Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Induction hobs, yay or nay?

28 replies

Rollmops · 21/11/2011 20:08

What's good about them, what's bad, etc. If you have one, would you get another one?
Thank you in advance!

OP posts:
RetroMuff · 21/11/2011 20:21

A big YAY!

I have one and would definitely get another one.

Just a smooth sheet of black glass - so easy to clean with a wipe. It heats up almost instantly and cools down quickly.

Only downside is you have to use the right pans - when you're buying them, take a magnet with you, if it sticks, the pan's suitable.

jaspercat2002 · 21/11/2011 21:24

Yay, yay and yay again! Would never have anything else now. As 'turn off and onable' as gas but looks nicer and a lot easier to clean.

Downsides - you may have to have new electric-y bits put in if your wiring is a few years old. As RetroMuff says you may need new pans and normal woks don't work too well even if the right metal as they only get hot where the metal actually touches the hob. You can get flat bottom woks though that work fine.

Have never regretted ours for even a moment

EverybodysScaryEyed · 21/11/2011 21:26

I loved mine - boils water really quickly (I always had my pans boiling over because i'd forget!!)

I had domino hobs - 2 induction and 2 gas. This worked wel because I prefer gas for frying etc

Original poster
Rollmops · 22/11/2011 00:15

Many thanks! Does Kuppersbusch do decent induction hobs? Which brand is the bestestest?

OP posts:
Get0rf · 22/11/2011 00:19

They are fantastic - I would get another induction in a second. They are brilliant - so much easier to clean than gas, and they heat up immediately.

You can't use stainless steel pans, but you can use cast iron, so my Le Cruesets are OK.

Best thing is that you can leave a pan on the lowest setting and casseroles can cook for hours without burning etc.

It's great, far bettert han any other hob I have had.

bemybebe · 22/11/2011 00:23

You can use stainless steel especially designed for induction like Cristel - I have it.
Induction is brilliant because it is very easy to use and very economical. Mine is Miele but I know there are plenty of great makes around now (mine is from 2003)

RandomMess · 22/11/2011 12:39

I went to TK maxx to buy pans along with magnet.

I got my hob from Ikea.

Love, slighty trickier to adjust than gas but worth it for the 3 seconds cleaning!

My other tip is to have the mains switch for it accessible - we turn it off overnight etc as otherwise they are sort of on standby all the time and using electricity.

I use a hob kettle on mine and it's as fast as a rapid boil electic kettle without using the booster function.

RetroMuff · 22/11/2011 19:42

I got my saucepans from Argos, Homebase & Dunelm so they don't have to be expensive.

I use a hob kettle too and agree it's as quick as an electric kettle (doesn't switch itself off though).

SeasonsGripings · 22/11/2011 20:27

Tis fine - would not scream with excitement about it. Glass gets smeary and so has to be cleaned with a very clean e cloth, not a big deal. Less sensitive to switching off when over bioling than I expected which is good. Pan choice is a pain - yes of course you can find them but the selection suitable for induction will be very limited. The thing I really like is that you can let the dcs cook without worrying about the flame licking their clothing. Handles don't get hot either.

BonyM · 22/11/2011 21:43

I love induction. We had our kitchen done 2 years ago and I had domino hobs - 2 induction, 2 gas and a wok burner. I always used the induction in preference to the gas (we only had the gas because DH has a pacemaker and therefore isn't supposed to use induction hobs). It's much quicker than gas and easier to wipe down. We've just moved house and I really miss my induction hob - we're planning to get another one when we re-do this kitchen.

The only downside I found was that it was a nightmare to clean from the point of view of getting it smear-free. Hob-brite and lots of buffing with an e-cloth was the only way and even then it never looked totally free of smears.

CointreauVersial · 22/11/2011 21:53

Yay, yay and thrice yay for induction hobs.

Dead easy to clean (nothing bakes on, so I just wipe down with a soapy cloth and buff immediately with a tea-towel or e-cloth), mega fast to heat up and very responsive.

One thing to note, which it took me a while to work out - the speed of heating depends largely on the pan you use (because it's actually the base of the pan that is being heated rather than the hob). So my Ikea 365 pans heat up really quickly, because they have a thick base, but my Russell Hobbs non-stick pan is actually quite slow, because the base is thinner (so I use it for gentle cooking - it takes forever to boil water in it).

Mine is a cheap induction hob, and in retrospect I wish I had spent a bit more money on it. One drawback is that you cannot have all four rings at full power at the same time. Also, if you have both rings on one side on at the same time they "pulse" - still gets the cooking done, but is harder to control.

TalkinPeace2 · 22/11/2011 22:25

yay yay yay yay

easy to clean
safe to use
fast
uses less energy than any other type of hob

SeasonsGripings · 22/11/2011 22:59

It may use less energy than gas but electricity is still a lot more expensive that gas so I doubt it saves on fuel bills.

skandi1 · 23/11/2011 00:06

A big huge NO! Terrible. Inherited one with our house when we moved this year (kitchen and appliances brand new).

I used to have a fabulous 5 ring gas hob.

Not only is the induction one hard to clean and keep free of smears, it completely wrecked 5 of my Le Crueset pans. Hob seems to heat unevenly and mostly to centre of pan so everything burns and sticks.

Nothing is right about it and I am AngryAngryAngry every time I cook on it.

This is an AEG 4 ring one. Which is very soon to be ripped out and replaced with a gas hob (or there will be no christmas dinner this year).

Sorry.

Ellefabulosa · 23/11/2011 08:26

Not for me - I find gas hob much nicer to cook on.

Mammonite · 23/11/2011 09:14

I suspect you get what you pay for. I am cooking on a plug in induction single hob while we have our renovations done, it has not stopped me ordering a gas cooker for the new kitchen. It's OK but the main advantage is only the cleaning. It makes a humming/fan noise when it's on, and the low setting is not low enough. I am regularly burning stuff on my cast iron pans.

I would say, miles better than any other electric hob, but not much to pick between induction and gas for performance. Probably induction or gas-on-glass would be tidier for one set into a worktop.

Having said that it's truly impressive when on high, a full casserole of water heated in a couple of minutes!

TalkinPeace2 · 23/11/2011 13:50

skandi
energy wise it is cheaper than gas - when we had our new kitchen built we went from gas to induction we looked at all of the numbers (I'm that kind of geek)
Odd that you are finding uneven magnetic field - you know that the pan should sit inside the ring on the glass as that is where the coils are

ours is a neff
its wonderful. I would recommend it to anybody

bemybebe · 23/11/2011 17:23

"Not only is the induction one hard to clean and keep free of smears, it completely wrecked 5 of my Le Crueset pans. Hob seems to heat unevenly and mostly to centre of pan so everything burns and sticks. "

Regarding cleaning - I never use any e-cloths or special cleaners. Water and sponge here and not smears at all!
I use Le Crueset and Cristel pans with no problems. Induction uses magnetic fields to warm the bottom of the pans which are actually more evenly heated then either gas, classic electric or halogen.

Are you sure you have induction?

alana39 · 23/11/2011 17:30

Love it. We have a De Dietrich one, no problems in 5 years.

I don't have a problem with smears either - use the washing up sponge to wipe it down with soapy water, rinse off then dry with a cloth or a bit of kitchen roll. Once in a blue moon I clean it with hob brite but I am still on the bottle I bought when we had the kitchen done (5 years ago!) because after a while I realised it made very little difference.

Downside - shows up the dust in the sunlight!

TalkinPeace2 · 23/11/2011 17:34

window cleaner works best on mine !

Original poster
Rollmops · 23/11/2011 19:16

Thank you, everyone!
We won't have gas in the next house, hence cooker-dialemma and it seems induction is the way to go.
Had a ceramic hob some years ago and it was horrid, everything that skandi21 talks about and then more.
Wanted to make sure there really is difference between ceramic and induction - 'yay's' seem to have it!Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
Rollmops · 23/11/2011 19:19

skandi1 even, apologies...Blush

OP posts:
Get0rf · 23/11/2011 19:50

Are you sure skandi that you don't have a ceramic hob?

i usr Le Creuset and it is fine - no problem with the lowest or highest settings, and also find no problems with smears.

RetroMuff · 23/11/2011 19:58

Mine is a Neff and very easy to clean - just wipe & dry.

TalkinPeace2 · 23/11/2011 20:13

Rollmops
When I had my induction hob fitted, the electrician (who had not encountered them before) got really worried as it would not heat up.
He'd not put a pan on it.
I put my cast Iron skillet on with a bit of water in it. Full power - to the boil in seconds
Then lifted the skillet off and put my hand on the "burner"
Dropped jaws all round the room.

(NB only works so long as the cooking has been less than a couple of minutes but when a pan boiled over, lifting it up and wiping a cloth under it before putting it back on to boil is still pretty cool)

The energy usage is genuinely less than gas.
Reaction times - turn up, turn down, turn off - are as quick as gas
AND
dealing with a place that has limited ventilation, and commercial cookers, the lack of waste heat (from all the flames of a gas hob) saved THOUSANDS in extractor hood costs