Making the Switch to Induction - Tips For Newbies

[Shutterbug57]

My wife and I are making the switch from an electric (halogen under glass) cook top to an induction cook top. When we remodeled the kitchen 20 years ago, I wanted to go with gas, but lost the battle based on esthetics. I do most of the cooking, but my wife liked the look of the glass cook top - which does look nice even if its performance was not what I would prefer.

Anyway, long story short, we are getting a new induction cook top on Monday. She had conceded that the halogen under glass was a mistake and given that we only had 1.4 functioning burners (out of 4 on a 30" top), it was time to make the switch. When I went to the local appliance store, the sales person showed me the gas options as that is what I said I wanted to see. He also showed me the induction options and made some positive comments about them. I left, did some research and concluded that for our situation, the induction provided most of the advantages of gas with the look of the glass top and the safety of cooler burners once the cooking is over. Also, grandkids can't blow the house up with an induction top.

My cookware - exclusively All-Clad tri-ply - will work with the cook top. I am interested in any tips that those who have gone before me into the induction world have for an induction newbie. I am in my late 50s and am an experienced, and some would say accomplished, home chef, but my career is in consulting/CPA work, not in the kitchen; that is a hobby.

I am looking for tips or tricks about the induction experience. My top burner is 3,700 watts and my burners are 11", 7" (2) and 6", with a bridge on one side. I appreciate any input y'all have.

 

[jzuzphreek]

I'll be paying attention to this thread. I know next to nothing about induction. One of my primary dislikes about my house is the lack of gas.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Were it me, I would point out the fact that she was wrong about the last cook top and this time you are getting gas. It is hard to blow up the house with a modern gas cooktop- pilot lights have been replaced with automatic igniters.

 

[Edcculus]

I really like induction. It offers really great control, and heats up extremely fast.

 

[VerbaVolant]

I will follow your thread with great interest as I am interested in this technology as well. In my case I am very interested in learning more about safety rather than performance.
I use natural gas with a five burner stove, and I am very happy with it.

 

[Alacrity59]

I keep looking at them too. Due to clearance of overhead cupboards and over the range microwave I can't go gas without some serious modifications. The one thing I worry about is buying one that draws too much power. You have to consider how your kitchen is wired or make provision for providing the extra umph.

 

[phillysco]

Induction technology is much more popular in Europe than the US. It has its drawbacks and advantages. Biggest drawback is you can't use any anodized cookware without a magnetic induction plate. Ditto for non magnetic stainless steel and copper.
Advantage once you remove the pot, there is no residual heat, so very little chance of burning. Also safer if children (grandchildren) are in the house.
Glass cooktops are a royal pain to clean if you have a spill over.
I inspect restaurants for a living. Every one of them cooks with gas.
There is a reason for the expression "now you are cooking with gas"
When I bought my house, it had a glass cook top. I sold it after a few months and bought a gas stove. Never looked back.
Good luck in your journey with induction, a journey I will never make.

 

[Shutterbug57]

I will follow your thread with great interest as I am interested in this technology as well. In my case I am very interested in learning more about safety rather than performance.
I use natural gas with a five burner stove, and I am very happy with it.

From what I have learned, the biggest safety advantage is that the burners themselves do not heat up. They get heat from the pot or pan that is on them, but they are not the source of the heat per se. The sales guy demoed an induction top by bringing a gallon of water to boil in eight minutes. He did that with the pot sitting on a paper towel that was sitting on the cooktop. When you remove the pot, the cooktop cool down very quickly. Another safety advantage is that if you forget to turn the burner off, at least on the models I seriously considered, after a short period of time, usually a minute, the burner will turn itself off.

I keep looking at them too. Due to clearance of overhead cupboards and over the range microwave I can't go gas without some serious modifications. The one thing I worry about is buying one that draws too much power. You have to consider how your kitchen is wired or make provision for providing the extra umph.

That is a very good point. All of the induction cooktops that I seriously considered required at least 30 amps of power, some 40. We are fortunate that in our remodel, 20 years ago, they put in a 40 amp circuit for the cooktop. Therefore we have no additional cost for wiring in this case. Had we gone to a gas cooktop, we would have had to run a gas line to the cooktop area.

Induction technology is much more popular in Europe than the US. It has its drawbacks and advantages. Biggest drawback is you can't use any anodized cookware without a magnetic induction plate. Ditto for non magnetic stainless steel and copper.
Advantage once you remove the pot, there is no residual heat, so very little chance of burning. Also safer if children (grandchildren) are in the house.
Glass cooktops are a royal pain to clean if you have a spill over.
I inspect restaurants for a living. Every one of them cooks with gas.
There is a reason for the expression "now you are cooking with gas"
When I bought my house, it had a glass cook top. I sold it after a few months and bought a gas stove. Never looked back.
Good luck in your journey with induction, a journey I will never make.

Your point about the cookware is very true. That was one of the things I had to research after my initial visit to the show room. I had no idea if my all clad would work or not, it does. The other thing that my research indicated was that clean up on an induction cooktop is much easier than on a conventional electric glass cooktop because the burner does not directly heat up as you point out. I have some experience, over the last 20 years, with cleaning the glass cooktop that heats directly from the halogen lights. You are correct, when you have a spill, that is a pain. I will be very interested in seeing how the induction cooktop functions in this respect.

As for the "now you are cooking with gas" line, that was a marketing slogan trying to get people to move from wood stoves to the new technology of gas. That switch began about 100 years ago and the phrase came along about 20 years later.
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25897/origin-of-the-phrase-now-were-cooking-with

The biggest drawback I see for induction is the need to match the pot/pan size to the burner, especially as it limits the overhang of the pot on the burner. Another drawback is that if the power goes off, you are out of business.

 

[Gig103]

I saw a kick *** induction top at CES. It was a grid of approximately 2x2 inch squares that sensed where you placed a pot and created custom cook zones. The front panel gave you a representation of your cook top and you touch each shape to control temperature. Having a big party? No problem, just squeeze the pots and pans on the range!

 

[Shutterbug57]

I saw a kick *** induction top at CES. It was a grid of approximately 2x2 inch squares that sensed where you placed a pot and created custom cook zones. The front panel gave you a representation of your cook top and you touch each shape to control temperature. Having a big party? No problem, just squeeze the pots and pans on the range!

The showroom I went to had one similar to that. It just sensed where you put the pot and the pot size. Problem was that it was 5-6x the cost of the best "normal" units. Give it 10 years or so and I bet this becomes the norm in induction.

 

[VerbaVolant]

From what I have learned, the biggest safety...

My safety concerns were related to radiation and shielding. I have many questions related to this technology and I am glad you opened this thread so we could discuss.
One question: how does shacking/sliding pans on the burner affect safety/performance?
I already know that you have to use proper size pans for the burner size/setting. Maybe I am wrong.

...The sales guy...

The sale guy is there to sell, unless he/she is a close relative who's interest is to get you best product (they know about, or not).
The only time I speak with a "sales guy" is when I give them my credit card number.

 

[VerbaVolant]

I saw a kick *** induction top at CES. It was a grid of approximately 2x2 inch squares that sensed where you placed a pot and created custom cook zones. The front panel gave you a representation of your cook top and you touch each shape to control temperature. Having a big party? No problem, just squeeze the pots and pans on the range!

Wow, technology evolves faster than I can keep up with. Very interesting feature.

 

[Gig103]

The showroom I went to had one similar to that. It just sensed where you put the pot and the pot size. Problem was that it was 5-6x the cost of the best "normal" units. Give it 10 years or so and I bet this becomes the norm in induction.

That doesn't surprise me (the cost). I never ask prices at CES

 

[Mick]

I recently got a single table top 1500 watt induction burner (120VAC stand alone induction "hotplate").

I've used it mostly for making coffee in my metal moka pot which it works great for.

I also have a stand alone induction rice cooker which is DA BOMB.

Most of my cookware is copper and won't work on induction so I am stuck with gas for a kitchen stove.

Would like to see pics of your unit once it is installed.

 

[Shutterbug57]

My safety concerns were related to radiation and shielding. I have many questions related to this technology and I am glad you opened this thread so we could discuss.
One question: how does shacking/sliding pans on the burner affect safety/performance?
I already know that you have to use proper size pans for the burner size/setting. Maybe I am wrong.



The sale guy is there to sell, unless he/she is a close relative who's interest is to get you best product (they know about, or not).
The only time I speak with a "sales guy" is when I give them my credit card number.

The owners manual indicates that if you have a pacemaker not to use the unit. I imagine this is related to radiation.

As as far as the sales guy goes, I went to a local boutique shop know for having knowlegable staff who provide good info to let you make your own decisions. In my experience with them on several purchases, this has been true. While I was looking for gas, he showed me all the gas options that would work for us. He then asked if he could talk about the induction, so we did. I left with some things to research and was still leaning toward gas, although the installed cost would be about the same because we would have to run a gas line but the wiring would work with induction.

After I did my research, I decided to give induction a try. I then built a spreadsheet with the details of all the options that would work for us. From there I made my decision and placed the order.

 

[VerbaVolant]

What make and model did you end up ordering?
Please post pictures of the installed range and let us know how you like it. Or not.

Can you slide/shake pans on an induction top?

 

[brucered]

We are just starting to buy stuff for our kitchen remodel and the first thing we purchased was an induction range.

With two kids in the house, who are both showing an interest in cooking, it was an easy choice for us. We bought new De Buyer pans a few months ago in anticipation of the switch as well as some new Paderno Fusion pots to replace our other Padernos which are higher end, but not induction. A quick way to check your current cookware is use a magnet on the bottom...if it sticks, I believe it's induction ready. They do sell a small device to place under current, non-induction ready cookware, but don't know how well they work. We just bought all new stuff.

It won't be installed until Mid March (if all goes according to plan), but I'll be following the thread as well. No matter what, it will be an upgrade to our 15y old coil to stove. My wife wanted either duel fuel and Duel Oven, but the designer and contractor both recommended it over gas and said we would not be disappointed as well as the space issues we opted to take their advise.

Here is the model we ended up with. We had to go Slide In, as it's going in an island and we can't have the back panel on it that many of the stand alone models have and don't have large enough kitchen to go Top and Range separate. It was difficult to spend that much on a Range but hope it's worth it in the long run.

The showroom I went to had one similar to that. It just sensed where you put the pot and the pot size. Problem was that it was 5-6x the cost of the best "normal" units. Give it 10 years or so and I bet this becomes the norm in induction.

Agreed. If you watch some of the YT videos on them, they look like magic. I can see them becoming more popular in the coming years. We like the fact that it doesn't really heat up an element and no flame. The myth is they "DON'T GET HOT", but it does get hot to the touch when you remove the Pot/Pan as the heat from the cookware transfers to the induction top. I'm guessing it's not hot enough to burn or cause a fire, but would be quite warm.

 

[Merle]

In 2008 we moved into a house with a nice GE glass electric cooktop. I thought it was great until some of the bedding putty was removed by overzealous cleaning and the glass cracked along the edge where the largest of the elements was located. The crack quickly became a sharp edge that needed smoothing with emory. When I thought about replacement, and at the time had three elder family members who I knew were going to find a way to get hurt at the stove if we weren't careful I really intended to purchase an induction / glass top GE. It would be in-like-Flint as it required the same footprint and power. Replacing the old glass surface (only) was prohibitive at around 800$US+.

However, my Parents and Brother passed and I was able to reconsider my first preference GAS. And, since I had some degree of assurance we still had time before I and my partner got stupid with old age problems I added the pipe and got a GE stove top which fit nearly as easily as the glass tops, but; required a shortening of two drawers below to accommodate pipe, isolation valve, and location of the fitting.

So, interesting result for me, I can go any of three ways here, have the utilities all in and ready to use as required... and it's only the cost of whatever cooking system I want to use next. Oh, and the time to fit and float it.

Toward the original post and question. Induction works exactly as presented. And it does it very efficiently. As long as you have some level of magnetic steel or iron in your cooking ware it will work very nice. Some people try to work around other materials with iron trivets - seems an awful waste - but if you're fully invested in copper/tin; one makes due with what they're willing to Do.

(and, likely, if I'm thinking straight before I can't any more, some day I will put an induction top in because the others, electric/gas, are just statistically some of the worst reasons for household fires / injuries out there.)

 

[oc_in_fw]

so I am stuck with gas for a kitchen stove.

The first thing I am going to do when I have some extra money is get rid of my electric range and get gas. The line is already there- no idea why the previous owner went electric.

 

[brucered]

The first thing I am going to do when I have some extra money is get rid of my electric range and get gas. The line is already there- no idea why the previous owner went electric.

Yeah, that's like our previous owner who carpeted over real oak, hardwood floors.

I hear Gas Oven's aren't the greatest, so you may want to investigate. I'm guessing that is why they came out with Duel Fuel models (Gas top, Electric Oven).