

I was a gas hob person before making the change some years ago and I have never regretted it. The cleanability factor is fantastic. A couple of wipes and shazam - clean.

Lougle · 09/06/2019 08:08

We bought Tefal Ingenio induction compatible pans when we got ours. They are so worth it. They stack really neatly when you're not using them, them you just snap on a handle to use it.

MagicKingdom · 09/06/2019 08:10

Induction hob looking great after 3 years over here too :)

NannyR · 09/06/2019 08:11

I've had one for about eight years, it still looks great. I just wipe it with hot soapy water and a microfibre cloth - so much easier to clean than a gas hob.

ArchMemory · 09/06/2019 08:13

I think you’re wise to consider your mum though if she’s regularly at your house. In my opinion Electronic controls are typically less intuitive than traditional control knobs, and certainly less familiar to those from older generations. When my MIL stays at her daughter’s house she can’t make herself a coffee first thing because there’s no kettle and she can’t operate the boiling water tap (there’s a ‘knack’ - quite frankly I struggle too).

stillworkingitout · 09/06/2019 08:15

Ours still looks great after 4 years. And so easy to clean. I never use any cleaning products on it, just an e cloth and water. I don’t know how old-person-friendly they are though as PIL get confused by it despite having been shown about 100 times. A friend’s DM seems to get ok ok with hers though. Though if your DMs sight is so bad she’s feeling around the gas flame I’m not sure I’d like that either...

mclady · 09/06/2019 08:17

If you're planning your kitchen around elderly relatives, bare in mind that induction hobs can interfere with pacemakers. I'm in the throws of designing a new kitchen and have avoided induction hobs because of this.

TheNumberfaker · 09/06/2019 08:18

We rented a house with an induction job for a year. It was probably about 5 years old. Still beautiful.

BlueMerchant · 09/06/2019 08:19

Had mine 8 months. Mine doesn't look great. I've never thought, is it down to my old pans?Blush

Youvegotafriendinme · 09/06/2019 08:39

Had mine 9 years and not a mark on it

MarniLou · 09/06/2019 08:46

Bluemerchant where mine looked marked by the pans, I rubbed with white vinegar.

BlueMerchant · 09/06/2019 08:50

Thanks MarniLou

BusterGonad · 09/06/2019 09:02

I think I've got an induction hob, I'm not impressed with it so maybe I haven't! Bear in mind if you are going from gas to electric the electric hob takes forever to cool down so unless you have a lot of space in your kitchen for hot pans you will find it annoying. I find it so effing annoying as my kitchen is tiny and all my food burns in the hot pants as I have to put them back in the hob after I've turnt the hob off. If I had the choice I'd have a gas jobs and an electric oven.

AnnieAnt · 09/06/2019 09:14

We don't have gas in our kitchen so had to have an induction hob - had it five years and love it. Still looks like new, very responsive and has the added bonus that it switches off so long as there is no pan on it - so once I've taken the pan off, none of that 'did I switch the cooker off' (am a bit prone to that!).

But, both my mum and MIL eye it with deep suspicion due to the slide controls and I always have to give a full demo/explanation on the occasions they need to use it - which aren't very frequent, so that's possibly a factor. Worth considering though.

Artus · 09/06/2019 09:15

My elderly parents have just got rid of theirs. Mum couldn't read the controls and said she couldn't get the pan hot enough to fry anything. That may have been user error though!

Looked lovely though.

KipperTheFrog · 09/06/2019 09:17

Not had mine long, but I love it! Swore I would always have gas, but for safety reasons switch to induction in our new house. It's so easy to clean, and definitely doesn't scratch easily. Find it easy to control the heat, controls are easy to read on mine.

MedalMedalMedal · 09/06/2019 09:25

Mine shines up very well (Hobrite is the best to clean with)
It has the tiniest chip that can be felt rather than seen along an edge. No idea how it happened. I think only I know it’s there. So if I had another I might be looking for one in more of a frame to protect the edge.

But it looks like new and there are 5 of us and has survived 3 teens 7 yrs.

Lougle · 09/06/2019 09:27

Oh yes, I love that it 'fails' if you remove the pan. Mine has a 'power' setting you can press to give s boost at the start of the cooking. It also has indicators telling you whether a zone is hot, and how hot (3 horizontal bars, which light up variably). It's got a timer on the hob as well as a timer for the oven. I love it.

outofnothing · 09/06/2019 09:28

I've had mine for two years and love it. It has a 4" long scratch on it - I think one if the kids tried use an iron frying pan and dragged it across the surface. Apart from that it's perfect. Feel a pang of disappointment every time I look at the scratch but it's not a big deal, this stuff happens.