Standalone Induction hob versus electric hob

canthinkname

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We currently have an standalone electric hob for cooking on and are thinking of moving over to an induction hob. Has anyone done this - what are the pros and cons of doing so? Any brands people would recommend/not recommend? We know we would have go get all new saucepans/pans etc as they are not suitable for an induction hob if we do move. Any other information anyone can give us. Anyone know of any good deals at the moment on induction hobs?

Thanks
 
We currently have an standalone electric hob for cooking on and are thinking of moving over to an induction hob. Has anyone done this - what are the pros and cons of doing so? Any brands people would recommend/not recommend? We know we would have go get all new saucepans/pans etc as they are not suitable for an induction hob if we do move. Any other information anyone can give us. Anyone know of any good deals at the moment on induction hobs?

Thanks

Hi,

We have a Neff one which we find great.

I suppose having to dump non-induction pots is the negative, plus it was expensive enough.

The positives seem to be the speed and the clean lines.
 
Pros - speed, clean looking, electricity usage is negligible (compared to electric hob), as good as gas (other half is a chef!). Look around & you can find decent pots/pans for good prices. We have an AEG.
 
We have a Neff one as well. As Myate said, great clean lines, it's just a slab of glass with markings for the rings and buttons.
And it is very fast, with the ability of directing the power of two rings to one to double the power.
the rings themselves don't get hot, so it's very safe if you have kids as well.
 
as good as gas (other half is a chef!).
Chefs always preferred gas over electric hobs because they were more responsive and easier to regulate. A lot of pro kitchens have been switching to induction though as you get the same benefits plus significantly higher efficiency (less wasted heat into the surrounding air) making for a more pleasant working environment.
 
electricity usage is negligible (compared to electric hob)
Eh, not really.........2KW is 2KW, however having said that, with induction, upto ≈ 85% of that power is used for cooking, compared with upto ≈75%
with 'standard' hot plates.

So definitely more efficient and quicker to heat.
 
So going on actual bills, your usage will be lower compared to the electric hob.
They are both electric hobs and yes your actual usage should be less using induction to heat/cook.
But whether you notice this or not will depend, not least on how much cooking you do.
 
Last edited:
They are both electric hobs and yes your actual usage should be less using induction to heat/cook.
But whether you notice this or not will depend, not least on how much cooking you do.
We try and cook every day from scratch so should notice a saving!
 
Induction is better than non induction of course, we had it in our last place.

Cons were that I actually found it hard to regulate and even on regular pots and dishes I could never intuit the right heat (I hate cooking though).

One pot boiling over would also spill across the glass and under other pots. And damp on plate and the controls became unresponsive. It never happened to us, but the plate can crack easily and then you have big expense.


I think nothing compares to gas if that's an option for you. More cleaning of course.
 
We used to have gas and loved it. I was not so sure about induction when we moved across to it. However I would thoroughly recommend induction now. There are lots of reasons why:

It is fast, it has clean lines, very efficient as others have said.
The rings don't get hot so it is useful from the safety perspective if you have small children.
Most induction hobs have a timer per ring which is a very handy feature as you can set something to cook for a certain time and be confident that it will then switch off.
The other thing I like is that unlike gas hobs which have raised cast iron supports, the induction is completely flat which makes cleaning it easy. Also if you were short of space in the kitchen, you could lay for example a large chopping board across induction to give yourself more prep room.

Normal induction hobs range from 60-90 cm, which would accomodate 4 round rings. Two of them are generally very powerful and the other two slightly less. There are inductions with larger dual zone rectangular 'rings' etc but most people cook with standard sized saucepans and frying pans so I don't see this as much of a plus.

On the downside:
you may have to buy a few new saucepans.
If saucepans overflow with water on the induction it can become unresponsive as mentioned earlier, and you have to mop everything up before service will return.
It is a glass surface so you need to be careful - whacking something down abruptly could break it theoretically, and if you use heavyweight cast- iron casseroles you need to lift them from ring to ring, you shouldn't slide then across the surface as they can scratch it.

You will find induction in most manufacturers now and at reasonable prices, it doesn't have to be just Neff. d A standard 4 ring is enough for most.
Regarding buying new saucepans, before you do, check your own saucepans first by attaching a small magnet to the underside. If it sticks then that saucepan is suitable for use on an induction hob.

HtH
 
We recently changed from electric hob to induction (Siemens) who were offering a free set of induction pots with the hob. We only had to get rid of a couple of current pots that weren't suitable for induction so no added costs in that sense. Takes a while to adjust as induction are a lot more efficient and there is a slight buzzing sound when it's on full power but that's not an issue for me.
 
I think IKEA are pushing these recently, and the extractor fans built into the hob (pulling steam down) was something new to me today too!
 
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