We are looking at new electric stoves. Does anyone understand the options?
Specifically wondering the types of surface units (burners). Are there various options or modes: constant current (constant heat flow), or temperature control (on/off cycling, or variable current). The old stoves were mostly constant current surface units. The new flat top stoves seem to cycle somehow (temperature controlled?). I have no idea how inductive works. We have gas now which is constant heat flow of course.
Why I ask is I’m not very interested in this cycling stuff at all, and temperature control only.
Thoughts, recommendations, or experiences?
Thanks.
Induction is where it’s at for temperature control. Gas is good, but a lot of the heat is lost to the sides of the pot/pan, and to the air around.
Traditional electric radiant cooktops use resistive heating elements that work much like the old coil electric burners that have been around for 70+ years.
Induction works by putting out a strong switching magnetic field that heats the metal molecules of the pan. Handles stay cool because there is no excess heat blasting the sides of the pan like with gas and radiant electric. It does cycle on and off, but it does that quickly. It heats the pan much more quickly than gas (water boils in a quarter of the time vs gas), and you can drop the heat more quickly too. And the cooktop as a whole stays much cooler than other types. Simmer and melt settings let you maintain very low temperatures as well.
If there is a down-side it’s that you must use pans that heat up in the magnetic field. So aluminum and glass/ceramic are out. You need induction-ready cookware. If a magnet sticks to a pan it will work.
One gotcha: If this pan has been used for a long time on gas or traditional electric, it may no longer be 100% flat, and then it won’t work on induction.
Definitely true. A badly warped pan may have trouble. A pan with a slight wobble doesn’t prevent heating in my experience. But induction elements do need to sense a pan to work.
So if you want to keep something boiling. How does that work. Boil, then no boil as it goes on and off, or not noticeable like that. I ask because the old temperature controlled electric stoves did not keep a constant boil. Could not.
You will not have a problem maintaining a boil on induction. The cycling isn’t nearly as slow as with radiant electric. And the top heat output is generally much higher with induction.
I’ll vouch for induction too. It boils water faster than my kettle which is just incredibly convenient. Plus having cold handles on a hot pan is very comfortable :) The thing about the pans is true, but in my case all my pans happened to all be induction ready. Just need to be careful when buying something new (and they’re usually a little more expensive).
Your water boiling comment really hits home. I moved not long ago and went from a house with an induction cooktop back to one with gas. Forgot just how long it takes to boil water, even on a big burner!