Kitchen Stoves
- Thread starter August West
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Good old fashioned electric coil stovetops work just fine for us. One issue with glasstop electrics is you may not be able to run a pressure canner on them. Might break the stovetop if you do.
No option for induction? In my opinion: Induction>>>gas>>>>>>>>>>>>electric.
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Lots of gas here.
One of my apartments while at university had just the thing for you, an all in one mini-kitchen with double burner stove and small sink on the top, and fridge below. Low end stuff, but I had no complaints. My food and beer budget was small, so the tiny fridge was more than adequate.
Pretty much like this:
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Is this the TPBM thread?
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. The sink is too small, but I could probably live with a fridge that size. And the 2-burner stove is all I need.One of my apartments while at university had just the thing for you, an all in one mini-kitchen with double burner stove and small sink on the top, and fridge below. Low end stuff, but I had no complaints. My food and beer budget was small, so the tiny fridge was more than adequate.
Pretty much like this:
In fact, I'm considering getting rid of my current 18cu.ft. fridge and replacing it with an under-the-counter fridge, just so I can get that extra 30 inches of counter space.
Another vote for gas cooktop and electric ovens.
Right now I have a glass top electric range in FL and gas up north. I MUCH prefer gas. I'm trying to talk our homeowners association into letting me use LP for a cooktop to replace the glass range because there are no residential gas lines here. But, as I mentioned in another thread, I replaced my own landscaping without getting "permission" so the HOA and I aren't on the best of terms at the moment.
Right now I have a glass top electric range in FL and gas up north. I MUCH prefer gas. I'm trying to talk our homeowners association into letting me use LP for a cooktop to replace the glass range because there are no residential gas lines here. But, as I mentioned in another thread, I replaced my own landscaping without getting "permission" so the HOA and I aren't on the best of terms at the moment.
I'm quite the opposite. I frequently use all 4 burners. What I'd really love is one of those auto sensing induction tops. It automatically detects where your pot or pan is, so you aren't tied down to a few predetermined places and sizes. They are very $$$$$$$$$$$ though.
Many of these modular kitchenettes come with a three burner stove, but I can see where two would work for a lot of people. As mentioned in a thread about tiny houses I am thinking about building something just a tad larger than a tiny house or possibly an apartment over garage. I'm thinking of one of these if I go minimalist. Id also want to have the wiring and plumbing in place to accomadate a normal kitchen if that doesn't work or if I need to replace it.
The kitchen I want to remodel in an earlier post is for my house in the country. The small house or apartment will be just a mid-week crash pad near the office.
Strongly considering an Induction cook top to replace the current electric one that has a lot of wear. I would have already upgraded but I can't find an Induction cooktop that has different/explicit temperature settings like seen on some of those single burner hotplates. Ideally I want one with a fine range of temperature settings in between 160-210 to brew coffee and different varieties of tea, with less fine settings outside that range, where the temperature doesn't have to be super accurate, just repeatable for consistency.
I prefer gas. As mentioned I think it's easier to control the heat. But in reality electric is just as easy, just takes getting used to. Dial in the right setting for what you're cooking and it works just as well.
Not to start a debate, but I'm convinced electric heats up a pot of water faster. I've used both gas and electric over the years and the electric is faster.
Unfortunately I'm stuck with electric living where I live in Tennessee.
Not to start a debate, but I'm convinced electric heats up a pot of water faster. I've used both gas and electric over the years and the electric is faster.
Unfortunately I'm stuck with electric living where I live in Tennessee.
This is sort of an unfair question because "Electric" covers an awful lot of territory. Induction is absolutely nothing like a coil/ceramic.
I think I'd rate them as follows:
(worst ---> Best)
Ceramic Electric < Electric Coil << Gas < Induction
Induction stoves are just as responsive and almost as powerful as gas, and they have several important advantages: No open flames, spills don't burn or ignite, and you don't need to install or insure a gas line. The downside is that you can't use nonconductive cookware (eg pure aluminum and glass won't work).
I think I'd rate them as follows:
(worst ---> Best)
Ceramic Electric < Electric Coil << Gas < Induction
Induction stoves are just as responsive and almost as powerful as gas, and they have several important advantages: No open flames, spills don't burn or ignite, and you don't need to install or insure a gas line. The downside is that you can't use nonconductive cookware (eg pure aluminum and glass won't work).
I'm not sure that this is really possible. Due to the way induction works the same setting will yield different results depending on the size and metal composition of the pot you use.
Just curious why the preference for electric oven? I think I've heard they heat more evenly or something, but not sure? The house we bought last fall has a full gas range in it (i.e. cooktop and oven), gas cooktop was a huge requirement for me in our house hunting, or at least gas into the house even if the included cooktop wasn't currently gas. The gas oven that is part of the range seem to be ok though, but the whole unit is pretty decent and that may be why. It actually has a gas broiler in the same spot as electric ovens normally have them vs. the cheap cheap cheap all gas range in my last apartment that the broiler was uselessly in a drawer below the oven where most ovens have the storage drawer.
Until I moved into our current house I'd have agreed with you on the water. The cheap gas cooktop in the last place I rented literally would take nearly 40 minutes, maybe more, to boil an 8 gallon pot of water. The new place came with a much better stove. I think the "power boil" burner on it is something like 20K BTU's (I could be remembering wrong it might be 15). Whatever it is, it boils that same pot in about 20 minutes. That's starting with cold water out of a faucet mount filter (can't run hot through those supposedly).
Until I moved into our current house I'd have agreed with you on the water. The cheap gas cooktop in the last place I rented literally would take nearly 40 minutes, maybe more, to boil an 8 gallon pot of water. The new place came with a much better stove. I think the "power boil" burner on it is something like 20K BTU's (I could be remembering wrong it might be 15). Whatever it is, it boils that same pot in about 20 minutes. That's starting with cold water out of a faucet mount filter (can't run hot through those supposedly).
The way it was explained to me is that gas ovens are wildly inconsistent in temperature and evenness. You need an oven thermometer to help to gauge the temp.
This is a good discussion, I would like to better understand how the induction settings and controls work, as it is still a bit of a mystery to me. I tried to research a little before, but came up short. I assumed their must be some temperature sensor below the cook top surface and/or some calculations based on current draw and magnetic field shape to give feedback to the electronics which are driving the induction.
I could not find a good picture of my portable unit, but this is an illustration of a similar portable hotplate:
I got repeatable behavior using the temperature based controls, but was a little concerned about the number of settings, about whether or not there were enough "in between" settings. For example, on my hotplate I could start at one setting that would barely fry an egg, and increase it by one (press the '+' button one time which gave an increase of 20 degree F on the display) and the egg would cook nicely but almost too fast, so I thought I more precise control might be needed for full time usage. I was always using the same pan, so the temperature might have been a loose translation of power consumption, that I do not know.
The unit I have also includes a number of specific cook settings like 'Congee' or 'Boil'. Congee was never attempted, but it was nice to get a pot of water to a rolling boil without any water splashing over the top or any human intervention. Cooking using induction felt like using a microwave sensor, just press a few buttons and it dials things in without needing any help. I want to upgrade my cooktop but the various manufacturers don't provide enough information, and just looking at a powered off unit in a show room is not good enough to make a buying decision. I also find it curious how standalone induction cook tops are relatively cheap, while four burner cooktop units are relatively expensive.
Well, I won't claim to be an expert - I suppose you could use some sort of inductive load sensing to get a feel for how much "juice" was being soaked up by the pot, but I'm rather dubious about how easy it would be to do this when your sensor and field generatorare all in the same plane underneath the load. I'd bet that the "temperature" setting on your cooktop is just a direct translation of power output as you guessed.
I suspect part of the cost is in the power switching/cycling equipment needed to run all those burners at different power levels simultaneously and in close proximity. As for buying one, I would strongly advise you to do your research very carefully, and if at all possible, visit some test kitchens or culinary schools to see specific models in action. I'm told that many of the lower-end and even some medium-end models will make annoying clicking noises due to the cheaper switching components used.
