In a letter to Katie Morley, consumer champion for the Telegraph, CK from London explained that her £4,000 Smeg hob doesn’t work with her Le Creuset pans. She said she was ‘furious’ because she had renovated her kitchen and had a marble worktop cut to fit it. ‘Given the price tag, I expected it to work like a dream, but instead I am having some significant performance issues with it… I feel very badly let down, and I may have to report this to trading standards’.
Induction is a bit like using an Aga but worse, because at least Agas can look attractive
Why would anyone choose an induction hob over a gas stove top? It is the worst kitchen invention since electric carving knives and soda streams. These days, every rental apartment in the western world is kitted out with one, and they are almost impossible to regulate. I have screamed at them, hit them with an incompatible pan, stormed out of the kitchen, and ended up with toast for dinner instead of whatever it was I was planning to cook.
For some reason, it decides itself how hot it will get and totally ignores the settings. I can’t imagine any self-respecting chef or prolific home cook preferring one to gas. Having to buy a whole set of new pans to ensure compatibility is utterly ridiculous. Induction is not capable of heating a single pan evenly, and yet they are growing in popularity.
We are told they are safer, more hygienic, easier to clean, and produce better air quality. Who cares? I’ve never been able to set one on a steady simmer, and when low they often switch themselves off. With a power cut, you are stuffed.
I’ve read that once you try induction you never go back to gas. What? Everyone I know who has been foolish enough to do so has said the opposite. Obviously, climate change activists would have all gas cookers banned, and we have been told gas emissions are bad for our health and can generate unsafe levels of indoor air pollution. The science is undecided on this. They are more expensive than gas or straight solid plate hobs, and it is impossible to effectively sauté or stir fry. Induction is a bit like using an Aga but worse, because at least Agas can look attractive.
The touch control is much more difficult and imprecise compared to knobs because it is invariably too sensitive, and it’s impossible to operate one when your hands aren’t perfectly dry and grease-free. Cooking comes to a standstill if something moves, such as a pan sliding off the ring. Any disturbance on the glass plate and off it switches. Try cleaning around the rings and it beeps and flashes red, like something is going to explode.
CK obviously only has herself to blame. That letter screamed more money than sense, and why would she pay so much for something that she wasn’t sure she would get on with? Induction hobs are a terrible alternative to gas, and no one who is serious about cooking would get one.
I don’t know why anyone would pay £4,000 for a cooking hob aside from professional chefs, but seriously, she should have done her homework and found one that she did not have to have a special marble top fitted to accommodate. My extremely efficient gas hob cost around £500 and works brilliantly. The 1,800 (and rising number of) comments underneath the article are not sympathetic. Anyone thinking of buying an induction hob needs their head examining. I’d rather use an old microwave or Baby Belling than put up with one.
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