[Closed] Induction Hobs

If the power requirement is too high, you can't just change the fuse/breaker in the box, you need to do the cable too.
Some will work at lower power levels (you can switch internally).

Is there a directly wired circuit for a cooker? They're normally 30amp or so (I think!)

I’ve used a Neff one recently. Wouldn’t recommend, annoyingly unresponsive touch controls, and pans labelled ‘induction’ often didn’t work. I honestly couldn’t see any improvement in cooking other than the safety side of things (as long as you don’t wear a pace maker...?).

We recently installed an induction hob, very good to use.
Cooker electrical supplies normally seem to be separate, fused at 32 amps. I would be surprised if induction jobs required higher power but it may do.
One matter to check is whether the hob supply is shared with on oven. We had to install a 3kW hob as our 32A supply is shared by hob and oven.
I suggest consulting an electrician regarding fuses, cables etc to be safe.

Can't help with the electrical question, but on the hobs themselves we spent some time looking into different models and some are definitely better and more responsive than others so maybe the Neff one seadog tried wasn't one of the better ones. Our Siemens hob is very quick to respond and can set subtle changes in heat easily-at least equal to the gas hob we had before yet is so much easier to keep clean and puts less moisture into the atmosphere. We think it is a real step forward

You can't just up the fuse. You need to find what size cable you currently have (pun intended), work out the max power, then see if you can find a hob that'll work.

Like jimw we have just fitter a siemans induction moving from gas and it's very good. The cable the sparkie fitted for it was chunkier than I thought wed need but he did say it was pretty powerful. As mentioned above worth asking someone who knows just to keep things right

You need to find what size cable you currently have (pun intended), work out the max power, then see if you can find a hob that’ll work.

That is the cheapest way to do it, but is rather like putting the cart before the horse - one of the benefits of a good induction hob is the power it can deliver. To deliver that power, you need a fuse and cable that will deliver the required power. Upgrade the cable to what the hob needs / can use.

This is from the current hob, as above changing cable not possible as under a slate floor. How would a sparky test to see if the cable is good enough ?

That 'looks' like 4mm2 (actually quite hard to tell without seeing it in person), I'm not a sparky but a kitchen fitter. You also need to check if it's own its own supply from the board or shared with other appliances and what size fuse is on the back off it, if you turn off the switch that you've pictured, does the oven go off too? If not, chances are that it's on it's own supply.

Good induction hobs can need upwards of 7kw of power, which is 30+ Amps. some even use 9kw. Odd that the instructions for your old hob call for a 40 or 50a fuse in a FCU which can only take a 13a fuse!

You can get induction hobs to run from 13a, but they're not the best as they don't have the oomph of the proper ones, which is most of the point, but certainly better than a halogen!

No idea about power and cables and things but I've had for a couple.of years. Eight pain in the bum, mainly the stupid touchscreen controls as someone said above. Constantly being accidentally adjusted any time anything goes near them, bigbtgings on the front ring for example can cover the ring and hit the controls every time you jiggle it a bit by stirring. I am never having touch controls again, avoid. There must be induction jobs out there without them surely

How would a sparky test to see if the cable is good enough ?

They just measure the core diameter and look up the max rating for a cable enclosed with that size core. There's a table somewhere in Part P regs.

@andrewh NEFF do one with a rotary control.

On its own breaker on the consumer unit.

Rotary control sounds much better. Mine's a Beko, not having one of those again.

It's.still got touch control but has a floating magnetic dial.

Its fairly unlikely that an induction hob will actually use much that much more power than an equivalent sized halogen.

the larger 90cm hobs use around 9kw  ( as shown by adding up the individual plate wattage values in your first pic ) before applying diversity ( lowering the actual rated load due to cyclic use , shown in your second pic )

If your cooker circuit hasnt tripped out using a halogen hob then its unlikely to trip using an induction.

Just dont buy an induction hob with a higher power rating than what youre using now and you *should* be ok.

signed An. Electrician

I've got a touch n finger slide controls affair on a Samsung (bought 3 yrs ago), I'm very happy with it, but agree with above that it's fairly easy to touch them accidentally. iirc the floating dial was on more expensive hobs when I was looking, but looked a good idea (no idea if it is in reality). IMO it defeats the object of the exercise (clean lines/easy to clean) to have trad fixed knobs on it. Personally I prefer the big rectangle zones where you can just plonk anywhere any size item from tiny coffee pot to massive roasting tray. The rings on some hobs can be finicky about what pan size they'll play with. If you do go for rings it's worth checking what min size pans they work with ie milk pan.

We've a Smeg range cooker with induction, uses rotary knobs same as the gas version.

We’ve had the Neff T51T95X2 80x52cm Induction hob installed since July 2014. It has the magnetic removable knob for adjusted heat setting. Highly recommended and would buy another when it packs up.

Other benefits
• Easy cleaning
• High power for quick boiling
• Timer that switches of hob position
• Half height settings for more control

Neff 90cm hob here. It's 20x better than the gas hob on the range it replaced - much more controllable and able to simmer lower.
Obvs way easier to keep clean also.
Floating magnetic rotary control knob which seems to work well and is very responsive.
Was a little spendy at about £820 but worth it I think but YMMV.
Can't help with the power questions though.