Humm…. isn’t there carbon monoxide that causes brain damage?
Carbon monoxide is produced in insignificant quantities. Gas stoves in good repair produce a blue flame — this is a sign of complete combustion that’s unlikely to produce a lot of carbon monoxide.
I’ve also had a CO detector in my kitchen for years — it’s never shown harmful quantities of CO while cooking.[/quote]
We have the same here, and the CO monitor, which is at stove level, has never gone off.
Personally, I like the Induction stoves, but you do need to be aware of some things:
Despite what the video says, all induction stove tops do not heat as fast as many gas burners – notice that he really did not do a timed side by side comparison. Since he mentioned Viking units; Viking has burners rated from 18,500 BTU all the way up and beyond 30,000 BTU. Converting that to electrical power comes up with 18,500 BTU -> 5421.79 Watts, or about 22 Amps at 240 Volts. Most breakers on stoves are around 40 amps, some more. Note also, I only considered the 18,500 BTU burner. You can run all burners simultaneously on a gas stove without ‘blowing breakers’.(something that was useful when preparing food for our family Christmas dinner).
The temperature of the stove surface goes immediately to 3,542 degrees Fahrenheit when ignited.
The induction is more efficient in transferring heat energy to the pot, but his numbers 60% on gas stove are a bit misleading. It also depends upon the design of the pot. Hikers use ‘adapters’ to help with better heat transfer at high altitude when cooking.
The induction cooktop is definitely cleaner to look at and easier to clean. No comparison possible here.
Induction cooktops have to be glass. It is high strength tempered glass, but it still has many problems of glass – including breaking and scratching. This is partially why it is not used in restaurants – where pots/pans etc may come down a little hard in the surface and there is a high potential for wear. In short order, the glass may not look so nice.
I noticed that the video presenter was wearing a ring when his hand was over the supposedly cooking unit. If he was, that ring could have instantly gotten hot. Induction cooktops heat up what ever metal is above them(if they contain iron/steel). They word by radiating Electromagnetic waves that create eddy currents in the metal above them, causing the eddy currents to heat up the metal — whether that is a pot, pan, ring or watch. The frequency of the electromagnetic waves are turned to induce current in iron based product(including steel). Aluminum pots do not work well or at all on induction cooktops. There may be some issue with stainless steel not working either. Some stainless steels are not magnetic, nor are they conductive. It is not a good idea to have electronic devices near or above them when they are running. NOTE: Some inductive stoves may have a sensor that will cause the ‘burner’ to automatically turn off to prevent smaller pieces of iron/steel etc from getting heated – through sensing how much electromagnetic coupling there is between the burner and ‘pot’.
Heating pots/food on an induction stove is different than a gas. Gas works with temperature differentials – as the pot gets hotter, the stove transfers energy less efficiently to the pot. Induction works by transferring ‘energy’ into the pot. On an induction stove, if a pot heats up at 10 degrees /sec at room temp, it will also heat up at 10 degrees / sec right before melting. It is easier to overshoot your temperature on an induction. Maintaining a temperature on a pot requires a lower setting than on a gas.
Induction is safer for kids – until they discover how fast they heat up metal things. Putting your bare hand on a running stove will not give you burns.
Inductions stoves have a moderate amount of electronics in them – therefore possible things to go wrong. Gas stoves are very simple – effectively dumb as rocks.
PS: You may want to avoid Miele induction stoves – they have a bug. If you turn a stove to max then immediately down to a lower level, the Miele stove still stays on the high setting for about 10 seconds.
