Induction cooker - zones

anon_ymous

Stoves sell this 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/stoves-sterling-deluxe-d1000ei-zls-electric-induction-range-cooker-stainless-steel-and-chrome-10256489.html

It's near £5K brand new but £2K on eBay (with cosmetic scratches) I think that one uses touch screen instead of knobs too? Which could be an issue when it comes to say wet fingers?  But it being zoneless means that you can put pans anywhere and it will just know what to do

Equally there's this 

https://ao.com/product/ststers1000eimk22ss-stoves-sterling-electric-range-cooker-stainless-steel-96808-15.aspx

Which operates more like a traditional electric or gas range cooker, with knobs too. I'm not sure if it's worth spending more on something that's "zoneless" instead. Does it actually provide any real benefit? It seems cool but it also seems like a zoneless cooker might also be a bit of a bragging rights kinda cooker. I'm not then sure if it's worth spending £2K on a refurbished cooker or near £5K brand new on one that's zoneless or just buying a brand new one which has several zones 

Any help would be appreciated 

silvercar

Sounds gimmicky to me. So you can put 6 pans anywhere, but the rings on the cheaper model are clearly designed to be sensibly placed. Why would you have the need, or want to pay £££ for the privilege, of placing pans in an odd formation?

daivid

I have an AEG with touch screen, works fine most of the time but if the hob controls get wet they need a good wipe with a teatowel. For some reason the timer section is very sensitive. AEG seem to have moved back to knobs for most of their cookers now, but I like the touch screen. My hob has 4 zones but they can be merged into 2 large to allow very big pans/roasting tins/fish kettles. In 5 years I've used the zone merge precisely once, and think even then could have managed without. A very small number of cooks may benefit from a hob without defined zones, personally I'm more than happy to centre my pans.

anon_ymous

daivid said:

I have an AEG with touch screen, works fine most of the time but if the hob controls get wet they need a good wipe with a teatowel. For some reason the timer section is very sensitive. AEG seem to have moved back to knobs for most of their cookers now, but I like the touch screen. My hob has 4 zones but they can be merged into 2 large to allow very big pans/roasting tins/fish kettles. In 5 years I've used the zone merge precisely once, and think even then could have managed without. A very small number of cooks may benefit from a hob without defined zones, personally I'm more than happy to centre my pans.

That is tbf my main issue with touch screen and tbh touch screen = more things to go wrong 

anon_ymous

silvercar said:

Sounds gimmicky to me. So you can put 6 pans anywhere, but the rings on the cheaper model are clearly designed to be sensibly placed. Why would you have the need, or want to pay £££ for the privilege, of placing pans in an odd formation?

That's kinda what I thought too but thought "hmm maybe there's a reason" 

ThisIsWeird

waqasahmed said:

Stoves sell this 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/stoves-sterling-deluxe-d1000ei-zls-electric-induction-range-cooker-stainless-steel-and-chrome-10256489.html

It's near £5K brand new but £2K on eBay (with cosmetic scratches) I think that one uses touch screen instead of knobs too? Which could be an issue when it comes to say wet fingers?  But it being zoneless means that you can put pans anywhere and it will just know what to do

Equally there's this 

https://ao.com/product/ststers1000eimk22ss-stoves-sterling-electric-range-cooker-stainless-steel-96808-15.aspx

Which operates more like a traditional electric or gas range cooker, with knobs too. I'm not sure if it's worth spending more on something that's "zoneless" instead. Does it actually provide any real benefit? It seems cool but it also seems like a zoneless cooker might also be a bit of a bragging rights kinda cooker. I'm not then sure if it's worth spending £2K on a refurbished cooker or near £5K brand new on one that's zoneless or just buying a brand new one which has several zones 

Any help would be appreciated 

I'd certainly like to know how zoneless works in practice.
So, you position a pan pretty much anywhere, but would typically choose a convenient front position to get the cooking underway, and the display presumably acknowledges the pan's been positioned there? So, you fire her up using the illuminated touch control, and get yer tatties boiling.
What then? Say you add another pan, so slide the tatties towards the back or side so it can now just keep simmering away, whilst you tackle your gravy. What is the procedure?
The 'fuss' of having to (re)set the temps for the new positions would remain? The only benefit is that you no longer need to position your pans over marked areas? Strikes me as a marginal benefit at best, and not worth ~£2k.
On the other hand, marked zones but with variable sizes that respond automatically to positioned pan sizes, is good. Does the second cooker have this?

Whilst 'touch' control is often a nice feature, my personal preference is always for buttons that 'click', provided they do so with a sense of quality and consistency. Obviously with a hob it'll be 'touch' or 'rotate-knob', and the second cooker appears to retain the all-important digital display output on the top, where it's the most convenient, coupled with the preferred ergonomics of physical knobs. That combo would be my preference every time, I feel.
Turning a knob is far more intuitive than sliding a finger imo.
Matron.

silvercar

The only reason I can think of for having touch controls is that they can be controlled by Wi-Fi (if the hob has that feature). Anything more physical can’t be Wi-Fi controlled.

victor2

Touch screens could surely get accidentally operated as the cook stands in front of the stove. Not to mention small children coming by and touching the stove...

anon_ymous

ThisIsWeird said:

waqasahmed said:

Stoves sell this 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/stoves-sterling-deluxe-d1000ei-zls-electric-induction-range-cooker-stainless-steel-and-chrome-10256489.html

It's near £5K brand new but £2K on eBay (with cosmetic scratches) I think that one uses touch screen instead of knobs too? Which could be an issue when it comes to say wet fingers?  But it being zoneless means that you can put pans anywhere and it will just know what to do

Equally there's this 

https://ao.com/product/ststers1000eimk22ss-stoves-sterling-electric-range-cooker-stainless-steel-96808-15.aspx

Which operates more like a traditional electric or gas range cooker, with knobs too. I'm not sure if it's worth spending more on something that's "zoneless" instead. Does it actually provide any real benefit? It seems cool but it also seems like a zoneless cooker might also be a bit of a bragging rights kinda cooker. I'm not then sure if it's worth spending £2K on a refurbished cooker or near £5K brand new on one that's zoneless or just buying a brand new one which has several zones 

Any help would be appreciated 

I'd certainly like to know how zoneless works in practice.
So, you position a pan pretty much anywhere, but would typically choose a convenient front position to get the cooking underway, and the display presumably acknowledges the pan's been positioned there? So, you fire her up using the illuminated touch control, and get yer tatties boiling.
What then? Say you add another pan, so slide the tatties towards the back or side so it can now just keep simmering away, whilst you tackle your gravy. What is the procedure?
The 'fuss' of having to (re)set the temps for the new positions would remain? The only benefit is that you no longer need to position your pans over marked areas? Strikes me as a marginal benefit at best, and not worth ~£2k.
On the other hand, marked zones but with variable sizes that respond automatically to positioned pan sizes, is good. Does the second cooker have this?

Whilst 'touch' control is often a nice feature, my personal preference is always for buttons that 'click', provided they do so with a sense of quality and consistency. Obviously with a hob it'll be 'touch' or 'rotate-knob', and the second cooker appears to retain the all-important digital display output on the top, where it's the most convenient, coupled with the preferred ergonomics of physical knobs. That combo would be my preference every time, I feel.
Turning a knob is far more intuitive than sliding a finger imo.
Matron.

Thanks. I'm with you re: knobs vs touch. You also raise other good points too. Perhaps that's why it's the only company selling zoneless cookers. I guess it'd be worth it if it was just £200 more 

I don't buy that one is inherently more intuitive than the other given I'm sure after using one over the other, you'd get used to it, but touch screen = wet finger issues, accidental pressing, potentially not that responsive, more stuff to go wrong

Physical knobs = far more reliable which is a major win 

anon_ymous

silvercar said:

The only reason I can think of for having touch controls is that they can be controlled by Wi-Fi (if the hob has that feature). Anything more physical can’t be Wi-Fi controlled.

Tbf they could be buy you'd move it to the indicator that says WiFi. Not that common but we see it on some washing machines

400ixl

Have touch controls on our induction hob which replaced one with knowbs.

Absolutely xero issues even when wet and wouldn't go back to having knobs getting in the way or just looking ugly.

Ours has zones that can be merged as most do, but its not very often the get used. Only real advantage I can see for something that has many smaller zones that run as a virtual zone is you can just put anything down anywhere.

All it will be is that there are dozens of smaller induction loops which get activated but he pan being placed. Certainly not something I would pay £k's for.