Induction cooktops becoming popular as eco-friendly option
For technology that has been available since the 1950s, induction cooking sure looks futuristic.
Place a pot on a smooth, glass surface, touch a pad to turn on and watch liquid boil in under a minute. Like an electric glass-top stove, there is no obvious burner. With induction, if you touch the surface, it will feel warm but it won’t burn your fingers. Place paper on it and it won’t catch on fire, or even get hot. Walk away and it will turn itself off.
It all looks like a magic trick. But this form of electrical heat conduction is for real, and finally, after more than ?60 years, it’s gaining traction among consumers and builders interested in clean energy and energy-efficient appliances.
“It’s fantastic,” said convert Clio Tarazi of Santa Rosa, who was an early adopter nine years ago. Her husband is from Germany and was familiar with induction. Europe has used it for years.
“I was really tired of those gas cooktops. They’re so hard to clean. And they clog and flare up. When my husband suggested looking at induction, at first I was resistant. But then when I saw how responsive it is, oh, my god. Problem solved. It’s so easy to clean and maintain.”
Like a high-performance engine, induction has a rapid response. It will boil water in a fraction of the time regular electricity or gas requires. Similarly, when you turn it down from boil to simmer, you don’t suffer the messy boilovers while you wait for the liquid to cool down.
While still not the cheapest option, the price of induction ranges and cooktops, once beyond the imagination of most homeowners, has dropped dramatically in the last few years. And with the availability of portable induction burners for under $100 at common retailers, more and more, people are able to test and ultimately turn on to the ease and safety of cooking with a method that doesn’t heat the burner but the pot itself.
Instead of an open flame, an induction cooktop uses an electric current passed though a coil of copper under a glass surface. This creates a magnetic field that wirelessly induces an electrical current in the pot only.
Richard Landen, a salesman for Asien’s Appliance in Santa Rosa, said he used to sell perhaps two induction cooktops a year. Now more customers are asking for them, he said, particularly with all the rebuilds in Sonoma County providing an opportunity for creating greener homes.
Old tech made new
The first patent for an induction cooker was introduced in 1909. It wasn’t until 1933, however, that Frigidaire introduced it to the public at the Chicago World’s Fair. But the timing was off. It was the depths of The Depression, a time when not everyone had even shifted from coal and wood to electric stoves.
Westinghouse tried to market induction in the 1970s with the Cool Top 2 (CT2) Induction range, priced at $1,500 (more than $8,000 in today’s dollars). It included a set of high-quality cookware made of Quadraply, a new laminate of stainless steel, carbon steel, aluminum and another layer of stainless steel. But production was halted after two years when the company merged with White.
The technology continued to simmer on the back burner of the market for several decades. But in recent years, rising interest in clean energy over natural gas has brought new attention to an old technology. And with solar power becoming more commonplace, consumers are finding the price savings of gas over electricity is not so significant anymore.
An induction range that was $6,000 to $10,000 a decade ago has dropped in price by more than 50%. Now you can get a range for an average of $2,800 or a 30-inch cooktop starting at $1,600 to $1,700, said Chuck Terra, a salesman at Asien’s.
Consumers in the past may also have balked at the possibility that they would have to buy a new set of cookware. Induction cooking requires magnetized pans. But induction-compatible pots and pans are now commonly available, and some people may find the cookware they have already is magnetized and will work.
Terra said you can easily check your pots by using a magnet off your refrigerator. If it sticks to the bottom, the pot will work with induction. The pot or pan must have a flat bottom to be compatible with induction. Cookware made from aluminum, copper or glass, including Pyrex, will not work. But cookware made of a magnetic-based material, such as cast iron or magnetic stainless steel, will.
Artist Nina Bonos opted for induction six years ago when she remodeled the kitchen in her mid-century Santa Rosa home. She said there is a learning curve to mastering the cooking of certain dishes. She’s struggled to achieve the perfect egg and pot of rice.
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