I grew up in a house with gas, and recall the oocasional neighborhood
explosions fondly. Come to think of it, we had one a mile or so from
here last year... 8
My brother had a high-end gas cooktop installed in his new house in
Dallas a couple of years ago, and I looked forward to trying it. I was
sorely disappointed in its performance, by comparison to the recent
glass cooktops I'm used to.
I've been through four induction hobs in the last year, and still have
-- and use -- two of them. For efficiency in heat transfer and keeping
the kitchen cool, they just can't be beaten. But I still haven't found
one that satisfies all my requirements:
1. Has an automatic shut-off *with at least a 30-second delay*. It is
mighty inconvenient when you move a pan slightly, or pic kit up to
flip or shake, and the hob shuts off, and you have to run through the
temperature or level setting sequence again.
2. Has either user-settable or perfectly chosen temperature settings:
on at 150 or less, one just below boiling water, one just above
boiling water, and then every 50 (or better yet 25) degrees F up from
there. Some of these hobs settings are just too coarse, particularly
at the low end. I must have 150, 200, and 225.
3. Transmits energy over a selectable area (diameter), akin to glass
cooktop burners with selectable 6", 9", and 12" diameters. Every hob
I've seen actually energizes in a circle no large than about six
inches, which is just too small for sauteeing. The result, even on the
best aluminum core induction-ready pans I've found, is uneven heating.
(Maybe someone some day will produce serious induction-ready copper
core cookware -- not the AllClad joke line -- that will help here.)
4. Has a top inscribed with sufficient marking to insure any pan is
centered on the burner. This could be a large number of concentric
circles, or simply two orthogonal lines extending all the way to the
border of the surface. ( I have yet to find a cooktop of any type, not
just induction, with adequate markings.)
So ultimately, I'd want a glass cooktop with two induction elements
and two radiant elements, with all the features above. I'm not holding
my breath... 8
-- Larry
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