Should you get a Gas, Electric, or Induction Range for your Kitchen?
The modern kitchen has three cooking options for ranges and gastops: gas, electric and induction.
Each fuel type effectively prepares your meals and needs in a standard kitchen. But there are advantages and drawbacks each has over the others. Gas ranges have been around the longest and use the raw power from an open flame to cook. Electric ranges have elements that coil and are heated by electricity. In an induction range, the newest of the tree transfers heat through electromagnetism from the element itself. Read the pros and cons before purchasing your next cooking appliance.
Gas Cooktops
Advantages:
- Gas Ranges/Cooktops will work in the event of an electrical outage by using a match or light to ignite the gas flow. That way, lack of power will not inhibit your ability to prepare meals.
- Gas output is exact in control of the flame output and is easily adjusted in real-time by using control knobs. Rather than selecting levels like you would on an electrical and induction unit.
- Gas heat is immediate and powerful. The instant heat allows you to boil large pots of water without waiting for the cooktop to reach its desired level.
- Many are loyal to gas because it is what is familiar to them. Switching to a cooktop model they have never used before has a learning curve and potentially requires new cookware.
- Electric cooktops are the most affordable option.
Disadvantages:
- Cleaning required more effort as groves and crevices around the burners, including removing and scrubbing the burner grates.
- Gas Hookups emit radiant heat while will heat a space, making smaller kitchens hot and uncomfortable.
- Gas-fueled cooking is more expensive as compared to electric cooktops and induction. However, the speed you can cook with gas may counteract this.
- Gas cooktop surfaces stay hot, making them dangerous for burns.
- If your kitchen is not already set up for a gas cooktop/range adding a gas line is an additional cost.
- Electric cooktops are slow to heat up and are not known to be responsive.
Electric Hookups
Typically electric comes in two options, a smooth top (usually ceramic glass) with concealed heating elements or a coil heating element on top. They reach your desired temperature slower compared to gas. Electric heating elements take a while to cool down when turned off.
Advantages:
- The Convenience of a smooth top electric range is that they're easy to clean with indents or crevices. Simple cleaners are usually enough to remove even the most stubborn, caked-on messes.
- Electric heating elements do not generate much ambient heat and will maintain a cooler kitchen, keeping the temperature of your house cool in hot summers.
- The least expensive of the three to purchase and is inexpensive to run.
Disadvantages:
- In electric outages, the cooktop will not work until power is restored.
- Electric elements can get hot and retain high heat levels even after being turned off. They won't cool down as quickly as induction.
- Easy to damage- Although a smooth top electric range is easier to clean, it requires more routine maintenance. Smooth tops are susceptible to damage from scratches and banging, and ceramic can crack if cold water touches it while hot.
- An electric range does not have as high an ROI as an Induction or Range cooktop.
Induction Cooking
Induction ranges utilise electricity as a derivative of smooth top and coil cooking appliances. All induction ranges have a smooth top, with the heating element hidden underneath the surface. Induction cooking utilises a metal coil to produce a transference of heat directly into induction cookware. Any cookware that includes iron will work with induction.
Advantages:
- The heating elements emit no radiant heat except through appropriate metals, but transient heat will still culminate around the cooking area. The residual heat is little to none and will quickly dissipate, but placing your hands, limbs or body parts near any generating source is never recommended. That being said, Induction cooktops are the safest to touch.
- Unlike traditional electric cooktops, induction produces no heat unless transferred to magnetic cookware, so they are exceptionally effective at maintaining a coole4er room temperature.
- Induction cooking wastes no heat and will operate more economically than traditional electric heating elements.
- Induction gives you instant temperature control, just like gas.
- Easy to clean, no grates to deal with like a coiled electric top or gas cooktop.
Disadvantages:
- Similar to electric cooktops, induction relies on electricity to work.
- Induction ranges are typically more expensive than other options. However, their energy savings over their lifespan can make them worth it.
- Induction cooking requires specific cookware, such as stainless steel over aluminium, cast iron, and enamel on metal. It won't work with non-stick pans.
Selecting a range or cooktop for your kitchen is a personal preference and choice based on performance, function, and design. Or join us at one of our Demos in our SLC showroom on Friday, where they demonstrate different products each week so you can get a chef's perspective on all things kitchen! If you still have questions regarding differences or how each version works, Chef Shirley is ready to answer any questions.
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