Judith Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I've want to change my bottled gas hob. (I don't like bottled gas, prefer mains, but not possible).Having bought a 1-pan induction hob as a temporary solution - having read great things about induction hobs ... and using it for over 2 years along with an electric two ring hob - I am finding that the induction hob is not as controllable as I had been led to be believe ... in fact I have had more boil dries and boils over since using the induction hob than in the rest of my life .... and now use the electric one to boil potatoes etc , as I just cannot get them to cook properly on the induction hob....I used a halogen hob once, about 10 years ago, on a holiday let, and found it more responsive than an electric, but less so than gas ...but I was reasonably impressed .... but it was still electric ... which I have never used until I came to France, always having been used to mains gas until then.Then induction hobs arrived, of course, and I thought I had my answer - until I tried one for long enough .... And so to the million dollar question .... would the new breed of halogen hob give me the responsiveness (relatively) of gas, but be more controllable than induction or electric. And how do halogen vary from ceramic, which my sister had... until she changed to gas ....!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Is your electric supply adequate for an all-electric cooker? I am sure you will have looked into this.In my last holiday home it really wasn't, but that was using a fairly ancient UK electric cooker. I could only have three rings on at once, or oven plus two rings, or grill plus two rings. So in the next house I resorted to a bottle gas cooker.Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 JudithOn our Bosch four ring induction hob in our former French house there were 19 setting for each ring. Our current Philips has 10 on each ring, Mrs Benjamin says it's not as controlable!Some of the small single rings have been made, and sold, as cheaply as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 10 settings on my Bosch including turbo boost which all seem well chosen, actually I have just seen that there are half settings so I have 20.I have been buying the two ring plaque induction dominoe's from Lidl and Aldi, I have done back to back testing with them against the boasch and they score very high, some of them have a temperature setting and to my grand surprise when checked with an infra red pyrometer they were spot on, I have no idea how they can sense the heat of what is in the pan when the glass remains cool, they simmer as well as the Bosch.In England I had been poking up with a very expensive top brand (name forgotten) ceramic hob taken out of a friends trophy kitchen, it was absolutelt rubbish for the reasons that you have cited, I have just replaced it with a French made halogen hob (Scholtes?) and it is far superior but for me the best is induction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 LoiseauThanks for the reminder - I hadn't initially thought of that, though someone else asked me this, and I said, I reckon that is not a problem ... I already have the electric hobs and sometimes two microwaves on at the same time, sometimes with the oven on and sometimes with the induction also .... I'm likely to have less on if / when I replace the hob ... also we have a pool, so we I presume we have a pretty high allowance. ... so I think the supply is not the problem, just the design of the hob ....! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Thanks for all the replies so far - it looks as though the important point is the number of settings you have .. my current 1 pan hob only has 4 - one of those is keep warm, and one is too hot, so really only 2 and too far spaced apart.So is anyone out there happy to recommend a halogen hob???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I searched for a Halogen hob on John Lewis site and Which, nothing comes up, do you have an example - I have a ceramic hob at present and would like to change... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Sorry, I can't help on halogen rings.We have two Bosch induction hobs, one in each country. Each has 4 rings with 9 settings plus a booster for bringing to the boil quickly, and we find they work extremely well. We bought the one in UK because we found the induction one in France so good; it's so much more effective than the ceramic hob it replaced, although I didn't find that dreadful, even though it was very old; it was replaced because we had a new kitchen. They are both touch pad only, which is very good most of the time - no knobs to wipe round! - but in bright sunlight at certain times of the year I just occasionally 'lose' the on/off button and have to get my specs, as stabbing vaguely in the right direction doesn't work very well. I've had the hob in France for over 4 years now, and the one in UK for just over a year - each used for half that time. I've never had a pan boil over or boil dry on either of the induction hobs, although I occasionally had one boil over with the ceramic hob. My OH specified a further refinement, we have an automatic setting (I think on only 1 ring - shows I never use it!) which he has set for coffee making, and I think he's used it for porrage too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 [quote user="Russethouse"] I searched for a Halogen hob on John Lewis site and Which, nothing comes up, do you have an example - I have a ceramic hob at present and would like to change...[/quote]RHI searched there too ... but failed... but I do know they exist, as I used one - they get red, quickly.The ones I saw this morning in MDA - passing en route elsewhere - were either induction, gas, or vitro-ceramic. What I don't know is - is the vitro-ceramic actually ceramic, electric or halogen ... maybe the halogen hobs have been superseded by induction hobs.Off to research further - will report back.Any more takers / opinions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 RHLook here:http://www.comet.co.uk/c/Built-in-Cooking/Hobs/1768/Hob-Type/Ceramic-with-HalogenLooks like they might be the vitro-ceramic ones with an extra tweak ... there were only three on the Comet site ... Off to search for more:John Lewis info here:http://www.johnlewis.com/Magazine/Feature.aspx?Id=40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 The one I bought from Leboncoin only has one ring that is halogen, the other two are standard vitro-ceramic, still a bonus though as I thought it was only vitro-ceramic and the control of the normal ones is far better than the previous designer hob.Re the Bosch 9 + boost settings, mine actually takes two pushes of the touchpad to go through one setting, say 3 to 4 the first push is a half setting and affiches 3. 4. 5. but not between 9 and boost etc so it actually has 19 settings.I would say that 10 is perfectly adequate if they cover the correct range and are correctly spaced, I concur that 4 discreet steps would not be enough.Has anyone else worked out that you can cooktinned stuff in its own packaging? Its usefull for draining the fat off of canard en boite or melting ghee etc. You could probably deep fry the duck [:-))] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Well I found an explanation : http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/ba/106/Hobs-buying-advice#CeramicHobsI think I'm still going to take a good look at Induction though..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 RHI saw that one too ... and there it says that the induction cannot be placed above a working drawer - my gas hob, where the new one would go, is above two working drawers, so if that IS true, I'm am definitely back to the halogen / vitro-ceramic ....Chancer - I concur that the 4 levels I have on my induction is definitely not enough .. and most of the ones on display never say how many levels ....Thanks all ... back to the research - though progress has definitely been made today ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Mine works fine above a drawer, there is some airspace but not really any ventilation to circulate except for behind the carcass, TBH its really rare that the fans cut in.The dominoe ones I have used in the flats lay flat on the worktop on tiny rubber pads yet still manage to circulate enough cooling air, I have made it worse by letting them in to the worktop and they rest on top of the built in fridges, I will have to give them a good trial once I have a better electric supply than the extension lead at present, they worked all right on the worktop although the fans did run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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