Induction hob - are all pans created equal?

We have one pan that will only work on one ring ,so there must be some funky stuff going on.

some are definitely better than others - i.e. ones marked as suitable are sometimes rubbish in reality, like your one.

but Ikea are nicely priced and work perfectly.

Ours are from John Lewis and heat very quickly. If your pans are old they may be slightly warped so the mag effect won't work to heat them properly. 

We have a lovely Le Creuset griddle pan that doesn't quite get hot enough but all the others that work are fine.
We have a load of superb pans in the garage which don't work at all and were our favourites on gas.

Pans need to be magnetic, stainless steel isn’t always. All mine heat up way quicker than gas.

Not all induction hobs are equal

We had a crap one before this AEG one we have now.

Iron pots and pans are the way forward.

Stainless steel varies in magnetic susceptibility by grade - so more expensive are less suitable.

Interesting. Well not exactly but thanks for the feedback anyway. 😁
We've got one Le Creuset style pot, I'll have try with that and see how effective it is. The hob is a Zanussi one, I'd have thought a reasonable make. I shall try a magnet on the stainless ones, the steamer definitely wouldn't have been expensive, (I bought it!) maybe the thick base is aluminium under a veneer of steel.

All mine heat up way quicker than gas.

This is what the kitchen fitter suggested, hence my question. He said don't be going to lay the table or use the bog while waiting for stuff to heat, but that's not my initial impression.

My Neff hob doesn't like my smallest sized pan, but eventually found if I sat it  on the edge of one of the cooking zones it actually works a lot better (I guess because then one of the two magnets that makes up the zone is then directly under it, rather than the pan poorly straddling both magnets).

When I dug into the manual for my hob I found it has a mode that tests the suitability of cookware for you. If yours has similar it might at least tell you if the hob thinks your pans are suitable.

We have Samuel Groves Triply pans and they work very well on induction. They heat up way faster than gas.

When we moved from Gas to induction about 6 months ago I had to get new pans. The copper bottom one's didn't work, unsurprisingly.

We got a job lot from cookshop. They are stainless but have an iron layer sanwiched in the middle. Or something like that. It's now quicker to boil water on the hob using max-power than it is waiting for the kettle.

This is what the kitchen fitter suggested, hence my question. He said don’t be going to lay the table or use the bog while waiting for stuff to heat, but that’s not my initial impression.

I'd test it with your le creuset as you suggest. It should be very fast.

Our induction hob could be adjusted for different power supplies. Worth checking the manual ? Thicker based pans are definitely quicker.

Indeed big differences. The bright shiny stainless grade itself is not ferromagnetic, so such pans will have a baseplate bonded on of the lower grade magnetic stainless, ideally with a aluminium heat spreader sandwiched in.
I see biggest variation between frying pans. Aluminium body with a forged on stainless plate with hundreds of ~4mm holes do not absorb as much energy as my favourite saute pan which is stainless body and flat, continuous base plate of magnetic stainless. Great for really fast stirfrys. In fact it's a bit scary using boost on that pan!
Our regular induction pans are just a cheap set from Asda, and work very well. 3.7kw boost boils a pan of water really quickly.

We have Procook Gourmet pans and they work like a dream on the induction hob. Have to say, I won't have anything other than induction now. It just works.

Circulon pans on AEG give the kettle a run for its money.

You have found the boost mode on the hob? On AEG it's a P instead of a power level, you literally need to stand guard for 30 seconds until the water erupts or the pan starts smoking, great to quickly get porridge simmering so you can quickly lower the power level to a simmer.

Have you got a model number for the job? When we were Hob shopping I noticed some were a good bit cheaper. Turns out they had an overall lower power rating. I think they were 13A supply not 30A. I think 30A is about 7.5 Kw

Our pans are a bit variable. But the la Crueses are good. One cheap frying pan is less good. But I’d say as a bench mark you’re looking for water to heat faster than in the kettle

I’ve got a variety of procook stuff and it’s all great on induction.

I’d say Procook are a good option - we originally had another (more expensive) brand that heated well but all the non stick failed quite quickly which was disappointing. Think they were Circulon branded from memory - they were really heavy.

When looking at pans try to make sure they are solid metal and not aluminium with a steel plate on the bottom - these will work but eventually the bottom can delaminate / fail.

I find our induction hob amazing - far better than gas. You can heat water / whatever up to temperature far quicker - but on the flip side you can simmer stayed at a low temperature without burning anything to the bottom of the pan.

It's got a boost mode but I don't know the model number/power and as there's a bloke screeding the floor right now, so I can't go and look. I'd guess a basic one as it all just came as a package from the supplier. 

Steamer definitely not magnetic.  The base of the other pans are, but not the bodies. 

Our Judge pans heat up very quickly, I'd say faster than the kettle. 

Just don’t look at your smart meter whilst doing it!

Just don’t look at your smart meter whilst doing it

No worse than looking at it while using a kettle tbh.

Oh a little tip if you worry about energy use, Bosch, thus likely neff and others, can be configured to display the energy (in kWh) used during a cooking session when you turn the hob off. Have a look in your manual.
Typically meal of say pan of potatoes and a steamer pan for veg, I find will be about 0.5-0.6kwh used.

Oh and second the point of aluminium body pans with forged on perforated stainless bases, yeah the dishwasher eats away the Ali "pips" and the bases fall off after a year or two.

Have procook got any big saute pans with good non stick anyone can recommend?

Just don’t look at your smart meter whilst doing it!

heating the water faster uses less energy

heating the water faster uses less energy

Is that def a thing? I have been wondering about this.
(Thought that maybe a higher heat setting might be less efficient)

Edit: I suppose that's probably why kettle's only have one power setting.

I also wonder about, when doing veg, whether it's better to boil a kettle then add that water to the pan or just put cold water in the pan and go from there?

I suspect its the latter but 🤷🏻‍♂️

heating the water faster uses less energy

bizarrely my oven has a “power boost” function that heats it up to target temperature more quickly. It’s off by default and the manual says it uses more energy. Whereas surely it would be more efficient 

When we got an induction I researched aka googled the efficiency of them for boiling water Vs a kettle.

Summary was that the induction hob was more efficient than a kettle. I suppose a higher heat it more efficient as you're putting a set amount of energy into it over a shorter timez so there's less duration for it to cool.

I love our induction hob (AEG). Had it about 10 months now. Has gas (and temporarily electric ceramic) before that. So much easier to control the power. Quick to heat up but when stuff does inevitably boil over it just wipes straight off and doesn't burn on to the hob because it's not acutally generating heat itself.
In terms of pans, we have some basic stainless steel pans (Russell Hobbs) for everyday boiling of stuff that work fine and boil water quicker than the kettle on boost mode. I then use the Neverstick frying pans for frying and a Tower Sautee pan. Nothing too fancy, they're alu pans with the steel plate on the bottom. Annoyingly the steel plate doesn't go right to the edges by a good 10mm+ so the pan isn't as hot at the sides but still good enough for now. I'll probably replace then with some cast iron ones if I'm feeling flush at some point while wandering the aisles of TK Maxx.

4 years into using an induction hob and absolutely wouldn't use anything else if I had the choice.

Re pans: We got some stainless saucepans that came with the hob and they've been fine.  I've totally given up on non-stick and use either cast iron or De Buyer carbon steel for frying only or rather expensive (but bought used) stainless steel with 3 or 5 layers of aluminium inside if there's a sauce involved.  I can tell the difference between the 3 and 5 aluminium layer pans with the latter being the best (better heat distribution).

I did buy a small aluminium (with steel layer inside) frying pan from Ikea and that's pretty slow and inefficient in comparison to all the others so I hardly use it.

I’d test it with your le creuset as you suggest. It should be very fast

Not the ideal test pan as rapid heating can damage the enamel (assuming cast iron).

Our (Bosch) hob has been great. Was firmly gas only before getting it (not an option in this house). Now I'd never get a gas hob again. The only slower than I'd like cooking is with a wok but then so little of the pan is in contact that is not surprising. A semi flat wok and 'P' mode sorted that.

yeah the dishwasher eats away the Ali “pips” and the bases fall off after a year or two.

Aluminium and dishwashers is a bad idea all round.

OP, if you cook anything that requires/makes the pan move a lot (like a bechamel sauce) put a t towel between the pan and hob. The pan will still work but does not slide as much (and therefore does not wear the hob markings away).

Well my fav saute pan is looking well knackered now. Managed to turn the simmering bolognase from 4 to 9 instead of the boiling water for spagetti from boost to 9...all looking a bit burnt on now! Non-stick was pretty well shot anyway.

So, thought I'd check if ProCook still had black friday deals, and yes, their 28cm "granite" saute pan currently £39, usually £59 online, RRP £99.  So will post my opinion later in the week when it arrives.

heating the water faster uses less energy

Each gram of water takes 4.18 joules of energy to heat it by 1 degree. It doesnt matter whether that energy is in a millisecond, or 30 seconds, thats the energy required to raise the temperature. What will happen with a longer heat time is that the heat is lost to the surroundings. Induction hobs are good for this as they concentrate the power into the middle of the pan, rather than heating the pan up first. There will be losses into the pan and surrounding areas, as the water heating up transfers its energy into the pan, rather than on gas, where the pan transfers its energy into the contents. Overall, the energy use for an induction hob is less, as less energy is lost to the environment, ok, its not a large amount, as, as it is cooked quicker, there will be less lost to the atmosphere through convection from the pan, and from the heat source directly into the air. If the pan is left to simmer for a while, then the energy use difference will be far less, as you will have the same losses as on a conventional electric hob. Gas are worse as a lot of the heat goes into the air, rather than directly into the pan. But we dont notice that as gas is a third of the cost of electric, so we can afford to lose it, with the benefit of it heating up our kitchen.

Induction hobs are good for this as they concentrate the power into the middle of the pan, rather than heating the pan up first.

Sorry but I think you'll find that's just wrong.  With an induction hob the heat is generated by the pan itself.
The area of the pan that heats up varies depending on the pan construction, but it's not "concentrated in the middle" - but it's a larger area than with a gas hob.
My feeling is that faster heating is probably cheaper simply because the losses to the environment are reduced.

with the benefit of it heating up our kitchen.

Your gas hob may add heat to your kitchen but it also increases the levels of nitrogen dioxide as a byproduct of the gas burning.

This can lead to higher levels of asthma. 😬