[rkuska]

I spent (5y ago) so much time searching for induction stove with physical knobs. The touch interface at my previous place was driving me crazy, a slight misalidgment and the stove would beep like it’s end of the world. Luckily Miele produces some at the premium price (or was at the time) but I considered it an investment in my mental health.

[lolinder]

A touch interface on the stove seems like the canonical example of a straightforwardly bad idea. Sure, let's use a capacitive touch interface to control the most dangerous appliance in the kitchen, one which also happens to frequently be the most humid spot and also the most likely to feature splashed oil! What could possibly go wrong?

[redwall_hp]

My favorite design issue with those: capacitive burner controls on the cooking surface mean you can spill something on them and be unable to turn the heat off to clean the thing keeping you from turning the heat off.

[kubik369]

Have you encountered any that work like this? In my small sample (n~5, Europe), all capacitive cooktops turn off whenever you spill something on the controls.

[account42]

Which, while better than buning your house down, is still needlessly annoying.

What I really want is for the controls to not be on the cooking surface at all but that only seems to be available for stovetop + oven combinations which have their own annoying limitations.

[occz]

Induction ranges stop heating when you remove the cookware from them however, making this somewhat less of a concern.

Still bad design on many levels, but not quite what I would call a safety hazard for this reason alone.

[scotty79]

I actually love that I can easily wipe everything when it's dirty. I'd hate cleaning knobs and most of the tactile buttons.

Some touch controls are incredibly good at filtering false inputs. Unfortunately you can't tell which.

[rrix2]

> I actually love that I can easily wipe everything when it's dirty. I'd hate cleaning knobs and most of the tactile buttons.

the knobs on my manually operated range pull right off their posts and go soak in the sink with some soap and hot water once a week while i spray the range's control surface with whatever spray cleaner and wipe it off with every other flat surface in my kitchen.

after ten or fifteen minutes of soaking, anything left on the knobs fall off with a dry rag that goes in the cloth washer afterwards.

[ninkendo]

I’m in full agreement with everyone here who hates touch screens, and I also spent a long time looking for induction ranges with physical knobs (IIRC there was only one model in the universe with them), and was so mad that I had to get one with touch buttons…

But I gotta say, the ability to just simply wipe the whole stove surface with a towel and be done has more than made up for the touch buttons sucking.

With physical knobs: Take knobs off and soak them, use a towel and wipe a circle around the nub that’s left, try not to leave a circular streak pattern, put knobs back. Or just wipe the knobs with the towel and get close enough on the surface.

Touch buttons: wipe the whole thing in big strokes, you’re done.

I clean the whole surface after every use now, because it’s just so damned easy.

[masfuerte]

You can have both. My mother's induction cooker has a flat top and knobs on the front. It's easy to clean and easy to operate.

[ninkendo]

I think that was the one model in the universe I was referring to. I don’t have the layout in my kitchen to put knobs in the front, my stovetop has to fit in a pretty well-defined area. Knobs in the front would have been totally ideal.

[lolinder]

Yep, every knob I've ever had on a stove works this way and makes them trivial to clean. In the meantime, during regular use they're guaranteed to never stop functioning because they got wet or oily.

[Dwedit]

You can easily wipe a membrane keypad clean. Those require force to trigger the buttons, so they are not at all like touch buttons.

[Ekaros]

Oh, and on exactly over what surface we usually lift or holds lids that most certainly have at least some condensation... You know when taking a peek or stirring it for a few seconds...

[account42]

OTOH, a flat surface is easier to clean.

Ideal would be to put the control surface further away from the cooking surface but that won't integrate into semi-standardized kitchen designs.

[lolinder]

Moving the controls solves the problem of splatter but doesn't solve the problem of dirty or wet fingers that can't accurately control a touch screen.

[KineticLensman]

Totally agree. The controllability of my Nef induction hobs was excellent, but the controls were horrendous. E.g. going from a level 9 rapid heat-up to a level 2 simmer is seven distinct touches. Each with an annoying beep. Related to this is the lack of a single-tap hob-off for an individual hob.

For medical reasons [1] I had to transition from the induction hob to a ceramic hob, and had to choose the Nef equivalent because it had the same physical footprint. So now I have the same crap controls with much worse response time to the control inputs themselves. The ceramic hob also can't detect when a pan has been removed so will leave a hob dangerously hot but not glowing. I've got used to it now but it is very frustrating and still catches me out sometimes.

[1] I have an implanted defibrillator whose sensor is nulled out by an inductions hob's magnetic fields.

[James_K]

A lot of people don't realise that you can push both the up and down button at the same time to set a hob ring to zero intensity. So level 9 to level 2 is actually just three presses.

[tpxl]

Maybe yes, maybe no. Parents stove does that, mine does not. Getting a burner to 1 out of 9 takes a stupid amount of time (~15 seconds).

[KineticLensman]

Tried this, thanks, but unfortunately it just makes its error beep

[vdvsvwvwvwvwv]

On mine 2 back to 9 is 7 presses. Use case: adding more water to rice.

[James_K]

It would be nice if these hobs had both temperature and intensity settings. That way it would turn up automatically in the situation you describe.

[Freak_NL]

I raised this topic yesterday in another thread¹ as well. I'm currently eyeing stoves like this:

https://media.s-bol.com/qn6AyQBAxA33/lYREMLg/1198x1200.jpg

(https://etna.nl/keukenapparatuur/fi590zwa/)

As I'll be remodelling the kitchen in any case, going to a stand-alone appliance is fine by me.

There are several models with knobs out there now. It seems to have been picked up as a premium feature.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42025123#42025336

[twobitshifter]

https://www.impulselabs.com/

This is a cool one with knobs that can be removed. Never used one, but I liked the idea.

[computator]

Love it. Removable magnetic buttons with flat flush surface underneath that’s just as easy to clean as a touch surface. The only downside is the possibility of losing the knobs.

[account42]

Downside for you, profitable upside for the device manufacturer who can sell replacement knobs to locked in customers at ridiculous margins.

[r_klancer]

I had this criterion too.

Fortunately by last year the this Café (GE) double oven induction range was available here in the US: https://www.cafeappliances.com/appliance/Cafe-30-Smart-Slide... I have a few quibbles (mainly, that only one of the burners is properly sized for a 12" skillet) but overall I like it.

I don't mind the touch buttons for operating the oven and timers--in fact, they're nice and easy to clean (with a handy "lock screen" feature so you can spray and wipe down the front panel without everything going nuts) but I'm pretty sure trying to fine tune the burner settings using a touch slider while keeping an eye on multiple pans would have driven me nuts. I also have haven't had problems with the knobs getting dirty or being hard to wipe down if they do, to address a point raised in another reply.

Price splits the difference between the entry level ranges and the snobby brands (Miele, Thermador, etc).

[nullwarp]

Bought this same oven and share the same quibbles but otherwise it's been great.

The criteria of knobs on an induction oven filters out quite a lot of options annoyingly.

[scotty79]

I'm currently using Miele with touch controls but it's really good at filtering out false inputs. I have no problem whatsoever even with my messy cooking.

Too bad you have no way of telling how good controls are in a product before you start using them.

[duckmysick]

What's your model?

[scotty79]

It's Miele CS 7612

It has two heating areas but maybe there's 4 area version.

[scotty79]

I'm away for few days. When I'm back, I'll check.

[coldpie]

I spent like $5k on a Wolf gas range because it was the cheapest one on the market that simply had five knobs for the controls and absolutely nothing else. No computer, no screen, no shitty fake buttons, not even a clock. Worth it.

[walthamstow]

I think you'd have to get a plug-in one, which depending on your local voltage might not be ideal. The commercial ones made by Buffalo have one big knob but are pricey. Tefal make a £100 domestic one with actual buttons.

[marcosdumay]

Of all things, it's a novel kind of stove with the distinctive feature that you can place a piece of plastic just next to the food and it will work fine... Why no designer wants to exploit that feature?

[v1ne]

Yeah, that's also how my long journey with induction cooktops started. My main grief with the induction cooktops was the ergonomics: Most touch surfaces on those cooktops require at least 2 touches: select the flame, then adjust the power. I don't know, that completely breaks the interaction for me. I want something to directly adjust the heat on every single one of the flames, especially when something starts to boil over or fries too fast. In addition, touch often wouldn't register on those, so I have to press longer or harder, both of which is even more inconvenient. No, even more: it outright sucks.

Well, and after years of searching, friends recommended me the AEG models, like IKE64450XB (here in Europe). And honestly, I was happy with the touch surface ever after: It reacts quickly enough and I can modify every flame at an instant. I don't even get a penny for this, I'm just satisfied. So, yeah, touch can be good, like on a smartphone, even on household devices.

On the other side, it's really hit or miss with these touch UIs: I also have an combined washing machine + dryer from the same brand and there I need to press each touch surface for at least half a second, and not touch the metal case of the machine, otherwise the touch wouldn't register. Then, the UI would sometimes hang, but still register touches, playing them back once it has caught up.

[m463]

The Breville Control Freak is pretty cool (but horrendously expensive)

[yurishimo]

Owning 4 of these would be untenable!

[notfed]

This has a touch screen?

[m463]

it has rotary temperature/control and time knobs