Hobs - Induction or Electric?

[Furries]

A family member may be moving into a property that doesn’t have gas. I’ve only ever had gas hobs, so have no experience of induction or electric.

Would be grateful for any feedback, pros/cons etc from those that have them.

Induction is head and shoulders over normal electric. I’ve had gas, regular electric and now I have induction.

Induction is instant. If I have a pan that is boiling I can turn it down and the temperature drops straight away. With electric it is much slower. Also induction heats up quicker.

Induction is a much better experience than regular electric, even the flat electric hobs.

I have an induction hob having had electric for most of my life, and now wouldn't use anything else. Easy to use and keep clean, quick to heat up and attractive to look at (I think).

Induction every time.

Induction is much more controllable and easy to adjust

...just to add that the only downside is that not all pans work with an induction hob. You can check suitability by seeing of they are magnetic.

Induction 100%.

I moved from gas to induction to electric through house moves and I thought I loved gas till I got Induction, but its fab, responsive, easy to clean and safer than electric. We lost our electric kettle last week as our toddler bumped the ring it was sitting on top off and melted it. We couldn't justify replacing the huge range cooker with induction as its in good condition, but hopefully in the future!

Induction (our hob is 17 years old and still going strong!) Most supermarkets now sell induction compatible pans in their range which are the same price as their other pans. The hob is really easy to clean so that's another plus....

Another vote for induction,

Pro
More efficient as it heats the pan, not the air around it.
Love the boost function
Timer on each ring.
Much easier to clean
Sides of pans don't get burnt like gas does
Very fast to control

Cons
Glass top can be scratched, broken
Requires ferrous pans
May require new spur, if only 13amp socket available.
Usually more expensive to purchase.

Induction 100% much quicker to heat pans up and when you adjust the temperature the pan adjusts straight away. I wouldn't use anything else now.

Well, I think the answer is pretty clear already! Thanks all for the quick responses. Am now off to focus my search on induction hobs.

Although I guess I could also ask - are there any brands you’d recommend or avoid? Or have you been happy with any of the brands you’ve used?

I bought a Siemens one, it has been great.

However I did break the glass by dropping a bottle of wine, which cost me £200 to fix.

Love my induction but it is not dead and repairman told me that induction hob can't be repaired and better off to go for an electric hob

We’ve just had an induction fitted a few months back. It’s so energy efficient it barely registers on the electric! Wish I’d had one years ago!

I've been happy with a pretty basic one that came with my kitchen - New World. It's not a great brand, but they are all pretty similar I think. Will be getting a Bosch in my new place, and they seem to have a good reputation. If you're worried about the glass breaking and having to replace it, then a cheaper one would be the best bet.

Make sure it's a decent one, with sensible controls.
I was so delighted to move out of our house with induction. I don't recognize the descriptions most people use for them. It was horrible to control, had about 2 settings- tepid or ferocious and the touch sensitive buttons didn't respond unless you'd accidentally left something on the hob, at which point it beeped non stop at you.

So, I'd say read the reviews, but induction over electric.

Can I throw something else into the mix? Halogen hobs! As a half-way house.
being quicker than standard electric, pretty efficient, easy to clean, and no special pans needed
https://chefspick.co.uk/halogen-hobs-pros-and-cons/

You don’t need special pans for induction hobs. Most pans work.

It depends on what they are made of. I had to throw out most of mine, which were aluminium I think (or more accurately I left them outside my house and one of the neighbours adopted them!).

I'm on my 2nd induction hob after cracking the first one down the middle 6 weeks after installation. Very easy to do and had to replace the whole dratted thing!

Mine cost about £800 originally but some of the rings are now failing after 7 years, and my appliance installer advised most induction hobs start to fail around the 7/8 year mark so they aren't long-lasting.

I've also had issues with the large pan ring - no pan works on it. NONE. Whatever size. So I've had 7 years of a 3-ring hob. And now it's down to 2 rings.

My friends horrendously expensive Miele hob is on the blink after 6 years and she's been told it will cost at least £800 to fix and it may still have issues (it keeps turning itself off).

So, whilst they are good to cook on, they can be problematic!

Idk about just hobs that are fixed into the side with a separate oven. I've only had electric or induction cookers or ranges.

The 90cm range electric (ceramic) hob was pretty fast and efficient, even though the cooker was 10 plus years old. It's because they require more powerful wiring (something like 35 instead of 13 on a 90cm vs 60cm cooker).

The 90cm induction range was twice as quick as the ceramic range. I know, because I'm pedantic enough to have timed it.

My 60cm fully electric cooker with a ceramic range is hateful, slow, and you have to take pans physically off 'rings' in order to stop things overcooking. That's definitely 13w (or amp? I forget) and I'm sure that plays a pretty key part.

If I owned my own house and only had enough space for 60cm cooker, I'd get a hole drilled in the wall and have a cooker adapted to run off bottled gas. My mum did that, it worked well for her, although she did say she never quite got as much power in the gas oven part than she was used to (I'd get a gas hob/electric oven, I'd only set things on fire in a gas oven).

Induction a 100% - they are amazing. As responsive as gas but so easy to clean - you can wipe them down right after taking the pan off. And you don't have middle of night panics about whether you've turned the hob off like I did with gas! In fact, you don't even need to turn them off, they switch themselves off once they realise there is no pan on them,

You do need particular pans but these don't have to be expensive. We have a couple of Le Creuset which are spendy obvs but the rest of our pans are pretty cheap.

But they don’t need to be ‘special’, it’s more that some pans don’t work rather than you have to go to the special pan section in the shop.

I have always been in the 'strictly gas only' club, but we recently had an induction hob installed and I am an enthusiastic convert!! Don't even consider electric over induction. The only thing to realise is that aluminium based (or anything non-magnetic) pots will not work on induction.

On the John Lewis website out of the 457 pans they have 407 are suitable for induction. I think it’s fair to say that the majority of pans will work.