I used to prefer gas ranges. I grew up with one and really liked that we could still cook when the power was out. Also, fire. I just… kinda like fire.
But learning about the dangers has changed my view. Funny enough, I recently moved into a new place and have an electric stove for the first time. My heart is upset at me, but I can’t deny that it’s better. Not only are there fewer dangers, but it seems to heat up really fast. Much faster than any of the gas stoves I’ve used (which have been in almost every house and apartment that I’ve lived in til now.) I set a pot to boil, go sit down, and it’s bubbling before the YouTuber I’m watching finishes gargling their sponsor’s balls.
(Kidding, of course. I always skip the sponsor placement.)
I think a big part of the issue is the wild variances on electric stove quality.
The landlord specials are dogshit and what most people have experience with. Even a bad gas stove is 10x better than those.
But once you get to quality electric ranges, and then induction options, they are superior to gas in basically every way. But very few people have experience with these, or the money to afford upgrading to them when their existing stoves breakdown unexpectedly. So most are stuck with the cheap crappy electric options.
See this explains my experience. Shitty induction range and expensive gas range. Like, if I had a jennair induction to compare to I could make an intelligent analysis but as is I fucking love gas ranges. Very easy to see what you’re getting as far as heat.
Fwiw my induction range has blue LEDs built into the glass top so so can see when the big burner is on. I thought it was a stupid gimmick, but it really makes a nice stand-in for that flame
I will never own another Jenn-Air. We had one for a brief period of time. It tried it’s best to burn the house down 3 times by shorting out 2 twice and having the thermocouple induce a runaway the last time.
In Pornhub, gargling the balls is the content. It’s all about context… condoms.
I grew up with one and really liked that we could still cook when the power was out
Is this a north america joke I’m too European to understand? I heard America gets power outages but surely they are not frequent enough this would be something influencing what stove you buy
Summer thunderstorms will knock out power, especially in the Midwest where tornadoes are common.
Fascinating, where I’m from power outages are a once in a lifetime occurrence. I’ve never experienced one
It’s called disaster preparedness
If you have a gas stove and can’t afford, or don’t want to switch to electric, keep a window open in the kitchen while you cook. This is especially important if your over-the-range hood does not vent to the outside (yes, that’s a thing.) If your hood does vent to the outside, turn it on every time you cook and you’re golden.
Yeah, I’m going to open a window every time I want to fry a couple of eggs or bake a loaf of bread at -25F/-32C.
Just how many hours a day do you think any stove is continuously on? That 3D printer you might own runs far, far longer.
I wish someone pointed this out 20 years ago (enough to be heard). I raised two kids with occasional asthma in a house with gas stove, and maybe that could have been different.
I recently converted from gas to induction, and find it a much better cooking appliance in every way. Pans on the stovetop heat up faster than with gas, and I can boil a pot of water faster. The oven has more options and more consistent heating, especially on the broiler.
The only problem was the cost. Way too much money to get a new circuit installed but also the range was double or more what I would have spent on gas. There were very few options at appliance stores, and I never did find one on display, of any brand. In the US, it’s unnecessarily difficult to make this switch.
When I was shopping for one I was told to pay attention to coil sizes. Sure enough experimenting with a large skillet on small coil shows very uneven heating. I did find one or two reasonable priced ranges but with only tiny coils. Even at spending way too much, I only have one coil that works well with 12” skillet or stock pot. I know ikea now sells an induction range for more reasonable price but coil size is critical and the first thing I’d look at
Having a proper exhaust hood that sucks air outside mitigates this to a huge degree, but a lot of us have hoods that “filter” the air through nothing and then shoot it up towards the ceiling.
The flippers who did my house disconnected the outside air vent, I’m still pissed and mean to get it fixed, cause I can’t afford an induction range either.
As a taller guy who wears glasses, I’ve had the horrible experience of some of these filters blowing greasy air in my face and settling on my glasses. Not pleasant
Mine has a vent, but no hood so there’s only so much it can do. And the way they built out the kitchen means there’s no good way to install a hood without remodelling.
But now I don’t care as much. The current vent (and window) is good enough for induction
If you think you can’t afford an induction range, you also can’t afford to hire contractors to have your new ductwork put in and/or unborked.
Much as I hate to recommend Frigidaire for various reasons, the FCFI3083AS is I think the most economical freestanding 30" induction range on the market at the moment and has an MSRP of $1099. You can probably score one from some discount or independent appliance retailers (i.e. not Home Depot, Lowes, or Best Buy) for a little under a thousand.
A lot of us
Everyone I know has a microwave. Is that a class thing?
It’s a failure to read the manual thing. Every OTR microwave ever manufactured functions as a hood by definition, and basically all of them (I can only think of like two exceptions) have the option to be configured for either recirculation or to duct outside. It’s just that most models come out of the box already configured for recirculation and most people ('s contractors) are so averse to reading that they fail to realize you can flip the blower motor over and thus cause it to actually accomplish something (provided a duct is in place) rather than just blowing stale air back in your face.
I have gas and would fight anyone who tries to tell me otherwise. I rented a place with an induction range and now I want one so bad.
As a foil: I grew up with an electric oven. Used an electric ofen through the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and finally got a gas oven in 2017.
Because I was concerned about gas in the home, methane, CO, etc. I invested in a bunch of sensors so I’d know the moment any of it became an issue.
It’s been almost 9 years now, and I’ve yet to experience an issue.
However, that whole “you can use it when the power’s out” thing: can’t use the oven; the valve is electric. On my first gas range, the range wouldn’t even come on without electricity.
The pots and pans I use now are designed for gas and heat up fast, maintain an even heat, and cool down fast.
Essentially, I think not all devices are created equal.
I like not depending on a single utility for my energy needs, but at the same time wouldn’t shed a tear if methane production vanished tomorrow (I’d probably convert to propane short term and electric long-term).
I like not depending on a single utility for my energy needs
We had an extended outage in our neighborhood. Just over a week. I let the neighbors know I had enough wood and charcoal to keep the smoker at 275 all week and we could pop on the propane grills if we needed something hotter (I have been blessed with an abundance of backyard cookery). Fed half the neighborhood at some point that week, everyone at least got some ribs.
Last thing I want the folk on my street to do is go hungry, especially if all what’s wrong is the electricity.
One unexpected change with induction is the handles of my cast iron skillets take much longer to get hot. If I cook something relatively fast, like an egg, I can now pick up the cast iron bare handed!
But if I wanted to cook during a power outage, I have a propane grill.
Actually, it’s kind of amusing that my main grill is a pellet grill with powered auger to feed the pellets, so I can’t use that in a power outage
A quality electric makes a big difference fwiw. I’ve gone through several types depending on where I lived. I gotta admit that gas is my favorite to cook on. Just so many ways to control heat, where the heat is, and how quickly the heat can be changed. Most electric cooktops and ovens are shit unless you buy an upper tier brand, and even then heating a big coil under a glass top is inefficient AF.
Just switched to induction. While not the same as gas, and it does have a few peculiarities, it is by far better than standard electric cooktops. Way fast, more efficient, easy. These need to come down in price to help win over people used to gas.
How often are yall getting power outages?
Regardless of that, higher end modern gas stoves won’t allow you to use the stovetop during a power outage anyway even if you match light them, because they have electronic flame presence sensors for safety. And no modern gas range or gas oven with electronic oven controls will allow you to use the oven without power.
Every month or so. Every two if I’m lucky
Once a year maybe? Almost always due to storm damage.
We had maybe one in the past 12 years where I live. A lot of people around me have had more, but my house specifically hasn’t had a major one that I can recall. We’ve been thinking about switching away from gas stove eventually.
Having a gas stove certainly came in handy when we’ve had blackouts.
Electricity is expensive in my state but gas is relatively cheap.
get a camping stove for those occasions. I was worried about the same, that’s what I did.
Cheap 90s era induction stoves in apartments that are still kicking give induction a bad name. New ones are the closest thing you can get to temperature control and speed of a full burner stove. My ideal would be an induction stove with one zone rounded for a round bottom wok. For a home kitchen, it’s the best choice because you’re not going to get the amazing jet burner stoves you get in commercial kitchens
I just like being able to put tortillas directly on the flame burner.
Growing up we usedgas. Mother’s home (not our childhood home) also has gas. I’m in a home that is wired for either but had electric when I moved in. We had to replace the stove and I choose to keep it electric which surprised my mom. “But gas baking is so much nicer!” And no it’s not. Electric interior was much easier and nicer to use. But she didn’t bake much so lol.
gas baking is so much nicer!
This is odd to me, as someone who has owned both gas and electric. Baking is pretty comparable between the two. Preheat oven, put in item for amount of time. Though, our gas oven’s exhaust would really heat up the kitchen, which was not so great in the summer.
Usually when people praise gas it’s about stovetop performance. As gas instantly changes temperature and lets you use things like woks. I have also heard people praise them for working in power outages just fine.
The glass top electrics are so damn easy to clean though. That alone has made them the winner for me. On the other side, every exposed coil electric I have used sucked ass and I would pick a gas well before I pick one of those.
Gas stoves have a place, and I’m not about to take away anyone’s choice on the matter. With all that being said, to the title of this article, I say “duh”… Honestly, who thought that cooking using an open flame inside your home was somehow safer than the alternative?
I use electric, I’ve pretty much always used electric. I will continue to use some form of electric stove. I want to have complete control over the heat going into my cookware, and while it may not be as flashy or as quick to use electric, I can’t see any situation where electric would not be safer.
I have cooked on gas, induction, infrared and the old style resistive elements. Currently I have a Wolf duel fuel range which is one of the best you can buy in the U.S. and I love it.
I’ll just come out and say it…
Gas has seen its day. I say that as a current gas cook top user.
A good quality induction cook top is fantastic. It gets a lot hotter faster than gas while also simmering better. Responsiveness is off the charts too, depending on how heavy your cookware is, which is gas’s major advantage over older electric cook tops. The only issue I personally have with induction is that cheaper units make a weird buzzing noise with some cookware and settings. I did get to cook on a Viking induction cook top a few times and did not notice that issue.
I’m suprised there are developed countries were gas stoves still are used, unless power is non-existant or in low quantity due to poor grid or fully off-grid.
Electrics are all I’ve used for the last 30 years
Indeed, we’re going with an induction stove top and a speed oven. Adios gas!
