Induction hob, yes or no?

[ForNoisyCat]

i’m hoping to do a kitchen refit, as mine is over 40 years old! Looking at Howdens kitchen and AEG double oven and induction hob.
If any one here has an induction hob what are your views on it?

@Rivertrudge the best induction hobs work using 32A. 16A is not sufficient to get the best out of the hob. A 13A plug is useless. It doesn’t take a lot to rewire and have a fantastic induction hob.

@ForNoisyCat Induction heats up fast but you must have the correct pans. Don’t buy any old cheap hob. Consider sizes of pans it will heat and whether it has a timer and other useful extras. Aeg is mid division but I prefer Bosch. My own hob is a Miele and even after 15 years, it’s a star! A quick wipe and it’s clean. If you are redoing your kitchen, get the right power supply.

@OhDear111 Depends if you have the capacity in the existing consumer unit but yes 13amp plug will be very limiting.

@jasflowersMost electricians can sort that out. If it’s not possible it needs sorting out.

I reluctantly got my first induction about twelve years ago because we didn't have an easy gas hookup and now I would never go back to anything else. First was a Siemens, then had a Gaggenau and now have a Wolf (three different houses, this is the final one). All three have been brilliant. Heat up to crazy hot quickly, you can leave something simmering on low all day and it never overheats, melt chocolate or butter with no issues. Love it. I actually have a separate gas wok burner and rarely use it.

Thank you, that’s really helpful.

This I had to be persuaded as lived my gas hob… but it is really brilliant. We went for high spec induction (AEG). I’ve used cheaper ones in holiday lets and they were rubbish… but mine is amazing!

I love ours. It heats up very quickly and is very easy to clean (the whole thing is flush with our work surface). I wouldn’t go back to gas. It was expensive though (Gaggenau with downdraft extraction).

Ours shuts down if it boils over and the water reaches the controls, but this doesn’t really bother me at all, I just try to avoid letting things boil over!

I hate induction hobs so much - I don't have one but I have to cook on ones in other houses regularly and they are horrible if you do actual cookery. If all you do is warm up preprepared stuff they are probably fine. The touch-sensitive controls on an induction hob can only be operated by someone with clean dry hands. When I am cooking I sometimes do things that gets food on my hands, or if I wash them they may not dry too quickly. The controls also stop working properly if your pans spit or bubble over at any point. If you have several pans crowded onto the hob as you are cooking a complex meal, and the edge of a pan crosses over onto the control area, EVERYTHING switches off and all your saucepans cool down if you don't notice it happening.

Highly recommended if you don't like cooking much and just want sleek lines in your beautiful home spaces. Possibly ok if you are an unimaginitive and highly-controlled cook and never finds youtself juggling slightly too many simultaneous tasks when preparing a meal.

I'm an extremely frequent, skilled and somewhat chaotic cook. I often cook complex meals for lots of people. I can't recall the last time I warmed up something prepared that wasn't a leftover of something previously made by me, and this isn't even close to my experience.

I sling my pans all over and have never had the stove switch off. Mine will shut down if copious liquid boils into the controls, but a boil over on the stove top is not a problem. I can't recall ever having had an issue with getting the controls to react to my finger, but if I had, I would either use a different finger or wipe my hand on a tea towel.

Maybe it's your technique that's the problem?

Adding, that I think it's perfectly valid to say you don't like induction, it doesn't suit the way you cook. Totally fair.

But the induction isn't for real cooks, it's for the unimaginative-prepared-stuff-re-warmers bit is a tired trope at this point. I suspect Jeremy Chan, Simon Rogan, Michel Roux and Thomas Keller, who are all converts, know almost as much about 'real' cooking as the average Mumsnet poster.

I saw mention of an induction hob with actual knobs as controls, but I don't think we know the make and model.

I agree. I currently have gas but will switch to induction when our kitchen is redone this spring. I’m not going to suddenly change my cooking habits which involve actual cooking! I cook from scratch, usually with multiple pans on the go and I’ve done the same thing when using induction hobs in relatives’ houses and holiday homes. Gas is fine; induction even better in my experience. It’s utterly ridiculous to think it’s only unimaginative people who just warm something in a pan who use induction!

I have a Neff one from Howdens. Love it! Was using a gas hob for 15 years before but induction is a different level.

Ours has 5 jobs, easy to cook with & cleaning it is a dream!

@CactusSwoonedEnding I can assure you that I'm a decent cook-from-scratch cook and love induction hobs.

We've moved house and we're now using a gas hob not an induction and I hate it. It hasn't got the controllability of my old induction hob and I can't get on with it at all.

We're planning to redo our kitchen later this year and I am definitely having an induction hob installed.

I love mine.

I don’t recognise pp’s descriptions of the controls not being responsive or not being able to cook proper or multi pan meals. Mine beeps at me if a pan is covering the controls but doesn’t turn off and it beeps at me if water reaches the controls (like from a pan boiling over) but it gives me time to sort it before it turns itself off. Unlike my mums gas hob where water boiled over and put the flame out and she didn’t realise and almost gassed them!

@PigletInABlanketJohn No decent manufacturer would make one with knobs. The whole usp with induction is to have easy cleaning and various controls to boost power and use various sizes of pans on one cooking zone. My hob has a timer and I can set the duration of it cooking. All controls are touch controls and knobs would be useless because these cooking zones are not simply on and off.

Even if something spills it’s a quick wipe to clean it up and carry on cooking. It’s just vital to have a 32A model with various cooking zones and at least a mid range model. Mine is also 900 mm wide and that’s wonderful as there’s more space.

My Gaggenau has a detachable magnetic knob (so it can be stored away when not in use leaving an entirely flat surface). It’s brilliant.

@user593 What does the knob actually do? Over and above a quick touch control? Do you have to get it out of the drawer each time you use the job? A faff surely?

@OhDear111 It turns on the plates (but so does putting a pan on them) but then also controls the heat settings, so I can speed up or down by turning the knob. It was a choice between the Miele, without a knob, or the Gaggenau, with a knob, and I spoke to a couple of friends with induction who said the touch controls can be a bit annoying so we opted for the Gaggenau.

At the moment I store it away because my 2 year old likes to steal it but if not for that I’d probably leave it out except on the few occasions I need a clear work surface (it’s on an island and flush with the worktop, I occasionally cover it with a table cloth and use it as a buffet). It’s also easy to lift for cleaning.

I really like it and wouldn’t buy another induction without it. I think Samsung does them now too.

I have a Meile and don’t have an issue with the touch controls - they work! Don't you have an on/off button? This is a safety feature on mine.

My hob is on and island and flat too. Never covered it! But we have a table area at the end of the island - it’s a huge island!

@OhDear111 Yes, it has an on/ off button and other touch controls. The only ones I use are the on/ off and the downdraft extractor as everything else I can do with the knob.

We've had a Bosch induction for 18 years , absolutely fantastic. Gas seems so slow in comparison.

Might make more sense with photos.

@user593 So quite a lot of touch controls. I do think buying better than basic and enough power is key to a great hob.