Help me choose: induction, or gas range. If induction, which one?
Hello, appliance aficionados!
I’m trying to figure out if an induction range is right for me and, if so, which one. My husband is keen on induction, but after reading a lot of posts on this subreddit, I am torn. So much love! So much hate!
We currently have gas. I love it, but my spouse is worried about air pollution (and I’m sure I would be too if I looked into it properly). Here is some info about how I cook:
Spot for range is 30 inches.
I regularly use two pans that have 10 inch bottoms.
My smallest pan is a 5 inch sauce pan.
My pans are a mix of uncoated cast iron and stainless steel bottomed Belgique (a magnet snaps tight to the bottom but doesn’t stick on the sides).
I do not jiggle my pans around.
I do sometimes jack the heat up really high to bring a pan up to heat fast. I’m a little nervous about all these “low and slow” warnings. I’m a busy working mom with three kids, and I need to get food on the table fast. No, I don’t have to jack the heat up super high, but how low and slow are we talking here?
I do my stir fires in a cast iron skillet, not a wok, rotating ingredients in and out as they cook, so I think I’m good to go there.
I don’t cook giant feasts, but sometimes I want to cook chicken nuggets and fries and make macaroni on the stove. I was looking at a double oven Cafe, but then it sounds like you can actually use both ovens and the stove, so what’s the point? I get the sense that American manufacturers decided to keep power requirements low so no one would need special wiring, but now everything is terribly underpowered as a result?
I need enough power settings to be able to fine tune a simmer, but I don’t really care about knobs vs. buttons vs. touch or whatever.
How much does coil size actually matter? I am confused because it sounds like if your coil is smaller than the pan size, the edges of your pan are cold. But the coil size is also somehow the minimum pan size… so your pan and coil need to match exactly?! Like… I have to be misunderstanding something here, because this sounds crazypants.
I had electric at a previous house and hated all the cooked on junk on the cooktop. Ease of cleaning is very appealing to me with induction!
I would rather not spend $5,000-$10,000 if at all possible.
Alternative would be getting a new gas range (our current one is dying) and installing a quality hood straight up through our attic and roof. No cabinets above the range currently, so I think we could do this relatively cheaply.
What do you think? Induction: yay or nay? If yes, which range?