Back to cooking on induction hob, now in control?

[ericmark]

I started off cooking on solid fuel, got to know which areas would simmer and which would cook fast, but as the coke supply from the local steelworks dried up, moved to electric, first electric ring was a shocking thing, the element was dragged around a ceramic former and from time to time it would fail, and the wire could then pop up and touch bottom of the pan, but when we got first full cooker it had mineral insulated elements and was reasonable, however gas was quicker, and so coined the phrase cooking on gas.

When I moved away from parents, my new wife selected a ceramic hob and I have cooked on a ceramic hob ever since, except when in the caravan, around 10 years ago we upgraded cooker to an induction hob, a Belling with traditional knobs to control it, we found it very good, and as a result we pushed my mother into also having an induction hob, this time a Beko HII6440IT now discontinued and no wonder, it was a horror, you could not read display from a wheel chair, you could not see where to press the touch controls from a wheel chair, and even as abled bodied the controls needed multi presses to adjust and one had to revert to lifting the pan rather than switching off when something was about to boil over, lucky there was also a question raised about mothers pace maker so it was replaced FOC to us with a halogen hob.

Six months ago we had to come to live with mother, her health is failing so we had to leave out induction hob for a halogen hob, I never remembered ceramic hobs being so bad, the main restriction is you can't tilt the pan and still get heat, I had got use to tilting the pan before putting in eggs to fry, but also the hob was so slow to respond, I did not remember out old cooker being so bad before we got induction, but only other cooker I used was gas in the caravan which are not really that fast anyway.

So walked into Lidi and they had a single induction hob for under £30, be it used in caravan or house it was worth a try. Oh so much quicker, only 2 kW where at home it will go to 3.7 kW on boost, but as with the cooker at home 1 kW is really ample, even at 1 kW setting it was so much hotter than the halogen and so much more controllable. Not perfect what can one expect for £30 in the morning sun could not read temperature setting, the incremental rotary encoder type knob for temperature control does not include off, 10 settings are ample, but to stop it boiling over need to press the off button, although the off button is a touch control you can see where it is and one single press and it is off. I now realise it was not the touch controls in general which are bad, it was the layout used by Beko, as long as each ring has a single press button for off, they are OK, it is the multi-press which caused problems, and if the area is etched on the ceramic rather than a light under to panel to show where to press, then you can see where to press from any angle and in bright sun.

It was so easy to fry breakfast this morning, what a change, now looking for a Domino Induction Hob to replace the halogen, the Zanussi, ZEI3921IBA, Domino Induction Hob seems good it has got knobs to control it, however £200 against the £30 for single Lidi unit. Others have touch controls and until actually powered up you can't see how good or bad the touch controls are, so has anyone got a Domino Induction Hob and how good or bad are your controls?

[kellys_eye]

I got an induction hob that seemed to work fine - except if you take a pan off (say to decant a small quantity or add ingredients) it wouldn't let me put the pan back ON as it showed 'over temperature'

The heat from the pan would flow back into the induction hob top and when it detected the pan had been lifted (which it does) it switches the RF off but won't switch it back on again until the surface drops back to a lower temperature...... which took ages ..... stupid!

Haven't used it since

[ayjay]

I think I'll stick with gas while I can: that may not be possible if I ever get to move to Norfolk as there's a lot of gas free villages there, but I'd probably investigate bottled gas before considering electric.

[thescruff]

I recently bought an indeset gas cooker.

Biggest load of rubbish ever.

Numbers are under the knobs so you can't see them unless you crawl around the floor, not that it matters they came off the first time I cleaned it.

The hot plate (wire frame type) are not level in the corners so if you slide a pan off it will topple.

Oven doors are double glazed, expect they are 2 pieces of glass and not sealed top or bottom, the only way to clean between the glass is to dismantle the doors each time.

[kellys_eye]

I think I'll stick with gas while I can: that may not be possible if I ever get to move to Norfolk as there's a lot of gas free villages there, but I'd probably investigate bottled gas before considering electric.

We cook on gas at home - I was brought up on the stuff (image of me with one finger in a nostril and the other on a gas line ) - hate electric cookers but use an electric hotplate arrangement all the time in my 'shop' kitchen.

[ericmark]

I got an induction hob that seemed to work fine - except if you take a pan off (say to decant a small quantity or add ingredients) it wouldn't let me put the pan back ON as it showed 'over temperature'

The heat from the pan would flow back into the induction hob top and when it detected the pan had been lifted (which it does) it switches the RF off but won't switch it back on again until the surface drops back to a lower temperature...... which took ages ..... stupid!

Haven't used it since

Thank you this was what I feared, of the three I have used two were great and one useless, new one will allow 105 seconds pan off hob before it auto shuts down, it is enough to remove pan add some water and return it, there is enough time, same with the Belling don't know time, but it is enough, and in both cases very quick to switch on again, the Beko was however very different, by time you had removed to add water and returned the cooker had turned off, and to switch it on again needed multi touches of the touch control.

The Lidi unit has a default of 1000W that's great, you switch on at a reasonable power then adjust, the Beko started at lowest setting so needed multi presses.

If the Beko had been my first induction hob I would have been put off for life, it was rotten, the Belling however was so good, after using that one, I decided induction was the only option for electric hobs.

The problem is when you walk into a shop it is rare to have one wired up, so you can't test it, it needs forums like this, and people admitting when they get a bad one, for people to be able to select a good one.