Well... I'm full-electric since years and I still have to find a device that really match gas... Induction for me is NEVER able to hold a certain temperature, essentially all plate I've used at low temp just run-and-stop continuously witch combined to very thick pot allow a nearly-constant temp but definitively not much constant.
Classic resistance on aluminum alloy and non-stick PTFE coating on contrary can regulate temp far better BUT can't really heat much more than a bit.
Combining them I can cook at home like with gas, but definitively not the same experience, it's surely comfortable the ability to move gears anywhere, to have simple systems to clean etc but that's is. Cooking quality is far from being the same. For me, at home, suffice. For a pro, for someone who really want good cooking I doubt.
It sounds like you and the parent both have much more demanding needs than we do. My wife and I a pretty serious home cooks, and have been quite happy with our Samsung Chef Collection induction range. We pretty much home cook all of our food, but don't go so far as to make anything where we need to the degree PID feedback temp control.
Not saying there isn't a need for it, just trying to figure out what percentage of homes (or more to the point of this article, restaurants) needs that level of precision.
Air quality issues aside, I just prefer cooking on induction to gas. My inlaws have a nice gas range, I'd guess it's in the $5-10K price. I prefer my induction:
- Less heat going around the pan, heating up the kitchen, the handles...
- I'd say the induction is as fast as the gas (gas has more BTUs, but dumps a lot into the kitchen?)
- Clean up is SOOO much easier. The cooktop doesn't get very hot and is solid surface. You can move a pan, wipe up a spill, and go right back to cooking, without turning the burner off. Or after cooking, just wipe it up. Resistance solid surface and gas both really burn spills on.
- As fast as gas.
The one real downside is that if you lift or tip the cookware (flipping, basting, just moving sauces/oils around), you get no heat while it's up.
Sure, and as I mentioned above, that's a question I'm curious about. Michelin Star places, certainly. Fine dining, probably. 80%ile and 50%ile, I wonder. Certainly more likely to take advantage of precise control than the average home, because they are at it all day every day. Do they need more precision than the average induction can give? I'm curious but ultimately don't have the answer.
I do cook on indution since years, simply I have to say that it does work but it's not on par nor better than gas in cooking terms, for me suffice, I like the ability to move most electric appliances around also, I like the easiness to clean the induction plate BUT I understand people who don't, that's is.
Having built a new home I do not have gas at all and I have a p.v. system so no interest in gas "extra comfort/regulation", in air quality I have a VMC so...
On frying mainly because with plates I've used/tested (as pointed below in the conversation) is next to impossible keeping a certain temp constant, or it's way too hot or is a stop&go with cycles around 1.5 or so seconds that making good frying very uncomfortable.
Limits in kind of pot (for instance no earthenware some like here in southern EU) or some aluminum classic fryer can be also added to the cons list.
The pro is the easiness of install, for electric appliance in general their move ability around the house without special intervention, for those like me with p.v. of course the self-consumption option.
That's is. As pointed by another user below top-of-the-line plates can do frying at a substantially constant temp, but for me 3k+ buks for a plate is simply excessively expensive for my cooking, illogical to buy, some might consider that an investment.
Perhaps, so far I have seen "relatively few" induction plate of various vendor and shape, none do that at low/mean temp, only pushed to the maximum (witch is used normally just to boil since for frying means melting the fryer itself, so where "the right temp" does not count that much). IR models, including some pro one from a restaurant of some friends, do the same, but at least heating outside the pot the effect is less seen inside. Classic resistance direct coupled with the pot (coated aluminum, BBQ-alike plachas etc) do the same, all seems to be unable to regulate the heat, that's means they can only run full power and regulate temp choosing how much alternate on-and-off states...
Theoretically I can imaging an induction plate made of many very small coils stitched together in a matrix so it's possible power only some of them using the metal of the pot and round-robin rotation of powered coils to keep the heat well spread and a constant transfer of little heat as needed, but so far I do not see anything like that on sale. I only see some pot with small steel inserts in an aluminum alloy to spread better the heat in the pot, some others mix different stratus of materials to achieve something similar but all can't compensate the irregular source of heat much.
Theoretically I suppose IR plate can do the same, so classic resistance instead of a single bend costantan-alike "pipe" (sorry for my English, not my motherlanguage) can be a set of smaller ones with a controller to power just some, but again I do not see anything similar on sale.
Perhaps having a thermometer inside the pot instead of in the plate might be of help to mitigate the effect, but it's hard to achieve, similarly tie a plate with specific pot to ensure a certain behavior can mitigate, but definitively not solve the issue. We have apparently no way to compensate heat dispersion - heat generation...
Just try yourself: put a pot on a plate, with a very thin stratus of cooking oil (<1mm) or just a thinker (<4mm) of water and set the plate to the minimum, you'll see alternation of frying/boiling moment and "low heat" ones. An optical thermometer can easily confirm. For induction even noise can confirm the origin, a power meter can equally certify that.
I believe my Samsung Chef Collection ($3300-ish range ~5 years ago) does indeed have PWM or similar sort of fine control. Maybe you are just talking about the standalone induction hobs, but our range definitely seems to do more than just cycle the element on and off, or if it does it cycles it multiple times a second.
Unless I'm missing something, here is the test you proposed, on our highest power burner (it may take a few minutes to finish processing and get 4K available), jumped to the "money shot", jump back to see other details: https://youtu.be/l4vg59llPlY?t=108
Oh, wow, you've made a dedicated video, I'm honored :-)
Well, no, I have bough and seen far cheaper plates, can't compare the USA prices but they are around 200-300€ from local kitchen appliance large vendors like Electro Depot, CDiscount, Ubaldi etc... And none of them offer such kind of behavior like the one in your video.
To be more precise IF I put a pan with so little water on the the largest burner at boost level it evaporate in few seconds and start to make the pan itself red than white hot in few seconds more. I need to use the MINIMUM power for such cases.
Only if you measure the pulse width in terms of seconds and not milliseconds.
What is interesting is the hot plate on my 3d printer uses millisecond PWM, but not my stove. I'm not quite sure what the advantages of either method are?
PWM normally works with a constant DC voltage. If you’re driving a resistive heater with AC, the duty cycle loses its meaning unless the PWM frequency is much less than the AC frequency.
Classic resistance on aluminum alloy and non-stick PTFE coating on contrary can regulate temp far better BUT can't really heat much more than a bit.
Combining them I can cook at home like with gas, but definitively not the same experience, it's surely comfortable the ability to move gears anywhere, to have simple systems to clean etc but that's is. Cooking quality is far from being the same. For me, at home, suffice. For a pro, for someone who really want good cooking I doubt.