Tell me about your induction stove!

[KennyG]

Our induction does a wok pretty well but some "professional" chefs are nuts about cooking power. In a previous house we had a cooktop with, if I remember correctly, a 50,000 btu burner. The required vent fan was so high powered we remote mounted it above the garage. Crazy and totally unnecessary.

 

[deezler]

My guess is WOK cooking or Asian style dishes don't transfer to Induction?

You only heat what is more or less directly against the flat cooktop. So you can heat up a wok if it has a big flat area on bottom and enough mass to carry it up. But yeah, no big fireball to torch the whole sides of it.

 

[ericm979]

Check your code. The International Residential Code -- which Oregon has adopted -- only requires makeup air if there are combustion appliances in the house. If the house is all-electric you don't need makeup air.

Yes you're right. I was going by what contractors are telling me. The code says both combustion and exhaust > 400 cfm, and they were telling me > 400 cfm. (M1503.6 for those who want to look it up)

In any case I want the make up air for the 1200 cfm stove vent so the wood stove doesn't spill smoke into the room if I open the door when the fan is on.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

In any case I want the make up air for the 1200 cfm stove vent so the wood stove doesn't spill smoke into the room if I open the door when the fan is on.

Yes you do!

 

[GSVette]

We are installing an SKS 36” induction cooktop in our new build-one of the reasons being I did not want to have to add a make up air fan just because of the propane cooktop we were considering-it also helped that clean up on an inductive is so much easier than a gas cooktop.

Interestingly enough the air handler system installed as part of our heating/cooling system has an automatic whole house fresh air ventilation function-to address the code requirement for fresh air exchange in these new ‘tight’ houses. It is a pretty nice system, wholly automatic using some algorithms based on house size to control when it brings in outside air which it then runs through the air handlers. It is also manually controlled.

 

[ning]

Yes you do!

One day my mother was visiting and encouraged my wife and I to go out and leave the kids with her for the evening

we came home and the house was absolutely thick with wood smoke, I thought the house was on fire
she had burned something in the kitchen, so turned on the whole house fan to help dissipate that smoke more quickly
and that suction pulled smoke from the old wood stove we had at the time and she couldn't put 2&2 together and turn the damn fan off

 

[lman]

Are you all electric?

Homes are tighter now but being tighter has the potential to decrease indoor air quality.

The old 1930's Wedgewood Gas/Wood kitchen stove I have will outlast us all on quality...

The Wood side and the Gas Oven side well vented... Cook top gas burners vent to inside as there is no hood...

Has friends buy a home with Induction decades ago and pulled it for gas... she is a professional Chef and at home the Induction didn't do it for her....

My guess is WOK cooking or Asian style dishes don't transfer to Induction?

Yep, all electric. We decided not to get an LP Gas tank, so we have a geothermal heat pump with the tubes buried in the horse pasture behind the house. I wouldn't mind gas but with the hassle of running gas lines and getting an LP tank with the higher cost to use LP, it didn't make sense. Geothermal was considerably less expensive when we had installed about 15 years ago than it is now.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

So a week in with our induction cooktop and I think I am really liking it. I have only cooked a few things, but so far so good. We went with the LG 6.3 Smart Induction range. The bigger one with 5 eyes.

I really like the adjustability of it. These observations come after using an older glass top electric for 9 years. Yesterday I was browning some beef and I could tell an immediate change in eye temperature when I turned it down a notch. I could here the change in sound confirming a slightly lower heat and a noticeable decrease in cooking intensity. And with 9 or 10 different setting per dial I am sure I will be able to find a setting to suit most cooking requirements.

I also like the speed at which it boils water, faster than I am used to.

Also, I could feel a distinct lack of heat coming from the cooktop as I was simultaneously boiling a large pot of water and browning meat.

This range has tons of options that I need to investigate and try to implement into life. Yes there are "smart" capabilities and I will look into those. But I really want to learn about and use the technology that makes this range heads and shoulders better than my old one. Basically I want to use this range to it's full capabilities.

Only real drawback is a bit of a humming noise when it is turned on, but I think that is a characteristic of all induction stoves. With the other cooking back ground noise it is barely perceptible.

 

[deezler]

Only real drawback is a bit of a humming noise when it is turned on, but I think that is a characteristic of all induction stoves. With the other cooking back ground noise it is barely perceptible.

Yeah, different combinations of burner settings on my Whirpool induction cooktop can produce some very strange robotic squelching noises. Not very loud, or annoying, but its weird. One burner at a time, nothing remarkable, but get three of them on different settings, and it could be the backing track for a techno song.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Yeah, different combinations of burner settings on my Whirpool induction cooktop can produce some very strange robotic squelching noises. Not very loud, or annoying, but its weird. One burner at a time, nothing remarkable, but get three of them on different settings, and it could be the backing track for a techno song.

Huh, I hadn't thought about that. Didn't notice the different tones, but the background noise was such that I couldn't even really hear the buzzing.

 

[KennyG]

Our Kitchenaid induction cooktop is absolutely silent. Sometimes I think a little feedback to tell it's on might be nice.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

I had a Samsung induction cooktop. If it hummed, I never noticed. As a retired chef, after learning the temp settings (vs looking at flame height) I prefer the induction. I've had previous experience with induction, which is why we went with it. We did have solar, so it made sense to go all electric for house. Even though power outages were rare, we had a generator as back up. Now that hummed..,.

 

[etpm]

Though I love my Wolf gas cooktop I am considering a change. My wife bought a single "burner" 120 volt induction cooker for outside use and I really love it. It is used similar to a hot plate but it cooks stuff faster and is easy to set at a very low temperature to just keep stuff warm. We use mostly cast iron cookware for frying and the like. I do have several enameled cast iron pots I could use instead of the stainless I use now. But I still need a good flame for wok use. I have seen induction wok cookers but that would entail buying a new wok too. So I have been thinking about a 4 station induction cooktop and a big gas flame for wok cooking.
Eric

 

[rontaki]

War on gas is real… nearby city had a ballot measure to add $3 per therm tax on gas saying we need to get fossil gas out of buildings since the outright ban proposed in 2019 failed…

Was that the formerly great city of Berzerkeley?

 

[ultrarunner]

Was that the formerly great city of Berzerkeley?

Yes… measure GG

 

[rontaki]

When we moved into my current house, it had an electric cooktop (non induction) that had horrible touch controls embedded in the glass cooktop surface (we use cast iron and prefer iron grates, never have to be delicate with them). We put a Wolf propane cooktop in it's place, and haven't looked back. Love it! Once in a while it comes in handy for heating other stuff, where an induction stove would not work. It still worked when power was out, a real plus when all other methods of cooking are electric.

 

[dj1701]

If Kathy Hochul approves of them, then I don't want one.