Besides not being aesthetically pleasing, what’s the downside of strictly using countertop induction cooktops, both commercial and household varieties, as my burners? If I go for the individual cooktops, I could easily replace them individually if they break or if technology or features improve, plus I can put them away for when I need more countertop space. I do use my current built in cooktop as “counter space” during gatherings, but I’m always leery of doing this for safety reasons.
Edit: There’s a wonderful community being built here. Thank you all for you responses and for the great thinking points. While I’m not entirely sure of which direction I’ll go as far as countertop vs built-in, I’m definitely sure I’ll be using induction.
I’m totally not going to talk you out of it because this is what I would love to do. The apartment I live in has a tiny kitchen with hardly any counter space. If I could rip out the stove, replace it with a counter top, and use individual burners I’d be happy. I can’t so I won’t, but if I could I would. I’d only need two because I hardly ever use all four burners at once.
Usually a cooktop is paired with ventilation like a range hood. If you go with countertop units, would you still have a hood?
Depending on what kind of outlet you’re talking about and what country you’re in you may be limited in the power it will have. In the US at 110 V and maybe being able to pull 15 A (based on fuse for that circuit) you could only get 1650 W. A regular cook top or range is hard wired, has a much bigger fuse on they circuit usually 30 to 40 A and gets two phases so has 220 V which allows for much higher power output. My range’s big induction burner has 3600 W for example so it’s quite the difference.
If your house is older, you may not be able to support multiple induction burners outright as your wiring from the power company may be insufficient. You can check by looking for a main circuit breaker in your panel. If it is only 100A, you probably cannot support induction ranges. You would have to request new wiring from your power company, then also rewire a significant amount of your in home electrical. You can still buy the desktop singular ones though.
I use a double burner induction cooktop in my tiny kitchen because the gas range that came with this apartment is a crappy quality, inaccurate POS. I’ve been using the induction cooktop every day for about two years now, I usually leave it out too, since it’s a really nice glass surface. I just don’t give it power unless I’m actively using it. My cooking has vastly improved since I switched over to this thing. I wish I could toss the gas range. As for aesthetics, I honestly think it looks pretty cool on my counter.
- There is a minor safety issue, as portable units are - by definition - easily movable and can be jostled, tipped, etc. A range isn’t going anywhere.
- On a range you will typically have four burners, two front and two rear, with controls for all four on a common panel which is easily accessible at the edge of the counter. Each portable induction plate will have its own control.
- As others have pointed out, a combined cooktop (in the US) will generally have a dedicated 30-50A / 240V circuit supplying power to the group of heating elements. Unless you have asked for multiple circuits when you built your house, there will often be a single 15A/120v (or, in the last 20 years 20A/120V) circuit supplying all of the receptacles in your kitchen. If your house is older than ~1975 or 1980, the refrigerator may be on the same breaker as the receptacles. Even with a 20A/240, it means you’d be sharing the circuit with a countertop microwave oven, stand mixer, toaster, coffee machine, sous vide, etc, and possibly even the overhead lights and lights/receptacles in adjacent rooms.
I made the note about special circuits because when I had the kitchen in my 1960s house redone, I had 4 separate 20A circuits run, plus the fridge, plus the lighting circuit both separate. Two pairs of the outlets are actually on adjacent breakers so that, if I were crazy enough to do it, I could get a 240V/20A service with a custom (and definitely not UL rated) dual plug. I’ve never done that and, though it would be possible, it’s a terrible idea because it’s not a common breaker but two individuals and they should really be able to trip with a single breaker if used that way.
