Induction hob v gas hob

[BloodAndBandages]

Doing a kitchen refit and we were planning to fit a gas hob. We are temporarily without any fitted hob as I throw out the old knackered cooker and installed a built-in (eye-level) oven.

In the meantime, I got single-ring plug-in induction hob from Lidl and I'm so impressed with it that I am now thinking of getting an induction hob!

I see there are some that can just be plugged into a 13amp socket, but I'm not convinced these would be great, so I think we'd need a dedicated supply from the consumer unit. However, we would need a gas pipe installed for a gas hob, so I'm guessing the amount of work for either option would cost a similar amount.

Other advantages of an induction hob are that they are safer (we have a young child who likes to fiddle with gadgets and I fear he might turn the gas on! Lit or unlit!) and easier to clean - Mrs BloodAndBandages views this as an important aspect!

Most of our pots and pans seem to be induction ready, so that's not a problem.

One disadvantage is that they can be quite expensive - I am wondering if the cheaper ones are totally rubbish or are there good value ones out there?

I welcome your thoughts and recommendations!

 

[Stuart Frost]

We had a gas hob for years but as we had a new kitchen fitted last March we moved to induction and we absolutely love it. Because it sits close to the level of the base unit and has no physical controls it is so easy to clean and maintain.

We had an electrician fit a new cable so we could go for the more powerful ones. It boils a pan of water faster than the kettle!

 

[BloodAndBandages]

We had a gas hob for years but as we had a new kitchen fitted last March we moved to induction and we absolutely love it. Because it sits close to the level of the base unit and has no physical controls it is so easy to clean and maintain.

We had an electrician fit a new cable so we could go for the more powerful ones. It boils a pan of water faster than the kettle!

Nice! What model is it please?

I'm thinking a dedicated power supply is the way to go, whilst the kitchen is being refitted... Covid permitting!

 

[Stuart Frost]

Not sure of the exact model number buts it a Bosch series 5. They do 3 variants starting with one that can be plugged into a 13 amp socket up to one that needs a dedicated cable.

 

[BloodAndBandages]

I saw a Bosch one on John Lewis's site for £318 - a plug in one, but it gets very good reviews. I would still like to get a wired-in one to make sure it's not short of power, even if it's rare to have more than one ring on full whack.

 

[Burnerman]

Induction has to be the way to go.....’er indoors chose a 5 pan hob by Bosch. I don’t know what we paid for it but it’s incredible to use - and clean!
John

 

[Old Salt]

We have Bosch, hard wired will give more power when all “rings” in use. Easy to keep clean and has a child lock.

 

[ericmark]

Yes also an induction hob user, did an experiment with daughter when I saw her fill a pan from kettle before putting to boil on gas hob, the hob rated 5.5 kW kettle rated 2.8 kW and could have boiled two kettles in time it took to boil water on gas hob, so returned home and tried, and they were equal 2.8 kW kettle to 3 kW hob.

However although it has a boost so can use 3 kW, in real terms you can only use it to boil water, with food it would just burn it, far too fast. The Lidi unit if like mine which daughter in law has borrowed is 2 kW and default on switching on is 1 kW, and I used it in mothers house and rarely turned it higher than 1 kW, and I have not used the boost on our cooker after the first experiments, so it seems two rings at 3 kW i.e. 1.5 kW each (max on 13A plug) is enough, but four rings stretching it a bit. However when do you use all four rings?

Advantages I find is safety, and keeps room cooler in summer, and keeps room dryer, with gas you really need a hood to extract the heat and moisture to outside, with electric a carbon filter will do. Disadvantage is a wok that will work on induction is too heavy.

I look at the safety features, auto turn off when pan removed, or over temperature, or timed out. Child locks, although my grand children think it's good fun to set child lock as my wife can't work out how to remove without book. No naked flame, so no source of ignition. Flat surface so unlikely to knock pan over.

However although nothing really to do with being induction, I found silly touch controls a real pain, you need to view them from above, so children and wheel chair users can't see controls, and they are slow to operate so although should be no need to lift pan to stop boiling over, you have to as it takes so long to turn down heat. We are lucky ours has knobs.

 

[gasbanni]

Yes induction hobs are great until they fail ........you'll have fun then.

 

[BloodAndBandages]

Yes induction hobs are great until they fail ........you'll have fun then.

I've ordered one from AO.com for £200 and it's got a 2 year warranty... if it fails a few years down the line then it can just be swapped out. Assuming I can get hold of the electrician to install power for it! He's being elusive...

 

[gasbanni]

I've ordered one from AO.com for £200 and it's got a 2 year warranty... if it fails a few years down the line then it can just be swapped out. Assuming I can get hold of the electrician to install power for it! He's being elusive...

Let me clarify myself ....... from a purely environmental standpoint. A gas hob will last year's and is easily recycled.
Taking all things in to account including the longevity of the use of the applince nd it's ease of recycling, including it carbon footprint in use and maintenance issue gs is better. I repair induction appliances and so see the problems they can have.

Out of warranty if it goes wrong you insureres will deem it to be BER and offer you a settlement towards a new hob.

My opinion is based on the fact that I deal with them when they go wrong.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Other advantages of an induction hob are that they are safer (we have a young child who likes to fiddle with gadgets and I fear he might turn the gas on! Lit or unlit!) and easier to clean - Mrs BloodAndBandages views this as an important aspect!

Modern gas appliance cannot be turned on unlit, they are fitted with a thermocouple to detect heat from the flame. If there is not heat, because it has failed to light, or the flame has been blown out, the gas is shut off.

 

[SpecialK]

You need a 7kW plus one so you can boil two pans at the same time ideally. When I redo my kitchen I will fit a 900mm wide one as sometimes its difficult to have 4 pans on the go if frying pans are used as they all clash.

You can also ditch the kettle and have a whistling one for the induction hob!

Only downside is the cost of electric at the moment...

 

[ericmark]

There is a huge diffrence between using a gas cooker when you already have gas for central heating, to fitting a gas cooked when you need to use gas bottles to supply the gas for cooker only.

 

[flameport]

Enjoyable to cook with

Hardly.
Vast amounts of wasted heat thrown into the room due to them being grossly inefficient, which also makes the cooking time far longer than necessary, and all the time it's on you can 'enjoy' the poor air quality caused by the CO2 from combustion.

Induction is far better in every way.
The old ways of gas are certainly not the best or even close.