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We moved into what should be our long term family home on Monday. The cooker (all in one) has an IR hob which I know I will get annoyed with quite soon (read: I hate it already). Looking at a straight swap there are induction topped cookers in the £500 region. A similar spec gas topped version is £350 ish. The boiler is the other side of the wall to the cooker so it's possible we could hack through and get the gas version going.
However, we are planning an extension in the next couple of years so we just want a stop gap. With the slow down of fitting gas appliances in homes would we be better off with an induction unit which we could sell on later or more mess/hassle to get a gas cooker put in? We will likely go for separate items in the new kitchen so this stuff is only for 2 maybe 3 years.
WWSTWD
Induction is great, no issues there.
Normally I’d say go for Bosch but if you really only want it for 3 years I’d be inclined to find the cheapest one you can from a prober Brand.
Yep, I've found that induction is simply better.
Just check that you've got enough supply to run the oven and induction hob simultaneously.
We got the cheapest induction at the time due to budget on new kitchen, think it's a cookworks, 4 years later still going strong and its awesome, it's just switched off the veg as I type this as on timer, so easy to clean.
Thanks all. Pretty much what I expected... I think. Seems like even cheap induction stuff is ok. I have very limited experience with it and always thought gas was best.
@sharkbait is it still an issue if wired into a proper cooker feed?
The only downside of induction is you might have to buy a new set of pans as well.
Can you get induction hobs with proper switches/knobs? I like the idea of induction in principle but I hate touch controls
As you've mentioned that it is a stop gap.....
As much as it would also annoy me to stick with something you didn't like, it is only 2 years. I vote save your money and stick with it. If you get the induction hob there may be extra electrical works, new pans and then the loss in the resale. You might be glad of that cash for the new kitchen.
Just a thought.
The pan thing is not an issue. Every pan we have is compatible.
The saving cash thing is an interesting one and is the main thing stopping me going ahead.
The other option is to buy the hob and oven that we would do for the new kitchen and build them into the space of the cooker. Would that even fit? From changing another part of the kitchen we will have a small piece of worktop that could be cut to fit the hob then we would just need a carcass to fit the oven.
The pan thing is not an issue. Every pan we have is compatible.
The pan thing IS an issue. We had to replace about half our pans. You can quickly check with a magnet: if the magnet sticks to the base the pan will work.
But we just swapped from gas to induction and it’s a big step up - faster to heat, more controllable and infinitely easier to clean.
Yeah I guess you are right about the pans being needed. What I meant is that all our pans are induction compatible so we wouldn't need to replace them. Well maybe I need to check my cast iron pancake pan. That's actually quite a big one for me.
As you’ve mentioned that it is a stop gap…..
As much as it would also annoy me to stick with something you didn’t like, it is only 2 years. I vote save your money and stick with it.
... was my thought also. You've just got a new kitchen and you want to upgrade it before imminently getting a newer kitchen? That's madness.
Happy new house.
If I were buying today I’d definitely get an induction hob. I have a 6-ring gas range now. When the opportunity comes I’ll be replacing it with one that has an induction hob after seeing a friend’s and how easy to control and clean it is.
Can you get the cooker you want now, squeeze it into the current kitchen, and carry it over into the new one? If not then I’d be inclined to keep the current one, save my cash/spend it on all those newly-moved-in things, and buy the right thing in a couple of years.
The Ikea Matmassig gets a good review in Which? (and is one of the cheaper ones available)
Daft question.... If I get an induction hob, what do I do with my wok?
Q for those with induction hobs. How hard wearing and robust do you find them? If I slide a hot pan over the top or rattle it down rather than carefully placing it, will I crack/smash the hob?
Depends.
You can scratch them and I'm sure you can smash them if you really try but sliding/putting the pan on the surface normally is fine.
One of the clever things about induction is that, because the heat is generated in the pan and not in the hob), you can actually put a piece of kitchen roll between the pan and hob surface and it doesn't catch fire 🙂
TBH I think that once you get an induction hob you tend to be more careful anyway.
Daft question…. If I get an induction hob, what do I do with my wok?
Steel wok? Use it as before... ours still works OK. You can get woks with wider bases if it matters.
If I get an induction hob, what do I do with my wok?
Proper spherical wok like my mum had: might not work.
We've got an induction compatible wok, which has a small flat base to get the heat going. Slight problem that the heat is too concentrated on the base and doesn't spread up the sides quickly as a proper wok over gas. As it is wearing out, it might get replaced with one with a bigger flat bottom, so slightly less wok-shaped byt still good for stir frying.
One of the two areas I miss the gas - the other is that the gas control is analogue. Often I want to fry something in between the 6 and a 7 and can't get it just right on my digital controlled induction. Analogue control (ok, rotary dial input digital controlled) induction hobs do exist but at a massive premium to the one we bought at the time.
Well maybe I need to check my cast iron pancake pan.
Cast iron is magnetic so will work very well with induction.
Proper spherical wok like my mum had: might not work.
Yep, that's the chap. I didn't think so as the contact area will be very small.
I had pretty much decided to replace my cracked infrared hob with gas. Until after Christmas when I found a thread here with all the gas users saying they switched to induction and will never go back.
Bought an AEG induction hob (about £450, the one with four equal power hobs to avoid juggling pans between the large and small hobs)
Pulled the old one out and fitted the new one in about 15 minutes, and then stood there in surprise as it boiled a pan of water quicker than the kettle! Within an evening I was sold on the near instant power adjustment (the old hob took about 5 minutes to reduce heat) and being able to wipe off anything that boils over.
Scrubbing burnt food from my old hob, and moving pans on the glass that already has food burnt to it probably accounted for most of the scratches.
Mine is 5 yrs old now, just a few thoughts. Next time I’d probably go for zones that have independent controls rather than a single control that you switch between zones. Also mine seems to be a bit fussy about what pan sizes go where, so I’d probably scrutinize that a bit more. The big rectangle flexi zones area is def more practical than the circles IMO (mine is 50/50), so I'd probably go with all flexi zones next time for any size pan and even little moccha pots (induction specific).
I've got heavy rough based pans and yes I am worried about dropping them on the surface, but after 5 yrs it all still looks like new. no scratches or wear.
All comments very much appreciated.
We have chosen the wise and boring approach and keeping what we have for now. After a week's use we have found it to be one of the better IR hobs we've used. We'll save the cash for other more pressing matters like how to get at a socket that has a fully loaded wardrobe next to it. There's another wardrobe the other side so it would mean unloading both pieces of furniture to shuffle them over.