# Induction hobs



## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

We have to buy a new cooker or oven and hob this week. I need to get in first to sort a kitchen plan, it might be a range though it probably won't be. Any advice on pans? (fortunately I've got a load of stainless and Le Creuset, except for frying and omelette pans). Are they much quicker than halogen? We've no gas, so must keep to electric (unfortunately). Any cookers to avoid? We don't want to spend a fortune, but it's going to be there for a long time. Any comments would be appreciated - I've only got internet until 10.00am Tues. (after Friday, I should have broadband that isn't on permanent go slow).  We'll go with AO, as we've had stuff from them before and their service is brilliant.


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## Waka (15 Dec 2014)

I've used AO a couple of times in the past, and like you have had excellent service. I have also found their advice first class as well, so if in doubt you could ask them, if they know your needs they will find the best product for you.


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## bugbear (15 Dec 2014)

phil.p":3pyjryfg said:


> We have to buy a new cooker or oven and hob this week. I need to get in first to sort a kitchen plan, it might be a range though it probably won't be. Any advice on pans? (fortunately I've got a load of stainless and Le Creuset, except for frying and omelette pans). Are they much quicker than halogen? We've no gas, so must keep to electric (unfortunately). Any cookers to avoid? We don't want to spend a fortune, but it's going to be there for a long time. Any comments would be appreciated - I've only got internet until 10.00am Tues. (after Friday, I should have broadband that isn't on permanent go slow).  We'll go with AO, as we've had stuff from them before and their service is brilliant.



The main issue with induction is incompatibility with some cookware - copper and aluminium. Most people can't
afford copper, and aluminium isn't essential.

The only pot I can thing of that is (almost) always Al is a really big stock pot, and many people don't bother.

BugBear


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## DennisCA (15 Dec 2014)

we got induction here and it's really fast, it's like gas but without the problem of most of the heat just spewing out into the air. The only issue I got is that the cermaic cooktop isn't very sturdy, it scratches despite me trying to be careful. My parents have a glass electric top and its a decade+ and no scratches. I wonder if there's an induction hob that isn't ceramic but looking more like a traditional gas or electric unit.

The brand of our induction hob is a Danish brand called Gram.


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## paulm (15 Dec 2014)

What/who is/are AO and AI ?!

Cheers, Paul


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

I got rid of all my aluminium pans 30yrs ago when I realised that aluminium was associated with alzheimers, ( my friend, a retired chemistry teacher, told me he's never cooked in aluminium pans), so that's not a problem. If the pans heat through paper etc (which they do for demos), I wonder if there are some sort of sacrificial mats that can be used to help prevent damage to the top? (Design opportunity here for someone???  )


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

paulm":262n11fn said:


> What/who is/are AO and AI ?!
> 
> Cheers, Paul


Al is an abreviation of aluminium, AO is Appliances Online. Brilliant company to deal with.


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## jimmy_s (15 Dec 2014)

We have an induction hob, installed it about 8 years ago. I think its great, it heats up faster than halogen and as fast if not faster than a normal gas ring. The only thing that its not as good at heating as the gas hob was is the Wok I would say.

The induction hob is easy to clean and the heat is very controllable.

Jimmy


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## bugbear (15 Dec 2014)

phil.p":3pphs4cz said:


> I got rid of all my aluminium pans 30yrs ago when I realised that aluminium was associated with alzheimers, ( my friend, a retired chemistry teacher, told me he's never cooked in aluminium pans), so that's not a problem.



30 years on, that remains (at best) unproven.

Link to the page of the Alzheimers Society on the Topic.

BugBear


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## NickWelford (15 Dec 2014)

I thought that stainless steel alone didn't work on induction. Needs a copper bottom. We didn't get an induction Bob as all our expensive pans are SS.


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

No, it needs to be magnetic (which most stainless is now, apparently).


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

bugbear":24ewwohe said:


> phil.p":24ewwohe said:
> 
> 
> > I got rid of all my aluminium pans 30yrs ago when I realised that aluminium was associated with alzheimers, ( my friend, a retired chemistry teacher, told me he's never cooked in aluminium pans), so that's not a problem.
> ...



Quite so, but it surely isn't harmless, certainly not to residents of Camelford. I'd sooner not take the chance. Stainless is far easier to clean, anyway.


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## doctor Bob (15 Dec 2014)

All my pots are aluminium, my sausages are aluminium and my tuesdays are aluminium and I have no banana with my...... where am I..................


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## Eric The Viking (15 Dec 2014)

phil.p":1fm7kst4 said:


> ... but it surely isn't harmless, certainly not to residents of Camelford. I'd sooner not take the chance. Stainless is far easier to clean, anyway.



IIRC, that was aluminium sulphate, and in HUGE quantities. 

Hardly relevant.


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## Eric The Viking (15 Dec 2014)

By the way, why don't induction hobs work with aluminium and copper pans?

I thought the idea was to generate eddy currents, for which both ought to be very suitable.


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

I believe it's because they are too conductive?


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

Eric The Viking":g7xqjzmf said:


> phil.p":g7xqjzmf said:
> 
> 
> > ... but it surely isn't harmless, certainly not to residents of Camelford. I'd sooner not take the chance. Stainless is far easier to clean, anyway.
> ...



it's still aluminium. And it was in huge quantities of water. I wouldn't have wanted to take the chance, given the option.


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## bugbear (15 Dec 2014)

phil.p":1xfuecmg said:


> Eric The Viking":1xfuecmg said:
> 
> 
> > phil.p":1xfuecmg said:
> ...



Compounds are not the same as elements. Common salt is the famous example.

Sodium - very nasty
Chlorine - very nasty
Sodium Chloride - nice on chips.

Seriously - there are enough real, proven issues to worry about without worrying about
ones for which there is no evidence.

Don't google electro-smog whatever you do!

BugBear


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## Eric The Viking (15 Dec 2014)

bugbear":3g9x0ha3 said:


> Don't google electro-smog whatever you do!



I thought they're doing Jool's Hootenany on dec 31st.

Can't stand the new album tho.


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## henton49er (15 Dec 2014)

We have a black glass induction hob from Bosch. It boils water faster than our electric kettle and the microwave. The only downsides are (a) the controls are very touch sensitive and it is quite easy to switch the whole thing off while leaning one hand on the front of the hob (e.g. when stirring, or in our case when bending down to get something out of the fridge which is next to it) and (b) only steel/cast iron pans will work on it. On the plus side, if you put a small pan on a big "ring" it only provides energy to the area occupied by the pan rather than the whole "ring".

Induction hobs work by applying an alternating magnetic field to a pan sat on the right area of the hob, as defined by the "rings". A fast alternating magnetic field causes the iron atoms to vibrate. Vibrating atoms equals hot atoms - hence the heating. Aluminium and copper pans will not work because they cannot be magnetised. When we bought our hob it came with a small magnet which can be used to test any proposed purchase to see if it is suitable.

The glass on our hob is not scratched at all after 5 years of use, although there are one or two minor chips at the edges where we have caught heavy Le Creuset pans on the rim of the hob.

Would I have another one? Yes, without hesitation.


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

BB - point taken. From what I've read on various sites one moan is that they scratch (contradicted by the above post  ) and even crack if a heavy pan gets dropped a bit hard. For this reason I wonder why someone hasn't marketed some sort of protective mat? The pan doesn't need contact.


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## bugbear (15 Dec 2014)

phil.p":1byza1gv said:


> BB - point taken. From what I've read on various sites one moan is that they scratch (contradicted by the above post  ) and even crack if a heavy pan gets dropped a bit hard. For this reason I wonder why someone hasn't marketed some sort of protective mat? The pan doesn't need contact.



I've got a suspicion that the cracking may be slightly "causal". Of the two main types of pan that can be used, one is cast iron, the heaviest type of pan.

Once might reasonably infer that these hobs therefore see a disproportionate number of heavy cast iron pans compared to normal (physically similar)
halogen hobs, hence the disproportionate cracking.

BugBear


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## RogerM (15 Dec 2014)

It's all smoke and mirrors to me. All I can say is that we got a 5 ring Siemens induction Hob about this time last year and it still looks as though it is in a showroom. No cracks, no scratches. Cleaning is so easy because nothing gets baked on. Fast, clean and instantly controllable. Wouldn't go back to any other type of hob.


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## bugbear (15 Dec 2014)

RogerM":1p9woytt said:


> It's all smoke and mirrors to me. All I can say is that we got a 5 ring Siemens induction Hob about this time last year and it still looks as though it is in a showroom. No cracks, no scratches. Cleaning is so easy because nothing gets baked on. Fast, clean and instantly controllable. Wouldn't go back to any other type of hob.



A quick targeted google shows a good number of first hand reports of them cracking - so I don't think it ALL smoke and mirrors.

Of course, people don't report hobs not cracking, so it's hard to judge what proportion crack.

Most interesting thing I found was here:

http://locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=165900



> As a letting agent with hundreds of managed properties I can say that they are quite fragile and we constantly have complaints that "it cracked all by itself" and "we definitely did not drop any pans on it ever"


 
So that might (just) be considered a sample size greater than 1.

BugBear


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## Phil Pascoe (15 Dec 2014)

From what I know from friends with buy to lets, I wouldn't be to quick to take as gospel that any tenant took any care of anything at all. That aside, all observations are welcome.


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## Jonzjob (15 Dec 2014)

The word that everyone is looking for for pans on an induction hob is ferrous. If it has ferrous properties then it will work on an induction hob.

As for cracking the top then you will have the same chance of cracking it as a ceramic hob. You just have to be a bit careful! As for taking an example of rented accommodation, from what I have seen from some instances the best installations had better be bullet proof! As in "'onest guv, I didn't throw anything at it"?

A great 'sacrificial mat' is a bit of kitchen towel and I chuck a bit under a pan if I am going to have to do any heavy stiring. The salt we get is from te Med, an hour east from here. It is largish granules and wet. So it goes in a small frying pan on a bit of towel on the hob, because one of the biggest culprits for scratching the glass is salt. Job done and no scratches.

We changed from a gas hob and wouldn't go back..


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## siggy_7 (16 Dec 2014)

We have a Stoves 1100E (not the 1100ei) which has a mix of induction and halogen rings. We use the halogen on light weight frying pans, woks and steel hot plates. Both the induction and halogen are very quick, I would probably reason it's because a lightweight aluminium pan has much less mass to heat than a big le creuset stewing pot - plus the latter is often full of water rather than just preheating the pan. Induction is definitely better performing, but I don't think it's a night and day difference.


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## Phil Pascoe (9 Jan 2015)

Went for a Zanussi in the end. Delighted so far, despite kissing goodbye to several 1st class stainless pans. They are so quick that it's quite easy to burn things if you are not paying attention. They are certainly easy to keep clean.


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## mouppe (10 Jan 2015)

We have a glass induction top and it is absolutely amazing. Not a scratch on it after ten years, it cleans up very easily, and you can place your hand on even when it's on full and you won't burn yourself (obviously you remove it pretty sharpish but nontheless...!). It's also excellent if you have children around. 

We had one frying pan that didn't work but everything else does. No problem with stainless steel, Le Creuset, kettles etc.


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## Distinterior (10 Jan 2015)

I've supplied and fitted litterally hundreds of Induction hobs since they first became available in the Domestic market.

In all those years I have had to replace 2 due to the Glass tops breaking.

On both occasions, the clients stated that there was no reason for the damage that they were aware of, and yet on closer inspection, my guess would be that they had dropped lids from Le Creuset type pans on them.

They do use a lot of Power (Kw) when running, but as soon as you lift the pan off the power shuts down automatically and when the pan is replaced, the zone or ring turns back on again.

I currently have a 5 burner Gas Hob in my kitchen, BUT if I were to replace the hob for a new one, I would have a Flex Induction from Siemens in a heartbeat. Fantastic bit of kit....!!!!!!!

Tim.


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## Phil Pascoe (10 Jan 2015)

I said to swmbo last night that I must knock up some large trivets - I can see her taking a huge full Le Creuset roasting pan out of the oven, burning her hands (because of using a damp T towel  ) and banging it down on the hob for want of anywhere else to put it.


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## Eric The Viking (10 Jan 2015)

Our chopping boards have burn marks ;-)


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## bugbear (10 Jan 2015)

Distinterior":2tk1ntim said:


> I've supplied and fitted litterally hundreds of Induction hobs since they first became available in the Domestic market.
> 
> In all those years I have had to replace 2 due to the Glass tops breaking.
> 
> On both occasions, the clients stated that there was no reason for the damage that they were aware of, and yet on closer inspection, my guess would be that they had dropped lids from Le Creuset type pans on them.



Thanks - that sounds like a well-founded opinion.

BugBear


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## Phil Pascoe (2 May 2015)

An update on this. Brilliant. No regrets whatsoever. Easy to clean, and unbelievably quick - and I'm used to gas. I'm on my own all day so I boil a mug of water at a time - if I use the smallest Le Creuset pan it takes 70 seconds, if the largest one nearer to fifty. I put a pan on with more than enough water to boil five decent sized potatoes and had to turn the power back before I'd finished peeling them. A world apart from halogen, which both of us loathed.


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## Phil Pascoe (19 Dec 2015)

Twelve months on - no regrets whatsoever. So quick and so clean. Not a mark on it, and we've not not been silly careful.


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## Jacob (19 Dec 2015)

Got one. Very fast and controllable. Hot enough for big stir fries. Only a few pans didn't work, most SS ones did.


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## Beau (19 Dec 2015)

Yep they are brilliant. Had ours 6 years or so and looks as new.


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## Sheffield Tony (19 Dec 2015)

I will shortly be in the market for a new hob. I have been rather put off induction by the discovery that _all_ my stainless pans are non magnetic grades of SS. In fact, back when I bought them only the ones made from cheap and cr***y grades of SS were magnetic. I can't face hauling cast iron pots about for everything, so looks like it might have to be gas again. I still quite like good honest fire to cook over anyway !


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## Phil Pascoe (19 Dec 2015)

New laminated pans designed for induction hobs work, but they're not not so efficient/quick as cast. They're always marked as suitable. You can still use non magnetic pans with an intermediate mat, although they're not very efficient afaik.


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## RogerM (19 Dec 2015)

Tony - you don't need to haul about heavy cast iron. These days, most new saucepans are suitable for induction. When we changed to induction about 2 years ago we needed new saucepans and my wife bought a set of stainless steel ones made by Judge. They appear to be well made, with machined bases, and definitely not heavy, and also dishwasher friendly. After daily use over 2 years they are still looking smart, and they work a treat on induction.

Having previously had both gas and a standard ceramic hob, there is no way we would go back to any other type of hob other than induction. We invested in a 5 ring induction hob by Siemens, and it's the best decision we could have made. It's fast, instantly controllable, "boil overs" don't get baked onto the surface of the hob so keeping it clean is a breeze, each ring has it's own individual timer and it's safe (no very hot surfaces). If you take a pan off the ring it automatically cuts out to prevent over heating and then switches back on when the pan is put back. It really is the "db's". 

So go on, come in to the 21st century and take a leap of faith and go induction. You'll never regret it.


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## MusicMan (19 Dec 2015)

Another enthusiast for induction. Bosch glass top in my case, no problems after over 12 years. Bought a set of Judge pans at the same time, still using them happily. One knob has come off one of the lids, that's all. 
Keith


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## Phil Pascoe (19 Dec 2015)

I have to say I've different sorts of pans, but the heaviest cast iron are the most efficient, certainly they're quicker.


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## RogerM (19 Dec 2015)

phil.p":qcv2jhsu said:


> I have to say I've different sorts of pans, but the heaviest cast iron are the most efficient, certainly they're quicker.



Interesting. Do they also turn down quickly though, given the extra "thermal mass" that they must build up?


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## Phil Pascoe (19 Dec 2015)

They seem to - not so quickly as the lighter ones maybe, but quickly enough. Anal, or what? I've just timed one  water boiling hard subsided in a second to a second and a half. That's in a Le Creuset pan.


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## woodpig (19 Dec 2015)

These are the pans we've got, what do they mean by "Ceramic hob"?

https://www.lecreuset.co.uk/3-ply-stain ... an-and-lid


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## RogerM (19 Dec 2015)

"The range is suitable for use on all heat sources, including induction, is oven and dishwasher safe* and comes with a reassuring lifetime guarantee."

They specifically state suitability for induction!


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## Phil Pascoe (19 Dec 2015)

Ceramic refers to the finish of a hob rather than the workings of the hob itself. The streamlined and stylish look of ceramic glass along with the ease of use and wipe-clean facade make ceramic hobs a popular choice. While ceramic hobs have traditionally been electric-powered, ceramic induction hobs and gas on glass hobs offer an alternative heating method with an easy-to-clean surface.

Read more: http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/hobs/art ... s-and-cons - Which?
Your pans are marked suitable for induction hobs.


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## woodpig (19 Dec 2015)

Yes, I saw they were suitable for induction. I just wondered what they meant by ceramic.

Thanks for the link Phil.


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## Phil Pascoe (24 Apr 2019)

Well, four years later it's still fine and I wouldn't go back to gas simply because the hob is so easy to clean.


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## Jacob (24 Apr 2019)

phil.p":3jiodo53 said:


> Well, four years later it's still fine and I wouldn't go back to gas simply because the hob is so easy to clean.


Ditto.
Building regs required extractor but it's hardly necessary unless you do a lot of deep frying, or burn things. Saves on heating bills if you don't switch it on.
Stainless fine. Handy if you have a steel tea pot you can top it up and hot it up again and save a fortune on tea leaves.
We bought a cast iron frying pan https://www.vonshef.com/vs_en/search/?q=cast%20iron
totally superior to stainless or aluminium and very cheap to buy. Fried eggs just like they used to be! A bit heavy - you'd have a job to toss a pancake


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## Phil Pascoe (24 Apr 2019)

We were fortunate, much of our stuff is Le Creuset anyway. Some of it's getting a bit tatty after 33 years, but hey ho. Some of the rest works fine and we passed on a few other good ones to my daughter. 
I have a couple of cheap pans with the steel encapsulated in the bases that we bought when we got the cooker - an unexpected bonus is that they are slow .............. which seems an odd thing to say, but it makes cooking stuff that burns easily easier. My loved one managed to "lose" my favourite cast iron skillet when we moved house - she struggled to lift it with both hands. I bought it for 50p at a car boot, but it still grieves me. However I have a le Creuset fish skillet that I picked up new for a fiver.


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## Rorschach (24 Apr 2019)

Cast Iron works great on induction hobs but you need to take your time heating it up, on wider pans it is very easy to get hot spots as cast iron doesn't dissipate the heat very well. My large skillet develops a strong hot spot in the middle if I am not careful.

Stainless pans works well, that's what most of mine are. Enamel carbon steel I only use for soups and similar, too thin to heat evenly and you get hot spots.

My favourite and in my personal opinion the absolute best is a thick aluminium (ceramic non-stick if possible) with encapsulated base designed for induction. Heats quickly and very evenly, no hot spots and works well for gentle simmering as well. Not too heavy to lug around either.


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