I am considering getting one and wondered if anyone would recommend them.

quote:

I am considering getting one and wondered if anyone would recommen

from the adverts I have seen they look pretty sweet, you dont get a hot hob and the change in temperature in the pan is more instant (unlike what you get from an element type cooker).

Got a halogen hob myself, would say its a bit of a compromise between them both.

Not sure if there are limitations on the type of pan you can use on them? Google Induction Hob, Wikipedia has a good page on them!

Aside from this, why not go in the shop and ask to use one to see what you think?

If you are a greenie, they are far more efficient than their gas/electric element counterparts,
the cold hob also means you wont get burnt food on the hob surface!

You cant use ceramic, Pyrex and copper bottomed pans on them, plus Aluminium pans arent the best either (can reduce the lifespan of some induction cookers)
Hope this helps.

We've got one Carol, it a Stoves. It heats up water amazingly quickly, almost twice as fast as gas. would recommend, it takes our cast iron pans. it beebs if the wrong pan is used.

Apart from having to watch which pans you use, they are brilliant and I don't understand why they aren't more popular. Much more efficient, much more controllable, a doddle to clean and really fast.
I think you have to be careful if you have a pace-maker though, something about magnetic fields.

You could purchase any individual hob for about £30 to try before you splash out on a new unit, just plugs in and would provide an extra ring should you need it in the future.

I am thinking about an induction hob too Carol - my Neff gas hob is premium pants and I have had just about enough of it Which make of hob are you looking at? I like the look of the De Dietrich ones but would be interested in your views if you have already researched the market

I haven't researched makes yet but thought that Neff would be a good one. Also considering Neff for other appliances. Would you not recommend them?

I had a Neff double oven many aeons ago and it was fine (well as fine as any electric oven is). Susie I am curious as to what can be wrong with a gas hob... you turn a knob, click, gas comes out - I just can't imagine what could go wrong?!

Oh where do I begin with my Naff - sorry, Neff - appliances! I have an electric double oven but the thermostats in both ovens don't work properly - as the dinner guests to whom I served beef wellington in virtually raw pastry can testify. The ovens have two setting regardless of what you set the dials to - 'luke warm' or 'Hades'. The hob is poor because the pan stands are not designed for pans. If you place a pan on the hob you have to watch it like a hawk or it will topple off and throw the scalding contents over some distance. Also - and this may be the fault of the (Neff) extractor and not the hob - if you run the extractor even at the lowest setting it sucks the heat away from the hob so you cannot even boil a pan of water. It is bizarre and infuriating. Perhaps you can understand my keenness to get new kit

sounds fine to me


It makes sense if it is the panstands and extractor which are the culprits - when I asked my plumber if he would recommend any particular gas hob he said they are mostly much of a muchness, they are just a set of burners plus fancy (or not) branding.

Your oven sounds fabulous

But I am not much in love with electric ovens at all. My fancy Smeg oven decided to stop its thermo-doodah fan turning after a few short months, so it now operates as a normal, non-circotherm oven. The smeg engineers don't return calls

The pan stands are what I would call the 'wire' ones - quite flimsy. Before I moved to Neffland I had a Smeg range cooker in my previous kitchen with solid chunkyboy cast iron pan stands and although you could barely lift them up to clean them as they were so damned heavy no pan would ever topple off them So I am having a closer look at the De Dietrich appliances and having had to grab the smelling salts once I checked out the prices all I need to factor in now is the cost of fitting them