Would you buy an induction hob again?

[refusetobeasheep]

Considering one in my kitchen re-design, so would be great to gauge any MN owners views!

I hate mine. We have no gas and I previously had a regular ceramic hob. When I got a new one four years ago I got induction.
Yes it's nuclear when you want to boil something but because of the way it heats the base of the pan I find stuff sticks or burns very easily.
I used to slow cook on the job but can't any more.

farming - I can have every one of my rings on 9 no problem. I wonder if it is an electrical issue rather than an induction hob one? They need a HUGE power supply, which has to be specially installed - the electrician who did mine said that they are often put in with inadequate wiring?

There are good things and bad things about it. Really good for: boiling water quickly and cooking at a very low heat. Very good in lots of ways that only the pan heats up rather than the air around it. That's much more energy efficient. It's very controllable - but then so is a gas hob.

On the other hand some things are much worse on an induction hob, mostly things that have to be cooked at high heat. Omelettes pretty rubbish, pancakes, bacon, steak. I think it's because the whole pan doesn't heat up, only the bit in contact with the hob. For these things gas is much better. I can't bear the way it turns itself on when you wipe it, and beeps and winks balefully at you.

Oh, and another thing: the handles don't get hot, in the way they inevitably do with gas.

I've just looked mine up, however, and it's currently a grand. Which might explain why it doesn't seem to have the issues other people find. The FlexInduction thing means the "pans having to be in the right place" problem is fixed, along with the "bases don't heat evenly". Mine will evenly heat a 50x25cm cast iron griddle (you can join zones together, so you can use a whole side of the hob as one "ring") which is great for steak etc.

I loved mine, when we bought the new house I assumed it was also an induction job but no - it’s electric - looked like an induction until you turn it on. I bloody hate it, it’s so slow to respond everything is perpetually boiling over or on the wrong heat. I would love an induction but to get one the right size to replace it and of decent quality I’m looking at 4 figures, which I just can’t justify when this one works

Yes I would not go back to gas now

I'm not sure. The speed at which it boils a pan is great, but it also boils over easily. And I assumed it would be easy to clean, but some things seem to get dried on in a thin layer and leave a smear that you just can't remove.

I've also found it's harder than gas to heat, say, a curry easily in a large pan. On a gas hob I could leave something like that bubbling at it would all cook easily. I don't know if it's the hob or something to do with the quality of my pans, but on the induction hob I have to stir everything a lot or bit won't cook through in the allotted time.

Love mine. Definitely would have another.

DH (ex chef) always refused to cook on electric and insisted on gas, but then I was the one who always ended up cleaning the fiddly bits. When the kitchen was done I demanded induction, DH has now been thoroughly converted.

I have never noticed an issue when having lots of pans on, and my bacon fries just fine. I do occasionally miss my old round bottomed wok.

It gets pans hotter than gas did and we had to change cooking timings or remember not to put things on maximum heat. Got it wrong and burned a few meals to start with until we learned the induction was so much hotter. It's great for boiling the kettle though

Hate mine. Turns itself off when you lift pan to flip something. Turns itself off when you touch it with your sleeve. Doesn't turn off quickly when you want it to though, oh no. Then you have to hold the precise spot on the hob for ten seconds. And you can't control it with wet fingers. Or damp fingers. Or sometimes any fingers. Can't wait to move back to the UK and have gas again.

Pig possibly, this was a while back too, so perhaps they’ve improved in recent years. If I had to choose between electric and induction I’d probably choose induction. But I would never spend 4 figures on one.

I suppose we all have different preferences. I know a lot of people who complain about agas, but I would never be without one.

I prefer gas as I cook from scratch and find that some tried and tested recipes just don’t work on induction or even electric.

farming - I have no idea, I'm a very new convert having had gas previously. I am the proud owner of the Ikea hob (amusingly named Smaklig) and it's terrific.

Ooops, posted too soon - wanted to add- and MUCH cheaper than four figures!

Hate mine. Turns itself off when you lift pan to flip something.

I think the takeaway is "there are some shit induction hobs, to be avoided".

Upon removing a pan mine stays running, albeit with the number flashing, indefinitely (or at least, until I get bored) until you put the pan back on. I use this feature when moving stuff around: I just turn on where it's going, and then then move it. It doesn't need a pan in order to latch on, so you can take a pan off to pour something off (say) and it's still running when you put it back. Which sometimes is The Wrong Thing, of course: on a couple of occasions I have emptied a pan, then put it back on the hob for want of somewhere else to put it, and burnt the residual contents. But that's "gas semantics".

Mine's just like using gas, except it's easier to clean. After thirty years of gas and two of induction, I wouldn't go back, and ripping out what was there and replacing it with a good induction hob would be my first move in a new house.

Yes but only if the power is sufficient. I have a six ring induction range. Until our electrics were upgraded it would pull from another ring to heat up more than four rings at once. So it would suddenly turn my pan on 8 down to 4 if I put the fifth ring on.

PIL had a smaller one and had to take theirs out since it couldn't power all four rings

Until our electrics were upgraded it would pull

I have two 30A feeds, one for the hob, one for the oven. This isn't common, I believe. That's for a 7200W (ie, 30A) hob.

Love, love, love mine.
I guess it's like most things, if you buy cheap, chances are it's a lower quality product so you should definitely compare features when buying.
I had mine installed with my new kitchen and my electrician sorted out all the electrics so it has its own fuse switch. I used to have an Aga and hated it, especially the lack of control. Thankfully, I kept all my cast iron pans so I can still cook with them on the hob on a very low heat, just like a slow cooker. I also have a couple of deep sided frying pans so can do stir fries, sausages and bacon easily.
When we had a demo, the store guy put a tea towel on the hob with the pan on top filled with cold water. My DH was really impressed by how quickly the water boiled and that the tea towel underneath the pan stayed cool.
I also like the fact you can give it a quick wipe and it's sparkly clean.

We did have to have our wiring upgraded for the hob

I have had no issues frying things on it at all. Mine also doesn’t switch off right away when you lift the pan off and doesn’t turn on unless there’s a pan on it so doesn’t automatically switch on either.

Mine also doesn’t switch off right away when you lift the pan off and doesn’t turn on unless there’s a pan on it so doesn’t automatically switch on either.

To be fair, these are the sorts of things you would only ask about if you knew they were a thing. And the only way you'd know they were a thing would be to have cooked on an induction hob which did one of these rubbish thing, noted why it's rbbish, been overall impressed with the basic concept and gone to a shop to ask "are there induction hobs which do the induction hob stuff, but don't have the following litany of rubbish misfeatures?"

Hobs which turn off when you remove the pan and don't turn back on again when you put the pan back are hopeless. Hobs with small "rings" where if the pan isn't centred properly it doesn't detect are also hopeless. Hobs which combine the two previous features, so if you nudge a pan offcentre it turns off are cray-cray. Quite how you avoid hobs with those misfeatures is another question. I love my Siemens one, and having now read about ones people don't like, I'd know what questions to ask if I were buying another one. But naively, I might have assumed they were all like mine.

Can those who are happy with their inductions please give the models they bought? Also which ones to avoid?

I'm also seriously thinking of replacing my electric oven/gas hob with an induction but my budget is around £600.

TIA!

Ours is a Neff. Not sure if the model number but it wasn't amazingly expensive.

"Quite how you avoid hobs with those misfeatures is another question."

There are some pretty good reviews on Which?

I'm surprised by how many people on this thread love them. I hate ours.

1. I hate the beeping. I really hate the beeping.
2. I hate the fan being on whenever the hob is on.
3. It's not great for browning meat or stir-frying on high heat.
4. I don't like the power split between the rings, like FarmFeeding said you can't have them all on high without it taking power from the other rings.
5. Miss the homely feel of a gas hob. It made the kitchen cosy.
6. Easy to clean yes, but easily scratched however careful you are and like all glass if the light catches it it's never as clean as you thought it was.
7. I don't enjoy cooking much now at all, probably for all the above reasons.

We 're moving soon and have already chosen our new dual fuel range cooker with a gas hob for the new kitchen. I'm really looking forward to having gas again - maybe it's partly a sentimental, homely feeling I have about gas, but it feels real to me.

Mine doesn't suffer from 1, 2, 3, 4(a). 4(b), 5 and 6 are a touch subjective.

1 because you can turn the beep off.

2 because the fan only comes on when you massively cane it on a hot day (I think I got the fan on last by engaging the "boost" on both sides at the same time last summer).

3 and 4 because I've got decent wiring.

As I say: a lot of the problems people ascribe to induction are actually problems with their induction.