CHOOSE THE BEST STOVE WITH THESE TIPS

When it comes to the time to upgrade your kitchen, including cookware and cooktops, you will have to choose from different options- electric, induction, and gas. All these stoves have their pros and cons, making it difficult for ordinary individuals to make an intelligent selection. Let’s analyze all of them in a sequence and reach a sensible conclusion.

Electric Stove:

• Electric stoves are quite popular among a large number of housewives. These stoves are famous for their appearance, safety, high degree of cleanliness in the kitchen and many useful functions.

Management of Electric Stove

• Electric stoves are mechanical or touch-sensitive. So, you can choose what you like best. On the automatic control panel, there are conventional rotary controls. This system is mainly equipped with budget models with cast-iron “pancakes.”
• Touch switches are installed in expensive tiles, as they are a more complex and technologically advanced solution. The touch panel is placed on a glass-ceramic surface. It looks beautiful, and to turn on the hotplate or oven, just one touch is enough. Manufacturers have made sure that the controls are intuitive.

Safety

• The safety of an electric stove is much higher than that of a gas stove. When using it, you do not need to worry about accidental fuel leaks. Manufacturers have also taken care to reduce the likelihood of getting a burn. Hotplates are equipped with heat indicators that go out when the temperature becomes safe for humans. Plates with induction burners remain cold at all times since only the bottom of the dishes is heated with the help of electromagnetic induction. Most models are equipped with a child lock function so as not to get burned on the oven door. It has 2 to 4 special heat-resistant glasses.

Features of Care and Cleaning

• Since no soot appears during cooking with electricity, cleaning an electric stove takes much less time than a gas stove. If its surface is made of glass-ceramic, you can clean it quickly. This material is perfectly smooth, so any dirt from it is removed very simply. The main thing is to prevent sugar and sweet liquids from getting on the glass-ceramics, which spoil it. To care for the glass-ceramic surface, there are many special tools. But it is not recommended to use powders or hard brushes to remove heavy dirt as they leave scratches on the material.
• Another advantage of electric stoves is the oven. It’s a self-cleaning system. They allow you to spend much less time caring for it. Cheap models are equipped with hydrolysis purification. A water container is placed in the chamber, which evaporates and softens the dirt on the walls, after which it is pretty easy to wipe them off.

Functionality

• Models of the budget price segment are usually equipped with standard functionality necessary for daily use. As a rule, this includes temperature control of hotplates and ovens, a timer, and an electric grill. Additional parameters are provided in more expensive devices. The timer can’t be only mechanical but also electronic. It beeps when the set time is up and automatically turns off the hotplates or oven.
• You can avoid heating and contamination of the control panel by removing steam from the oven. In the memory of some devices, you can save cooking parameters for various dishes. The stove is sometimes equipped with automatic cooking programs, a microwave or steaming function, an electric or infrared grill, several convection modes, an electronic meat dipstick, and a skewer. Telescopic guides for baking trays and a sliding door are very convenient. Cooktops are equipped with a boiling water sensor and a heat indicator. Induction models have the function of recognizing dishes. All this functionality dramatically facilitates the cooking process but quite significantly increases the cost of equipment.

Electricity Consumption

• When buying, many people are concerned about the functionality and the power consumption of an electric stove. Additional functions and heating elements significantly increase this parameter. To calculate electricity consumption, the power of the device must be multiplied by its operating time. On average, one hotplate consumes about 1.5 kW, and an oven consumes 3-4 kW of electricity per hour. To avoid overloading the power supply, it is recommended to not turn on more than two burners simultaneously.

Gas Stoves

• Gas stoves appeared in the kitchen a long time ago, much earlier than electric ones. For cooking, they use an open fire that feeds natural gas (methane). Hotplates allow you to quickly and evenly heat dishes, and if necessary, the cooking time can be rapidly accelerated or slowed down by adjusting the power of the burners. The advantages of gas appliances are the speed of cooking, ease of operation, affordable price, and no special requirements for dishes.
• Since not pure gas is used for cooking, but with special additives, products that are not particularly useful for human health are released during their combustion. They settle on burners, dishes, and kitchen walls in the form of a specific greasy coating, which is difficult to clean. Therefore, good ventilation is required when using gas.

Management of Gas Stove

• The control panel of a gas stove is usually equipped with mechanical regulators. Electronic and especially touch controls are extremely rare, and only in models that have appeared in recent years. This is because it is much easier to adjust the flame power mechanically than electronically. If earlier, the controls were located only in the front, now the panel is often placed on the side. At first, it seems a little unusual, but you can appreciate the advantages of such a location after a short time of use. The most important thing is that the handles placed on the side are more challenging for a small child to reach, which means that they are less likely to turn on the device accidentally.
• It will be challenging to find a gas stove with touch control on sale. Only one or two manufacturers have ventured into such an experiment. And since the implementation of the idea of electronic control of a gas burner is quite expensive, the cost of such a model will be very high.

Safety

• No one will argue with the fact that gas appliances are more dangerous than electric ones. A gas leak caused by an accidentally extinguished burner flame can lead to dire consequences. Cooking over an open fire is easy to get burned.
• When buying, it is better to choose a model equipped with a gas-control system based on sensors that respond to the extinction of fire. If the flame is flooded, draughty, or otherwise extinguished, the sensor will immediately cut off the fuel supply. This function should be implemented for both hotplates and ovens.
• The safety of a gas stove is essential for families with children. Some models have a child lock function that prevents them from turning on the device without their parents ‘ knowledge. Sometimes there are also devices with removable magnetic handles that can be temporarily removed from the panel. There are also special protective caps for regulators and unique fences that will not allow the child to reach the fire.

Care

• Cleaning a gas stove is not an easy job at all. Sticky deposits formed by combustion products and soot are pretty difficult to wash off. Cleaning the grates is particularly time-consuming. To remove dirt from them, you can use brushes, metal washcloths, powders and soak in hot water with detergent.
• Another unpleasant task is cleaning the oven. Electric models are often equipped with self-cleaning functions (hydrolytic, pyrolytic, or catalytic), making them easier to care for. Of all these advances, only catalytic cleaning is available for the gas oven. In the enamel composition, which is applied to the inner chamber walls, a particular substance is added – a catalyst. It breaks down the fat that accumulates on the surface into the water and organic substances during cooking. After finishing the cooking process, it is enough to wipe the remaining dirt with a wet cloth. But if you are not the lucky owner of a model with a catalysis function, you will have to clean it manually.

Functionality

• The functionality of gas stoves is significantly inferior to electric ones. There are no automatic programs for the oven, boiling sensors, or other useful features. Among the necessary additional functions, it is worth highlighting gas control and protective blocking, which were already mentioned above, and electric ignition. It allows you to forget about the inconvenience and danger of getting burned while turning on the hotplate. Sometimes a clock can be mounted on the control panel.
• Ovens can be equipped with a timer that beeps after the set time has elapsed, telescopic guides for baking trays, a gas grill, and a convection function. The latter is still relatively rare.

Gas consumption

• The consumption of a gas stove is perhaps the most crucial issue when buying it. Given the current tariffs and their constant increase, many people think about whether to abandon gas in favor of electricity. So, what is the average gas consumption per hour and month for a kitchen stove? Cooking surface burners have different capacities. It is this indicator that directly determines how much fuel each of them consumes.

Induction Stove

• Every housewife wants the cooking process to be as fast and convenient as possible. Modern equipment that has appeared on the market can help in this regard. Induction cookers are gaining popularity and in demand these days. They attract people with their beauty, space-saving, and functionality.

Operating principle

• Externally, this device looks standard for any built-in cooktops. The induction stove has a smooth glass-ceramic surface, but there is no heating element under it. Electromagnetic coils are located under the burners. They are responsible for creating a magnetic field, which in turn provokes the appearance of induced currents. By changing the lines of force, currents are generated that pass through the bottom of the dishes and heat the food. This is the main feature of the induction stove because the hob itself does not heat up. Thanks to its principle of operation, the hotplate transmits currents that heats only dishes and products located in it.
• Another good feature of such a plate is that it has a unique safety element. The manufacturer provides a minimum diameter of the object that can be heated. It is often equal to 12 cm. Heating occurs very quickly, which reduces electricity consumption up to a great extent.

Advantages of induction stoves

• An induction hob is modern kitchen equipment that has several positive aspects for the user. Some of them are:

Cost-effectiveness	Electricity consumption is almost 1.5 times lower than electric cookers, and the heating rate is much higher. For example, you can boil a pot of water on an induction hob three times faster than on a gas stove.
Speed of the cooking process	Since the stove heats the water very quickly, the cooking process becomes much shorter.
Safety	The probability that a person can get burned from the surface of the induction cooker is minimized because the well-thought-out mechanism turns off automatically when removing dishes from the surface.
Easy to use.	The stove includes several cooking modes. On one hotplate, you can quickly boil water and slowly stew vegetables. It is effortless and straightforward to set any temperature. Many cooktops of this type imply the choice of temperature and the duration of cooking. And that’s much better than standing around and controlling the time. It has very convenient hotplates that have a smooth surface and do not protrude above the hob. You can remove dishes as per your requirement.
Aesthetic appearance	It looks stylish and attractive.
Eco-friendly	As a result, the stove itself does not heat up, there is no heat generated in the room, and the kitchen doesn’t become hot.

So you have gone through the detailed study of electric, induction, and gas stoves. These three have unique features and functionalities. Nowadays, most people prefer induction stoves because of their unique functionalities, and you must do the same. Of course, this will cost you some extra money, but the convenience and peace of mind you enjoy will be ultimate. Happy cooking!