Induction hobs: any recommendations or brands to avoid?

[Keenoonvino]

I have never used an induction hob before, but we are redoing our kitchen and have no piped gas into the property and have been using an electric cooker for the last year or so.

I look through magazines trying to choose an induction hob and just can't get my head round all the jargon. What are zones? some I've looked at just look like the whole thing gets hot wherever you put a pan?

Anyone have one they love? or hate?!

thanks

We have a Siemens 5 ring one and it is fab! Best thing we bought, so easy to use and clean.

I have a Siemens 90cm 5 ring induction hob. Love it! I'd never go back to gas now.
What's your budget? Some are way more £££ than others.

Siemens here too, same as my last kitchen. Love the flexi zone.
Hob Brite is the magic cleaner.

Neff here. Particularly like the absence of white markings denoting the rings so its just black glass. Cant imagine going back to gas despite using it for 35 years as induction is so easy to control and clean.

I'm interested in induction hobs too... but none of you have explained what 'zones' are. Do you just plonk your pan down in a designated area (no white markings?) and it sense where the pan is and applies heat there? How do you adjust the heat etc? (Newbie, planning ikea kitchen).

Sorry for thread hi-jacking, I'd just love to know about induction hobs too!

Kitty mine has rings and my sister's industry to on hob has zones which are marked by a cross type thing. I think you can use a range of pan sizes on them.

That's supposed to be my sister's induction hob!

Ah thanks

I would try to find out how noisy it is. The fan or whatever in the holiday home I stayed in drove me to distraction! But I think some are quite quiet

Mine is a zanussi with a link zone thingy so I can sort of join 2 pan areas together to make one big one (I can get 3 pans on it). It isn't noisy, just clicks and buzzes a bit occasionally.

We could only have Zanussi products in our new house (new build) so I'm going with this for now but I'm coveting a Neff / Miele one to replace it with if / when it begins to annoy me. It does have white marks on it where the pans go and I suspect that will bug me. Love the controllability though.

Thanks all. Kitchen company has shown me a neff flex induction, which does have the White rings and also a white dotted area that is the flex zone but that doesn't bother me too much. In fact, I think it would annoy me not to have them as I wouldnlt know where to put the pans!
Looks like there is an option to either do totally touch screen or with a magnetic knob and I think I. Prefer the knob.....

Also you can get them totally inset to the flush with your worktop. What do people think about that?

Mine is a sliding control which I love.

We have a 5 ring Siemens induction hob which is flush with the worktop. I love it at least as much as my DCs. Its party piece is boiling a large pan of water in about a minute. Zones just mean you can plonk your pan anywhere in the zone and the pan will get hot, rather than having to put your pan on a ring which matches the size.

Hi Verypunny,
Been reading your post with interest as having new kitchen fitted in August just wondered what Siemans model you have , always good to go on recommendation and having been looking at seimans and neff. I take it you have a flexizone hob? :)

I'd advise against an induction hob. DD and her BF recently moved into a rented flat with one. It never worked from day one, and when the landlord (finally) sent someone to fix it, the repair guy was telling DD that they go wrong frequently and are expensive to sort out when they do.

Because of this my DM and DF deliberately didn't choose an induction hob when they recently had a new kitchen installed, even though the kitchen company were pushing it. Plus you have to have special pans, so a pain all round I would have thought.

I have one, I bought it with my kitchen from IKEA - think the hob is called Folklig but think it's made by Electrolux. It's got a sliding control which is great until you have flour or water on your hands and it doesn't register you touching it. The thing that really fucks me off is when a pan boils over and a speck of water lands on the controls area and the whole fucking thing switches itself off mid cooking. it won't sort itself out until you have dried up the offending spot either.

"I'd advise against an induction hob."

Yes, but OP can't have gas. Straight electric really are crap for cooking.

Whether you need to replace pans depends on what you already have.

We've got ceramic/halogen at the moment but I'm looking at induction when the kitchen is replaced. Is induction much faster than halogen? Took me ages to get used to electric when I moved here away from my nice city with mains gas.

Induction is as fast and controllable as gas, and the hob is so much easier to clean.

Monique - we have a Neff induction hob and it has been in for almost five years and we have not had a problem with it. It is a five ring one with the magnetic control knob. It's easy to control and easy to clean. If I spill water or a pan boils over I just dry it quickly with a tea-towel and the bottom of he pan.

You do need pans that work on induction but ours did anyway. You can check your pans with a magnet. If a magnet sticks to them they should be fine.

Induction is much faster than electric. As fast and easy to control as gas.

I wouldn't change mine.

I've had an induction hob for nearly 5 years now, from IKEA. It's been great, no problems, no breakdowns, looks great and quickly responds to being turned up/down, economical, easy to clean.

I didn't buy top of the range and mine has a couple of vague scratches which only show when the sun is shining directly into the kitchen. So next time I'd go for a higher spec. Even so, I love mine.

Miele is best. Mine has defined "rings" but takes several sizes of pan on each ring from huge to small milk pan. The hob senses the size and just heats the section under the pan. It has a boost function for quick boiling. It is unbelievably easy to clean. It has a timer and is quiet. Fan? I would say spend a bit more and get a Miele. You will not regret it.