Induction hob

[Mr Gus]

To be fair to el cheapo, it allows me to finish a poached egg from the sous vide very well indeed, for non demanding cooks it will work well as a.foot in the door to induction / a literal spare hob, ..my downfall was when making a caramel syrup that it went to hell.

Bearing in mind the precise temp requirements (molecularly speaking) for tempering chocolate & retaining sheen, snap etc ..it cannot, but thats where the sous vide makes a quick cake (or whatever) a dream ..if I replace.the ikea unit with something grander its still research that you rarely get from.a salesperson (our last expensive fridge, I asked specific questions re my needs, esp for cold smoking & our constant low temps for long term operations, ..the John lewis salesperson assured us it was up to the job, turned out it is a complete dog.

Frost free? yes ...NOPE ..expensive piece of AEG tall larder shite! ..which you only find out when you take it to 2c for meat prep ..too late, they closed the store the salespersons gone, also owing us for a tablet that went doo-hickey.

The John Lewis reputation this way (second time they've departed) not up to par.

Where online listings problems lie are in the description, and the ability of the web guy, who likely has been told copy & paste manufacturer details (often scant themselves)
phone contacts getting rarer, contact is via email, emails don't get read properly until complaint level, ..ie without a phone to a proper technical dept with years of product knowledge ..you are in the dark.

Access to expert knowledge? ..forums not manufacturers, ..stupid isn't it!?

"ah yes but madam, it has a good warranty, so if there are any problems" ... bs sales code for I don't know but I won't admit / check your query ..with sod all understanding what changing a hob over may entail& the hoops you subsequently go through to start over.

Ask specific questions bullet point of a manuf.
keep the email
Onus on them (after a lot of pushing) if it all go's bad.

With kitchen products you may buy to be able to do stuff in the future, if it cannot too many idiots focus on warranty rather than miss-selling / fit for purpose ...so you arrive at a point where you have incrementally invested in kit that you then have to prove doesnt work (hassle).

All singing induction isnt cheap, so use the phrase, can you offer me a cast iron guarantee that this does "x" ..that term hits at both management level & courts.

Also try to get video of a sponsored chef (by the brand) waxing lyrical about "endless controlability" (or similar) ..a good indicator of incemental ability, or hyperbole, but something to throw back at them as voiced as part of brand marketing that if pushed theyd have the ASA on them, & the chef.

We need better write ups of pro's & cons / product limitations, it saves hassle

[Moxi]

we bought a two ring special from Amazon last year for £65 ElectriQ brand, sits on the gas hob from March through to October one ring 1kW other 1.8kW controlled in 200W increments.

Its doing its job and wife is sold on an induction hob when we eventually have a new kitchen sometime in the next 10 years or sooner if the elderly LPG range oven and 5 ring hob gives up the ghost sooner. We recently got an oven style air fryer with rotisserie to complement the other air fryer with the rotary paddle and now we hardly ever use the LPG gas unless its the winter months.

Moxi

[Joeboy]

we bought a two ring special from Amazon last year for £65 ElectriQ brand, sits on the gas hob from March through to October one ring 1kW other 1.8kW controlled in 200W increments.

Its doing its job and wife is sold on an induction hob when we eventually have a new kitchen sometime in the next 10 years or sooner if the elderly LPG range oven and 5 ring hob gives up the ghost sooner. We recently got an oven style air fryer with rotisserie to complement the other air fryer with the rotary paddle and now we hardly ever use the LPG gas unless its the winter months.

Moxi

That's good to read. A decent spread of power too. When we went to a 4 ring induction hob I'll be honest and say that we were limited to size as retrofitting to existing worktop with used cupboards on either side plus I definitely wanted to steer away from the 13A plug limited power induction hob offerings. In the end we went for a humble wee never heard of brand off Amazon and tied it back to a dual input 40A cooker switch. I think we paid £200 for it (the hob)?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08JZ8 ... asin_title

As we have the airfryer as well I seem to do most of my stuff on the smallest ring at setting two. I've had all four rings blasting away and must say it is effortless. My personal favourite byproduct is the complete lack of excess convected heat. It is quite astonishing to see it running full tilt with no dramas, no heatwave and just the sound of the units own cooling fan (vents out of gap between worktop and top of the now seldom used double oven.

[openspaceman]

I also have a pair of portable IKEA induction hobs, they work very well and have a handy built in storage hook.
I think IKEA do a double ring variant now if that is preferable.

The only downside to the IKEA units I have is that they have a 'spiky' power profile at lower settings, pulsing on and off at full power as opposed to actual 50% power.
Not a major issue, just something to be aware of.

Do any of them actually modulate as opposed to changing the mark space ratio? My super cheap 30 quid one doesn't as far as I can see.

[MrPablo]

Do any of them actually modulate as opposed to changing the mark space ratio? My super cheap 30 quid one doesn't as far as I can see.

The IKEA single output unit I have definitely modulates for some of the higher power levels, but the modulation range is not great.
Here's a power chart for a random meal on the 6th (I can't remember what it was, nor the exact power levels used).



It looks like it can modulate from a max of 1900w down to 1150w or so, but after that it's good ol' cycling to control the heat output.
The lower the level, the longer the pauses between firing at 1150w.

To be fair, the IKEA units are cheap and cheerful and I don't dabble in any cooking which needs that very fine control.

[Mr Gus]

It does an ok sear on a steak after cooking sous vide, so that was priority one (& less electric for the overall combined sous vide / hob cook) for a quick weekday meal, & the other win was that it was cheap enough upon announcement way back whenever to get folk to "try" & consider a tech change when the time came around!

(regardless of its faults, I think we have a win generally speaking, although I would need a proper hob "bah" to make litres of caramel type coffee liquid sugar crud that has gone through the roof price wise. ..(to anyone thinking, "I'll do that" ..be aware this thread re sugar, & equally importantly do not use an artificial flavouring to pep taste up, it can take 6+ months to level off in terms of chem taint, after that you may well have a hard(er) time spotting the additive, BUT, do not think it as good as properly made.)

We needed one hob, we still use it because so much of the trad kitchen kit is now expensive energy & space hoggers, Instantpot(s), air fryer sous vide could fit that space.