Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution

Simply not true. There’s a ton of induction and electric coil ranges with knobs. Just look at the Bosch line.

Am I missing something? A quick search for electric ranges on Home Depot shows simmerstats at every price range.

The harder one is induction, where there are lots of touch controls, but I don’t see this issue on traditional resistive stovetops.

(This is in the US of course)

This! The only electric (induction or otherwise) stovetops are either bottom of the barrel portable or top of the line commercial models. Everything in between is capacitive touch garbage.

I hate it but I think the reason might be regulations? I have family who recently had to replace their stove setup, they used to have a combined oven + stovetop thing where dials on the front of the oven controlled the stovetop. They wanted the replacement to work the same way but there were no options, and when they asked, they were told it's no longer legal for the stovetop and the oven to be electrically connected in that way (or something along those lines).

No idea if it's true or if it was just an impressively creative salesperson.

But it sucks. I've accidentally burned cookware by having parts of the stovetop turn on intentionally. And sometimes, if my fingers are moist while cooking (imagine that!), the touch controls just go completely insane and I have to spend time drying my hands and the controls before I regain control over the stove.

IMO the new design with touch buttons is way more dangerous.

Still easy to manage, quick wipe with a paper towel, but rarely need to do even that.

No way. I cook everyday and induction is vastly superior than gas. The only time fire is vastly superior is when I use a wok which I have a stove I use outdoors. Most induction stoves have temperature maintained too. So it can keep your oil at a specific temperature let it be frying or confit or roasting spices.

Same. I feel I can give a very honest opinion on this as I insisted on a dual fuel hob when we refitted our kitchen 5 years or so ago.

The induction rings aren’t a patch on the gas ring for “proper” cooking. There’s simply no competition between them in that regard. Mad for anyone to suggest otherwise.

I’d wager you won’t find many commercial kitchens, even at the low/mid end not running some gas rings as well. I’d be amazed if any at the top-end were not using gas rings. The inductions are great for boiling some pasta or veg up fast though!

We have a massive outside venting hood overhead as well (which must have been required in UK building regs since at least the 90s?!?) so I really don’t care about indoor “pollution” lol.

> Nothing but an open flame gives me the kind of control I need to cook with the precision I do

Please explain how an induction cooktop doesn't give you the control and precision you need as compared to gas flame.

Maybe it’s just because the gas stoves I’ve worked with are cheap, but I find them frustrating because their temperature ramps aren’t remotely linear, which can make finding exactly the right setting a pain.

I've cooked every day for 40 years. Before that, I learned to cook at home on an old fashioned electric stove with the coil elements.

Sure, the reaction time is slower. You learn to think ahead.

Nothing is optimal. The tenements that my kids lived in as students had gas stoves and zero ventilation. That couldn't have been a good idea.

Our latest stove is induction, made by LG, with control knobs. I love it. Best thing is it's easier to keep clean. I'm learning to be more reactive about turning the heat up and down, just because I can. Maybe I'll discover what I've been missing all these years.

Julia Child wrote that a home cook doesn't have to be a chef.

Many professional cooks who are building new kitchens are doing it with induction. Induction gives you even more precise control, especially since they can put more sensors on the cook surface since it doesn't get as hot.

I'm a pretty bad cook which probably explains why I never had a problem cooking on any kind of surface.

Tradesmen typically are paid to offset the health effects of their profession, but you get benzene for free.

“Whatever the harmful effects on my health are, that is a trade I make consciously”

Technically since it appears the effects are nebulous to you and if consciousness means informed then it seems a conscious decision is not possible

Induction is more precise with better control

"I'd wager anyone who opines otherwise in this thread barely cooks or doesn't cook in a serious fashion."

I started my taxable life almost 30 years ago in a Chinese kitchen. I'm literally a born-in-the-fire professional cook first and foremost out of any other thing in life I do. Induction rocks, I don't know what your skill issue is. I get pots and pans hotter, way faster than gas, and the temperature control is as fast as the cooking implement can shed the excess heat. That is as fine a degree of control as you can possibly get, the only better thing would be instantaneous temperature and that's basically a thermodynamic impossibility.

It’s not the flame/carcinogens that I’m most worried about personally, but instead the gas.

Oh, and I disagree with the fire being more precise than induction etc.

It’s just what you’re used to.

Induction is as good or better for everything except a wok.

The Impulse Labs stove has almost cartoonish levels of excessive power and uses 120V (and doesn’t even use particularly high current). The Breville Control Freak uses 120V and is a touch underpowered but is truly excellent. Both of these even have knobs (and both have very nifty temperature control capabilities).

Observational evidence is confounded by numerous variables, to say that “urban centers have clusters of asthma and rural centers don’t” ignores all of the extant factors of the urban environment. Studies have found that gas stoves could play a role in development of childhood asthma. It may not scale to the magnitude of that seen in urban cores, with the addition of other sources of air pollution, but it’s weird to discount the studies entirely as a propaganda campaign by Con Ed.

some definitely does linger and most consumer kitchen hoods are not strong enough, you can get a pm2.5 meter and find out yourself... in my experience a couple hours

the craziest thing is no hood at all, if you cook once a day that stuff lingers all day unless you open a bunch of windows

I’m lucky we have a proper range hood that vents outside so I feel better about gas. If this is the same paper I read a year or two ago, or related to it, apparently that reduces the “pollution” in the house by like 90% or more. Going off memory though so someone correct me if I’ve got it wrong.

If the hood breaks down or the stove needs to be fully replaced, I will probably flip to induction. I had one in my old apartment and it was great

It seems they considered water boiling in their numbers, which makes this estimation very non-portable across countries (e.g. countries where gas hobs are used, but also electric kettles are used)

If it’s properly vented, no it wouldn’t. Huge difference between just running an open flame in the middle of your kitchen and HVAC applications.

Technology Connections did a video (because of course he did) on how gas furnaces work. The short of it is that the flame is contained inside of metal tubes and never mixes with indoor air. No exhaust gases can leak into the breathable air.

https://youtu.be/lBVvnDfW2Xo?t=266