Induction vs. gas, a US-based dilemma

Book yourself a week/weekend holiday into a place with a kitchen that features a gas cooktop. You’ll quickly know whether you prefer that or induction. Consider it an investment.

5 Likes

That’s a good idea. Someone above lamented that there’s no good way to rent out the equipment itself, but this is a great way to test it out.

Many of the rentals I’ve used have touted their “gourmet kitchen” complete with description of stoves and the like. (And as a particular example, I specifically chose one weekly rental in Boca Raton, FL over another because they had a nice Viking gas range when I was helping move a daughter in there.)

Fundamentally, tp50,

Energy source is never A vs. B: it’s having the right energy source for you when you need it–and both induction and/or gas in one form or another are available–and can complement each other.

Fully understand your feelings re induction. I’ve heard too many people praising induction and bashing gas. But when I started cooking on induction (at my sister’s place) a few things bugged me that nobody ever told me about.

The not being able to slide pans easily is indeed one of them, but also I found out I often tilt pans over a gas flame, using the three dimensional space. I just don’t like cooking on flat surfaces!

Also, there have been important innovations regarding gas stoves, eg many modern ones now have repeatable heat settings. Overall, gas is just much more direct and quicker to react than induction, plus it gives continous heat versus the oscillating heat cycles of induction.

Unless my government forces me to, I won’t be selling my gas stove.

6 Likes

In your situation, it seems a natural choice. I’ve used the 35s in demonstrations, and they’re rugged and reliable.

C4H10 (Butane) has a higher gross and net heating value than propane (C3H8) and substantially higher than NG. The 35 puts out a surprisingly high 15KBtu.

The control is fiddly, but as with all gas, you learn to judge by glancing at the flame, not the control knob.

These appliances take, IIRC, the 8-oz. butane bottles. They’re relatively affordable, but they run empty at the worst times, so you should keep multiple spare bottles.

Enjoy and report back with your experience.

I was just about to buy an induction range to replace my LP dual fuel range. The ovens motherboard burned up and I can’t find parts for it. Propane is so expensive, so I have been thinking of switching to an induction. I spent months trying to decide which one I wanted and right before finally getting around to ordering one, I read how sliding pans is a no, no on induction. Funny how no salesperson mentioned that. /s I would not be happy with ugly scratches, and I don’t think I can retrain myself and husband not to do that. At least not fast enough to avoid scratches. I am back at looking at dual fuel ranges. I might change my mind again. I have plenty of time to do so. It appears that most of the ranges I am interest will not be available anytime soon. Both of the stores that carry high end models around me are not even bothering to respond to my inquiries.

I have tried looking at rental houses to find one with an induction stove so I could try one out, but people don’t tend to list things that specifically.

2 Likes

That’d be an interesting personal ad.
Can my hubs and I come cook on your induction range?!

:slight_smile:

1 Like

Might work. They would get a free meal out of it.

2 Likes

If it helps… I have had a ceramic top for 20 years and see no discernible scratches. Now I don’t violently shake raw cast iron back and forth on it, but I have slid it over the surface a lot. As long as the bottom is well seasoned it is pretty smooth. And I have worked to a much greater extent SS cookware and it hasn’t been an issue.

I have also used abrasive solutions/polishes and razor blades to clean it.

Now I am not sure about whether some glass cooktops might have cheaper/softer glass than others (and I am willing to bet my cheapo induction hob’s surface is no where near as hard as my main unit), so it is something you may want to look into (my 20yr old is a Frigidaire Gallery).

1 Like

Agree. Iwatani 35FW is a high output portable stove. 15K BTU is very good… Now, for someone who is into work cooking, then I recommend the Eco Premium EPR-A. On paper, it is 10K BTU, much lower. However, the energy is much more focus and transfer better to a wok cookware.

2 Likes

I’ve got a stash of iwatani butane. :grinning:

1 Like



Just a thought - I’ve found repairclinic.com to have hard to find parts, even for appliances that were out of manufacture 13 or 14 years back.

Edit -


I did a quick site search on VRBO and was surprised to find only 900 mentions of “induction stove”. And this would be globally, I think, because I didn’t specify any language preferences.

Thank you for your input. I just remembered that I have a cheap induction portable someone gifted me. I forgot about it because I put it away since it beeps at me too much and makes a lot of fan noise. I know some fan noise is normal but this one is really loud. I’m going to purposely cook in a manner that would cause scratches and see how much I can damage it.

1 Like

Thanks I tried them before with no luck. My range is at least 20 years old so it is not too surprising. It could be just because lots of tech. items are hard to get due to supply issues. I should check back. I am afraid that more than just the motherboard was damaged when the incident happened.

Darn, sorry to hear it.

I don’t want to get too off topic but how did you search VRBO with a search term? I did not see a way to do that in the search filters.

Gas rocks.

Induction sucks.

Easy, the choice is.

1 Like

It’s a google trick. Using google as search engine type in

  • site:www.vrbo.com induction stove

Same thing with Air BnB.

(I edited out stove above and in the links below, as I found that too limiting, with many people also saying “induction cooktop” or “induction XYZ” instead of “induction stove”.
But it does cause more false positives.)

Here’s one pre-populated link for VRBO and another for Air BnB.
(Hopefully the links work where you are - I’ve found some oddities using links for folks in EU)

You could also type your area (city or whatever) in the same search string and narrow it more.

Repair guy explained to me that they only make parts while the current model of anything is in production, and with circuit boards this is problematic because the supply of stockpiled parts quickly dwindles, and substitutions are impossible.

Very planned obsolescence