Replacing the range
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Last I checked, a few weeks ago, my large tank of gas was at around 30-40% full. Enough to keep going for a while (although I seem to remember that once they get to a certain level, they need refilling.)
I want to replace the gas range. It's the last appliance to rely on gas or oil. My question is: What should I get to replace it? Electric? Induction? (I don't want to have to buy a whole new set of cookware.) I've never cooked on an electric stove top or in such an oven. How different will it be?
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I learned to cook on a gas range. There was an electric range in our first apartment and in this house when we bought it. I had a hard time adjusting to cooking with electric burners (oven is no problem, electric is probably better anyway). Temps didn't adjust as quickly as on a gas range. This is back in the 70s/80s and my experience may just reflect the nature of electric range technology of the era; things may have evolved in the interim.
I have limited experience with induction but the noise bothered me on the countertop single burner unit I tried out as an experiment. Not sure if a real induction range would be quieter. Like you, not a fan of getting rid of cookware, which would be required for induction.
I know the gas pollutes but it is my cooking fuel of choice.
edit: Here's a reddit discussion about the noise.
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Oh, dear, I never knew about the induction stove noise. That pretty much rules that out because my birds are very in tuned to high pitch noises. And yeah, I've got decades of pot and pan collecting behind me, I really don't want to get rid of it all.
I'm not going to stay with gas, as much as I love it. Perhaps electric will be my only option.
Thanks, wtg.
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said in Replacing the range:
Electric glass flat surface. Just my humble opinion. Safer than burners. Works just as well. 10x easier and faster to clean. You can use regular or specially made cleaning products.
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I'm sure you'll check out the online reviews of various electric ranges and I'm guessing that Samsung will come up in many of them. While I think Samsung electronics are great, I would avoid their large appliances like the plague. Their large appliances are not the most reliable and they have very poor customer service support for warranty work. I have direct experience with a washer and also with a (friend's) refrigerator.
People in the trades up in Door County (a remote area compared to the urban area where I live) told me that pretty much no one up there is willing to deal with Samsung because they treat shops that do repairs pretty badly.
If you know of repair shops in your immediate area, a call to them to ask them what brands they service and what their experiences are with various brands might get you some useful and highly relevant info. Also appliance forums where people who actually own various products talk about them. I'm sure there are subreddits and also standalone forums where these discussions take place.
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I learned to cook on a gas range. There was an electric range in our first apartment and in this house when we bought it. I had a hard time adjusting to cooking with electric burners (oven is no problem, electric is probably better anyway). Temps didn't adjust as quickly as on a gas range. This is back in the 70s/80s and my experience may just reflect the nature of electric range technology of the era; things may have evolved in the interim.
I have limited experience with induction but the noise bothered me on the countertop single burner unit I tried out as an experiment. Not sure if a real induction range would be quieter. Like you, not a fan of getting rid of cookware, which would be required for induction.
I know the gas pollutes but it is my cooking fuel of choice.
edit: Here's a reddit discussion about the noise.
@wtg In that reddit discussion, someone mentions stainless steel and cast iron, in a context that makes it sound like they work OK with induction stoves. My set is stainless steel. KitchenAid, I've had it a long time. I also like to cook on cast iron... like almost every day. Oh... I have absolutely no non-stick, it's lethal to birds. But I have a wonderful popcorn kettle--vintage, at least--that is not stainless steel. Maybe steel, but not stainless.
I'm gong to have to investigate the noise issue.
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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Pans with iron are a requirement for induction. You cannot use aluminum or copper.
edit: Here's an article about what pots will work with induction. Spruce Eats usually does a pretty good job with their research and articles.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-the-best-cookware-for-induction-cooktops-908920
As I said, my experience with induction is pretty limited. I can tell you that I passed along a couple of stainless steel sauce pans that I no longer wanted to a friend a few years back; she was moving to a house she had built in Washington and had included an induction range in her kitchen. One pot was a small cheapo Wolfgang Puck and the other was an AllClad sauteuse. Huge difference in price and quality. Both performed fine for me on my gas cooktop but she said that the All Clad was fabulous on her induction cooktop but that the Puck didn't work nearly as well and she got rid of it. I have no clue why one worked and the other didn't. The only thing I can think of is that the Puck, while stainless on the outside, had some kind of core on the bottom. I don't know what the core was made of. The AllClad was solid stainless.
Cast iron is actually perfect for induction. It's just too heavy for Mr wtg to use; he has pretty severe arthritis in his hands and also had carpal tunnel surgery a couple of years ago.
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@wtg In that reddit discussion, someone mentions stainless steel and cast iron, in a context that makes it sound like they work OK with induction stoves. My set is stainless steel. KitchenAid, I've had it a long time. I also like to cook on cast iron... like almost every day. Oh... I have absolutely no non-stick, it's lethal to birds. But I have a wonderful popcorn kettle--vintage, at least--that is not stainless steel. Maybe steel, but not stainless.
I'm gong to have to investigate the noise issue.
@Bernard said in Replacing the range:
I'm gong to have to investigate the noise issue.
Maybe you can take some of your pots and a container of water to the store and actually try boil some water in them on a floor model, if they'll let you, so you can listen for the noise.
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Not induction related, but…
I’m looking at some bird owner forums and there seem to be some discussions about bird safe ovens. Apparently some ovens have Teflon on the interior of ovens that aid in the high temp self clean cycle? Also an issue for the initial burn off that oven manufacturers say needs to be done right after the oven is installed.
I don’t know if this is an actual problem or just very cautious owners, but maybe something you might check out.
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Not induction related, but…
I’m looking at some bird owner forums and there seem to be some discussions about bird safe ovens. Apparently some ovens have Teflon on the interior of ovens that aid in the high temp self clean cycle? Also an issue for the initial burn off that oven manufacturers say needs to be done right after the oven is installed.
I don’t know if this is an actual problem or just very cautious owners, but maybe something you might check out.
@wtg It is something I always check. I've wanted to replace my toaster oven, but finding one teflon (and other FTFEs) free is not easy. The hardest part is determining whether or not they contain the stuff. Some postings on bird forums will point to certain manufacturers and that's helpful. But non-stick is so common now. It's one of those things I'll never understand.
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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I never use the high heat cleaning setting on an oven. Damn things scare me.
FWIW, we have the steam clean feature on our built-in GE oven and it works very well. We aren’t messy bakers and rarely have any major spills, or if we do we wipe them up immediately. But sometimes we get fine splatters in the oven. The steam clean takes a cup of distilled water and 30 minutes. Once it turns off I just wipe the inside of the oven dry.
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@wtg It is something I always check. I've wanted to replace my toaster oven, but finding one teflon (and other FTFEs) free is not easy. The hardest part is determining whether or not they contain the stuff. Some postings on bird forums will point to certain manufacturers and that's helpful. But non-stick is so common now. It's one of those things I'll never understand.
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Speaking of Samsung, I haven't liked their phones of late. I find the screens to be glaring.
My instinct is not to trust their washers and dryers. They're large (read "Americanized" according to what they obviously think Americans expect).
I want a front loading washer (100%) but I want a Miele, Asko, or Bosch.
Asko is the one I learned about first and would like the most as far as I know.
Buying and owning Bosch used to be easy before Sears went out of business.
I haven't looked at any of them lately.
I'm not ruling any of them out except Samsung.
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@ShiroKuro No. It has to get hot enough to emit fumes. Some studies have reported as low as 400F, some 500F. I'm not willing to take any chances. I often have my toaster oven at 450F.
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I never use the high heat cleaning setting on an oven. Damn things scare me.
FWIW, we have the steam clean feature on our built-in GE oven and it works very well. We aren’t messy bakers and rarely have any major spills, or if we do we wipe them up immediately. But sometimes we get fine splatters in the oven. The steam clean takes a cup of distilled water and 30 minutes. Once it turns off I just wipe the inside of the oven dry.
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Once you've used a gas hob you won't be happy with electric.
Get a decent induction range and some nice new pans to go with.
Very good friends just invested in a Bertazzoni; the quality is noticeable, stunning, wow.
The 100cm stainless steel pro which fit their kitchen gap cost £5500.00 (gulp).
And forget about testing your old steel pans with a magnet for compatibility. Unreliable method, they may, or not.
