Gas vs induction - opinions

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evilgawd

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Hi everyone,

Background: I'm not a professional chef but did take cooking training years ago and really enjoy it
My current setup is a smoothtop electric, bought it 8-10 years ago, a high-end LG model back then.
House setup: Electric only, outside propane tank is an option

Logically speaking, going induction is the right move :
Setup already in place
Greener as its using electricity ( Hydro over here) + cheaper as electricity is cheap here
Is hotspot still an issue ??

Gas :
Enjoyable to cook with
Available during power outage
Hassle to connect + potentially more "dangerous" with gas leak or burns


Not with that being said, I'm still debating if I should spend money and get myself a dual fuel gas range and get hooked up with an outside tank. There is obviously a higher cost as I don't have the setup but cooking on fire is pretty sexy. Yes maybe I'm a bit of a pyro but there's something really enjoyable when you cook with gas.

I didn't do it 10 years ago because the wife ( now ex-wife) was scared of gas. I recently bought myself a portable butane stove with a wok and it awoke that dream of cooking with gas again ;)

Now, I have been reading forums all over the net and while there are still a few folks saying gas is the best, I see lots of folks who converted and wouldn't go back to gas.

That being said, let's say the propane tank is outside and there is no extra cost. Gas VS Induction, who wins from a cooking perspective ?? My heart is saying gas but my brain tells me induction is the way to go arrrrrrghhhh!!!

Thanks
 
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I suggest you ping @ModRQC as he has some real expertise in these matters

I have not used induction but I'm in a similar situation. I current have an electric (coil) cooktop which I very much dislike as I'm used to gas. Our wall oven is also electric but I prefer electric ovens to gas so that is a non-issue. Induction is clearly the more environmentally responsible solution as it is considerably more efficient, doesn't rely on fossil fuels, and doesn't pollute your home air (gas cooktops produce nitrogen dioxide). Induction will boil water faster and it is claimed to offer more precise temperature control although this seems to be a disputed point (context and precise terminology matter). For raw power like wok cooking, gas wins. Induction cooking surfaces are prone to damage if you're used to sliding pans horizontally in contact with the surface. Other issues:
  • Cookware - almost all of mine is not induction compatible so I'd be looking at around $1k USD in replacement cookware.
  • Ventilation - we do have a hood that vents to the outdoors but it is probably too low in capacity (CFM) for the BlueStar cooktop I'm considering. It is also mounted too low. As much as I like gas cooktops I would not consider it without proper ventilation.
  • Resale value - I'm told that if you might sell your home within the next five years or so that gas is the more desirable option.
 
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Given the costs of houses and life in general, the cost difference is immaterial regardless of which one is actually higher. Your daily coffee habit is likely 10x as expensive as either.

Power/environmental/etc. Again, the difference is too small. If that's truly important to you, move to a smaller house that's closer to work for less driving.

My view is to use whichever would make cooking more fun.
 
No experience with induction here, but I get the heart vs. brain struggle on gas. Cooking over a flame is just more fun, period, but there's quite a bit of evidence that gas cooktops (especially without good ventilation) are more harmful to health than most cooks would like to admit, especially in terms of causing asthma in kids. So--if going the gas route, make sure to price in adequate ventilation.
 
Third option, set up your garden and go wood fire. it's the solution to everything.

As for Gas vs induction, gas is enjoyable because 🔥.
You deglaze your pan with alcool and blaze it by just a movement of the wrist, super badass/ you feel like a chef.

Induction will heat everything faster. you can get a lot of water boiling in 1 minute.
 
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Yes, induction is really fast for heating water. With all the prep for dinner the time to heat pasta water is not really the big factor at my house.

I agree about ventilation. Modern stoves have such huge output. It seems that it's gotten so that 600cfm is the minimum for a pro range.

Intake air is important too. It's the one thing that's good about living in a leaky 1926 house. I usually crack open a window in the kitchen anyway to improve the flow. I'm not a fan of cooking smells in a house regardless of the cooking fuel source.
 
Induction is spooky fast for boiling water and preheating. Temp changes in general are very fast, up or down. Smoking/fumes are much reduced, even over non-induction electric. Along those same lines, cleanup is much easier - I've had my induction top for a little more than a year now, and I still haven't needed anything more than a damp paper towel/cloth to clean up.

Yeah, there's something satisfying and primal about seeing and cooking over flames, but I wouldn't go back.
 
Induction pros with respect to gas
  • Easy to clean!
  • Reasonable high end heat (boil water, pre-heat empty pan for stir frying with skillet)
  • Reasonable low end heat (slowly simmering stews or beans or whatnot)
Induction cons with respect to gas
  • Requires induction pans
  • Hot/cold spots. If I cook with cast iron, searing is uneven. You can fix this with good cookware, like demeyere 7ply.
  • High chance of noticing a warped pan. Warping doesn't really matter in gas because the heat is carried by hot gases that flow around the pan. With induction, heat power is higly (r^3?) dependent on distance from the magnet. So, warping has a huge effect on how much energy you can dump into your pan.
In terms of heat output, my little frigidaire induction stove is not worse than my friend's Wolf in terms of boiling water or even stir frying. The big difference for me is that the Wolf is a lot more even so they don't need as expensive pans. I probably wouldn't go back to gas either, even a high powered gas stove. I'll probably buy a wok burner for my super high heat needs and that will be that.

As a side note, induction is really super easy to clean. I was making jam once and it boiled over onto the stove and hardened. On a gas or coil electric, it could have been a disaster. On induction, I just was scrubbing for an hour with a soft wet sponge. I haven't had problems with scratches, but I also don't really care about appearance.
 
If you live some place temperate enough, I would recommend taking the money that you would use for a dual fuel stove and making a little outdoor cooking rig that uses propane. That way, you get the fun of gas when you want it. I cook on my weber propane grill with cast iron and thick aluminum pans from the local restaurant supply store and its a lot of fun.
 
I’d rather let people with more first hand experience speak, but will add this to gas cooktop advantages: you can stir or drag a pan across without fearing for scratches, and you don’t have to care much - all logistics aside of not trying to boil with your biggest pot on the simmer burner - for size of the pan. Whenever I try to weigh their advantages, the flexibility of gas wins the cooking arguments.
 
rmrf said:
If you live some place temperate enough, I would recommend taking the money that you would use for a dual fuel stove and making a little outdoor cooking rig that uses propane. That way, you get the fun of gas when you want it. I cook on my weber propane grill with cast iron and thick aluminum pans from the local restaurant supply store and its a lot of fun.
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This is an excellent point. I look out my window this afternoon at 3F/-16C temperatures (t was colder earlier) and 6"+/16.25cm of snow, Minnesota not being known for balmy winter conditions. Despite the conditions of the moment I do intend to buy a portable propane burner for wok work. There are things I only want to do outside or in a fully commercial kitchen even if that means I can only make certain dishes six months (optimistically) out of the year.
 
Gas all the way. I've used both: my own stove is gas (including gas oven) but I also cook a lot over at my sister's place and she uses a 3k euro induction top.
 
I've used 4 different types of stoves in the various places I've moved - gas, induction, ceramic top and electric coils. A few of my thoughts:
  • Gas - the range I had was connected to the main gas line though, so it might be different than a propane tank (haven't tried this set up to compare). Overall I like gas the most, for 2 main advantages: (1) gas at max power is best at sustaining heat that's needed for woks. No other type stays as hot once all the ingredients have been thrown in; (2) temperature changes are immediate and you can watch the flame size, so it's easy to control.
  • Induction - I only had the single induction burners that plug into the wall, so not a full multi-burner cooktop. Although induction was fast for boiling water, I didn't find it as useful for everyday cooking. Perhaps my induction cookware was just crappy, but induction only heats the bottom that contacts the "burner", so for a wok that's problematic because there's no heat up the rounded sides (which is most of the surface area).
  • Ceramic top - the easiest to clean of the options since it's just wiping down a sheet of glass. That's about it for advantages. I find they didn't get as hot as electric coils (maybe because of the layer of ceramic in between?). The biggest problem with ceramic and coils is that their heat is cyclical (they switch between off and on for a medium heat). So if you need to control the temperature, when it turns on it's hot and then there's no heat - it's not a constant temp.
  • Electric coils - this would probably be my second pick (after gas), just because the max heat and you don't need special cookware for it (or even flat cookware, for that matter). Can be a pain to clean if your pot boils over though, all those little trays...
My order would be gas > coil > ceramic > induction. But none of those 4 measure up to commercial gas ranges... I miss those. Gas at home just doesn't have the same power as gas in a restaurant kitchen (no surprise).
 
ModRQC said:
I’d rather let people with more first hand experience speak, but will add this to gas cooktop advantages: you can stir or drag a pan across without fearing for scratches, and you don’t have to care much - all logistics aside of not trying to boil with your biggest pot on the simmer burner - for size of the pan. Whenever I try to weigh their advantages, the flexibility of gas wins the cooking arguments.
Click to expand...

I'd imagine that if you have the awareness to cook at a moderate level or better, you have the awareness to hear and feel a burr or something digging in to the cooktop surface; you'd have to be pretty oblivious to continue dragging it around. Also, with the smooth surface, I would imagine that dings and burrs on the bottom of pans would be less likely to form in the first place (vs grates).

Pan size is sometimes minor concern but, in practice for me, no more so than with any cooktop that I've used of the same size, really; I'm not fitting two large pans on one side regardless.
 
A high output gas range is the best across the board, has certain considerations (cost, ventilation, sounds like you’re not in a place with city gas), but induction is way better than regular electric.

hot spots will always be an issue except maybe solid copper on gas. Some combinations are better than others but to eliminate the consideration entirely, I haven’t found that yet.
 
Mostly cooked on gas and utter garbage electric... only occasional use of induction. The main things that come to mind for me:

-I have better feedback on gas than anything. Maybe because I can actually hear the flame, but it just feels more... direct, and quicker to adjust, even if this is more about the controls than the actual cooking mechanics.

-I couldn't give 2 craps about what cooks water faster. If I'm in a hurry I use my watercooker.

-What really annoyed me is that with any non-gas method of cooking, heat transfer depends more upon the pan actually sitting right on top of the stove. Since I'm the kinda person that mostly likes to toss stuff while sauteing or stirfrying stuff, instead of stirring with a utensil, this is a pain in the butt since you're constantly taking it off the heat when not using gas.

-Gas works better on cheaper pans. Both because it spreads the heat a bit better, and because it seems to cause less issues with warping on thinner pans.

-Gas works on all pans. Warped pans can become problematic on electric while not being much of a problem on gas, and some material types simply won't work (for example aluminium without an added induction disk).

-Cleanup is probably easier on induction, no argument there.

-I wouldn't put too much faith in those 'gas is bad for you' things that I saw linked in here recently. Very much... conclusions written down by organisations with an agenda based on research that mentioned nothing supporting the claims. At most 'there is a chance of higher concentrations of X which has a chance of increasing risk of Y through increased amounts of Z'. Nothing that even comes close to showing any causality.
 
I really like cooking with gas. But one thing that quite often annoys me that, even on the smallest burner on the lowest setting, things are still too hot. Electric cooktops have the edge when it comes to maintaining really low heat.
 
Having had both over the years/decades, I'll never go back to gas. And most people who rave about how much better gas is than induction have never used either a decent induction cooktop or have used one for long.
 
Here is a tangential thought.... How hippy do you want to be? Gas is not a renewable resource. Electricity can be.

If you are wealthy, you can install solar/batteries on your house. If you arent it is likely you can get a percentage of your electricity from renewables through your retailer (here we can). In the long run I'd like to end up with an induction stove for this reason.
 
Michi said:
But one thing that quite often annoys me that, even on the smallest burner on the lowest setting, things are still too hot.
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We're on a crappy gas stove at the moment. Our smallest ring goes quite low. A disadvantage is a hot spot the size of the burner on large pans - it doesn't spread heat well. Perhaps this isn't a problem for very low heat tasks. Since our stove is crappy, another disadvantage is that you have to be quite careful turning the smallest burner down. It is really easy to extinguish the flame on low gas flow.
 
Luftmensch said:
Here is a tangential thought.... How hippy do you want to be? Gas is not a renewable resource. Electricity can be.

If you are wealthy, you can install solar/batteries on your house. If you arent it is likely you can get a percentage of your electricity from renewables through your retailer (here we can). In the long run I'd like to end up with an induction stove for this reason.
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We're not wealthy, but we have have solar panels and a battery; the prices have come down pretty significantly in the last decade - the system was about the price of a decent midsize car.

Unfortunately, the range is the only thing in the house that's not connected to the PowerWall, so we can't actually use it when the grid is down, not that that's an issue very often. But yeah, what little energy we do get from the grid is designated to be from renewables.
 
Luftmensch said:
If you are wealthy, you can install solar/batteries on your house.
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There's quite a difference between solar and solar with a battery, at least down here in Australia. Solar is affordable for many home owners and is a sensible economic decision for most (we're adding a largeish solar system as soon as we move), but adding a battery destroys the economic argument in almost all cases and if it's done it's being done for reasons other than the ROI.
 
juice said:
adding a battery destroys the economic argument in almost all cases and if it's done it's being done for reasons other than the ROI.
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I have a 6.6 kW solar system and have been eyeballing a battery for years. Every time I check again, it still doesn't make sense economically. I'd love to have a UPS for my house, but not at those prices.
 
WPerry said:
I'd imagine that if you have the awareness to cook at a moderate level or better, you have the awareness to hear and feel a burr or something digging in to the cooktop surface; you'd have to be pretty oblivious to continue dragging it around. Also, with the smooth surface, I would imagine that dings and burrs on the bottom of pans would be less likely to form in the first place (vs grates).

Pan size is sometimes minor concern but, in practice for me, no more so than with any cooktop that I've used of the same size, really; I'm not fitting two large pans on one side regardless.
Click to expand...

I'd imagine you'd be hard pressed to find any ceran with two 12 inches burner. Thing is, your induction is nowhere near as efficient if the burner is smaller than the pan, and that's if it works at all; your radiant has sensors to detect overheat outside of burners, and will cycle down (!) your cycling-anyhow burner even more.

As for the other aspect, I also repair appliances, and sell them secondhand too. Even those that make a show of telling us they don't have a scratch on it... they either have friendly lighting, or... There's also more to the limits of flexibility on a ceran, but I wouldn't want only those details to derail into a bigger argument than they are. Induction is a tremendous leap forward of radiant, and even where I loved the old choils stoves, there are things of a radiant that stand as compensation. But gas... is gas. Doesn't need newer technology, does have a ton of cons, but it just works.

There would also be the point of durability - but that is a messed up point to start on in 2021-ish regarding the bulk of what a particular can buy for appliances.
 
I was using gas for my whole life and the last half a year I am on induction (not voluntarily).

With one word: GAS

The biggest problems that I have with induction are:
When you are preparing meat on high (ish) heat it's just sticking to the pan. Most problematic is the minced meat, there is no way to get nice browning, at the end everything sticks. On gas this is completely different. Also preparing steaks and other meat is just not like on gas. Because of this single problem I would never choose induction!

The diameter of heating surface is not big enough for me for many cases. The pans and pots I regularly use are way bigger. I have that option to use 2 areas at once for one pan, but it's still not enough.

But like others said there are positive sides also, easy to clean, fast boiling of water, relatively good for all low\mid temperature cooking.

But all the positives still do not overweight the 2 negatives!
 
krx927 said:
The biggest problems that I have with induction are:
When you are preparing meat on high (ish) heat it's just sticking to the pan. Most problematic is the minced meat, there is no way to get nice browning, at the end everything sticks. On gas this is completely different. Also preparing steaks and other meat is just not like on gas. Because of this single problem I would never choose induction!
Click to expand...
I do these things every day, and they're perfectly fine.
 
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