I’ve never seen a non-electric stove in my life. Doesn’t that, like, introduce a bunch of nasty chemicals and such into the home? And what if there’s a leak?
A gas stove absolutely requires active hood ventilation or yes you are breathing a bunch of incompletely combusted petroleum by-products.
That said, cooking in general is awful for your indoor air quality and any stove needs ventilation.
Gas is treated with an additive that gives it a distinct smell. If you’ve never had a gas stove you may not be familiar with it, but this is done to make gas leaks detectable by smell. Gas leaks can lead to explosions if they accumulate a lot of gas in an unventilated space. However in most cases a slow leak can’t build up that much concentration of gas quickly enough to blow up the building. Not before someine notices.
The real reason gas leaks cause explosions is smokers. Their sense of smell is destroyed by the smoking so they don’t detect the gas smell when they wake up in the mornings. And then they light up that first cigarette and boom.
The US tried to curtail gas stoves a bit in new home builds at the federal level during Biden’s term to reduce asthma and carbon emissions and the GOP predictively lost its shit because that would threaten natural gas profits.
At this point induction stoves are as good as gas ranges to cook on, cheaper to operate, can be powered with clean energy and have no health issues, but Americans are fucking stupid in aggragate.
Oh I see, we’re talking acceleration vs top speed.
Yeah no doubt from me if we’re talking about heating up a full pot of water. I do that in a water boiler instead, which is also electric. I was talking more about how quick a chicken filet starts to sizzle if I put it in a pan - and then I definitely do NOT want to proceed to go to max heat! And that’s what I meant is (pretty much) instant, couple of seconds maybe (sorry I don’t have any chicken filet right now and it isn’t dinner time either).
Which, in the end, also falls back to theoretical vs practical a little bit. If I need a lot of water e.g. for noodles, I use the water boiler first - but either way waiting for the water to boil is in the range of minutes. A minute more or less wouldn’t make a difference in the process of cooking.
OTOH, if I put a chicken filet in my pan, I already know I’ll instantly add salt and spices, and I don’t have time to do anything else in the next minute or so. Reaction time is in seconds.
Yeah no issues that I’ve ever seen, probably long term but wouldn’t be able to differentiate from any other exposure during a life time. I also dont hang out in the water heater closet or laundry room all that much
Gas stoves are meant to be used with a range hood fan. The products of combustion are vented outside (ideally) from there. There are studies that show indoor particulate counts from gas stoves if you care to look up how they compare to electric, wood and coal.
It also has more cooking power overall. A restaurant may have 8 stove burnsers, four ovens, multiple steam tables, etc going. One gas line can serve them all no problem. The amount of electricity you’d need to do the same would be ridiculous. Petro energy density is hard to beat, especially because it cheats: its oxidizing agent is just sitting around for free everywhere.
Everything I have seen has said that induction is the fastest, followed by traditional electric, and then gas is the slowest.
I’m also dubious about this “instant control of heat”. Why wouldn’t turning an induction stove off be the same thing? They both stop heating the pan, and then the only heat left is what’s in the pan. The big difference being that the gas option has heated up the room as well, because it shoots heat all over the place, while the induction stove only heats the pan directly. Electric I get, it’s going to hold some heat in the coil, but I don’t see how induction differs from gas in this regard.
I have induction at home and it is fast but not faster than gas. They are comparable. What gas has is a better visual cue for how much power you’re putting out. With induction it’s all invisible and you have to get to know your stove dials, and even then the performance is partly determined by the pan itself so there is a little more guesswork.
We got induction because it’s better for indoor air quality, the stovetop is glass and easy to clean, and it’s electrically powered so in theory our solar panels can offset some of it.
Please record video of bringing two volumes of water in the same pot from the same beginning temperature to boil, then. Because every source I have seen online says induction is the fastest and gas is the slowest. Also give details about the models of stove tops, please.
Common sense will tell you heat control is instant, just think about it. If you turn the gas off boom no more heat and nothing but the pan itself to hold heat. Unless you’re using car iron is as instant as it gets
Common sense will also tell you that if the magnetic field stops fluctuating in an induction stove top, that the heat being added to the pan will also instantly stop.
The gas being faster than electric thing is not relevant with induction. Induction DESTROYS gas for responsiveness, it’s literally digital and nearly direct heat. There’s no competition and it isn’t even close. The only thing more direct would be if you ran electricity directly through the pan and it started glowing.
If you want to compare gas vs induction, talk about cooking technique and the ability to lift, tip, and move around the pan, and the needed sweet spot for induction being teeny tiny and safety first so if it detects the cookware leaving the sweet spot, it turns off.
The two cooktops are extremely different. I hope nobody in here is taking this seriously other than maybe the corruption of the natural gas companies.
There was a study recently that found breathing in burning oil and food smoke is nearly as bad as smoking cigarettes. Which, if you stop to think about it, isn’t surprising at all because you’re just breathing in carcinogens (burnt stuff and particulates are bad for you). So cooking at higher heats at all just in general isn’t great.
Like, yeah, the technology is SUPER efficient and effective, and yeah it’s really really cool… But, until the existing professional/advanced cooking techniques are surpassed, business is business, and chefs are going to use whatever means necessary to competitively put out the best possible product with the least amount of struggle.
If they can do on on electric, great.
If they can do that on gas, great.
If they can do that on induction, that will be a VERY popular technique.
Selling induction as an end-all is silly. Nothing is perfect, and everything has drawbacks. Unfortunately, induction is still currently limited to not moving the pan and some other stuff. It’s so good at that, I’m pretty sure boiling water and delicate thermostat control is still best you can get on nice ranges, but it isn’t without drawbacks and hard limits, many of which are culinary. Which is a tragic limitation that’s just waiting to be overcome…
Edit: iirc, somewhere in this post or one like it was somebody wishing for a range with multiple heat types and somebody immediately put that down. I felt it was really silly and so absolutist, as many people around here seem to be, this near election time.
Yes, I don’t see why they think stopping a magnetic field to stop heating a pan is different than stopping a fire to stop heating a pan, it’s not like it’s still happening after it’s stopped.
Don’t induction pans have these thick bottoms, which are simply more mass that needs to be heated up? That always took longer than gas with a thin pan for me.
there is no such thing as “induction pans”. either a pan is made out of induction compatible metal or it isn’t. thickness of the bottom doesn’t really enter into it.
I guess? If you’re talking theoretical? But i actually cook, then it doesn’t really matter that a pan would theoretically be faster if it was able to be produced thinner?
I’m not talking about a theoretically different pan, you said you’re using a different pan for the gas stove than the induction one. If you’re changing something between the two, then it’s obviously different.
That always took longer than gas with a thin pan for me
Yes but his point has some validity because you really need to use certain pans and pots with induction. When we got induction installed, we had to get rid of about half our pans, and only certain ones perform well.
The whole “instant responsiveness” with induction is true in theory but less noticeable in practice. If anything, I notice it most when turning a pan OFF. You do get a very fast end to the heat output. And there isn’t even any residual conduction after that moment because the top is glass. On a gas stove the iron gratings you rest the pan on will continue bleeding heat into your food for a while.
That doesn’t even make sense, why would a pan magically somehow not begin to heat up right away when it’s in a fluctuating magnetic field? That’s the whole reason it gets hot. With traditional electric, the coil takes time to heat up, which in turn takes time to heat up the pan. But with induction and gas, they’re both heating the pan right away as soon as they turn on, and stop heating the pan when they turn off.
Just read what he said more carefully. He’s got an impression that induction pans have to have thick bottoms and then even though changes to magnetic fields propagate at the speed of light you are always using a heavier pan and therefore you have a lot of pan to heat before the heat can then transfer to your food.
Honestly I think that impression is very dated at this point. The first induction stoves in the 80s and 90s were wacky prototypes that literally came with their own perfectly matched cookery because that’s what it took to make them work. But those days are behind us.
However it is still true that when we had to get rid of half our pans because they didn’t work with our new induction stove, generally speaking yes, we did throw out a lot of the cheap, thin pans that are aluminum based, and yes, we do mostly rely on cast iron, sturdy stainless steel sautee pans, and other heavier cookery now. So everybody has a piece of the truth here.
Anyway. If you don’t cook on induction every day, all you may know is the bit about how changes to magnetic fields propagate at the speed of light and yes yes that’s all true for a pure thought experiment. However in practice there is more than the physics ideal at play.
Don’t think so mate. Any stove needs good ventilation. Fires and injuries are more common with electric. If you like to cook you really can’t beat gas imo. The control and visual feedback on intensity is great. Gas is doped with sulfur so it’s pretty easy to detect a leak.
You should look at Induction top. Much safer, higher speed, easier to clean, way more efficient. Just plain electric heaters is what my parrents used literally 30 years ago (but yes those do cause more fires statically)
The only reason to go with gas is that you like to use a Wok, but don’t want to invest in a induction bowl.
We have induction at home and we did get a steel plate to use for pots and pans that aren’t ferrous. But it works so badly. Sure the induction plate heats up but then you have to rely on contact heat transfer between the metals and it’s very slow and laggy. Kills all the benefits of induction. I can’t possibly imagine trying to do this with a wok. First of all a wok needs to move and be picked up to stir and flip. The second induction loses contact, it loses heat. We should just say that gas wins hands down for woks because that’s the reality.
There are special wok induction plates (more like bowls at that point), and those work quite well. But I cant see spending so much money on the matter. That’s why for a wok I prefer fire above anything electric.
You can also (we don’t have gas, and didn’t want to spend money on a round induction bowl) buy a wok with a tick and flat bottum. (also suggestions where listed here somewhere)
I use a flat bottom carbon steel wok on an electric stove and it heats up like lightning. Its the top pick from this article. Kenji Lopez-alt, a long time serious eats contributor, also wrote the book on woks that is excellent if you’re interested in getting started with wok cooking.
With the above wok, I can get oil smoking in 30 seconds from cold, and it sears everything like a dream. It is 100% the “dont turn away while its going or else” wok cooking experience. Unless you have very exacting standards, woks are covered on electric/induction.
Only the flat center of the bottom can heat. And you lose the ability to pick the wok up and flip without also losing heat. I’ve lived with both gas and induction - currently have induction. Like everything else everyone here is saying about induction, it’s true in theory but in practice there are compromises, and woks are one of them.
You dont lose either in my experience. I use a electric flat top, which also just heats the bottom of the wok.
The flat bottom isn’t isolated from the rest of the pan. It radiates the heat out over the carbon steel very rapidly. I wasent exaggerating when I said oil smokes in 30 seconds. The sides are always searing hot, and I can flip food with no issue. I get the exact char and smoke flavor I expect from a wok with it.
I would guess your wok isn’t carbon steel if you’re having problems with induction heat. The material seems key to making a flat bottom wok work.
I’ve never seen a non-electric stove in my life. Doesn’t that, like, introduce a bunch of nasty chemicals and such into the home? And what if there’s a leak?
A gas stove absolutely requires active hood ventilation or yes you are breathing a bunch of incompletely combusted petroleum by-products.
That said, cooking in general is awful for your indoor air quality and any stove needs ventilation.
Gas is treated with an additive that gives it a distinct smell. If you’ve never had a gas stove you may not be familiar with it, but this is done to make gas leaks detectable by smell. Gas leaks can lead to explosions if they accumulate a lot of gas in an unventilated space. However in most cases a slow leak can’t build up that much concentration of gas quickly enough to blow up the building. Not before someine notices.
The real reason gas leaks cause explosions is smokers. Their sense of smell is destroyed by the smoking so they don’t detect the gas smell when they wake up in the mornings. And then they light up that first cigarette and boom.
I’m over 40 and have never had an electric stove. Only gas, it’s safe as long as there is fire.
Maybe not boom. Maybe everyone just gets really tired and goes to sleep forever.
The American dream!!!
That is a result of #1 not #2
Concise and informative, thank you :3
The US tried to curtail gas stoves a bit in new home builds at the federal level during Biden’s term to reduce asthma and carbon emissions and the GOP predictively lost its shit because that would threaten natural gas profits.
At this point induction stoves are as good as gas ranges to cook on, cheaper to operate, can be powered with clean energy and have no health issues, but Americans are fucking stupid in aggragate.
Gas is the slowest of the three, as well. It’s so dumb. The only pros are that fire looks cool and that it can work during a power outage. That’s it.
Edit, video demonstration: https://youtu.be/eUywI8YGy0Y
???
I got gas and it’s faster than any induction I’ve encountered. Like, it’s INSTANT.
I added in a video demonstration to the original comment. Can you replicate the test on your gas stove and time it?
Oh I see, we’re talking acceleration vs top speed.
Yeah no doubt from me if we’re talking about heating up a full pot of water. I do that in a water boiler instead, which is also electric. I was talking more about how quick a chicken filet starts to sizzle if I put it in a pan - and then I definitely do NOT want to proceed to go to max heat! And that’s what I meant is (pretty much) instant, couple of seconds maybe (sorry I don’t have any chicken filet right now and it isn’t dinner time either).
Which, in the end, also falls back to theoretical vs practical a little bit. If I need a lot of water e.g. for noodles, I use the water boiler first - but either way waiting for the water to boil is in the range of minutes. A minute more or less wouldn’t make a difference in the process of cooking.
OTOH, if I put a chicken filet in my pan, I already know I’ll instantly add salt and spices, and I don’t have time to do anything else in the next minute or so. Reaction time is in seconds.
Wait until you hear about gas powered water heaters that are basically a 24/7 stove
And are not supposed to be in a living space but some ventilated attic, garage, or utility closet.
Yes, but many gas water heaters have an exhaust pipe that runs outside the home, usually with a fan to push the exhaust out.
This all feels very unhealthy. I do hope that you at least have good healthcare to make sure you’re healthy.
They have an exhaust outside so it isn’t really a problem
Yeah no issues that I’ve ever seen, probably long term but wouldn’t be able to differentiate from any other exposure during a life time. I also dont hang out in the water heater closet or laundry room all that much
Gas stoves are meant to be used with a range hood fan. The products of combustion are vented outside (ideally) from there. There are studies that show indoor particulate counts from gas stoves if you care to look up how they compare to electric, wood and coal.
Quick no one tell them almost every restaurant in existence uses gas…
gas does have some possible toxic effects if not properly vented.
BUT it heats 10 times faster and allows almost instantaneous control of the heat…( the reasons kitchens use it)
It also has more cooking power overall. A restaurant may have 8 stove burnsers, four ovens, multiple steam tables, etc going. One gas line can serve them all no problem. The amount of electricity you’d need to do the same would be ridiculous. Petro energy density is hard to beat, especially because it cheats: its oxidizing agent is just sitting around for free everywhere.
Everything I have seen has said that induction is the fastest, followed by traditional electric, and then gas is the slowest.
I’m also dubious about this “instant control of heat”. Why wouldn’t turning an induction stove off be the same thing? They both stop heating the pan, and then the only heat left is what’s in the pan. The big difference being that the gas option has heated up the room as well, because it shoots heat all over the place, while the induction stove only heats the pan directly. Electric I get, it’s going to hold some heat in the coil, but I don’t see how induction differs from gas in this regard.
I have induction at home and it is fast but not faster than gas. They are comparable. What gas has is a better visual cue for how much power you’re putting out. With induction it’s all invisible and you have to get to know your stove dials, and even then the performance is partly determined by the pan itself so there is a little more guesswork.
We got induction because it’s better for indoor air quality, the stovetop is glass and easy to clean, and it’s electrically powered so in theory our solar panels can offset some of it.
Please record video of bringing two volumes of water in the same pot from the same beginning temperature to boil, then. Because every source I have seen online says induction is the fastest and gas is the slowest. Also give details about the models of stove tops, please.
No. You’re welcome to think what you please.
Then I think you’re wrong.
deleted by creator
Common sense will tell you heat control is instant, just think about it. If you turn the gas off boom no more heat and nothing but the pan itself to hold heat. Unless you’re using car iron is as instant as it gets
Common sense will also tell you that if the magnetic field stops fluctuating in an induction stove top, that the heat being added to the pan will also instantly stop.
The gas being faster than electric thing is not relevant with induction. Induction DESTROYS gas for responsiveness, it’s literally digital and nearly direct heat. There’s no competition and it isn’t even close. The only thing more direct would be if you ran electricity directly through the pan and it started glowing.
If you want to compare gas vs induction, talk about cooking technique and the ability to lift, tip, and move around the pan, and the needed sweet spot for induction being teeny tiny and safety first so if it detects the cookware leaving the sweet spot, it turns off.
The two cooktops are extremely different. I hope nobody in here is taking this seriously other than maybe the corruption of the natural gas companies.
There was a study recently that found breathing in burning oil and food smoke is nearly as bad as smoking cigarettes. Which, if you stop to think about it, isn’t surprising at all because you’re just breathing in carcinogens (burnt stuff and particulates are bad for you). So cooking at higher heats at all just in general isn’t great.
True. I can’t stand the fact that my induction stove wants to turn off every time I pick up the pan to flip.
Like, yeah, the technology is SUPER efficient and effective, and yeah it’s really really cool… But, until the existing professional/advanced cooking techniques are surpassed, business is business, and chefs are going to use whatever means necessary to competitively put out the best possible product with the least amount of struggle.
If they can do on on electric, great.
If they can do that on gas, great.
If they can do that on induction, that will be a VERY popular technique.
Selling induction as an end-all is silly. Nothing is perfect, and everything has drawbacks. Unfortunately, induction is still currently limited to not moving the pan and some other stuff. It’s so good at that, I’m pretty sure boiling water and delicate thermostat control is still best you can get on nice ranges, but it isn’t without drawbacks and hard limits, many of which are culinary. Which is a tragic limitation that’s just waiting to be overcome…
Edit: iirc, somewhere in this post or one like it was somebody wishing for a range with multiple heat types and somebody immediately put that down. I felt it was really silly and so absolutist, as many people around here seem to be, this near election time.
Induction is faster and more responsive than gas.
Yes, I don’t see why they think stopping a magnetic field to stop heating a pan is different than stopping a fire to stop heating a pan, it’s not like it’s still happening after it’s stopped.
Don’t induction pans have these thick bottoms, which are simply more mass that needs to be heated up? That always took longer than gas with a thin pan for me.
there is no such thing as “induction pans”. either a pan is made out of induction compatible metal or it isn’t. thickness of the bottom doesn’t really enter into it.
If you’re using a different pan, that’s an unrelated variable that skews the results.
I guess? If you’re talking theoretical? But i actually cook, then it doesn’t really matter that a pan would theoretically be faster if it was able to be produced thinner?
I’m not talking about a theoretically different pan, you said you’re using a different pan for the gas stove than the induction one. If you’re changing something between the two, then it’s obviously different.
Oh, no, it takes more careful reading than that to understand what I said
I think 90% of the people swooning about induction here don’t actually have it in their homes.
I mean, I don’t have it in my home either, that’s why I’m curious if my experiences from a decade ago are outdated.
But I DO have gas and people here saying it’s the slowest way with such confidence makes me think they are AI bots.
Yes but his point has some validity because you really need to use certain pans and pots with induction. When we got induction installed, we had to get rid of about half our pans, and only certain ones perform well.
The whole “instant responsiveness” with induction is true in theory but less noticeable in practice. If anything, I notice it most when turning a pan OFF. You do get a very fast end to the heat output. And there isn’t even any residual conduction after that moment because the top is glass. On a gas stove the iron gratings you rest the pan on will continue bleeding heat into your food for a while.
That doesn’t even make sense, why would a pan magically somehow not begin to heat up right away when it’s in a fluctuating magnetic field? That’s the whole reason it gets hot. With traditional electric, the coil takes time to heat up, which in turn takes time to heat up the pan. But with induction and gas, they’re both heating the pan right away as soon as they turn on, and stop heating the pan when they turn off.
Just read what he said more carefully. He’s got an impression that induction pans have to have thick bottoms and then even though changes to magnetic fields propagate at the speed of light you are always using a heavier pan and therefore you have a lot of pan to heat before the heat can then transfer to your food.
Honestly I think that impression is very dated at this point. The first induction stoves in the 80s and 90s were wacky prototypes that literally came with their own perfectly matched cookery because that’s what it took to make them work. But those days are behind us.
However it is still true that when we had to get rid of half our pans because they didn’t work with our new induction stove, generally speaking yes, we did throw out a lot of the cheap, thin pans that are aluminum based, and yes, we do mostly rely on cast iron, sturdy stainless steel sautee pans, and other heavier cookery now. So everybody has a piece of the truth here.
Anyway. If you don’t cook on induction every day, all you may know is the bit about how changes to magnetic fields propagate at the speed of light and yes yes that’s all true for a pure thought experiment. However in practice there is more than the physics ideal at play.
Depends on the burner. Those 300k btu wok burners would like a word.
idk i’ve been inside a few restaurant and other large-scale kitchens (canteens etc) and the stoves were always resistance or induction heating
I worked HVAC/r. Was in hundreds of kitchens on on East Coast of the US. I never saw anything but gas
Same.
ah well the US is a whole different beast, i’m in switzerland. gas basically isn’t a thing here except for houses with very old heaters
Sorta kinda figured that would be the case
Not just chemicals, carcinogens. But Republicans heard it triggers the people they hate, so they’re doubling-down on poisoning their families…
Yes, they do. But a lot of people prefer them. Personally I think electric is fine and would love to try induction
Don’t think so mate. Any stove needs good ventilation. Fires and injuries are more common with electric. If you like to cook you really can’t beat gas imo. The control and visual feedback on intensity is great. Gas is doped with sulfur so it’s pretty easy to detect a leak.
You should look at Induction top. Much safer, higher speed, easier to clean, way more efficient. Just plain electric heaters is what my parrents used literally 30 years ago (but yes those do cause more fires statically)
The only reason to go with gas is that you like to use a Wok, but don’t want to invest in a induction bowl.
We have induction at home and we did get a steel plate to use for pots and pans that aren’t ferrous. But it works so badly. Sure the induction plate heats up but then you have to rely on contact heat transfer between the metals and it’s very slow and laggy. Kills all the benefits of induction. I can’t possibly imagine trying to do this with a wok. First of all a wok needs to move and be picked up to stir and flip. The second induction loses contact, it loses heat. We should just say that gas wins hands down for woks because that’s the reality.
There are special wok induction plates (more like bowls at that point), and those work quite well. But I cant see spending so much money on the matter. That’s why for a wok I prefer fire above anything electric.
You can also (we don’t have gas, and didn’t want to spend money on a round induction bowl) buy a wok with a tick and flat bottum. (also suggestions where listed here somewhere)
I use a flat bottom carbon steel wok on an electric stove and it heats up like lightning. Its the top pick from this article. Kenji Lopez-alt, a long time serious eats contributor, also wrote the book on woks that is excellent if you’re interested in getting started with wok cooking.
With the above wok, I can get oil smoking in 30 seconds from cold, and it sears everything like a dream. It is 100% the “dont turn away while its going or else” wok cooking experience. Unless you have very exacting standards, woks are covered on electric/induction.
https://youtu.be/CzJKxUCKOBg?is=h7OdAdt9TiAGPYgz
Sure, but you dont need a dedicated induction wok element. The flat bottomed woks are insanely good and work on any stove.
Only the flat center of the bottom can heat. And you lose the ability to pick the wok up and flip without also losing heat. I’ve lived with both gas and induction - currently have induction. Like everything else everyone here is saying about induction, it’s true in theory but in practice there are compromises, and woks are one of them.
You dont lose either in my experience. I use a electric flat top, which also just heats the bottom of the wok.
The flat bottom isn’t isolated from the rest of the pan. It radiates the heat out over the carbon steel very rapidly. I wasent exaggerating when I said oil smokes in 30 seconds. The sides are always searing hot, and I can flip food with no issue. I get the exact char and smoke flavor I expect from a wok with it.
I would guess your wok isn’t carbon steel if you’re having problems with induction heat. The material seems key to making a flat bottom wok work.
I’m speaking only about induction. Sounds like you are using resistive electric.
Or if your power goes out often
I use an induction stove for camping. You can clearly cook without the grid if you wanted to.
Let’s be real. You can’t backpack into the wildness with batteries and an induction stove. You can with an ultralight and a bottle of gas.
I didn’t say you can backpack with it. I also agree with you that cooking on fire (let it be wood, or a gas fire) would in that case be smarter indeed