this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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Gas stoves fill the air in your home with particulate matter (pm), which has been found to increase cancer risk in the long term.

So next time you buy a stove, consider choosing an induction stove.

Btw, gas stoves being better or faster than induction is a myth. They have certain specific advantages, but they are actually slower.

Obligatory Technology Connections video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUywI8YGy0Y

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Appliance repairman here. What I tell my clients about gas in general is that: 1. When natural gas burns it create CO. 2. There is a none zero chance the thing can blow up.

Electric cooking appliances have an absolute zero chance of either of these two things happening.

I try to get people to switch to electric for these reasons some just like the aesthetic of cooking on gas.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 24 minutes ago

a non-zero* chance

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

We like to see it - fire, heat.

We like using pans that may not be induction friendly.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 48 minutes ago

Ceramic stoves also work on other types of pans and emit a bright red glow when they're hot. However, they are less efficient.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 32 minutes ago

Did you know that the vast majority of electric stovetops aren't induction stovetops and you can use any pan you like on them? Personally, I would rather not breathe in carbon monoxide.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 minutes ago* (last edited 16 minutes ago)

Regular old coil electric stoves will be fine with, for instance, your old rough-bottomed cast iron pan. And despite no flame, the coils glow red hot like a horseshoe at a blacksmith's, to hit that emotional spot.

There is a little learning curve: they heat up and cool down more slowly, which can be a plus if you work with it.

Note: If you have spilled, especially grease, be sure to lift the whole stovetop to clean underneath, nobody taught me that at first.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (11 children)

They have certain specific advantages, but they are actually slower.

This entirely depends on the stove. Consumer-lever stoves? Sure, definitely. Commercial stoves? Probably not. Commercial stoves put out 3-4x the BTUs of a high-end consumer stove, and usually can't be installed in a home because they require significant shielding around them (so you don't burn a building down) and a very high flow hood. The highest-end Wolf range has a single burner that has a maximum output of 10,000BTU, and costs a whopping $17,000; a fairly basic range top for a commercial kitchen has six burners that can all output 32,000BTU, and costs about $3700. For stir-frying specifically, you can get a single ring wok burners outputting 92,000-125,000BTU starting at about $700 for natural gas (and a helluva lot more if you use LP).

Unfortunately, I can't find a solid conversion between gas and induction stove capabilities.

Oh, and FWIW - if you live somewhere with an unstable power grid, a natural gas or LP stove will continue to function when the power is out, albeit you'll need to light it manually. We lose power fairly regularly due to storms--usually only a day at a time, but sometimes as long as 3-4 days--and it would be a real hassle to have all electric appliances when there's no power.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

a natural gas or LP stove will continue to function when the power is out

LP camp stoves work without power and are a good backup for an electric stove

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, a coleman (or equivalent) 2 burner camp stove combined with the adapter to use a full size propane tank is super handy. Combine it with a cast iron griddle, and you can functionally replicate a Blackstone for much much cheaper. It's also way better for high heat cooking if you don't have a good stove fan that actually vents outside.

Also, sometimes when power goes out, gas does too (it's still a grid that can fail).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

I have a Viking with 15k burners. No shielding needed, but huge upgrades to air exchange and a really powerful hood fan were.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

1 kW is 3412 BTU/h (=BTUs)

Most induction stovetops have a boost function with around 3-4 kW (that's about 13000 BTUs).

BUT contrary to a gas stove top, almost all of the energy is actually put into the pot instead of the surroundings (only 30-40% of the energy from a gas stove is used to heat the pot). Meaning that a 4 kW induction cooktop should be comparable to a 40'000 BTUs gas stove (single burner).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

4 kW induction cooktop should be comparable to a 40'000 BTUs gas stove (single burner).

So this is 4000 watts? What household circuit can support that?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 55 minutes ago

Here in Italy most houses used to have contacts allowing max 3kW, but nowadays it's more common to have 4.5kW (with smart utility meters which allow 30% over current for 3 hours).
Still have to be careful if you're running a washing machine or something like that, but it's doable.

Of course old houses may have insufficiently-sized wires, and that's another can of worms.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Idk about my math but most American household circuits require stoves to be on a (220V) dual phase 18 amp circuit. Which should output around 8kW (18A * 220V)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 minutes ago

Should be a lot more than 18A. Should be closer to 30A-50A to account for usage. 18A is what a kitchen receptacle would require and is so low that an oven on a 18A breaker would trip constantly. I'm Canadian so I mostly know the CEC but the NEC requirements in the USA are very similar.

More info if you're interested.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago

A random Better Homes and Gardens article clocks a 2000 square ft (185 square meters) home with central air conditioning at nearly 19,000 watts.

https://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/electrical/how-to-check-your-homes-electrical-capacity/

So I think most homes could handle that in general, but I don't know about specific wiring requirements to handle that kind of power draw from just the kitchen. So do these things require that level of retrofit?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

Plenty can. Just need a 240v 30a outlet or higher

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

It's completely baffling that there are people unironically still defending gas stoves in 2025. There's no discussion to be had on the subject any more, induction is superior and that's final.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 36 minutes ago

I think the people who claim gas stoves are best likely grew up either not cooking much, or had a decent gas stove, so their first exposure to an electric stove was super cheap, crappy electric coil stoves in student housing, or wherever they first lived as a young adult. Then when they were able to afford better, they got a better gas stove.

I have a really crappy gas stove, and it makes me yearn for the cheap electric coil stoves of my youth.

People say that gas stoves are more powerful and responsive, when the truth is that more powerful stoves are more powerful, and "responsiveness" is a fake concern. My crappy gas stove takes forever to get a pot of water boiling, especially compared to coil stoves. Yeah, you can turn a gas stove to 100% quickly, but that's only better if it can put out more power. It won't heat up any faster than an electric stove if the electric stove takes double the time, but also has double the power. There's also not many cases where "time to maximum heat" is what you care about, I can't think of any.

Responsiveness the other way (hot to cool) doesn't matter when you have a high thermal mass in the pan (or the pan itself has high mass), it only matters when the pan and contents are light, in which case, you just take the pan off the heat.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 57 minutes ago

I would agree in places with good infrastructure. I lived somewhere with rampant power outages, sometimes for 5 days at a time.

Gas was sure nice then.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

When the power goes out in sub zero temperatures, and your heating does too, it helps to be able to make hot water on the stove to warm up.

Otherwise, yeah induction is better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

A $50 dual burner camp stove solves that (or even cheaper, a $12 single burner backpacking stove if you have less space).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 29 minutes ago

While you're correct in general, in places where the power is out for a week, a camping/backpacking stove would be ill-suited to the task of keeping multiple people warm and fed. Especially in a house and not an apartment.

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