IANSTUART

I have now been using my Kenmore five burner induction cooktop for about three years, one of my best decisions. I am a keen cook (I even finagled my way into a professional course at La Varenne's cooking school in Paris many years ago). I did quite a bit of research before installing the cooktop, including buying two individual induction burners to try it out. Burton makes cheap ones that work perfectly well. I bought the Kenmore when I realised that it was exactly the same as the Kitchenaid. Buying a separate five burner cooktop is the way to go because the increased area gives you much more freedom to move pans around, plus I use the surface for prep and serving. A double oven on the wall is much much more convenient than a range (providing that you can find one that works properly, do not buy any US made double oven, Whirlpool makes most of them under different names and their design, service and warranties are disgraceful). Do not worry about flatness of pans, the magnetic field that does the heating (through hysteresis) does NOT need a close contact (in contrast to electric burners). Speed of heating is faster than gas and cooling down much faster. Safety is also a consideration, you can put your hand down next to a boiling pot of water and simmering much easier. Where woks are concerned: there are induction woks but they are prohibitively expensive. Many people swear by gas for Asian cooking but that is a mistake since you still don't get enough contact with the whole of the wok's surface to heat the pan to searing temperatures. After some research I found that an ELECTRIC wok is the solution. This may seem counter intuitive (since using a normal wok on top of an electric burner is a disaster) but the best electric woks have the heating element built into the wall of the hemispherical wok and temperatures can get up to 450 degrees. Breville make the best ones and on sale they are quite reasonably priced, I ended up buying two of them (and another one for my brother)

gfweb. Chefs are very conservative but more and more kitchens ARE using induction cooktops, particularly in Europe where induction is more popular than other systems in most of Northern Europe. The major advantage, as dscheidt points out, is for new restaurants since you can avoid the massive expensive of a high capacity cooling and ventilation system. This, of course, is also, to a lesser extent, an advantage at home. I had a downdraft ventilation system with my halogen cooktop (a disaster by the way) and when I replaced the cooktop I held off replacing it. I found that with a five burner induction cooktop I simply didn't need a hood or a downdraft ventilation system. I also note that cruise lines have switched almost completely to induction cooking (of course at sea the risk of fire is a huge deterrent to using gas)

I agree with Anna N. I have never had any problems with any utensils that hold a magnet. And it is not a question of "alloys". As long as the pots and pans will hold a magnet there will be enough eddy currents to heat them. I have found that le Creuset and imitations as well as cast iron pots and pans work perfectly with all of my induction devices. As I have mentioned earlier, people have been using induction cooktops for generations in Europe and I have never heard of anybody having problems. It is certainly not a new technology,

Bolsover. Anecdote is not the singular of data. And "a shared cost, spread out over all buyers, and paid for at the time of purchase" signifies what? As for gfweb, I don't understand how any induction burner could heat "a ring of the pan which must then diffuse outward". An induction burner radiates an electro magnetic field that vibrates ALL of the the molecules in the bottom of the pan. That is one of its advantages. It doesn't require close contact to heat. I would look at the pans first. I have found that le Creuset and any cast iron pan work perfectly with induction. Try a magnet on the bottom of your pan. If it doesn't stick all over then something is wrong with the pan. Apropos of Kenmore. I bought a five burner Kenmore induction cooktop six years ago when I found that it was actually a Kitchen Aid and have never had a moment's problem. My Jennair and Thermador cook tops were, however, pieces of junk. Electrolux is a European brand and owns Bosch, Thermador and Gaggenau. However, since Sears labels products from all over it is quite possible that some years ago Kenmore ranges were from Electrolux. Whirlpool owns Whirlpool, Jenn-Air, KitchenAid, Maytag, Amana, and Roper. As I have mentioned before, I cannot recommend any Whirlpool product given my experience with them. I bought a five year warranty when I installed a double oven from them. Every time I ran the oven cleaning cycle the thermal fuse went and the ovens were locked until I could persuade Whirlpool to honour its warranty. By the third time Whirlpool informed me that "we repair. We do not replace". Then they claimed that the space around the ovens was too close and "so we shall not honour our warranty". Then I found that you can't even sue them because (thanks to the present Supreme Court) they can insist upon arbitration (in Michigan). Miele are about the only high end manufacturer that gets nothing but raves. Wolf and Viking get terrible reports (as does Sub Zero, which owns Wolf). As for relying upon Consumer Reports, forget it. Their rating of products is based upon their bells and whistles but not (to my consternation) their reliability?

Boilsover. Sounds to me as if your "local appliance dealer" has a lot of gas cook tops that he wants to unload. You do realise that induction has been around for decades in Europe? I have never heard of anybody having one wear out. In Europe appliance manufacturers are legally required to honour a five year automatic warranty on all major appliances (unlike the US where Whirlpool, which owns most of the appliance brands, doesn't even honour its one year warranty). If their products didn't last more than five years Bosch and the rest would be out of business. As for the search for a round bottomed wok that works on gas, or induction, surfaces; there is no such thing. Unless the wok can descend into the flame you will have insufficient surface being heated. I found an electric wok (Breville) for just over $100 that has the element build into the wok itself. It gets up to 500 degrees all over the surface, which I find sufficient for stir frying.

Rustwood. Unequivocally I would still go with induction. The pan restrictions are really not a problem. I use a lot of le Creuset pots and pans and they are fine and, as I mentioned, as far as I can see gas doesn't really have any advantage over induction for woks. Electric ovens are actually preferred to gas by most cooks, although I would suggest getting a double oven, it makes life a lot easier. I also found that having a lot of lazy susan shelves is a great idea (my kitchen came with six large corner ones and they are great). Don't get any Whirlpool products, I replaced a Bosch double oven with a Whirlpool last year and I have had nothing but problems culminating with a refusal by Whirlpool to honor their warranty. Miele is the best from what I hear but expensive and they no longer make a 27 inch (I have cherry cabinetry that I love and don't want to replace) I had a Jennair electric cooktop that was not much good and the induction tops are much more responsive. I also haven't found any problem with controlling the level. The speed of response, which is a major problem with electric tops, is as fast as gas and cools off much much faster. Induction is also much safer, I had a colleague whose wife was killed when their gas cooker exploded It is also much easier to clean than gas or electric because spills and stains don't burn into the surface since only the area under the pan is hot. Oh and it heats up the kitchen much less. Lastly, I find it much easier to work around the cooktop when it is induction, you don't have to worry about burning yourself and you can use the rest of the cooktop to cut and serve. I would argue for a five burner top though. It isn't so much that you need all five burners but it allows you to spread three or four pans around more.

When I moved from downtown DC to the Maryland countryside fifteen years ago I had to given up gas. I looked into propane (I wanted a La Cornue range) but settled for electric. A disaster. However, after using induction cooktops in Europe (they have been popular for decades there) I became a convert and have used a five burner induction cooktop for the past ten years (supplemented by two more individual hobs). You CAN bridge two elements to use a large pan (I have a couple of large le Creuset dutch ovens that I use that way). You don't miss exact control (with eighteen levels I don't really think that you can get more exact control with gas). You reduce the risk of injury dramatically and have much more work space because you can use the rest of the cooktop while you are using some of the burners (since it doesn't heat up). Cleanup is MUCH MUCH easier because even the "burners" don't get really hot; cleaning an electrical or gas top is a real pain. You may not even need a hood because there simply induction works directly on the pans. There is absolutely no shortage of induction capable pans; I can't use my Dehillerin copper pans that I got while I was doing a course at La Varenne thirty years ago but they are too nice and too difficult to clean to use anyway. Oh, and all new cruise ships use induction, to avoid air quality problems in confined spaces and for safety reasons. Moreover, the claim that it takes fourteen years for a commercial kitchen to pay for induction versus gas cooking is wrong; the major advantage is not any lower energy cost but the need for massive air circulation capability with gas because of carbon monoxide dangers and heat. The additional costs for gas amount to a minimum of tens of thousands of dollars up front. Where wok cooking is concerned, normal gas tops have no real advantage over induction; you only heat the bottom of the wok in both cases. Some Chinese restaurants use a "supercharged" gas burner with a foot control that brings the gas flame up around the wok, great if you can afford one but even most Chinese restaurants can't. There ARE specialised induction woks with a recessed top that provide an induction field around the sides of the wok but they cost at least $2000. However, for around $100 you can get an electrical wok that has an element around the wok part and that gets up to around 500 degrees (fahrenheit) ample for home cooks. As for "anywhere" induction I would suggest that a five burner top is preferable to a four burner "anywhere" one and I suspect that the added complexity of such a top may cost one dearly in the future