Moved from a condo with an insanely nice Wolf gas range to a house with a cheapo electric range that we promptly replaced with an induction range.
Never going back. Induction is fucking wonderful magic. So quick, so powerful, so controllable, and having most of the surface remain cool is such a nice side benefit too
I moved into a house that already had an induction stovetop and I will never ever go back to gas again. It’s easy to clean, don’t have to worry about open flames, and heats quicker and more evenly. When I’m cooking, I can actually use the unused burners to place my ingredients on for easy access. It’s amazing and that’s not even getting into the environmental benefits.
I am sorry but it is fucking hilarious how many wealthy people over the years have condescendingly told me cooking with gas is better, even as they complained about how it annoying it was to maintain a gas stove and all.
Idiots bought into the most obviously bullshit fossil fuel propaganda ever…
I never understood why 'muricans kept using gas stoves. I haven’t seen a single one in Europe in the past 30+ years.
The answer is simple and stupid, Fossil Fuel Propaganda.
https://climateandcommunity.org/research/deconstructing-gas-propaganda/
I like gas for diversification of energy sources. When we had “snowpocalypse” here in Texas, I was able to stay running with a natural gas generator for some power, gas heat to stay warm and a stove to cook. The power draw would have been too high if I was electric only.
Yeah but the “snowpocalypse” energy crisis was in large part a serious problem for people because Texas hates Texans and privatized the electricity grid leaving it brittle and unable to adapt to emergencies or changes.
You are living in a functionally collapsed society in Texas, and if that is a reason to cook around a campfire, sure! I just think you have to contextualize that. I’ll keep using my electric stove and go find social support services in an emergency if needed because my state actually gives a shit about human beings unlike the shithole that is Texas.
If you need a gas stove to survive in Texas because the state government is constantly trying to kill you in pursuit of the deranged and cruel interests of the rich, I can’t really disagree with that in good conscience, but it is a pretty awful reason to have to buy a gas stove.
You should leave Texas if you can.
Wait… people in New York were still cooking with gas? In 2026?
Why anyone ever bought a gas stove is the real mystery.
I bought a gas stove 2 years ago and replaced electric. I did it because I needed to free up the circuit for other things and it was cheaper to replace the stove than get a upgraded panel. I ran the gas line myself but I won’t do a electrical upgrade myself. I have automatic exhaust when the stove turns on so its not much of a deal.
Electric resistance or infrared simply doesn’t have the response time. Plus many of them don’t actually have “medium” but just do on/off at 50% duty cycle (I can’t remember what that’s called) so there’s absolutely no nuance to them. Many of the induction stoves share this problem with the added complexity of delicate circuitry.
There’s a lot of talk about air quality with gas stoves and I am not going to downplay that, because electric isn’t a magic switch - most people don’t have adequate ventilation to keep the VOC and PM levels in check when cooking on an electric stove let alone gas.
I mean, 70 years ago, maybe this still made sense. But in the present?
Resistance electric burners really are shit. If you’ve never cooked on one, it’s hard to express just how much a game changer induction is. Not to mention people’s legacy of copper, stainless, and aluminium cookware.
I will not buy an induction stove unless I know what it’s pulse width modulation is.
PWM is vital; I can melt chocolate on my stove today but “low” often is 100% power at 90% off 10% on and burns food.
Also making sure the boards and chips are hefty enough. I don’t trust Samsung and LG to lay enough of a trace on the board or use a sufficiently large heatsink on the switching circuitry that it’s not going to melt through when I boil water daily. I don’t recall details but last time I was looking into it, even some higher end brands had failure rates after 5-10 years (or sooner if the “power boost” or whatever was used because they cheaped out. My gas stove will survive the apocalypse, but whether it survives the Operation Epic Fail is another thing.
I have burned out three induction hot plates and zero gas ranges in my life (from $120 to $300 units). I keep getting new ones because it’s something I can’t live without, but it does make me hesitant to drop $4k on an induction range. I also kind of just hate glass stove surfaces for a bunch of reasons.
If you have some space or a septic tank you could always produce your own biogas:
Damn, I didn’t even think that these are also made as cheaply as possible and in a way that makes them unrepairable.
It’s a lot like electric cars: I get that they’re better but I don’t trust any company to make one that doesn’t do something shitty.
It’s a lot like electric cars: I get that they’re better but I don’t trust any company to make one that doesn’t do something shitty.
This is irrational past a certain point however, there is no reason non-electric cars won’t be programmed to do shitty things to?
This is Xenophobia wrapped up in our emotions around cars, there is little evidence that Electric Vehicles are more vulnerable to being hacked than other kinds of cars, the reason everyone is nervous about this is that “western” car makers are being left in the dust because of their own stupid choices and everyone feels anxious about it. This is how it manifests, a general mistrust in electric vehicles we intuitively seem to have that is a mirage obscuring feelings of insecurity about our own societies.
I don’t really want any car made after 2016, and will probably be buying used for the rest of my life unless car companies start acting different.
Also, it has nothing to do with hacking but thanks for showing you’re a tankie.
Ok what does it have to do with?
Also please define “tankie” for me in your own words thanks :)
Data tracking, right to repair, overall build quality, user interface, subscription services, planned obsolescence, and gimmicky features. And you’re exactly right that it applies to every modern car.
And a tankie is someone who projects xenophobia into a discussion about cars when it wasn’t even mentioned. And also capitalizes it randomly.
And a tankie is someone who projects xenophobia into a discussion about cars when it wasn’t even mentioned. And also capitalizes it randomly.
What?
why?
Because slow pulse width modulation will burn my marinara and risotto.
That may not be PWM. My (cheap) induction cooker seems to do actual high frequency PWM at medium-to-high settings, where the heat is essentially always on, but varies total power. It seems to cycle at lower power settings, with multiple-seconds of on and off. “3” is always on; “2” is 5 seconds heat + 10 seconds off. No clue why it would switch modes like that. I’d assume it’s a manufacturing cost, but it means they had to implement both PWM and slow cycles.
Any time pulses are used to modulate, regardless of frequency, is PWM.
My cheap induction hot plate has 10 second cycles. So on 10 it’s always on, 9 is on for 9 seconds and off for one, all the way down to level 1.
The problem is that it’s so effective at heating that even a second of full power will burn things.
One way I get around this is to put a thermal mass like a cast iron pan under the pot I want to cook slowly since it evens out the pulses but then it heats extremely slowly.
But I’m not gonna drop a couple grand plus whatever the electrician will cost for something that burns my food.
Sidenote, I love this comment
Would something other than a slab of cast iron work? Thinner or different material like carbon steel?
I know next to nothing about this stuff just trying to understand if we’re talking about conduxtivityand heatsinks or like field dissipation
