Shopping for induction ranges
With all that's been coming out in recent years about the negative health impacts of burning gas indoors even with good ventilation, I've been looking into replacing the cheap gas range that came with my house which had been less than amazing to use anyway with a nice induction range.
I have no experience with induction ranges however and have no idea what idea what to look for. I grew up with traditional coiled-eye electric ranges where even "bad" models are still functional, but slow to heat up.
What models have those here had good experiences with, and what are the gotchas? I've done some looking around already and it seems like it's not as simple for going for a high-end option… even top of the line Bosch units seem to have a surprising number of "it ate my dog and insulted my grandmother" types of 1-star negative reviews, and it's hard to tell if that's just noise or something that should be paid attention to.
EDIT: Specifically, I'm looking for standard 30" oven combo slide-in unit. Storage drawer is preferred over second oven.
Thanks!
As someone who has been thinking about this forever but hasn't yet pulled the plug, it doesn't seem to really matter too much.
Induction stoves are pretty simple (at least conceptually), so there's not much that can really go wrong with them. The most important thing from a numerical point of view is the widths of the coils and the wattage it's capable of pulling. America's Test Kitchen's recommendation is a crazy expensive Breville/Polyscience model largely based on those two factors. It should also be mentioned that it's really not worth it to spend the extra money on the things it offers for most people.
That being said, it's often the smaller details that ruin them. Some don't have many intensity levels, making temperature control more difficult than it should be. Some have controls that aren't terribly responsive or reliable. Some aren't capable of heating at lower temperatures. Those are the things I'd be looking for.
Also don't worry about one star reviews. There are people who take a defective unit and think it's some kind of personal affront. Others will give one-star reviews for the smallest design choice they didn't like.
Another thing I'd look for is noise. Maybe it doesn't matter much once you hit 60 and can't hear high pitch noises anymore, but there are induction stove tops that produce an awful coil whine on higher power levels. That whine is the main practical difference I've encountered between my cheap-ish stove and a top of the line luxury brand one.
We're about to take delivery on this LG model. The house we're in came with a 15+ year old Viking gas stove that was manufactured during a drastic quality decline for the brand. It's gotten more expensive to procure replacement electronics than replace it, and it constantly smells like gas even if a leak detector says it's safe.
We shopped the induction replacement pretty extensively, after confirming we wouldn't have to replace cookware. If you've used the current range of quick-heating hot water boilers for tea or pour-over coffee, you'll see that induction cooking offers very rapid heating with precise temperature control, to a degree that will surprise and delight anyone who's used standard electric or gas stoves.
I don't know if you're in North America or Europe, but the range of manufacturers is much different. Europe has been using induction cooking longer, and has more local brands, but fewer and more expensive full-size induction range models. There's no local North American induction range manufacturer, models are mostly imported from Asia or Europe and rebranded if sold under U.S. labels like Frigidaire or GE.
As /u/Akir said, the induction heating technology of most consumer-grade ranges is similar, with modest variations in wattage. You may have preferences for number, size, and relative placement of coils in the cooktop, the same as you would with any stove. This depends on the kind of cooking you're likely to use it for - big stock pots, small sauté pans, etc. The model we're getting has a nice flex feature that lets you use large or small pans on the same coils.
You'll want to look at the nature of the controls - we had a preference for physical knobs, since touch controls can be imprecise or hard to operate with wet hands. We also had no interest whatsoever in a "smart" kitchen appliance that depends on a WiFi connection to work - that's harder to avoid than you might think.
With an electric oven, you mainly want even, rapid heating and good insulation (another reason to replace the Viking, since it could heat the whole kitchen and was impossible to use during summer in a house with no central air conditioning). Oven capacity and rack mounting points are also concerns if you cook big, complicated meals. You'll pay a higher price for the grade of insulation that makes 6+ cu. ft. of oven capacity available in a 30" range.
Consumer Reports' reviews suggest that the ovens in induction ranges perform about as well as the ovens in comparable conventional stoves from the same manufacturer. For the most part, current ovens include convection fans which are great for baking. One model differentiator is an air-fryer mode (basically, faster convection fan speed). We haven't used an air fryer - I can't comment on how well a full-sized oven's convection mode replicates the dedicated devices.
As far as 1 star reviews are concerned, it's more important to look at the percentage of 1 or 2 star reviews across brands and models. 5% 1 star reviews out of 100 reviews is pretty typical for induction ranges, similar to most consumer electronics. Beware of models with rates much higher than that. In our search and price range, LG had a slight edge on Samsung, and we've had a prior bad experience with service and repairability of a Samsung dishwasher. Pay attention to reviews of customer service in the event of problems. Also take into account that people who spend more money have higher expectations. Bosch ranges may have comparatively more negative reviews because they're half again as expensive as the Korean brands, comparable to top-of-the-line decorator models from U.S. brands.
Finally, be prepared for ordering delays, high prices, and limited selection in the U.S. There's a big spike in demand right now due to the lid coming off the gas industry's attempts to silence health concerns, awareness of CO2 emissions, and recent tax subsidies.
Oh, also, expect a big electrician expense if you're replacing a gas stove and need to run heavy appliance wiring.
I think I have the LG model that has less of the cool features and was a bit cheaper (when we purchased anyway). I also wanted knobs. I love it though, I'm never going back to gas. People in reviews said it was loud but it's WAY quieter than my old gas range.
I have this type of GE Cafe (except mine has a double-oven).
I love induction cooking.
There are a few downsides, but none of them would make me switch back to a regular electric stove. Also, some of these might be specific to my particular model:
I'll second the GE Cafe recommendation. I have the induction convection double oven, but I presume they are all generally the same (the link bytesmythe used is great given the original request). My wife is passionate about cooking and we don't have gas at our house and a professional chef friend turned us on to induction stove tops. After having a couple years could never go back.
Regarding the pans, we had to buy new pans as our original set wasn't magnetic. You do have to make sure the oven senses them or the burner light will just blink at you. Actually good if you are the type to accidently turn on the wrong burner like me
The model we have: https://www.cafeappliances.com/appliance/Cafe-30-Smart-Slide-In-Front-Control-Induction-and-Convection-Double-Oven-Range-CHS950P2MS1
A Cafe was among the more interesting models I've seen.
One thing that was concerning however was that some functionality requires WiFi… do you (or bytesmythe) know which functions these are?
We’ve had our GE cafe induction range for 6 months and I’ve used the wifi once- to start the oven when we were at a party down street. I think you do need WiFi to do precision cooking- where you put a meat thermometer in whatever you’re cooking and it’ll cook exactly to the temp you specify. We’ve never used it, personally. Maybe one of the other commenters has and could tell you more.
We had the GE Cafe Induction double oven (they are sold at Costco) installed for a couple of months now. I have the Wi-Fi enabled, but I don’t use it much on a day to day basis. It does send a notification to my phone and watch that the oven preheat is complete, but the range also beeps to let you know. One reason to hook up Wi-Fi initially is that they’ve updated the firmware to enable the air-fry feature in the lower oven.
Things we like about induction in general
Like about the cafe specifically
Dislikes about the GE Cafe specifically
Dislikes about induction in general
have to or careful with cast iron pans, we don’t want to scratch the surface. To help with this we bought several 8” and a 10” SilPat silicone baking sheets to place between the cooktop and the pan. It the silicone can melt at a high enough temperature so gotta be careful about that as well.
doesn’t work with aluminum pans. Unusually nonstick pans are aluminum. We use our cast irons for non stick cooking
doesn’t work well with wok pans. Wok pans use the rising heat from the gas burner to heat the bowl sides of the pan.
have to be careful about the amount of power you put into your pans. It can warp pans.
Overall very happy with the Cafe and induction in general. We’ll never go back to a gas range.
One other device that made cooking much more enjoyable was a dedicated hood. We replaced the microwave/hood (claimed 300cfm) that was above our range with a vent-a-hood (rated at 600cfm). That did require new 8” ducting to the outside, but that wasn’t too difficult for our contractor.
I’ll reply again if I can think of anything else.
We have hooked up many of our appliances to wifi, but never done it with the stove and haven't had any issues. One criticism I would make is the timer sound is really quiet (shockingly quiet). We've gotten to the point we really don't use the timer and instead use the microwave timer. Funny enough the wifi on our washer and dryer is what we use to alert us, perhaps the stove wifi would help with that.
Just be sure to get something with actual knobs. Touch interfaces look sleek, but are so annoying to use when you have a lot going on, and doubly so with wet/greasy fingers!
The impression I get is that if you want your hobs separate from your oven, you're going to struggle to find one with knobs, but if you have them together in one unit, they tend to have all the necessary knobs.
I searched for ages and couldn't find just a stovetop that had physical buttons and didn't cost more than the rest of my kitchen x.x Eventually found one where the controls had okay reviews (still a touch panel) and went for that. I'm overall satisfied, but it always bugs me when I have to wipe a splash away from the controls or make sure my hands are dry before trying to change anything
Are you looking for a combo unit with an oven as well?
Or just a 4 burner to install on a countertop?
Or would a single standalone unit work?
I have a Vollrath Mirage Pro that I love for both the low temp control and the physical dial. It is a bit expensive though. I just set it on top of my old stove that I only use for the oven.
I should have specified, good catch. Will edit post.
I'm looking for standard 30" oven combo slide-in unit. Storage drawer is preferred over second oven.
I honestly kind of don't get two-oven houses. Unless you're preparing fancy meals for large groups on a regular basis they are kind of overkill. In my smaller household we practically never use the oven; things that need to be baked usually just go in the toaster oven instead. It heats faster and is at the perfect height since it's right on the counter. It's also has a much more accurate temperature, but to be fair, that's because the temperature dial has drifted and we simply haven't bothered to fix it.
On the other hand, if you do get a second oven it makes an excellent storage unit.
I think OP was referring to those ranges with two ovens in one unit, which I think are actually a pretty good idea. You usually don't need the full height of the oven (and even if you're making a big turkey or something, it can probably fit in a half-height oven), so cutting it in half and giving you two ovens is a decent idea. Would get you most of the benefits of a toaster oven, but without needing a separate appliance, and giving you an opportunity to actually bake two things at once in the rare occasion you need to.
I'd agree that an entire second oven doesn't make much sense unless you specifically need one, but the combo units are neat.
Ah, I hadn't even thought about the half-height ones.
Is it sad that the first thing I thought about was losing the ability to cook a turkey when I have literally never cooked a turkey in my house before?
The biggest advantage is that you can cook at two different temperatures simultaneously, like a pizza in one oven and cookies in the other. But you're sacrificing oven space to have a layer of insulation between the two compartments.
I've noticed that in appliance store there seems to be a parlance that doesn't quite translate to how people talk in real life; a "stove" is a set of burners inset into a counter, while a "range" is an oven with burners built into the top. So I would assume that he's looking for the latter.
ahh missed that nuance there
Most of the domestic cheaper induction hobs use pulse width modulation to control the heat. This means you may get a short blast of very hot followed by a gap of nothing. Your pan evens this out a bit. The gap of nothing decreases as you turn the power up. Some of the more expensive hobs have better quality controls, but it's not a huge deal for most home chefs.
Some of the more powerful hobs may require different wiring (In the UK, some of them come with a 16 amp commando plug which is not found in most domestic kitchens).
Most of them have some kind of thermal shut off. Some people struggle to get a cast iron pan ripping hot before the thermal shuts it down.
Appliance tech here, I don't see a ton of induction stuff, but most of my customers seem happy with the performance of their induction equipment. I don't see much evidence that there is a real difference in reliability between brands and I don't think outright power matters for most people most of the time, any induction range should perform as well or better than a standard gas or electric range. I think when my current electric range dies I'll be buying whatever the cheapest induction range at the time is.
I don't have any specific experience with a combi range, but we put an induction hob into our house replacing an old ceramic unit from the 90s. The difference is night and day.
The induction hob has a 'nuclear' mode that, when used, boils water so fast, you don't have time to do anything else other than get your drink ready. We don't have an electric kettle because the water boils faster on the hob.
We have turned down the wattage because the wiring in the kitching still needs to be upgraded - but induction is amazing when you get used to it. And, there is a learning curve. Nothing drastic but you have to adjust.
Most has been answered but in terms of "gotchas" that you were looking for is that I'd like to reiterate that you need to check your wiring.
There's induction cooktops that work on general 240v (if you're American, check for 110) but most good ones will require three phase electric power. You need the setup for that to work. Double check you have the infrastructure for that setup.
Thanks for pointing this out.
I live in the US. With a quick glance through the higher end models on more mainstream brands available here (Bosch, LG, Samsung, etc), they all seem to use 240v rather than 3-phase. This makes sense because traditional electric ranges here have used 240v for many decades, which means that most kitchens were either built a 240v plug intended for use with a range or had one wired in later. 3-phase is practically unheard of for residential usage.
I haven't yet pulled out the gas range to check, but I took a look at my breaker box and there's a 240v breaker marked "range" so I should be ok here.
I haven't looked at the more boutique brands though, they might differ because anybody buying those probably isn't bothered by the cost of wiring in 3-phase.
i bought a Bosch Benchmark ($4K) induction top and convection oven a little over a year ago? compared with the kitchenaid and every other range we've had, we love it, it's magical in every way.
How have the touch panel controls been? My concern is something boiling over and spilling onto the controls, making it impossible to turn the corresponding burner off. The pot could always just be lifted off since it's induction, but that could also be messy/dangerous…
Have also read that on the Benchmark specifically (vs. the 800 series) the burner arrangement is awkward. How has your experience with that been?
hasnt been a problem, and being an induction it's less likely to boil over. the only 'issue' is when you put a pan on the stove top control buttons it swquaks at you until you remove it, but only a minor annoyance