Replacing a gas hob with electric

+1 for induction.  We replaced our gas cooker and hob about 15 years ago (maybe longer) as part of a new kitchen fit.  Despite the electricity cost being 3-4 times more (per kwh) the hobs are loads more efficiently so offsets it.  I’m no flouncy chef, so  never needed to flame to ignite a flambé’d goose or similar (and if I did I’d just get a jet flame lighter out the cupboard).

We have 2 seperate 6mm^2 supplies with isolators (not lockable ! No need to be) in a small cupboard adjacent to the cooker/hob. One for each. And 32A  RCDs in the plastic Hager consumer unit for each.

Hob is 5.6kw max – 4 rings, which are powered in pairs (ie the hob has 2 banks of power electronics, each doing 2 rings. You cant have 4 fully on at ‘9’ – if the 2 rings on the same time then if one is at 9, then when the 2nd gets to 6 it starts nothing back the one at 9 down to 8, 7-7, 6-8 etc.

It is so much faster and controllable than gas. Cleaner, less moisture in the air, and a nice flat surface for pans rather than those dodgy unstable cast iron accident-waiting-to-happen gas ring tops.

Less explosion risk too.

We did have to replace 1 of the electronics packs maybe 6 or 7 years in.  But still had the other 2 rings working until fixed.  If it fails now at close to 20 years old, it’ll be a new induction hob.

Just don’t forget your pans need to be either cast iron, austenitic (eg 18/8) stainless, or have a steel/ iron insert in them, to work.  Many Alu pans (like a Tefal frying pan we recently got these days do have those – says OK for Induction on it.

We got induction last year. Overall it’s much better. Quicker, easier to keep clean.

Limitations though (might be because it was a cheap one).

Crap for stir fry. Loads of heat at the bottom of the pan none at the sides. You get hot spots and cooler spots on the pan cause of where the induction elements are, so I think it burns stuff more.  (Again probably worse with thinner pans)

I prefer leccy because even top chefs use induction on their TV shows

If the show is made in a studio that might be a consequence of set design and the cost of plumbing in gas rather than chef’s preference. If it’s shot on location in the restaurant kitchen, that’s different obviously.

It would be nice if you checked before calling bollocks on subjects you haven’t got a clue about, politecameraaction. Edit: there should be an appropriate smiley here but it didn’t work.

Pourquoi les chefs de cuisine aiment l’induction?

Anyhow Mory uses one on his excellent TV series. That’s good enough for me.

It really is impossible to do lighthearted on this forum. Make a light hearted quip with some truth behind it and someone will take issue with it.

“That sounds pretty slanderous on the NICEIC there. I’m in Scotland and we don’t have Part P, we have Scottish building regs instead. And we can only use NICEIC or SELECT. And I’d say NICEIC are marginally the better of the two IME. But definitely better than someone without either affiliation.”

How can it be slanderous if it is true? Its well known they only need one Qualified Supervisor for each Company. No other checks are done on who does the work. There is no need for any Governing Body in Scotland. Yes, I’m in Scotland. If you have the relevant qualifications, you do not need to be in a governing body. Also, NAPIT are in Scotland too. People join the NICEIC as they are the most well known of governing Bodies, but they are also the most slack in their governance of their Members. SELECT are the largest in Scotland, and are better than both NIC and NAPIT, in fact until 10 years ago, it was only SELECT in Scotland, until lobbying by NICEIC allowed them to set up their Scottish division. Joining NICEIC allows Companies to employ non-quialified, or trainees to work on sites, and have their Supervisor sign their work off. NAPIT and SELECT do not allow that, apart from apprentices and trainees who are under direct control, not left on their own to do what they want.

“Not all isolations are for maintenance, sometimes you might want to isolate an appliance that is faulty.
Heaven forbid but……
Good luck defending why you never installed a local isolator on an electric hob in a court of law. “

You’re making things up now. You said earlier that a local isolator is a requirement of the wiring regs. Local isolation is not a requirement of the wiring regs, it is beneficial, but isolation can be achieved by turning off the circuit breaker or main switch at the consumer unit. BS7671 is not Law, but adherence to it can be shown to be lawful, so no requirement there means no chance of any Court Case.

The problem with the competent persons schemes like Napit and niceic is you only need to do one job a year that tests out ok and give them £600 and you’re good to go for another year. They aren’t keen on throwing people out the schemes for dodgy work as you are their income stream. See also the likes of check-a-trade.

As for this thread I’d pay attention to what alanl has to say on the electrical points and disregard most of the rest as it sits somewhere between comical and downright dangerous

Not joining in the electric chat, ) other to say that or old 10.8kw shower had a 50a breaker) but I’ve been a lifelong gas advocate. I’d tried multiple electric/induction hobs in holiday homes and they were all a bit crap, up until a posh Neff one we tried a few years ago. Totally changed my mind.

So when we had our kitchen redone last year we ditched the gas one and splashed out on a nice 5 ring induction with a flexible zone that can combine 2 for big pans. It’s bloody brilliant! I’m a very average cook but it makes almost everything so much easier. Cleaning, boiling stuff, fine control over pans etc. I love it
The only downsides we’ve found are as above – it’s crap with a wok, and t can’t do the only vaguely chef-y thing I do of charring peppers. Other than that, would say they’re brilliant, but in my limited experience you really do get what you pay for. Also read the specs and chat to your sparky – ours can be ‘throttled’ for use with lower spec supplies, so make sure you have the right stuff to allow it to work unhindered.

well, as I half expected given the comments above, I got this back from the assessors at Electricity North West who are supposed to okay the installation of the heat pump

Following a review and assessment of the notification, I can confirm that we will need to come to the property to check the existing electric supply before we can provide full approval for the installation.  These checks are required to make sure there will be no impact on the household supply or the wider distribution network.

So we might have to have a new setup done anyway. Will push for Octopus to cover that

Swapped to induction several years ago.

first got a Whirlpool one. if I remember correctly it had 6 zones that could be mixed up together in various ways for big pans. ~700mm wide. It was OK. But I managed to kill it with steam from a combi oven underneath, overheating it, and cracking it by catching its edge with a bag of frozen marinara sauce.

I replaced it with a Miele of similar size. MUCH better. More power, better heat management, WAY better control sensitivity and consistency.

both were connected in turn to a dedicated isolator with a ~40A breaker.

charring and searing? Easy with a cast iron pan. Better with a Searzall™

You’re making things up now. You said earlier that a local isolator is a requirement of the wiring regs. Local isolation is not a requirement of the wiring regs, it is beneficial, but isolation can be achieved by turning off the circuit breaker or main switch at the consumer unit.

A “local” isolator used to specified for cookers, max. 2m. from the appliance, but that hasn’t been the case for many years (and many editions). The main thing is that any isolators can be reached without sticking your arm into a wall of flame

Beneficial? Yes, absolutely

I love using our induction hob. We went from gas to ceremic electric temporarily while having an extension done. That was awful. No heat control, burns anything to the pan instantly that boils over. And most importantly a massive burn risk when off because it’s still boiling hot even though it’s gone back to black visually.
Induction on the other hand is some form of magic. Instant heat, doesn’t burn stuff to the hob or outside of the pan, cools down very quickly and even straight after use isn’t really hot enough to do lasting damage. When something starts to boil over just turn the power down and the reaction is instant.
I do need to invest in some better pans. Current saute and frying pans are alu with the steel disc in the bottom but it’s not the full base of the pan so doesn’t get hot enough at the edges. I’m wanting to go full stainless steel but worried I’ll be constantly trying to scour off whatever the teenagers have burnt on to the bottom by not heating them up properly first.

Another vote for induction.

Our house had a ceramic hob when we moved in which was crap.

I put a Neff one in myself. The old hob was on its own existing circuit/switch/breaker. However weirdly the hob didnt come setup to be used properly in the UK and I had to move some metal plates inside the back of the hob to get it to work properly.

Dont scrimp on a plug in one. Get an electrician to wire in a proper full power job. You will get much more control and can actually cook things properly. I know when I have used plug in ones they always appear to be a bit underpowered.

We got an induction hob a couple of years ago, NEVER going back to gas just for the cleaning alone.

OP – Get the gas capped off and change the hob to Induction when you can get a sprak in. Use a camping stove in the meantime if you have to, but I higly recommend changing to induction.

Hi Jules 🙂 I only came in to say we have the same tiles and toaster. Top quality choices there 🙂

Oh and we have no gas supply here. We had to put a new cooker in and I remember a whole lot of head scratching and large numbers being quoted if we wanted electric oven and induction hob. We ended up just using gas bottles instead. Then we bought a big Sage air fryer thing and now kids have moved out, barely use the massive range thing.

Well, in a turn up for the book ENWL have decided they don’t need to come out and inspect the distribution board, they’re happy for Octopus to fit the ASHP to what’s there now. So, we now neeed to have a think about whether to get a spark in to do a proper job and if so, do we do it before or after the ASHP? Before would seem to be the logical choice…

Anyone know if it will ever be safe to have an insulin pump and use an induction hob?

“Anyone know if it will ever be safe to have an insulin pump and use an induction hob? “

Manufacturers will recommend against it, they say a definite no for heart pacemakers, Insulin pumps are less essential, but always be aware what the effects of a big magnet can do to them. Its a case of reading the data from the pump and the hob to decide. In the real world, I’d say there is little to no effect on them, but no one is going to say that , as there will be 1 in 1000 that will fail due to the magnetic interference.