New induction hob issues

[Stoobydoo]

Funnily enough, he compared it to the vacuum cleaner situation. Said that it’s the regulations making things worse rather than better.
I’m not sure what checks he did as I wasn’t hovering over him.
If this is indeed the case, we should be choosing our hobs by their lack of efficiency to make sure we buy something usable.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Most of our elecrtical stuff is insured (we've done well on insurance over the years) and when we had a "ring" fail we were lucky. The chap who came to repair it said the replacement units were better the originals so while he was there he'd replace all four. No problems with them since. I'm not sure whether the bottle of wine I gave him on his previous visit influenced him, of course.

 

[Stoobydoo]

Wine, indeed any alcohol, does indeed seem to fix most problems…..people sometimes disagree but the secret is to keep taking it. Don’t sober up…

 

[Spectric]

If this is indeed the case, we should be choosing our hobs by their lack of efficiency to make sure we buy something usable.

This is the problem, we will end up so energy efficient simply because nothing is allowed to use energy but at the same time it does not deliver it's primary function. When I needed a workshop hoover I wanted something cheap and cheerful that worked but they no longer manufacture such machines. There are options though, I found one place that could sell me a brand new Numatic that I could return after receiving it to have the original 1200 watt motor fitted for the cost of the motor, another place sells refurbed machines fitted with the bigger motors because the trades do not want 600 watt henries. Kettles are the real joke, we all know it takes so many Joules to boil a litre of water so the only way a kettle can be energy efficient is to use the largest kW element it can so it boils fast and so minimises heat loss rather than something that boils eventually.

 

[imageel]

I switched from gas to induction almost 10y ago and tbh I would never go back.
I have lived on my own these past 20y and enjoy cooking so my advice is based upon practical experience -
My last 2 hobs were Miele induction with the standard 4 zones albeit each can be conjoined to accommodate larger pans up to a maximum of all 4 with max power ratings of my current one -

Individual rings - 2.1-3-3.65Kw
Linking 2 (x2 if needed) gives 3.4-4.8-7.3Kw

Bottom-line in most instances you can boil a pan full of water faster than you can boil a kettle but you have almost instant controllability since aside from the pot and contents there is little thermal inertia.

My old induction hob had one ring that had a separate frying mode and using that you could literally crack an egg into the pan and walk away - it would cook it perfectly with no tinkering.

Similarly if cooking pasta where the recommendations are to use an almost full pan of boiling water (so as to minimise the thermal inertia of adding the cold pasta) switching the ring onto max boost brings it to the boil quickly and it's super-easy to then control the boil rate to cook it through.

In fact I tend to use max boost with most pans/contents to swiftly bring them up to temp and then back-off to achieve the desired heat.

You quickly learn not to walk away from pans when set to max-boost as doing so risks Vesuvius-style situations very quickly...

I also regularly use the twin-zone join facility for when I am using a large preserving pan, again super-quick to get everything up to temperature and very controllable once at cooking temp.

The wipe-clean aspects of the hob itself and the fact that 15+y on the pan bases are still shiny with no build-up of burnt residues is great.

One aspect does however puzzle me - few hobs are made to sit flush with the work surface and the majority have a raised usually SS rims around them that inevitably is a trap for spilt food etc, so both hobs I've owned are flush fit so the glass surface is coplanar to the worktop with only a small bead of silicone around the perimeter and they are super easy to wipe clean..

 

[Stoobydoo]

"Bottom-line in most instances you can boil a pan full of water faster than you can boil a kettle "

Wow, well, I measured 1 litre of water at roughly 16C took over 5 minutes to boil with lid on.

On a plus, it has no gaps around the edge and so is easy to keep clean. That and the fact that we haven’t been using it….

 

[imageel]

"Bottom-line in most instances you can boil a pan full of water faster than you can boil a kettle "

Wow, well, I measured 1 litre of water at roughly 16C took over 5 minutes to boil with lid on.

On a plus, it has no gaps around the edge and so is easy to keep clean. That and the fact that we haven’t been using it….

It kinda makes sense - a standard kettle has a 1.5Kw element, and a single ring induction 2.1Kw so aside from different losses pan versus a kettle even without boost, induction has gotta be at least on-par, and with boost easily beat it. Plus the fact that convection losses aside with induction all the energy is going into the pan and hence water and by heating it in a shorter timescale the losses will be smaller...
Have only just moved house and have new induction hob to install so can do some realistic tests and demonstrate the speed - my last place had a wide 80-90mm one and it was a 'mare getting used to it on boost - numerous major boil-overs..!
I have friends who have a Neff induction hob and theirs takes forever to boil/heat up soup and the like, dunno if they merely haven't read the instructions properly or are merely mis-guided as to how to best use.
Previous comments in this thread make no sense to me wrt energy efficiency 'slowness' - fact is it's basic physics/thermodynamics - if the appliance is underpowered or throttled by the user then env losses increase the total energy consumed to raise x-°C of whatever you are heating, and it's basic power->in directly proportional to temp rise so only difference is time to do it..., but the faster you do it the less losses you incur..

 

[johnb80]

It kinda makes sense - a standard kettle has a 1.5Kw element, and a single ring induction 2.1Kw so aside from different losses pan versus a kettle even without boost, induction has gotta be at least on-par, and with boost easily beat it. Plus the fact that convection losses aside with induction all the energy is going into the pan and hence water and by heating it in a shorter timescale the losses will be smaller...
Have only just moved house and have new induction hob to install so can do some realistic tests and demonstrate the speed - my last place had a wide 80-90mm one and it was a 'mare getting used to it on boost - numerous major boil-overs..!
I have friends who have a Neff induction hob and theirs takes forever to boil/heat up soup and the like, dunno if they merely haven't read the instructions properly or are merely mis-guided as to how to best use.
Previous comments in this thread make no sense to me wrt energy efficiency 'slowness' - fact is it's basic physics/thermodynamics - if the appliance is underpowered or throttled by the user then env losses increase the total energy consumed to raise x-°C of whatever you are heating, and it's basic power->in directly proportional to temp rise so only difference is time to do it..., but the faster you do it the less losses you incur..

There's a massive difference between pans too. I have some old, traditional cast iron pans and theyre extremely quick at heating up compared to the multi-metal pans that are stainless steel with a ferrous metal insert in the base. I also pans from Tefal which are almost as quick as the cast iron pans.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Slow pans can be useful for bechamel, scrambled eggs, stuff that catches quickly.