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.
How much room do you have available on your countertop? That could be an issue.
If you gas stove doesn’t have a hood, or it just has a hood that recirculatis, then I could see the benefits.
I got two of the cheap single hob ones from ikea. I have been using them for a while and the function just fine. Having two seperate ones also means that I can just put either one away if it’s not needed.
So did you have gas at some point before? Due to some moves over the last year and a half I’ve been able to use resistive, induction, and gas in a relatively close time span. I’ve found both quality gas and induction cook tops are fantastic and I could happily live with either. I did have some annoyances with gas (smell, maintenance, risk with small children), nothing that couldn’t be worked around but given the performance equity with induction I find myself preferring it instead of gas. Curious what drove you the other direction.
- 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.
Fuck it, you know your space better than I do. Staple them to the wall and get some weird vertical thing going hell if it works for you.
