When I was in charge of a graduate dorm, my wife sniffed her way to a student room with an unattended hot plate about to start a major fire–sparks were already flying.
When I’ve messed up with induction and it started to turbo to incredible temperatures, it’s turned itself off. That’s for sure.
Student dorms may vary . . .
Ray
You can ask, but I doubt they’d approve. The danger is fire from what’s in the pan, and so induction is no fire safety improvement .
However, there is a pan that can improve fire safety on induction: Demeyere’s ControlInduc skillet. It’s engineered to go non-magnetic (the “Curie point”) above 250C., so will get no hotter than that on induction. I’m doubtful the school would be swayed, but if you don’t ask…
Kaleo,
the turnoff responds very quickly because the induction turbos so fast.
I’ve seen it live–I do dumb things.
One of the reasons I never purchased controlinduc is that the induction turnoff on my Vollrath is safer–IMO, of course.
That might not be true for other induction units.
Dormitory policy is a whole different issue–and I’ve been involved in too many to make predictions.
Ray
Thanks Ray.
@kaleokahu - I’ve always assumed the danger (or perceived danger) from regular hot plates was sloppy students tossing a book atop and incidentally flipping a rocker switch or what not. That skillet sounds really cool - I’ll have to look up the patents and see what the material is and how they get the crystalline structure to alter. (If that’s what’s happening.)
My worst overcooking job still didn’t start a fire. I was too much in my cups to be cooking but decided to boil some eggs anyway. I woke up to the loud “Pop! Pop!” sounds as the pan boiled dry and the eggs blew up.
I decided I could wait until morning to (a) eat, and (b) scrape the egg yolk off the ceiling…
Ray says he’s done “dumb things” - top THAT, buddy!
We don’t have a whole house generator, but we do have a gasoline powered Honda generator that my husband can use to run select appliances - with except our furnace :o( and he alternates our basement chest freezer, our kitchen refrigerator and when it’s really dark out he’ll splurge on a few lights…He has miles of heavy duty outdoor extension cords and runs them through a first floor bathroom window. Even if we invest in a whole house generator, I would not want an electric range. I prefer to cook with gas.
“I would not want an electric range. I prefer to cook with gas.”
Those aren’t the alternatives at all, retrospek. There is a whole range of gas stovetop capabilities–low range simmer with different number and organization of nozzle holes–and high powered jets capable of powering a wok.
What type of hookup connections will you need to make it work? Will it still require electricity to operate the automatic controls?
Do you really want to have a gas oven too, or would you like a freestanding baker’s convection oven?
For the electric spectrum, there are different plates and different types and levels of power. Though 220 is usually a starter, I only use units with 110. I just bought an infrared portable that’s very interesting. There are radiant units with ceramic tops, and induction units with ceramic tops, but only induction allows one to cook by temperature and hold a good simmer–but you have to have magnetic cookware–and on–and on.
A cooking artist shouldn’t be so limited in choice of tools to gas vs electric.
Ray
What on earth are you talking about “turbos”?
There are some appliances that will shut down if the case temp exceeds some limit, but the pan itself will pass the flash point before that happens. Others will shut down by time, but the same applies.
No room for any freestanding oven, whether it’s a convection oven or a toaster oven or whatever. We have a small (but efficient) galley kitchen. Our gas range does have electric ignition for the oven and burners. When we lose power, the oven will not work but we can use a butane lighter or a good, old fashioned match to light the stovetop burners. I’m not a baker, so loss of the oven just means I can’t roast meats/vegetables until the power comes back on unless my husband wants to fire up the Big Green Egg. No big deal for me, to be honest.
Hi Kaleo,
My units will overshoot a targeted temperature and just keep on going–up and up–very fast and then, when they get too high–they shut down.
That’s a turbo. The shutoff solves that problem before anything dangerous happens.
I think we’re repeating ourselves.
Ray
