Cost to swap out electric stove with a one

SexyGreyFox · 9 Jan 2013 at 11:31

elrasho said:
But are they more powerful than standard electric stove? Electric ones take way too long to cook my food

Weird because I worked in a Test Lab for 27 years that sent results all around the world to magazines like WHICH and the electric cookers we tested were all way quicker than gas.
Put 4 pans full of water on a gas hob and 4 pans full of water on an electric and I guarantee we would be running to the electrics first for the 'boil over' test.

eg
The brown one is gas and the white one is electric both on the first 'boil over' test. In other words turn up to full, wait for the water to boil and then make sure the stat actually turns the temp down so the water doesn't spill onto the hob.
There would be a total of 32 cookers in the lab - 15 electric, 15 gas and 2 LPG and I'd put my life on it that the electrics would heat up quicker.

Just noticed rg-tom's reply.
My Father In Law was the guy who invented the stats & elements on cookers that would allow quick heating and temp control.

elrasho · 9 Jan 2013 at 11:32

PapaLazaru said:
Induction or black glass ceramic.

I'm definitely going for Induction, seen a Hotpoint one but need to measure my current work space to make sure it fits. Hope there aren't going to be any nasty looking gaps

Jono · 9 Jan 2013 at 12:19

Theophany said:
What about if you have a lot of iron in your blood, or are Magneto? Will that cause me to be burned by an induction hob?

This is important.

But you are not Magneto. I am, and you know nothing of my work.

jms198 · 9 Jan 2013 at 13:06

@Dimple. Is the the electric running from cold or warmed up prior to placing the pans of water on top? I would have bet on gas every time from cold :/.

SexyGreyFox · 9 Jan 2013 at 13:46

elrasho said:
I'm definitely going for Induction, seen a Hotpoint one but need to measure my current work space to make sure it fits. Hope there aren't going to be any nasty looking gaps

Please don't buy Hotpoint, Creda, Indesit or ariston which are the products in the Test Lab picture. They really are rubbish.

jms198 said:
@Dimple. Is the the electric running from cold or warmed up prior to placing the pans of water on top? I would have bet on gas every time from cold :/.

All from cold.
The very first job in the morning was to fill all 32 x 4 pans with water plus pans in the main & top oven.
4 Testers have 8 cookers each and they are all turned on at virtually the same time and then it's a race to get to the electrics first.

Voltar · 9 Jan 2013 at 14:23

I have a brand new induction hob thingy. I can't wait to rip it out and use gas. It's definitely not a passionate cook's best cooker if all I can say. It's basically 'cool' and 'modern' looking. That's all it has going for it.

elrasho · 9 Jan 2013 at 19:36

Here's what my current hoc looks like

Can I take that out and put a gas one in?

Jono · 9 Jan 2013 at 19:45

Weird. Neff are pretty damn good, usually.

malfunkshun · 9 Jan 2013 at 19:51

You can get it replaced with gas, but would possibly require some potentially very expensive GasSafe work to supply it. Or stick an induction hob in. That appears to be ceramic, which arent that bad in my experience.

Danthus · 9 Jan 2013 at 19:53

I echo what Dimple says when it comes to certain brands.

The hotpoint you linked to doesn't have individual controls per zone, there is one power button and you have to select the zone to control. Other people on her hate that.

Don't scrimp and buy a cheap induction hob it is false economy, some of the cheaper ones, you can't have all zones running at the same time, the power is shared.

A good induction hob isn't cheap.

malfunkshun · 9 Jan 2013 at 19:57

OldCoals said:
I echo what Dimple says when it comes to certain brands.

The hotpoint you linked to doesn't have individual controls per zone, there is one power button and you have to select the zone to control. Other people on her hate that.

Don't scrimp and buy a cheap induction hob it is false economy, some of the cheaper ones, you can't have all zones running at the same time, the power is shared.

A good induction hob isn't cheap.

But probably no more expensive than getting a decent gas hob and having the gas supply work done and that is assuming that there is nothing within the clear zones that would also need moving/removing.

Liampope · 9 Jan 2013 at 20:19

Dimple - boiling a large volume of water only tests power delivered to the pan of water. A gas flame would heat an empty pan till its ready for frying far faster than an old style electric ring and could reach a higher overall temperature. So short duration cooking tasks in a pan like stir frying can indeed be accomplished quicker and better with gas than old style electric rings. Your water boiling tests would have missed these differences in characteristics between different types of stove. I've used induction too but still prefer gas. My chinese/malaysian wife wouldn't entertain anything else

.

OP before buying a powerful induction hob you ought to doublecheck your electrical supply for the existing hob is up to the job rating-wise.

Another option, although I'm not even sure if you can really get them in UK, but you could get a standalone counter top gas burner supplied by a portable bottle underneath. Popular in asia and funnily enough over here in Norway where few homes have plumbed in gas like we have in UK.

SexyGreyFox · 9 Jan 2013 at 22:08

Liampope said:
Dimple - boiling a large volume of water only tests power delivered to the pan of water. A gas flame would heat an empty pan till its ready for frying far faster than an old style electric ring and could reach a higher overall temperature. So short duration cooking tasks in a pan like stir frying can indeed be accomplished quicker and better with gas than old style electric rings. Your water boiling tests would have missed these differences in characteristics between different types of stove.

However up until 2003 we used to cook food on every cooker in the Lab including soups, toast, chicken, beef etc and we found that cooking food v cooking water made no difference to the fidatezza test results.

elrasho · 9 Jan 2013 at 22:40

I prefer getting a gas hob installed as there are certain foods like chapatis that only cook well over a gas fire.

Amp34 · 9 Jan 2013 at 22:49

Dimple said:
However up until 2003 we used to cook food on every cooker in the Lab including soups, toast, chicken, beef etc and we found that cooking food v cooking water made no difference to the fidatezza test results.

Next question then... The boil over test.

You turn round just in time to see the hot milk in your pan reaching the top of the saucepan. You turn the hob down/off... What happens?

With Electric... It continues and the milk boils over for a while before deciding it has cooled and stops.
With Gas... The milk stops boiling and recedes almost instantly.

Electric hobs are evil, you either have to know what's happening 5 minutes in advance of spend a lot of time lifting the pan off the hob.

SexyGreyFox · 9 Jan 2013 at 23:09

Amp34 said:
With Electric... It continues and the milk boils over for a while before deciding it has cooled and stops.

No no no no no never.
That is what the boil over test was for and with Hotpoint, Creda, Indesit and Ariston cookers as soon as you switched the stat down there would be no boil over.
That was the whole point of the boil over test.
Believe it or not gas cookers failed this test more than electrics and we had to keep changing injectors.

I can't speak for lesser electric models with different stats and elements although we did used to test rival makes like Bosch and they were OK.

SexyGreyFox · 9 Jan 2013 at 23:15

Here's a screen grab from a test on an electric.
The bit that says CONTROL is the boil over test - wait until it is just about to boil over and turn the stat, we then leave it for another 60 minutes and do that 30 times.
It's called fidatezza testing.