I’m not sure how practical it is, however. The first problem that popped into my mind was that the stove would often be unattended while I ran downstairs to grab something I forgot from the fridge.
> I’m not sure how practical it is, however. The first problem that popped into my mind was that the stove would often be unattended while I ran downstairs to grab something I forgot from the fridge.
I often leave the stove unattended whilst I check the grill outside. So long as it's less than a few minutes (and you have a fire extinguisher on hand in the kitchen—as one always should), there shouldn't be a problem in most circumstances.
If you leave a pan with oil on the induction stove and then "quickly check the mail in the other room while it heats up" you might come back to an unpleasant surprise of burning oil...
in the US natural gas stoves are very common. There is some risk when frying on high heat that you could start an oil fire... Never used induction but gas offers very fine control of heat with a nice stove, especially compared to electric which relies on radiant heat from a coil and cannot change temperatures rapidly
I had induction for nearly a decade and am now back on gas. I miss the ease of cleaning that induction offers, and the efficiency for things like boiling water. [1]
But if you use woks or other vessels that do not entirely touch the stovetop surface, gas is better. I made fried rice the other day on my gas stove, and it was a completely different experience than induction. The sides of the wok just heat up so much more than with induction.
Of course, it's a huge pain to clean all the tiny grains of rice that drop onto the stovetop. I wish kitchens had dual stovetops, with maybe 2 gas burners and the rest induction. But I've never seen a home like that; even high-end homes have either a nice gas range or an induction ranges.
fun fact: Menlo Park recently outlawed gas for new constructions. I imagine most folks will go to induction, which has previously been relatively rare here.
Bosch for example has a modular system where you can mix and match technologies. They have a 6 kW gas burner available in it [1] which can be matched up with a nice induction top [2].
I've had direct on coil and behind glass induction, and vastly prefer gas. I get way more heat, like far too much at max, on the gas stove, which is a good thing because I can actually control the level of heat output, rather than just the length of the oscillations between on/off on the induction stove. I have a few steel pans and a few cast irons, and for all of them the gas stove heats more evenly, offers finer control of the heat level, and can reach a much higher heat faster than any of the three induction stoves I've had the pleasure of renting over the years, some brand new. Gas ovens are better too, all the electric ovens I've had ran cold relative to the indicated temp, which meant changing cooking times and temps, and had a pretty embarrassing broil setting compared to what you have on gas (a proper inferno)
Sure, you have to take off the grates to clean, but after you spend those 10 seconds to remove the grates its no harder wiping crusted food off of a flat steel surface than a flat glass one.
Inductions are electric and does not have the issues you mention. But I see. For some reason natural gas didn't pop up in my head. Where I live nobody use those.
I’m not sure how practical it is, however. The first problem that popped into my mind was that the stove would often be unattended while I ran downstairs to grab something I forgot from the fridge.