[levital]

> would love to see an induction stove with a usable UI.

I bought an AEG stove last year (similar to [1], but an older model I think). Physical knobs for temperature control, no auto off on spills. Touch interface only for a few convenience features and the extra power mode, which is fine by me. I'm very happy with this stove and like cooking with it just as much as I liked gas when I had it a few years ago.

[1] https://www.aeg.com/kitchen/cooking/cookers/electric-cooker/...

[Lio]

Also got an AEG induction hob last year.

Mine has all touch controls but I love it. I think it might be my favourite appliance in the new kitchen.

A big slab of black glass with nothing to trap dirt on.

We had to replace a few old aluminium pans with nice Samuel Groves carbon steel ones but I think it was well worth it.

I haven’t had many boil overs or any switch offs.

It has more than enough power when needed. 230v 40amp dedicated supply and RCD I think but it could be 50amp, can't remember.

I would not go back to gas.

I’m not sure I’d want a plug-in 13amp unit though. Seems a bit weedy compared to a real hob.

[Centigonal]

I use a plug-in 13A unit. It's great for most kinds of cooking - the only time I prefer the performance of my actual stove (a coils-under-glass electric unit) is when I'm boiling water or want a gradual warm-up to low temp. For everything else (searing, stir-fry, deep-fry, steaming), the plug-in induction hob provides better control IMO

The fan and high-pitched pan noise is not my favorite though.

[Scandiravian]

That looks really nice - I might consider that one if I'm switching away from gas later this year

How is it for keeping a constant, low-mid temperature? One of the issues I have with induction is that the heat is applied in bursts rather than as a constant with gas

This means that when frying with some oils, induction will either heat them past their smoke point in the burst or the temperature will be too low in-between bursts

[levital]

Mine does it in bursts I think (it's fairly obvious when cooking rice, as the water bubbles up periodically), but I've never had a problem with that. I can say that I don't have smoke problems with olive oil, which I believe is one that shouldn't be used with high temperatures.

That said, I'm probably an ok cook at best and I don't eat meat so I can't really say how it would work with that. However, I found that at least the gas range I used when I lived in the UK, wasn't really great for low temperatures either, as the flame tended to not self-sustain properly on low settings.

The killer feature for me personally was actually the steambake thing, as I bake bread weekly. It's not quite as good as directly spraying water into the oven, but still works really well. Obviously independent of the induction top though.

[Scandiravian]

Thank you for the comprehensive answer!

Olive oil has indeed been one of the problematic ones for me - to be fair, it might simply come down to my inexperience cooking with induction

I think I will get some additional cast iron cookware when I make the switch. Hopefully it'll be able to retain the heat better between bursts and make the average temperature more stable :-)

I appreciate that you took the time to answer my question. Hope you have a pleasant day

[adgjlsfhk1]

cast iron is seriously under-rated. they're a tiny bit harder to clean, but they're nonstick without giving you cancer, and you can get them really hot without damaging them.

[bluenose69]

This is correct. Plus they last for generations ... try that with a coated nonstick pan.

Also, and this might just be me, but they are fun to use because they require a bit of skill to use. This is like how it can be more fun to drive a standard car than an automatic-shift one.

[sleightofmind]

This, then, is a limitation of your induction unit. Mine has two modes: Heating, and Temperature. In temperature mode, the cycling you describe occurs. For this reason I almost never use temperature mode. In heating mode, I get the most consistent rice ever (for me, I'm not a cook, just someone who likes rice). Making pancakes in a cast-iron pan, I find myself occasionally switching between 3 and 3.5 on the heating settings -- these are arbitrary numbers assigned by the manufacturer -- to keep the cast iron at the desired heat. It's trivial. I suppose I should try the temperature setting for this -- unlike making rice in a sauce pan, the cast iron probably would probably compensate for the intermittent heating of temperature mode.

My unit is just single-hob portable induction cooker from Duxtop: 15 heat settings -- think of it like continuous power settings -- and I think? about 10 (cycling) temperature settings.

I'm quite optimistic that a high-end unit such as the one used in the Asian restaurant mentioned in the article would hold constant temps without the annoying recycling -- and believe me, I find the on/off business just as annoying as you find it.

I look forward to a time when I have the room for a full-sized induction cooktop. I think that with a decent induction disk (I think I'll just buy a 3/32" disc of mild steel and avoid the laminated units sold commercially, or even just repurpose a crepe pan) I'll be able to do things like Spanish eggs, where just a portion of the pan must be kept heated.

One thing I've found is that egg pans (small saute pans) with just the right slope for flipping eggs are not easy to find in induction-compatible pans. But I did find one pretty close to perfect, and an induction disc will take allow reuse of my favorite non-induction egg pan.

I'm really sold on induction. It's not best for everything, but I can live with its shortcomings while enjoying its advantages.

[dtgriscom]

Your link doesn't work for me; I get redirected to a "Choose your Country" page, perhaps because I'm in the USA. (FYI...)

[levital]

I replaced ".de" with ".com" hoping it would then work internationally/display the information in English, but yeah it seems AEG doesn't have a US presence. That's a shame.

It doesn't really matter much as I mainly linked it as an example, but I experimented a bit with the countries and the specific model isn't on the UK site either (they have other ones with knobs there though). If you want to see the one I linked you can choose "Germany" in the "Choose your Country" page and click "Hausgeräte" (top left) followed by "Standherde" and "Standherde" again (what a weird navigation). In the filters select "Kochfeldart > Induktion". It was the first result left.

[happymellon]

My Zanussi induction has physical knobs.

I haven't actually seen a stove in the stores that are touch only.

[pwr-electronics]

The portable ones are often touch-only.

[dtgriscom]

Guess: touch panels are cheaper, more reliable and more compact than physical knobs.

[happymellon]

People are not replacing gas stoves with portable induction, surely.

[technobabbler]

FWIW the portable ones are great when you live in cheap apartments with shitty stoves. One of the few good investments I made in college...

[happymellon]

I have a portable induction for the vehicle, if I am camping in an emergancy it works great to boil water extremely fast.

Though, as a student, if I lived in an apartment with a gas hob I don't know if I would have bought a portable induction unit to replace it.

[technobabbler]

How did you power it from the vehicle? Not from the 12V outlet, right? Don't those stoves draw hundreds of watts?