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- cross-posted to:
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Turns out gas stoves emit benzene in non-trivial amounts… Damnit.
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It makes me sad, because I love gas stoves. For a long time I have been looking forward to getting a massive range that belches out BTUs like nobody’s business. Alas, it looks like that investment will go towards an induction cook top. Not a sexy, but having a little kid at home makes you reevaluate priorities.
My main gripe with induction is the lack of tactile knobs. I despise capacitive touch controls on my appliances. Let me turn a knob, damnit! (Car makers are guilty of this too! Let me adjust the AC or the radio volume with a knob, instead of looking at a screen to find a software button!)
That is a style choice just google induction with knobs, you will find various models with knobs.
I’ve got an LG induction stove with knobs. They’re out there if you look for them.
They exist. Mine (bought last year) has them. So did my previous one.
I have this one.
Honestly kind of wish I’d gotten touch controls sometimes, for easy cleaning.
Just go directly to Induction… Speed / heat / clean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxoff5ZlXUg might need to replace a few pots if you have something non-conductive.
In a highschool chemistry class I smelled a benzene compound once, it was sweet like an artificial vanilla candle.
Sucks that it’s bad for you and that it’s everywhere, from gas stations to second hand smoke to inside the home.
Always be sure to use the ventilation hood when cooking.
“Good ventilation helps reduce pollutant concentrations, but we found that exhaust fans were often ineffective at eliminating benzene exposure,”
From the article…
I read that but I’m putting in to use the exhaust fan no matter whether you use electric, induction or gas, it’s a good habit. As another person replying pointed out, conversions to gas stove can sometimes skimp out on upgrading the range hood fan to achieve the higher ventilation needs. The fan combined with open windows can improve ventilation even if not perfect.
The problem is gas stoves, to be operated safety, require a higher powered fan than is often found in your average home, and folks doing a retrofit might not know that or might cheap out despite it often being required by local building codes.
I hate glasstops stoves and nothing beats cooking with gas.
There’s a reason we have hoods.
Disagree. Induction is as good or better than gas in the ways that matter: great control and responsiveness, high power, super easy to clean, etc. And I’m also not burning hydrocarbons in my home.
A while back I weighed the options and I couldn’t be happier having gone with induction.
I disliked it every time I tried it, but maybe the quality was just poor. The three qualities you point out are my complaints about them. Not responsive, low power, hard to clean.
I don’t know how to reconcile my experience with what people are claiming…
Are you thinking of glass top stoves? Induction stoves are the ones where the surface stays cold.
Glass tops are as you describe.
Honestly that’s… kinda wild to me.
My stove has 8-9 power levels ranging from basically warming all the way to a high powered boost mode that’ll get a saucepan boiling in 2 minutes flat and faster than any gas stove I’ve used. Some models have even finer gradations but mine is sufficient for my needs.
Temperature changes are near-instaneous since the stove is directly heating the cookware just like gas, there’s just a short pause as the power level adjusts (e.g. when going from a boil to a simmer).
Because the cooktop stays relatively cool compared to a traditional coil electric stove, messes are just a matter of wiping things up. Things never cook on. In this respect it’s actually better than gas since there’s no burners to clean. About the only issue is potentially scratching the ceramic.
And on top of that, I never have to worry about a cookware handle accidentally being heated by a flame and burning my hand, or an ignitor failing. Having worked with gas in the past I genuinely only see downsides compared to a modern induction unit.
As I mentioned, maybe it was lower quality ones than yours. I mostly only encounter them in AirBnBs and it’s been a few years.
I’ve had issues cooking shrimps at high temperatures as the stove wouldn’t stay in high power mode. Temperature needs to ramp up or down, which is not the case for gas.
For cleaning, the surface becomes hotter then electric coil stoves or gas since on those cases the surface isn’t in contact with anything hot. I’ve found that the glasstop gets stained or scratched super easily and you have to be super careful in how you clean it.
I do have to agree with your final points, but here’s an advantage to compensate: you can cook in the event of a power cut.
Sounds like crappy stoves to me. I’ve never had issues with power and it certainly doesn’t “ramp up or down”.
Well, okay, I have, in that I had to get used to the dang thing being more powerful than I was used to.
I will say, induction has the issue of needing to roughly center the cookware on the burner as they have sensors that’ll turn off the burner if cookware isn’t detected after a certain amount of time. But that’s just a matter of familiarity and practice, it’s rarely a problem for me now that I’m used to it, and the stove gives me an audible alarm if I screw it up.
As for cleaning, I previously had a ceramic top electric coil stove and it was objectively worse, and both of them were better than old style coil stoves with those horrible burner cavities you have to clean out.
As for a power cut, I live in a place that’s lost power twice in the past… five years? It’s not a concern for me, though everyone’s circumstances are different.
This is your brain on benzene.
I wish, I’m too poor for either gas or induction.
“Good ventilation helps reduce pollutant concentrations, but we found that exhaust fans were often ineffective at eliminating benzene exposure,”
