Induction Ranges

[LMichaels]

Not sure if these have been discussed, but I'm so over the LG gas range we bought a few years back I'm looking to move on to not only something new but "different". One thing I REALLY loved about our Bosch range may it RIP was the dual fuel aspect. Loved the electric oven for it's accuracy, efficiency and keeping the comfort level in the house along with no fumes.
So in my "quest" I stumbled onto a display at Costco the other day and saw some induction ranges. From what I have been reading up on them there are very few drawbacks. And for the record the gas cooktop on our LG is another atrocity. IDK why but it seems to throw more heat to the sides than into a pot or pan. So much so that I've burned myself multiple times on things I've inadvertently left too close on the counter next to it.
So has anyone here moved on from gas cooktop to induction (I know about the cookware and I've only got maybe 2 pcs that will not work on it). So I'm looking at the safety and efficiency aspects, ease of use, cooking performance and so on. Looking for input on these aspects.
Not to mention our electric company is offering rebates on energy saving appliances like these.
Wife likes the idea here as well especially for her baking needs (she hates the LG as well).

 

[Brett-EDH]

Induction offers a great feature set except aggressive use can scratch the glass top over time. The heat control is very precise. It’s a clean energy in that you’re not burning gas in your home. If you have roof solar, running the cooktop can be very inexpensive.

All cruise ships use induction as no open flames are allowed. They prepare meals by the thousands each day.

Personally I prefer gas for my cooktop and convection electric for my ovens. Which is what I have as my current setup.

For deep frying, I have a portable induction burner that I use outside the house so as to avoid oil smells inside my home.

Not sure what data you’re seeking to help make your decision. Maybe go buy a plug in induction burner and try cooking on it to see if you like the experience and results. This would be an inexpensive way to gauge your actual happiness before spending $1k on a new range

And make sure your current installation location has enough juice installed to run any range you’d consider buying.

 

[JKalchik]

I have family members who've switched from gas to induction. They seem rather happy with it. There are definitely safety aspects, like no open flames or directly hot surfaces, as well as the obvious only using the required energy (very little waste heat.)

Major downside as @Brett-EDH has noted is the glass surface can be a little fragile.

If we have to replace the gas stove here, and had to go electric, it'd almost certainly be induction. I've only got a couple of pans that'd be problematic. I do have the luxury that the stove recess is already wired for 240v electric, as well as 120v and gas.

 

[Mark Foreman]

Induction offers a great feature set except aggressive use can scratch the glass top over time. The heat control is very precise. It’s a clean energy in that you’re not burning gas in your home. If you have roof solar, running the cooktop can be very inexpensive.

All cruise ships use induction as no open flames are allowed. They prepare meals by the thousands each day.

Personally I prefer gas for my cooktop and convection electric for my ovens. Which is what I have as my current setup.

For deep frying, I have a portable induction burner that I use outside the house so as to avoid oil smells inside my home.

Not sure what data you’re seeking to help make your decision. Maybe go buy a plug in induction burner and try cooking on it to see if you like the experience and results. This would be an inexpensive way to gauge your actual happiness before spending $1k on a new range

And make sure your current installation location has enough juice installed to run any range you’d consider buying.

It’s interesting that you both are discussing this as I am looking into getting an induction range as well.
My beloved Dacor dual fuel range is approaching 10 years old and I’m looking for a change.
I checked and my cookware is compatible (cuisinart multi clad pro and CI) so that’s not a factor. Once replaced, I’ll make sure it good to go then install it at my daughter’s house.

To your comment Brett, I worry about scratching the cooktop as I do slide things around on the dacor, especially the cast iron.

 

[LMichaels]

Well for the record enough juice will not be an issue. I ran 220V up there a long time ago (back in 2007) when I bought the Bosch after the door fell off our old gas range at the time. Sadly the Bosch bit the dust on the oven portion and it was in Dec 2 weeks before Christmas and a heating element went out, I replaced than that cascaded into an expensive (like $650) PCB failure. That would have taken 2 weeks to order from Germany. Wife was on point for baking that Christmas, and under that threat we bought this crappy LG and paid through the nose (WAY more than the Bosch had cost me new), and been hating on this from day one. Sadly no one had dual fuel ranges at the time.
Now to it's credit this LG has never once given me trouble. But, I hate how it cooks, I hate all the wasted heat from both the cook top and the oven, the oven cannot even (never has been able to) hold +-50 deg! So baking is a crap shoot. Luckily my wife is as good a baker as I am a griller so her skills over shadow the iness of the equipment.
But, we're both over 70, (one of us, quite a bit more than the other ) and it's time to lose this box.
The Samsung Bespoke models I am looking at match our new fridge, and they have a mat finish nearly scratch proof top. So, I don't think I will worry too much especially since I rarely use heavy weight cookware i.e. cast iron. I just don't care for it anymore. More trouble than it's worth to me.
I'd thought about buying a hotplate type cooker but the issue there for me is; being such low power (less than 15 amp 115V) I can't see how it could be representative of having an actual full range top.
Although if I bought a small one, that would solve one of my headaches of not having my much loved side burner now gone from my Genesis

 

[Jim C in Denver]

Larry -- agree that electric oven >>>>> gas oven.

When we downsized/moved, we picked up a Viking single fuel gas range. The Viking gas cooktop is great, but the gas oven totally sucks. When we remodel, the Viking will go. TBD if we go electric/gas or electric/induction for the replacement.

I'd vote for an induction cooktop for sure -- cool to the touch, cool for the room, better indoor air quality, instant on/off, instant up/down, powerful, sleek. My wife will probably vote to retain the gas cooktop -- works great, tried and true, powerful, you can bang the pots around without worry. And the location is already set up for a gas line and a big commercial hood.

Our weekend house came with a less than 3 year old higher end GE cafe all electric range with a glass top. The electric oven on that is great, but the regular electric cooktop totally sucks. The builder should have sprung for the induction model.

I constantly debate with myself about swapping that one out for the exact same model but with the induction cook top. Induction would be awesome. But feels ridiculous to toss out what is basically a brand new range.

 

[LMichaels]

Yeah, my mind is pretty made up for going that direction, but now other things come into play. Do I go for the Bespoke from Samsung to match up to my fridge? (even though I don't have the Bespoke dishwasher)? So far knock wood both my Samsung freezer and fridge are working flawlessly. Do I poke the sleeping bear and try again with Samsung? They offer the best "bang for the buck" and a GREAT warranty through Costco. Or do we "go for broke" and perhaps go after a higher end product i.e. Bosch, Miele, or so on? Though one of those will EXTREMELY stretch my appliance budget.
Do I look into LG? GE?, I have an aversion to GE and Fridgidaire/Electroluxe LG as well after being "burned" by all 3 brands on other appliances.
I'm just really torn on this as I think I'd like to keep this purchase as far under $3k as I can

 

[Brett-EDH]

Larry -- agree that electric oven >>>>> gas oven.

When we downsized/moved, we picked up a Viking single fuel gas range. The Viking gas cooktop is great, but the gas oven totally sucks. When we remodel, the Viking will go. TBD if we go electric/gas or electric/induction for the replacement.

I'd vote for an induction cooktop for sure -- cool to the touch, cool for the room, better indoor air quality, instant on/off, instant up/down, powerful, sleek. My wife will probably vote to retain the gas cooktop -- works great, tried and true, powerful, you can bang the pots around without worry. And the location is already set up for a gas line and a big commercial hood.

Our weekend house came with a less than 3 year old higher end GE cafe all electric range with a glass top. The electric oven on that is great, but the regular electric cooktop totally sucks. The builder should have sprung for the induction model.

I constantly debate with myself about swapping that one out for the exact same model but with the induction cook top. Induction would be awesome. But feels ridiculous to toss out what is basically a brand new range.

Post it for sale on FB marketplace as nearly new, just upgraded my home. Someone will buy it. It’s not a total zero loss.

 

[Wilmer Cogburn]

Larry one of my customers had us install an induction cooktop at their new home.

At the walk thru, he brought a proper pan and filled it with water. He then put it on the cooktop and turned it on. Near instantly there were steam bubbles forming on the bottom of the pan and shortly thereafter a rolling boil. As he turned the dial down response was instant. Same when he cranked it back up. Then he slid the pan off the element and put his hand on the glass top and it was cool to the touch. Was magical.

No gas fumes to exhaust, only steam and cooking fumes.

Impressive. I am not sure why these are not more prevalent. I wish we had installed one of these but wife was adamant she wanted gas.

 

[LMichaels]

Well wife as I HATES the oven in our current LG. Only her baking skills overcome what it is. IDK if all gas ovens are this bad as we'd not used a gas oven for quite some time having owned our Bosch for so many years. Believe me every time I look at that LG my stomach turns. Though our daughter said she'd LOVE to have it. But then, what she has is so broken down and disgusting the LG would be a 2000% improvement. So we have a place to dispose of it. Though with the extremely unsafe grates on the stove top I worry about mishaps with the little ones. I've come seriously close to some serious accidents because of those unsafe grates. But, my biggest thing now would be what to buy.
I like the idea of going to Samsung simply because it would match up to the fridge and also all the monitoring apps through Smart Things (which I actually make use of).
Lots more homework to be done.

 

[Wilmer Cogburn]

Well wife as I HATES the oven in our current LG. Only her baking skills overcome what it is. IDK if all gas ovens are this bad as we'd not used a gas oven for quite some time having owned our Bosch for so many years. Believe me every time I look at that LG my stomach turns. Though our daughter said she'd LOVE to have it. But then, what she has is so broken down and disgusting the LG would be a 2000% improvement. So we have a place to dispose of it. Though with the extremely unsafe grates on the stove top I worry about mishaps with the little ones. I've come seriously close to some serious accidents because of those unsafe grates. But, my biggest thing now would be what to buy.
I like the idea of going to Samsung simply because it would match up to the fridge and also all the monitoring apps through Smart Things (which I actually make use of).
Lots more homework to be done.

I should clarify, wife has a 48" dual fuel Wolf range. Gas burners for cooking and twin electric ovens for baking. She has been adamant on electric ovens for baking for as long as I have known her.

 

[LMichaels]

I should clarify, wife has a 48" dual fuel Wolf range. Gas burners for cooking and twin electric ovens for baking. She has been adamant on electric ovens for baking for as long as I have known her.

View attachment 114031

I'd LOVE that thing! But the way my house is built I think it would fall through to the basement

 

[Wilmer Cogburn]

I'd LOVE that thing! But the way my house is built I think it would fall through to the basement

My wife loves her kitchen. Was a royal PIA renovation with the 8x16' conditioned crawl space extension.

Funny how you mention failing thru to the basement!

When I did this addition for the kitchen renovation, I intentionally installed doubled LVL's under that area as that appliance wall has the fridge, freezer, oven stack, and range all parallel to the joists. I also installed new joists at the half spacing, so the entire kitchen floor has joists on 8" centers. My day job connections really hooked us up for Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Asko. Looks like an appliance showroom.

 

[LMichaels]

I'd be ashamed to have you see my kitchen

 

[Brett-EDH]

My wife loves her kitchen. Was a royal PIA renovation with the 8x16' conditioned crawl space extension.

Funny how you mention failing thru to the basement!

When I did this addition for the kitchen renovation, I intentionally installed doubled LVL's under that area as that appliance wall has the fridge, freezer, oven stack, and range all parallel to the joists. I also installed new joists at the half spacing, so the entire kitchen floor has joists on 8" centers. My day job connections really hooked us up for Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Asko. Looks like an appliance showroom.
View attachment 114032
View attachment 114033

Beautiful! Any done pics to share?

 

[LMichaels]

My wife loves her kitchen. Was a royal PIA renovation with the 8x16' conditioned crawl space extension.

Funny how you mention failing thru to the basement!

When I did this addition for the kitchen renovation, I intentionally installed doubled LVL's under that area as that appliance wall has the fridge, freezer, oven stack, and range all parallel to the joists. I also installed new joists at the half spacing, so the entire kitchen floor has joists on 8" centers. My day job connections really hooked us up for Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Asko. Looks like an appliance showroom.
View attachment 114032
View attachment 114033

I think I am going to hang up my apron and tongs for good now.

 

[Wilmer Cogburn]

Beautiful! Any done pics to share?

I will see what I can find. Don’t want to derail Larry’s thread more than I have.

That range is a real bone of contention for me though and is a case to be made for induction burners.

That damned hood (based on Wolf sizing criteria) for the 8 burners is huge. Even though it’s variable speed, low is like 800-900 cfm! I think it’s 1500 cfm roof mounted.

Even with passive makeup air, we have negative pressure in the house and wood stove back drafts. So we have to open the window.

Induction cooking has zero combustion fumes to address. So hood cfm should drop greatly. I think this is under appreciated.

 

[timothy]

My BIL bought a Bosch induction cooktop to replace his NG one.
He's mid 70's and gets forgetful, ( he had a stroke with some memory issues) so much that he left the burners on more then a few times.
His Wife and him both decided on getting the ID for obvious safety reasons.
I just remodeled my kitchen and in hindsight I wish I would of went with a ID cooktop.
Edit: did anyone mention ease of cleaning?
At least 2 or 3 times a week I'm removing the grates, diffusers and ocasionally the knobs to clean my NG cooktop.
ID, you just wipe it off.

 

[Chris Allingham]

Our home we bought in 2023 came with a Bosch induction cooktop and a Bosch electric oven, our previous home had a KitchenAid gas cooktop. It takes some adjustment to use the induction cooktop, but it works great, is very responsive, brings water to a boil in nothing flat, and the surface cleans up so easily. Yes, it already had a few medium to fine surface scratches from the previous owner, but not too bad, I just try not to slide pots and pans across the surface, and I stir instead of shake the pan on the surface. Pans tend to slide easily off of the heat zone target shown on the surface, unlike on a gas range where there's friction between the pan and the metal burner grate, but that's not a huge problem. I can see how dropping a heavy pot might crack the surface, but we hope to avoid that. Overall we're very happy with it.

 

[Wilmer Cogburn]

Our home we bought in 2023 came with a Bosch induction cooktop and a Bosch electric oven, our previous home had a KitchenAid gas cooktop. It takes some adjustment to use the induction cooktop, but it works great, is very responsive, brings water to a boil in nothing flat, and the surface cleans up so easily. Yes, it already had a few medium to fine surface scratches from the previous owner, but not too bad, I just try not to slide pots and pans across the surface, and I stir instead of shake the pan on the surface. Pans tend to slide easily off of the heat zone target shown on the surface, unlike on a gas range where there's friction between the pan and the metal burner grate, but that's not a huge problem. I can see how dropping a heavy pot might crack the surface, but we hope to avoid that. Overall we're very happy with it.

Chris great insite

I just don’t understand why these aren’t more mainstream.