Are cheap induction hobs any good?

Spies

Ive seen this everywhere and even checked it with an electrician and it's allowed... 


"Applying diversity it's the first 10 amps, add 5 amps if you have a socket on the cooker switch, and then 30% of the remainder... around 25 amps total for both after diversity is applied. The rating of the mcb only protects the cable NOT the appliances. So therefore a 6mm cable and 32 amp Mcb will do it."

FreeBear

I've had an induction hob for the best part of 6-7 years now. Paid £80* for it from B&Q - Is that cheap enough for you ?

Cooke & Lewis brand. Yes, it pulses at low settings, but a thick base smooths out the pulses a bit. Has pan detection, and supposedly over-heat protection. It can also run all four zones at full power at the same time. Got a similar model for niece a couple of years ago for her new pad. She loves it.

*) Got mine in a winter sale when B&Q had cut the prices on some stuff by 50%.

BarelySentientAI

Spies said:

Ive seen this everywhere and even checked it with an electrician and it's allowed... 

"Applying diversity it's the first 10 amps, add 5 amps if you have a socket on the cooker switch, and then 30% of the remainder... around 25 amps total for both after diversity is applied. The rating of the mcb only protects the cable NOT the appliances. So therefore a 6mm cable and 32 amp Mcb will do it."

Correct that the MCB protects the cable, so cable rating needs to be bigger than MCB size.  No issue there.

His percentages (or are they yours?) seem to come from the Wiring Regulations - but I can't find them in my new version at the moment, only in the old editions.  For design purposes really, not operations.

The guidance I read refers to 10A + 30% for "a cooker".  Not for "two cookers wired into the same spur".  It's up to you and your electrician whether you think it affects things (I've seen arguments both ways and haven't come down one way or the other myself).  And comes with the note that whilst suitable for most circumstances, will likely cause the circuit protection to trip under others.

RHemmings

The induction hob that I inherited with the house I bought recently is annoying. It seems to get 'confused' and will stop cooking. Then it waits for a while before it will work again. I don't know if this is a cheap one, or if this sort of thing is inherent with induction hobs.

My hob has only three rings, which is fine for me. I've had all of them going at once with no problems. I don't think all on full power at once. 

It definitely pulses at low settings. I haven't noticed that being a problem. 

Generally now I'm used to it, it's a good way of cooking. 

DullGreyGuy

Spies said:

Is there any way to work out which induction hobs use pulsing vs reducing current at lower power outputs? Or is it just a case of reading reviews?

To the best of my knowledge they all pulse but what varies is the size of the peak and troughs... cheap ones high peak, then off until it drops low and then high pulse again whereas more expensive ones are shorter/lower peaks and troughs so the effect is much smoother. 

Appreciate another poster commented that their 13amp hob works fine for family cooking... I am very surprised by that unless "fine" means it's a real ball ache but they've accepted the limitation. Each of our zones can hit 13amp on their own which is great for boiling large volumes of liquid quickly or getting searingly hot pan for doing a reverse sear on a steak where you want to maximise the Maillard reaction without further cooking the inside of the steak. I agree you won't need all plates on full power at the same time, even ours cannot do that, but having one at maximum and being able to maintain the other 3 on medium power really would be our minimum and that certainly can't be done on 13 amps. 

I'd echo the comment from the other poster, is there a particular reason why you dont get your end state one now? I can imagine if you want to go larger width (or narrower) then that'd be problematic but if you intend to keep the same size then seems false economy to buy an interim one. We still haven't finished doing our kitchen but we knew we were getting rid of the slot in cooker and replacing it with separate ovens and hob so just did that first when the cookers oven died. 

Spies

What brands are deemed 'good'? Montpellier seem to be more premium than say hisense or hoover?

moneysaver1978

Spies said:

I'm wanting to replace my gas hob but don't want to spend too much as the kitchen is quite old and will be getting redone at some point... are cheap induction hobs particularly worse than more expensive ones?

What's the timeframe like? Within 12 months or...? I would be tempted to hold off until you get the whole thing done.

We had a Siemens induction hob in our previous place and we thought it was a bit meh (although it was maybe us coming from gas hob). The kitchen in current place came with Neff and we were converted already.

ThisIsWeird

What are the practical effects of this 'pulsing'? What time gaps are involved? Cheers.

DullGreyGuy

moneysaver1978 said:

We had a Siemens induction hob in our previous place and we thought it was a bit meh (although it was maybe us coming from gas hob). The kitchen in current place came with Neff and we were converted already.

So you converted the Neff to a gas or you've changed your views on induction @moneysaver1978 ?

Neff, Siemens and Bosch are all the same group and 99% of their products are identical to each other under the skin and just some styling differences to aim at different markets - Neff = minimalist, Siemens = techie and Bosch = reliable but its marketing and style differences only

moneysaver1978

DullGreyGuy said:

moneysaver1978 said:

We had a Siemens induction hob in our previous place and we thought it was a bit meh (although it was maybe us coming from gas hob). The kitchen in current place came with Neff and we were converted already.

So you converted the Neff to a gas or you've changed your views on induction @moneysaver1978 ?

Neff, Siemens and Bosch are all the same group and 99% of their products are identical to each other under the skin and just some styling differences to aim at different markets - Neff = minimalist, Siemens = techie and Bosch = reliable but its marketing and style differences only

Both were induction. When we moved to our new house, we had considered replacing the Neff with a gas hob (as we didn't enjoy the Siemens in the apartment) but our views changed.

We didn't purchase or install the hobs - both came with the apartment/house.