Induction Stoves

[Roger Feeley]

I can see that an induction range is in my future. I love cooking with gas because of the control, but it's a huge pain to clean the darn thing and there's the whole air quality thing. Question for you people that have used them; how well does stainless clad aluminum cookware work as long as a magnet will stick to the stainless steel?

I think if the magnet sticks you are ok. when we switched, all our skillets worked because they were my grandmothers cast iron. Our collection of pots and pans was an oddball mix of cheap stuff. It was a great opportunity to thin the herd to a 1qt, a 2qt with steamer basket and a 6qt multi pot with pasta and steamer basket. And we kept grandmas dutch oven. The smaller pots are all-clad. The big one is Viking. I insisted that no pans be non-stick. I want to be able to scrub. The one exception is a pan just for cooking eggs.

[Roger Feeley]

One other innovation that’s coming is “cafe doors” on the ovens. These are two doors that open to the sides so you don’t have to reach so far. This seems to me to be a good idea. I only see it on really high end stuff now. Hopefully the feature will make its way down to us mere mortals.

[Jim Becker]

One other innovation that’s coming is “cafe doors” on the ovens. These are two doors that open to the sides so you don’t have to reach so far. This seems to me to be a good idea. I only see it on really high end stuff now. Hopefully the feature will make its way down to us mere mortals.

Yea, I like French door type ovens and hope they do become more common on ranges. So far, they have been more of a wall oven thing.

----
Rats...my delivery tomorrow isn't going to happen. The entire crew called in sick and there's an ice storm heading our way. Next available day is Saturday. I guess I'll be working on the venting project a little more tomorrow.

[Derek Meyer]

Well, MadeIn must have been monitoring our exchange, Jim. I got an email offer from them yesterday for $250 off the cookware set I was looking at, so I took it and ordered. Got free shipping too. The set should be here in a couple of weeks.

My wife is very excited to try these pans out.

[Jim Becker]

You will enjoy the MadeIn product, Derek. Really good quality for sure!

[Curt Harms]

Be aware - induction stove needs appropriate cookware. Not every pot will work on induction stove. This is only one negative about this kind of stove.
Very fast warming up, easy control temperature, not hot surface after use - easy to clean. Boiling water faster than gas stove.
Ed.

I seem to recall that one could get a metal plate for use with non-magnetic cookware. It would be induction top - metal plate - cookware. I don't see where that would make the induction top any faster than a resistance heat unit. I guess it would be useful for the occasional use where most cookware works with induction.

[Jim Becker]

I seem to recall that one could get a metal plate for use with non-magnetic cookware. It would be induction top - metal plate - cookware. I don't see where that would make the induction top any faster than a resistance heat unit. I guess it would be useful for the occasional use where most cookware works with induction.

I can see how that might work to heat a non-induction pan, but IMHO, it would be a waste of time and a waste of the true benefits of an induction range. I would not do this even if the pan was a beloved heirloom, honestly...the cost of the range is up there and I'd want to be able to use it fully.

[Roger Feeley]

Induction is hot quickly. I can put on small pot for tea, and before I get the tea bag out, the water is boiling. A convection oven under the range took a little while to adjust to. The fan heats more evenly, and to the uninitiated, it cooks quicker! I am a convert.

Our induction cooktop is on a range. We were very specific in our requirements that the range be the double oven with the small oven on top. Think of a standard range with the warming drawer that no one uses. Move the warming drawer to the top and make it a second oven. We use the little oven almost exclusively. It warms up faster than a big one you don’t have to stoop over much.

[Jim Becker]

Roger I had the choice between two ovens or one when I ordered the Café induction range that arrived yesterday. Professor Dr. SWMBO and I contemplated that for a bit and decoded to go with the single oven version based on both our cooking habits and our lack of storage space in the kitchen. The "warming drawer" is necessary space. But we both agreed that otherwise, the two oven version had some nice appeal. Interestingly, the Samsung glass top electric range we replaced had an interesting feature that one could split the larger oven into two with the insertion of a special metal divider half-way down. "Top" and "Bottom" could be regulated independently and the oven sensed when the divider plate was not present and converted to single control for the whole space.

I did get the new range installed yesterday afternoon...it was yet another case of "no good project goes unpunished" including the corollary that "you can never do only one trip to the home center". This was all essentially my fault as I never checked how the old rahge was hooked up...'found out it was hard wired when the delivery/install folks arrived. That killed both them doing the install and taking away the existing range. I also didn't check the cable for conductors and mistakenly assumed it was four wire, forgetting that the place was built in 1993. It was three wire so a trip back to return the first receptacle and buy a 3 wire receptacle and a three wire cord was necessary. All that plus the leveling took a bit of time, but it got done. TOnight will be the celebratory meal.

Jerry, (OP), I'll be sure to post a follow-up after I have a few days of cooking under my belt to let you know how things go, both in initial adaptation to the heating method and relative to getting a handle on the control, etc.

[Jerry Bruette]

Thanks Jim, appreciate the review.

[Lisa Starr]

Jim, I'm can't wait to see your review. I love my induction, but I cooked on electric for a while prior and hated that, so I'm not sure I had a good comparison with gas. It seems you're in a great position to evaluate the two.

[Jim Becker]

Ok...initial experience...um...WOW. Darn, the responsiveness is far better than the $11K Thermador gas range I had at the other house and this Café induction range that cost a third of that. (It's smaller, of course, but still...) I used my 10" MadeIn CS pan for the chicken I was cooking tonight and it was a real treat. The pan was hot nearly instantaneously so I could get the shallots, garlic and mushrooms caramelizing lickety split. Since my ventilation isn't done, I didn't get anything "smokin' hot", but didn't need to, either. The stock I added stayed at a wonderful simmer that I could practically micro-adjust. On the other side of the cooktop, the 3 quarts of water to cook the green beans was boiling in like three minutes. So aside from the control, I can see time savings.

Initial lessons learned was to unlearn everything I had to put up with using the glass top Samsung range (actually a higher end unit) that came with the house as well as to unlearn a lot of the preheating time I used with the gas range to have the pan where I wanted it to be. I'm sure that in a reasonably short period of time, I'll get a handle on actual temps vs the control settings..."know the tool", as it were.

Go for it Jerry!!

[Paul F Franklin]

Great to hear Jim, I look forward to the experience if our Cafe ever arrives! Did you consider the JXPROBE1 accessory? Lets you do sous vide or anything else that requires precise temp control (melting chocolate?). Essentially a temp probe that links to the range to provide closed loop temp control. We have one of those on order too....

[Jim Becker]

Great to hear Jim, I look forward to the experience if our Cafe ever arrives! Did you consider the JXPROBE1 accessory? Lets you do sous vide or anything else that requires precise temp control (melting chocolate?). Essentially a temp probe that links to the range to provide closed loop temp control. We have one of those on order too....

I'm getting the accessory shortly...I didn't order it with the range because it was also listed as on backorder and I didn't want to screw up the range order. HD has the accessory in-stock. I regularly use Sous Vide for beef and pork prior to grilling so yes, I'm looking forward to trying the "smart" setup out for that. This is yet another advantage to how induction works and how keenly and granularly temperature can be controlled. With Sous Vide, one degree can make a difference in some cases.

They are supposedly going to send me a "smart pan" as a rebate. Had I ordered in December, the promotion was a complete set of cookware including the smart pan and the accessory you mentioned. Oh, well...couldn't do that because I needed the sale of the other property to close before committing thousands to goodies for here.

BTW, Paul, this is what your range will look like other than the color and I think you opted for the dual oven version. I got the SS backsplash in today after it arrived on the big brown truck. 'Just have to complete the vent duct work now.

IMG_E0860.jpg

[Jim Becker]

Um...don't try this with your glass top electric or gas range...that's boiling water (from cold pan and 3QT cold water to full boil in 5.5 min backed off to a rolling boil) and my hand is about a quarter inch from the pan. The surface is barely warm.

IMG_E0862.jpg