[Closed] Gas or Electric? Cooker content

It depends on your priorities.

Nobody is going to turn off the gas anytime soon, so this will definitely be your cheapest option short term.

With induction hobs, electric is now far better than gas for almost every measure of Catan Ono gave experience. But the extra cost of running the power supply is the cost of getting the better system.

For me induction hob + gas oven is the best combo (if you already has gas in the kitchen), failing that gas for both

Catan Ono gave = Cooking (mangled by spell check)

Yep us westerners have been brainwashed into loving the Gas for the last 60+ years.

we have a 3 year old double range in our kitchen: 7 burners two ovens and a grill all Gas powered, we are basically environmental terrorists.

The only reason we ended up with it was because when we came to look for a new cooker to fit in the existing, massive slot (we really wanted a fan oven), running an appropriate leccy supply to the island in our kitchen would have pretty much doubled the up-front cost and meant pulling up half the floor, we'd just moved in.

When we finally do get round to redoing the kitchen I wouldn't mind putting in induction hobs and leccy oven.

Gas hob, electric oven IMHO.

If you only have a 3-pin socket I'd stick with gas.

Interesting re: comments on induction hobs. I am very much a fan of gas hobs however for the last few years we have been using an Aga (came with the house). Finally time to get a new kitchen though so the Aga is going and we are looking at range style cookers and a few have induction options now. Quite a lot more expensive than their gas equivalents though.

We also do not have a suitable leccy feed either and the kitchen floor is solid with no cavity at all so getting a power feed in may be problematic also.

I'd go gas in that situation for sure.

Ceramic hobs are shit, induction hobs are better, but not as nice to cook on as gas in my opinion. It's a right faff having to get induction pots and pans also.

Ideally I'd go for full electric with induction hob. Running the cable pretty much determines things at this point. There's a solid wall, and an rsj to deal with. Kitchen is an extension to the original house.

Gas it is, had seeen a beko in curry's for under £400.

Induction beats gas by a mile.
Cleaner and more controllable.
I grew to hate the gas hobs on our range - a nightmare to keep clean and wouldn't go low enough for a slow simmer.
Induction was a game changer.

wouldn’t go low enough for a slow simmer.

That's an issue with the hob, not a fundamental problem of gas. Ours goes super low, like a tea light. Great for slow cooked chile. I'd agree induction is better for cleaning, but gas is still better to cook on.

but gas is still better to cook on.

Ok, next time you start something cooking on your gas hob and then set the timer to automatically switch it off you let me know.
(Or when your gas burner switched itself off when you remove the pan but forget to turn the hob off ... Or when you next combine burners to make a single large one for big pans)
😉

Can you still get hobs that run off a 13 amp circuit?  You used to be able to do so - ovens as well.

Sharkbait - tried using a wok on electric?  It does not work 🙂

Ok, next time you start something cooking on your gas hob and then set the timer to automatically switch it off you let me know.

Why on earth would you want to do that? So that you can come back to cold food? On super low I can leave a Chile just gently simmering, and it can stay like that for hours.

Or when you next combine burners to make a single large one for big pans

The wok burner is all the heat I'll ever need too but I suppose I could combine burners if I ever got a 2 foot saucepan to cook a whole turtle.

I've had both and there are pros and cons. Its just that the pros of induction are fairly ancillary, the pros of gas are that its better to cook with.

Unless you are getting a new kitchen gas is the only option.

Yes you can get plug ovens/hobs but they will be very under powered

Smug mode - my induction hob is wifi enabled so I can switch a pan on and off from the comfort of my sofa, a function I have used zero times !

Gas is better for the cooking part of cooking. The rest around it (cleaning, safety, convenience etc) the induction wins. Also it's a cleaner energy source (at point of use) so less chance of nasties in the house. Oh yeah burning gas produces water so you are putting super heated steam* in the air. One of the reasons it works so well but also throws stuff into the air and messes with allergies.

*Might not be super heated

Why on earth would you want to do that?

A number of reasons - pre-cooking a curry, chilli, etc and allowing it to cool before reheating is acknowledged to give better flavour.
Also I find that if I've got plenty cooking on the hob then it helps to set timers for each one do they don't overcook (vegetables for example).

If you have the inclination and the money I'd go for mega cable and induction hob and electric oven(s).

For ease and simplicity gas would be your best choice.

We previously had a 6-burner Smeg 100cm range. Gas hob, one 'full size' oven with fan etc, one 2/3 size oven with rotisserie (rotisserie used 0 times).

Now we have a 6-burner whirlpool induction hob running off of the monster cable connector that used to power the ovens and 2 ANOVA precision ovens that plug into regular sockets. Much better all round. Now I can sear and simmer more easily, there are no naked flames, the induction is so much easier to clean than the gas. The ovens are significantly better than the Smeg which effectively had: cold, warm, hot, and blazing settings and took ages to heat up with limited temperature stability.

Enjoy choosing.

edit. Only ugh with the induction hobs I've used is most have touch panels. Great most of the time, but a spill or wet hands can create control mayhem that ends up with the hob turning itself off. V pesky when you've set a bunch of different things going at different heating levels. But a small penalty compared to the control and cleaning advantages over my previous gas hob.

My induction hob is excellent.

Better than gas overall.

Storm Arwen knocked out our power for 3 nights so I was glad we had a gas hob.

Great most of the time, but a spill or wet hands can create control mayhem that ends up with the hob turning itself off. V pesky when you’ve set a bunch of different things going at different heating levels

Yep, although a spill doesn't switch mine off AFAIA and if you switch the hob off by mistake it retains the individual settings and if you switch it back on again within a few seconds it puts everything back to where it was previously.

The wok burner is all the heat I’ll ever need

It's not the amount of heat it's the spread of the heat. A gas flame does spread underneath a pan if it's high enough but otherwise the heat is focused on the diameter of the burner creating a local hot spot. Induction spreads the heat over a larger area partly because the magnets are bigger/wider/whatever and partly because the heat is generated by the pan itself and not a localised heat source.
Thus induction should give a better spread of heat.

My biggest issue was this sort of scenario - I want to very slowly simmer a pan:
On my [not cheap] gas range I couldn't use the smallest burner as that was too localised so I would have to put the pan on a middle sized burner. But, because a burners output is basically dictated by its diameter, it would produce too much heat for a slow simmer even on it's lowest setting - so then I had to resort to turning the control back towards 'off' until the flame was barely there, but this often resulted in it going out.
Very frustrating.
On the induction I just set the control to be as low as I like and it never goes out!

For making gravy in the roasting tray you just can't beat synchronising two plates to give a low, even heat over the whole turtle tray.

And as for the wok issue - I just don't get that sorry. I've used our steel wok and it's OK, but it's easier/better to use one of my De Buyer pans.
Woks were designed for a single niche job back when the heat source options were much more limited. That job can still be carried out using a normal pan.

Obvs YMMV - but there's not a single chance I'll ever go back to gas.... especially a range with those effing cast pan stands that are a total PITA to keep clean.

If the "wok" has a flat bottom to enable it to be used on electic its not a wok and you can do stuff in a wok you cannot in a saucepan - the whole point of a wok is to use very high heat and toss the food rapidly in it.  You cannot do that unless its a section of a sphere

Gas hob, electric oven here TBH.

You cannot do that unless its a section of a sphere

Why does it have be exactly a sphere?

Surely a small flat section at the bottom makes no real difference?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KitchenCraft-Flavours-Uncoated-Induction-Chinese/dp/B000IKS7WA?th=1

you can do stuff in a wok you cannot in a saucepan

I'm obviously not comparing a wok to a saucepan.

Gas hob, electric oven IMHO

This. I would have said full electric (Induction hob mind - its the only good electric option) until Storm Arwen rolled through. Now I appreciate having the gas hob as a viable alternative to electric so when the power goes you can still heat/cook stuff.

When we redo our kitchen I suspect I will go both ways on the hob with gas and induction but stick with electric oven. Induction is so good to cook with but we're out in the sticks and so a bit exposed to power loss. If I was in a city / urban area it would be 100% leccy for me - thats what I had at the last house and it was the best combo for cooking with.

Thanks Ben. Reminds me to to top up the propane cannisters for the standby camping stove!

I was on full electric with induction at my last house. The new house we are in has a gas burner range, I absolutely hate it. Once you have converted to induction there is no going back.

I have been spammed with adds for a new Siemens induction that has an under counter extractor built in with an air vent slot right up the middle. Why oh why would you take a major selling point (being easy to clean) and put a massive food trap up the middle - madness.

There's no faff in sourcing pans for induction hobs, they just have to magnetic.

Induction is wayyyy better than ceramic.

Can I just check, is the clock set on your oven? Ovens generally need the clock set to work. I only say this as when we bought a house a few years back the previous owner said we could have the cooker but the main oven didn't work... Turns out it only needed the clock set, they'd been using the top oven/grill for years 🙈

It does gobuchal - you cannot then toss stuff in it properly as the tools do not work, as the tool that has good contact on the curved surfaces does not on the flat bits and vice versa

You will end up with stuff getting stuck and burnt or you have to use low heat - and also the sides will not get heated properly

Ovens generally need the clock set to work. I only say this as when we bought a house a few years back the previous owner said we could have the cooker but the main oven didn’t work… Turns out it only needed the clock set,

Ours is like that. It doesn't need to be correct but it does need to be set. I often turn it off at the wall so its not using power but I do need to remember to hold the set button when its been turned back on. It never shows the right time

given the finite nature of gas

This is not at all the case. Immense investment is being made in replacing and improving gas distribution systems and developing better gas appliances that can works off different compositions of gas.

Coal and oil will have to go before gas, and those things are not happening either.

Gas hob for me, electric everything else.

I have been spammed with adds for a new Siemens induction that has an under counter extractor built in with an air vent slot right up the middle. Why oh why would you take a major selling point (being easy to clean) and put a massive food trap up the middle – madness.

Eliminate the need for an overhead extractor?

like I said We have inherited an island with a double range, the overhead extractor is pretty much essential, but I do bump my head on it at least once a month, and it's a manky horrible greasy thing to clean. If a counter level extractor could be integrated into a island I'd be up for that TBH...

TBH I can see a case for a "Dual-fuel" hob setup with Induction for day to day use and also a couple of gas burners for when you absolutely have to fire up a Wok or toast a marshmallow with hydrocarbons... I don't know if anyone actually sells that integrated into a cooker already, or if I'd have to go and buy counter-top hobs to make it for myself, but I like the concept. although it might be easier to just have induction installed and for the handful of times a year you'd actually need gas to just Breakout a camping stove?

I prefer a gas hob by about a million miles.
Had a gas hob in my old house for about 15yrs, moved and have been on Induction for the last three years and still can't get used to it. maybe it's a crap hob but it's like steering a battleship.

@cookeaa take a look at the Bora Classic range which you can mix and match. I've got the Bora Basic as we've put the hob on the island and I didn't want to hit my head on the extractor. This is then channeled down under the floor to the outside wall where we've got a spring loaded vent that opens when the fan is on. Next time I may go for the Bora Classic and either have the tepenyaki grill or a couple of gas burners. You can even get an induction wok one for traditionalists like @tjagain that can't get over a flat bottomed wok.

I've always had a gas hob, but I'd like to try induction, as folk seem to love 'em.