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induction hob chez nous


mint
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I am holding Chancer and Teapot to account because I asked lots of questions about this and none of you warned me about the necessary provision for such a hob.

As luck would have it, I bought an Electrolux hob in the same shop as I bought the kitchen and it now appears that it is a 7kw one and so the "regular" installer suddenly got very nervous.  I called in our team of tried and trusted French electricians and 3 of them came to discuss how best to do things.

Then M le chef left, leaving the young 'uns to do the boxes, the specially large cabling which had to be fed through plastic tubes, the length of the kitchen from the hob, across the garage floor, to end up at the electrics board and its own special switch

If I'd known, I might have stuck with bottled gas!

Anyone wanting to ask questions about induction hobs, just refer yourselves to me because I am now somewhat of an "expert" on these things and I could also give you an indication of costs once M le chef has worked out all the time his men spent here and the cables and so on that [:D]they used!  Maybe he will need some time to tot it all up?

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Sounds a bit of a nightmare Mint. Hopefully when all said and done you will be happy with your decision. I have heard wonderful things about induction hobs.

Will be interested to hear how you get on with it and how you feel it compares with a gas hob. I find it amazing that you can lift a pot and clean a spill and then put it back to finish cooking. :)
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[quote user="WJT"]Sounds a bit of a nightmare Mint. Hopefully when all said and done you will be happy with your decision. I have heard wonderful things about induction hobs.

Will be interested to hear how you get on with it and how you feel it compares with a gas hob. I find it amazing that you can lift a pot and clean a spill and then put it back to finish cooking. :)[/quote]

Well, WJT, it sounds like I shall have to get used to the new hob in a hurry as we have been malnourished for the 10 days or so that les travaux have been going on!

My reason for changing is to save my poor OH having to manhandle gas bottles.  Also the connection pipe can be difficult for arthritic fingers.

Everyone on here who have commented have liked the hobs.  GG did say that you could see every speck of dust on them when the sun shines but I think that that would be the last of my problems.  I am not an enthusiastic house cleaner.

My main niggling concern is that I might overload the electrical circuit as I tend to do the ironing, cooking, use the washing machine, the hoover etc during the 2-hour slot of heures creuses that we have in the middle of the day.

Still, I understand that these things boil stuff in seconds and you can leave it on simmering for hours without having to attend to it.

Sounds good, but the proof of the pudding, etc?[:)]

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mint wrote :

My main niggling concern is that I might overload the electrical circuit as I tend to do the ironing, cooking, use the washing machine, the hoover etc during the 2-hour slot of heures creuses that we have in the middle of the day

Perhaps your worries might be short lived as if the hob is set to simmer it should use v little electricity.

Hopefully you will not be in our situation as EDF are removing our access to the heures creuses slot in the afternoon from 1st September. After using this access to the maximum since we arrived 10 years ago that is going to take me ages to adapt to.

Sue
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Unless you have all of the pads, for the want of a better tern, on full at the same time you will not go near your 6kW limit when you are cooking.

We have gone from LPG to induction too. We were lucky enough to have a 35 amp supply handy. The previous owners had a 3 gas, 1 electric hob and had the big cables put in 'just in case'. It has transformed SWMBO now and there's none of the "why does this ble**in go out when it should be simmering!!" cry from la chef du maison!

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Hi Sue and Jonz, thank you for your reassuring and supportive replies.

All sounds good!  I have a hob that has 2 rings and a long oval circuit and I guess that means I can put 2 saucepans, etc on the long bit.

I have some le creuset pans from years ago (and brought over from the UK[blink]), some Meyer Circulon pans, some bog standard Tesco pans and some large woks, paella type pans, etc so I am hoping they will all work OK on the new hob.

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Bon courage Mint, all will be well, although probably with a bigger bill than expected for installing the hob. Our installer just had the correct wiring put in, no problem and was all included in the quotation.

Our hob is 7.2kw and the only restriction is We can't put all 4 'rings' on fast boil at once. In fact, I don't use that facility all that often on either hob, just the normal boil.

We'd had a ceramic hob in England for years before we had the induction hob installed and that was good, would no doubt still be using it if we hadn't replaced our very old kitchen 4 years ago, but we both prefer the induction model.
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You are very welcome. What we do if we have a heavy pan on it and it will possibly be moved around whilst stirring, etc. is to put a bit of paper towel under the pan. It doesn't effect the cooking at all but it will protect the glass.

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So how low a heat can one get with induction. I am sick of my electric and gas rings being to 'hot' when I want something to very very slowly simmer. This for me is essential information.

Also, I want to know how good your new oven is mint, soggy bottoms? no burnt tops to go with the soggy bottoms?

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You can even cook things in the cans they come in if you want to save on the washing up.

Low temperature control (simmering) is superb, I soften wax and warm up paint on mine both in 5 litre tins.

The very best pans are Le Creuset and similar cast iron ones, any metallic and thick wall pans will work just fine, what sorts the wheat from the chaff is the thickness, in the flats I have some really cheap Tesco pan sets made of the thinnest steel known to man, if you overheat them they distort, as will any pan but the thinner the easier, when distorted they either will not work or will give uneven heating and burnt hot spots, Le Creuset etc are bomb proof.

Great idea regarding the sopalin [:D]

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you can get a metal plate to put under those pans which won't work ... takes longer to heat up, and cool down, but it worked for me, on my old two ring, not enough levels induction hob.  Helped me work out what I needed when I changed to 4-ring.  Variable, fast or slow, if you can't have gas, it's the best choice and safer than gas.  Microfibre clothes clean the hob pretty well too.

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I really must thank you all for your contributions which I read with interest, great pleasure and increasing wonder (awe too[:D])

Seems incredible that you could put a piece of kitchen paper between your pan and the hob, nevermind be able to warm up tins of paint!

Yes, I certainly have some ancient le creuset and the Meyer Circulon are my absolute favourite pans.  Most of my kitchen stuff is very good quality simply because I so love fussing around the kitchen, experimenting and concocting.

Id, the installation isn't yet complete so I can't say about the oven.  I hope les poseurs go away tomorrow so that I can clean and dust everything and sit down and read the manuals!

I had unsurpassed help with choosing everything for the kitchen and, this evening, I see that the microwave is 1000 kw so I'll have to be careful not to overheat the butter or boil over the milk!

Perhaps I should start a chronicle about the life of my new kitchen and its hapless owner[:P]

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[quote user="Chancer"]

You can even cook things in the cans they come in if you want to save on the washing up.

[/quote]

But don't forget that they cans are plastic lined and ripe to leach said plastic into the grub inside. OK if you like McDoDos I suppose? That plastic lining is the reason we don't buy tinned tomatoes now. They are acidic and react with that plastic.

As for warming paint? Just come down here to live. You would be putting it in the fridge instead [:-))]

Those plates you can use to enable the use of non induction pans cut the efficiency in half and unless you are desperate are not worth it and I would think that they give a very false view of what an induction jobbie is so good at. You drop the heat setting and it drops immediately, but with one of those plates it acts about the same as a solid electric ring, slow to heat and slow to cool.

As for thickness. When I was stationed in Singapore in the late 60s, well someone had to do it, we bought a set of Renaware pans. 7 in all and they were dammed expensive. well, we didn't need to buy and of the essentials then, they were provided. They are 18/8 stainless sandwiching a carbon steel layer. They are not very thick and not that heavy, but they are excellent and still just as good now as they were when bought 48 years ago. They have never warped and they work perfectly on the induction hob. So, it is a case of never mind the thickness, feel the quality [8-|][:-))]

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[quote user="idun"]So how low a heat can one get with induction. I am sick of my electric and gas rings being to 'hot' when I want something to very very slowly simmer. This for me is essential information.

Also, I want to know how good your new oven is mint, soggy bottoms? no burnt tops to go with the soggy bottoms?

[/quote]

The answer to that one Idun, is as low as you want. Ours has 15 settings between 1 and 9 (boost) with half way setting between each number.

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john - agreed re plate, but it works for my non-induction omelette pan at least ... mint - 100km microwave, I had one, almost never use at full power, it's frighteningly fast ! ... idun -  I now have 14 levels, purposefully chosen though hob was one of the few to fit my worktop size, but never needed them all ...

Induction cooking is an acquired skill, after which c'est facile!

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Judith, thanks for the warning about the micro.  I shall look at the controls and use it NOT on full!

Workmen still crawling all over the place and I need them to finish off, go home and let me loose in my own kitchen[:D]

One really great thing is that I can now read the French instructions and more or less understand them at one reading.  Except for the really technical wizardry and then it wouldn't matter if the manual was in French or English, I still wouldn't understand until after about the 10th reading and after that it's normally a case of swallowing my pride and asking somebody[:(]

Good thing, I am out on a rando dinatoire this evening, walk, drink aperitif, walk, eat entrée, walk, eat plat principal and so on until dessert and coffee.  So no need yet to get to grips with any of the new machines!

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Mint - hope you enjoyed the rando ... as for the micro - 1000 can be useful, at times, others it is just too much, depends on what and how big etc.  Had a micro for over 40 yrs - still managed to burn jam in it recently.  However, just like the induction hob - it's a bit trial and error - who ever said cooking was a science was wrong - its an art as well - in timing especially.  As in all things, start on a lower temp / power than you think and cook for less time than you think (this applies to both microwave and induction).  Easier to cook for longer than to rescue the burnt offerings!  The good thing about the induction is that it is very responsive, and by just moving a pan off the heat you can stop it ... a boiling pan will subside almost immediately.  My hob warns me if there is no pan on when its on, and if it doesn't get a pan on quickly it turns itself off.  Useful safety feature.

Good luck! 

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[quote user="mint"]

One really great thing is that I can now read the French instructions and more or less understand them at one reading.  Except for the really technical wizardry and then it wouldn't matter if the manual was in French or English, I still wouldn't understand until after about the 10th reading and after that it's normally a case of swallowing my pride and asking somebody[:(]

Good thing, I am out on a rando dinatoire this evening, walk, drink aperitif, walk, eat entrée, walk, eat plat principal and so on until dessert and coffee.  So no need yet to get to grips with any of the new machines!

[/quote]

Good grief woman! You are obviously NOT an engineer or you would know that if all else fail THEN you read the instructions [geek]

We too are off out this eve for a ranodinatore. We walk the 1k into the village have apero, entré, plat, fromage and pud without walks inbetween and then walk back up the hill home again. Much better idea than disturbing yersel in between courses [8-|] Lots of wine toooo !

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[quote user="Jonzjob"]

Good grief woman! You are obviously NOT an engineer or you would know that if all else fail THEN you read the instructions [geek]

We too are off out this eve for a ranodinatore. We walk the 1k into the village have apero, entré, plat, fromage and pud without walks inbetween and then walk back up the hill home again. Much better idea than disturbing yersel in between courses [8-|] Lots of wine toooo !

[/quote]

That's all very well, Jonz.  The man hadn't a clue what to do with the hood.  He's been up in the roof space,banging away and complaining of the heat and the hood still doesn't work.  OTOH, the outside light by our porch now flickers when the switch is ON and is on full brilliance when the switch is OFF!  Clearly, he's got the wires as well as his knickers in a twist on this one.

OH says that as soon as these "installers" get off the premises, we are getting our French electrician to come back PDQ to check and put right everything and that, in the meantime, I am not to touch any of the appliances in case I got killed[+o(]

As for your second comment, it just made me laugh!  If you are ever our way in the summer, I am taking you and Mrs Jonz on one of these rando dinatoires so you'll have to bring your new walking boots[;-)]

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To start with the last Mint, if/when we are up your way we would love to join you and your walking group, with or without the grub incentive.  Our walking group has taken us to some wonderful, all be it hard effort to get to. places and we would be worse off to not have walked there! We got our boots at the ready

As far as the guy who hadn't a clue. He was probably trying to do the Robing Hood trick along with his bunch of merry men (although, the French don't do that  merry bit very well do they?) and if you do have to touch anything then just make sure that you ain't standing in a bowl of water without some very good wellies on [:-))]

Not sure what is going on with the Porsche, sorry porch light is concerned, but seriously, I would get a GOOD pro electrician in to look at it and definitely a French one, or French qualified! That is not right and could be nasty. Simple to resolve? Maybe, but possibly nasty?

Electricity can bite and you can't even see it when it does!

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[quote user="mint"]I am holding Chancer and Teapot to account because I asked lots of questions about this and none of you warned me about the necessary provision for such a hob.

As luck would have it, I bought an Electrolux hob in the same shop as I bought the kitchen and it now appears that it is a 7kw one and so the "regular" installer suddenly got very nervous.  I called in our team of tried and trusted French electricians and 3 of them came to discuss how best to do things.

[/quote]

I am innocent I tell you [:)] even a pretty standard ceramic hob would have been around 6kw, you would still need/should have a dedicated line for this apparatus

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