Induction Cooktops - 5 Reasons They Are Better Than Gas

[Mote]

My uncle bought a Jenn-Aire induction cook top in 1978 for his new home. Exorbitant cost back then. It’s still going in 2020 and has never broke down. Seems the technology is very reliable.

[johnmead]

As a over the road truck driver (I only eat in my truck) I have to say, I'm very fortunate that I have the option to run an induction cooktop. Literally takes 2 minutes for water to start boiling. Crazy.

[jonathansage]

Be careful when selecting an induction cooktop. If you cook, you know the most important thing you do on your cooktop is brown food. Induction does this just fine when the bottom of the pan aligns fully with the magnet. The problem is that cheaper induction cooktops have 6 inch magnets. They can handle, at most, a 10 inch slope sided skillet. A 12 inch slope sided pan needs at least an 8 inch magnet area. A 12 inch saute pan (straight sides), needs an 11 inch magnet area. The heat doesn't carry to the edges like it does with gas, it drops off after less than an inch.

If you're serious about cooking at scale using 12 inch pans, get a cooktop that has the largest magnet coverage possible. These are also going to be the most expensive units. Don't trust the little circles they draw on the cooktop, they're often an optimistic interpretation of the size of the magnet.

[ronhall]

I have had an induction stove for 6 years very pleased with performance and still sparking clean too!

[MrQuagmire]

I'm from Norway, Europe and used to be a huge fan of gas. Almost all new kitchens have induction technology built in and after trying induction almost 10 years ago my family never went back to ceramic electric tops. Even some of our Asian restaurants are using high power induction wok burners (for rounded woks) and gas related kitchen fires have dropped tremendously.

[rickbooher]

I have been cook on induction over three years truly like it. The control is so much better. Ihave used gas for over 30 years. Bought an induction burner and have be hook every since. However because some of my pans are not induction ready I have to ude the gas cooktop for that, however I use the induction cokking on everthing I can. I find my pans stay cleaner on the bottoms than with induction no blacking nor tranishing. I can adjust on the fly from 100 degrees F to 500 degrees F in 5 Degree F increments or use 5 preset 100, 160, 275, 325, 400. The temp is within 3 degrees accuracy with my laser temperature gauge. If i ever redo my kicthen it will be a full induction cooktop and on the side two burner gas or electric for those non induction ready pots. But by then I may give up my non induction pots.
Cast iron, stainless steel, and pot with induction ready bottoms all work any pan a magnet can stick to will work, all aluminum, anodized aluminum or glass pan or pots will not work unless they have induction bottoms on the pots or pans. They have a disk you can put on induction burner to heat pots and pans that are induction ready never used one but i don't believe it is that efficient as they are hard to find and the ones you do are less than 8" on a 8qt stock pot only the center would set and I fear it would be stable and could easier to be hazardous especially with children.

Induction is safe for a child to learn to cook as the is no open flame so paper or kitchen cloth towels or pot holders would not catch on fire. However you still have to be careful with the pans or pots as the do get hot enough to burn someone if they are not careful. The burner will be hot after pot an pan is removed but cools quickly. However boil overs clean quickly verse to gas or electric burner cooktops. Clean up us easy allow all the surface to cool down and then wipe the top down each time after you cook with a damp paper towel, sponge, or cloth is all you have to do. If some food or oil spattered on the surface or on the controls use just a paper towel, sponge, or cloth with a little soapy water and then wipe it down with clean fresh water until all the soap is off. Then one more wipe with a damp clean paper towel and one dry paper towel to dry and polish the top. Very easy to maintain.

Heat up time seconds and very little heat radiation into room keeps Kitchen cooler and the cook. Only the heat that radiates is from the pot or pan is all you have. Because of efficiency cheaper to operate thus saving you money as you are only heating the pan or pot which heats the food in it, direct and contained only to cooking vessels.

[flappospammo]

Induction blew me away, amazing for cooking steaks

[krehbein]

Good video. After switching from gas to induction a few years ago there’s no going back for me. Gas seems so antiquated and “analog”. Induction has a scale or numbers, so pressing 3 is always consistant, ditto for 8 or whatever. With induction you can clean the surface while cooking, with a rag. The glass doesn’t get too hot. So much easier to clean vs gas. As Matt point out, induction doesn’t put out as any pollutants, Carbon Monoxide iirc.

[kendaleklund]

Induction cooktop is a great technology, for one reason that they have failed to mention, and that is the ability to set a desired temperature to cook at, which make specialized cooking much easier.

[linwizz]

We have the opposite, a 36" induction cooktop with a 12" gas cooktop next to it. The gas unit is only used when the power is out or if we need to have 7 pots cooking.

[sandralewis]

He didn't mention one of the things I love most about my induction cooker, the timer that shuts it off. I could feed a dozen families Thanksgiving dinner with the food I walked away from and burned before induction cooking. My next stove WILL be induction. And the cleanup is a snap. I can slip a tea towel under the pan and spread it over the cooktop whenever I'm frying or if something might boil over. Estate and yard sales are a good place to buy suitable pans without breaking the bank, too. Anybody who knows their electricity might go out and doesn't keep a little camp stove or bbq is defying common sense.

[uweschroeder]

First of all, induction cooktops have been around for decades. My mother had one installed back in the early 1990ies. Induction basically combines the advantages of electric with the advantages of gas. Mainly it's temperature control - which we all know is half of cooking to begin with.
I love induction - it's better than gas for almost everything. It has the same quick temp control as gas and the no frills cleanup of an electric glass cooktop. Yes, you can't use cheap aluminum pots and no, you can't use high end stainless either. The pot has to be magnetic - so when shopping for pots either look at the induction logo on the bottom or bring a magnet - if the magnet sticks to the pot it will work on induction.
BTW: induction uses a fraction of the energy required for electric, so if you have electric and switch to induction you not only save a few bucks on you utility bill, you also get the temperature control of a gas cooktop.

[phuturephunk]

I've cooked on gas most of my life..It feels natural. That said, I bought this little induction cookpot. that's all it can do and it is, hands down, the very best vessel for cooking soups and liquid based dishes I've ever used. The fact that the unit has a thermocouple and can shut the juice off and balance the food at a specific temperature makes it so it is literally impossible to scorch soups and sauces on the hot plate.

I love gas, I really do, but man oh man is it nice not having to wait the requisite amount of time stainless steel takes to come up to heat. What Matt up there said about thermal efficiency is key. You are pouring almost all the energy being consumed into cooking the food when using induction because you're literally eddy current-ing the metal into giving off heat due to resistance.

[aarone.]

I have been using induction cooking for about 9 years; I LOVE Deffusser plates $25.ish will make it useable with ANY pots pans!

[TheIkaika]

I bought a portable induction burner and it’s awesome, I just bought a second one to sit next to my other one. I haven’t used my gas range in a year.

[anthonyhardy]

We converted to full solar electric using induction for cooking about 3 years ago and have no regrets. No more gas bills, much cleaner indoor air and safer too.

[Lughnerson]

The president of the country's top cooking school, the Culinary Institute of America, predicted induction cooking to be the future, over-taking other methods.

[drvpscott]

Tell us about that wok! I have been cooking on induction for about eight years, and wok cooking is the only thing that I miss. While I do very few things a little differently, I found that I can do everything that I used to save but one; wok cooking. In addition to the benefits listed in the video there are two others I would add. With relation to speed, yes you can raise pan temperature very quickly but you can also reduce pan temperature quickly in the right pan. (Lower mass pan, not cast iron) The other benefit is ultra low temperatures. I can melt and temper chocolate right on the cooktop, something I could never do with even high end gas cooktops.

[robertperring]

I HATE MY INDUCTION COOKING TOP.
I am from the UK and 2 months ago I move to my ideal house in the country and therefore no access to gas (I have cooked all my life with gas). They had installed a brand new induction cooker. I was really looking forward to this. I had heard so many good things about it.
However, it has been a disaster. I have killed off two pans. I tried to boil an egg day one. It took 25 minutes to reach a boil with the eggs in it still haven't worked out what I did wrong. I've burnt milk several times, it seems to get very hot at the bottom, but the heat doesn't seem to rise. I have to stand next to it constantly stirring I have learnt. Incidentally, I had to buy all new saucepans because you can't use my old trusty ones.
I tried to boil water with turmeric in it. I had the lid on. I walked away for a moment as I had looked in and nothing was happening. So I walked away momentarily because I could do that with gas. On this occasion, not 20 seconds since checking it the water exploded everywhere.
My trust in my cooking skill has plummeted. I have to glue myself to the cooker throughout the process. I no longer have the freedom of gas cooking. However, my the biggest bug bare is loss of control. If I use "P" to bring to the boil I reduce it at boiling point, then it goes to A for no reason and starts to hard boil again. One of my pans was destroyed in that fashion when I reduced the pan from a boil to a low heat, and I walked away. I came back and the pan and the meal was ruined.
When I use the timer it will switch off if I turn another pan off. Or if the time runs out it switches everything off. It is out of control and I cannot take my eyes I off it unless it does something I do not want it to do, but has been programmed to automatically do. I have become a slave cook and not a very good one.
I may live in paradise, but I do wish I had my gas cooker back

[nakamakai]

I am an avid home cook, and I purchased a single-element induction cooktop about a year ago (to avoid the need to use the electric stove in a new townhouse. I'd come from gas, most of my life - my mom taught me to cook on gas - - and I cooked once on the electric - enough!!) I love induction, and have since switched out all my pans to work with induction. I'll never go back.