We're extending the kitchen in our new place, and will be buying a new cooker. SWMBO likes the look of the Rangemaster Classic 90, a snip at £1430 (ebay), although that's only for 'normal' gas/electric. If you want induction hobs, it goes up to £1720.
I've read that they're supposed to be good, more efficient, and you need induction-compatible cookware. But has anyone used them - any significant drawbacks, apart from the price?
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We've got one - it came with the house. Yes you do need compatible cookware, yes it is very responsive and the surface does not get too hot, so if little fingers are a worry it is excellent. However my main complaint with it is the controls when say a pan of water is boiling over. With a normal Electric/Gas hob you just twiddle the nob and reduce the heat, however with ours the control buttons are flat touch sensitive jobbies, so you first have to tell it which of the four hobs you want to reduce the heat on by pressing it so that it flashes and then you need to reduce the 'heat' by using the - (minus) symbol. Sounds easy enough but when you are flapping about running back to the hob to do it sometimes you hit the wrong button or your touch doesnt register. You then end up with a wet hob surface which sometimes interferes with the induction and shuts the whole thing down.
Would I buy another - perhaps but only if it had conventional controls. I'm more likely to select a standard gas one as I like to see what is going on.
Last edited by: Pezzer on Wed 12 Jan 11 at 13:04
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>> We've got one
Thanks Pezzer - AFAIK the cooker we're looking at has conventional knobs; like yourself I don't think we'd get on with the type of controls you describe.
The current cooker is gas, whereas the previous house's cooker was electric. I quite like gas, but SWMBO isn't keen, and she's the main decision maker in this process :)
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No direct experience, F, but some here have made favourable comments. I just looked at the specs on the Rangemaster site was gobsmacked to see that one model claims to have two plates rated at 11.4kW. I think this may be a typo, since the Classic 90 claims a more modest 1.4kW, but this brings me on to a significant point...
My gas-top range has burners rated at 1.5, 3 (x2), 4 and 5kW, whereas the Rangemaster induction goes no higher than 2.3kW. That sort of oomph means less time waiting for pans to come back to the boil, and makes for really effective browning and reducing. While I'd appreciate the really low simmer induction can offer, 2.3kW is seriously weedy and that alone would put me off the Rangemaster. A quick google found a Stoves hob with a top rating of 3.7kW, which looks like a better bet to me.
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>> While I'd appreciate the really low simmer induction can offer, 2.3kW is seriously weedy
>> and that alone would put me off the Rangemaster.
Mmm... well spotted, will look into that.
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We have one with touch controls. No issues with boiling over at all, as on ours we have individual controls per 'ring'.
We are very happy with it. You only need cheap enamelled pans for it to work well.
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>> While I'd appreciate the really low simmer induction can offer, 2.3kW is seriously weedy
>> and that alone would put me off the Rangemaster.
But that 2.3kW is pretty much direct into the pan - how much of the gas 4 or 5kW goes straight past the pan?
Any advance on half?
See if you can get somebody to time bringing a pint of cold water to the boil in the same pan on gas/electric/induction and post up the times needed.
It could be your contribution to saving the world :)
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My gas hob cost me 130 quid.
You can boil a lot of water for the 1,300 quid saving over the induction hob,
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>> You can boil a lot of water for the 1,300 quid saving over the induction
>> hob,
Well I did suggest using the camping stove we've got gathering dust in the garage, but she claimed it would spoil the look of the (new) kitchen! Women...
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>>Well I did suggest using the camping stove <<
Don`t knock it! - I have one sat on the worktop and use it mainly for making tea! instead of the kettle. With a kettle you have to boil enough water to cover the element, which for ours is 2 mugs, when i`m "home alone" i only want one mugfull, so straightaway i`ts a 50% wastage of both hot water and electric! (adds up over a year!) - with the little gaz stove i can boil exactly what i use, no waste, plus it`s supprising how many "other" times you will find yourself using it as well!!
great things!
Last edited by: devonite on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 16:02
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>> >>Well I did suggest using the camping stove <<
>>
>> so straightaway i`ts a 50% wastage of both hot water
>> and electric! (adds up over a year!)
I can see the logic, but have you taken into account the relative inefficiency of the stove compared to a kettle, and the cost of the gas for the stove? It might still work out cheaper, but I would be interested to see the figures.
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Haven`t got any "figures" as such, but I can get a pack of four cannisters for £4 at our local Tool shop, depending on use a single cannister will last 1week to 10 days, so round it up to £4 per mnth. my miserly mugful will boil in about a minute so not much difference between 1mug on the stove and 2 mugs in the kettle - only difference is wastage. Whether it really is any more economical or not, i`m not sure! but i feel that it is! - maybe theres still 2mugs, one on the stove, and the other using it! ;-)
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>> maybe theres still 2mugs, one on the stove, and the other using it! ;-)
Not at all, although I still think the chances of SWMBO going for one instead of her £1700 Rangemaster are somewhat slim, unfortunately :)
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If you pay 14p a kWh, Devonite, I reckon your £4 a month would buy you enough electricity to boil about 270 litres of water, or about 25 mugfuls every day. But then, you haven't told us how much tea you drink.
};---)
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Devonite, I see where you're coming from, but you came to the wrong conclusion. You need a bigger mug!
Pete's Eats in Llanberis will do you an attractive and commodious pint mug for your tea at a very reasonable price. Less wasted water, and you're tea stays warm longer.
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Pete's Eats in Llanberis
quite comical - I was in there yesterday - a "small" coffee 1.05p and a pint 1.75p.....
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Our kettle has the element in the base.. so a 1 cup filling is feasible.
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>> You can boil a lot of water for the 1,300 quid saving over the induction
>> hob,
>>
Smiley face on my saving the world comment -
gas is considerably cheaper for heating than electric.
there is no saving there.
Gas is good/best for hobs, but I prefer the dry heat of an electric oven.
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> Gas is good/best for hobs, but I prefer the dry heat of an electric oven.
Gas hob, electric oven (with switchable fan) would be ideal.
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>> But that 2.3kW is pretty much direct into the pan - how much of the
>> gas 4 or 5kW goes straight past the pan?
If induction efficiency is 84% en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooker then I guess it's like using a 2kW kettle, which isn't too bad.
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I'm getting a new kitchen soon and will also go induction.
Sod the efficiency and cost, it's way easier to wipe clean than the gas thing we currently have, and safer with little fingers around.
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"Sod the efficiency and cost, it's way easier to wipe clean than the gas thing we currently have, and safer with little fingers around."
Absolutely. I haven'et used ceramic hob cleaner/conditioner for four years since we went induction. Just a wipe with a damp rag brings it up sparklng.
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I think few people end up using all the rings on these range cookers.
Focus and Mrs F seem keen on induction, so perhaps an induction hob and separate oven?
Or a more traditionally sized induction cooker, if there is such a thing.
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I prefer to cook with gas, I feel I have much more instant and refined control over the heat.
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Basic gas cooker in Iffy Towers, newer, more refined gas cooker at the caravan.
I like gas, but on both I struggle to get the heat low enough for a gentle simmer.
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>> I like gas, but on both I struggle to get the heat low enough for
>> a gentle simmer.
I think that's Mrs F's main objection.
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...I think that's Mrs F's main objection...
If Mrs F can't get on with gas rings best not buy a cooker with six of the damn things.
Is the induction Rangemaster 'all-induction' or a mixture of both?
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>> Is the induction Rangemaster 'all-induction' or a mixture of both?
All-induction hob - they do a 'dual-fuel' version with normal electric + gas, as well as just electric/gas. I'm assuming the main oven is fan-assisted electric with perhaps no fan in the secondary oven, but that's something else I can check on.
Last edited by: Focus on Wed 12 Jan 11 at 14:02
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...All-induction hob...
I imagine you'll still have more hob space than you will ever need.
But it sounds like a smart piece of kit, and as a MacBook Pro owner, I'm not in a position to push the 'head over heart' argument very far.
Incidentally, I think it's Rangemasters that have a tray hooked on to the inside of the oven door.
Handy feature, saves you reaching in to get dishes out of the oven.
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Simmering on gas is partly a question of quality and partly of adjustment. The basic Stoves built-in in our old house could do a pretty good low simmer and the new one is better still. Hard to judge if you're buying online, and a lot is in the way it's set up, so it's worth going to a good dealer and explaining what you're after.
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>> so it's worth going to a good dealer
>> and explaining what you're after.
There's a local shop that sells them - Mrs F went along yesterday and saw one in the flesh (I think). Should be able to get more info there. She also wants to buy from there as well, and while I agree in principle with 'support your local shop', I'll be taking along a print-out of the ebay item and ask how close they can get.
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>>Simmering on gas is partly a question of quality and partly of adjustment.
>>
It is now.
Our old old gas cooker bought in 1965 had a themostatic gas ring.
It went through North Sea gas conversion and still worked OK.
Ever since I have been told " there is no such thing" and "it is not possible".
How things improve. :-(
We could leave a pan on the gas with milk in it that was just off the boil and walk away knowing it it would not spill overonto the hob..
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I wonder if I could block half the little holes in one of the burners to create a simmering ring?
On second thoughts, perhaps best not to mess with a gas appliance.
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Zero said,
"I prefer to cook with gas, I feel I have much more instant and refined control over the heat. "
At last, something that I can agree with.
:-)
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We have an induction hob with touch controls, it looks like a sheet of black glass, and I am told that it only needs a wipe with a damp cloth after use. The boss would not use anything else since having the induction hob. Easy test for compatible pans, if a magnet sticks it is OK, and some aluminium pans have a steel plate embedded in them so you can get "magnetic" non ferrous pans.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 12 Jan 11 at 16:42
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Have you ever seen a professional chef cooking on a glass hob ?
There must be a good reason why not.
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>> Have you ever seen a professional chef cooking on a glass hob ?
>>
>> There must be a good reason why not.
According to this induction Hobs are use use in the Ritz and by Marco Pierre White's restaurant and are widely used commercially
www.controlinduction.co.uk/control-induction-company-service-/control-induction-company-service/commercial-induction-hob-free-trial.html?Itemid=56
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...Marco Pierre White's restaurant...
That guy will put his name to anything - hasn't he been advertising salt cubes?
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Who was it here who, a little while ago, cracked their glass-topped hob?
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>> Who was it here who, a little while ago, cracked their glass-topped hob?
>>
Not me, but we managed sometime ago to get a very unsightly chip in the surface of ours, I don't know if SWMBO slammed a pan down on it but she claimed not to have. As far as I know there's nothing can be done about it (unless any of you know otherwise?) - at least its only cosmetic.
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...Who was it here who, a little while ago, cracked their glass-topped hob?...
Glass will always be an unsuitable material for hobs while we continue to use metal pans.
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The glass hob destroyer was me, FT. It was an old-fashioned ceramic top, and it was done for by excessive heat rather than mechanical trauma, and I don't think an induction hob would have done the same thing, so I didn't mention it here.
After that, we managed until the new cooker arrived with a two-plate Swan plug-in, whose bigger plate was rated at 1.5kW. That's what brought home to me the importance of adequate power under the pans.
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CGN
good to see that you have been browsing other items on the Debenhams site!
"Ivory split front embel twist detail wedding gown"
well I suppose that it could have been more embarassing........... tinyurl.com/6yelpuv
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That's odd but its not me. Not my colour for one thing!
Don't think you would no be seeing the results of my searches. I does say customers have been viewing so its not targetted.
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>>>That's odd but its not me. Not my colour for one thing! <<<<
I have to admit that I did realise that whilst I was posting, but why let the facts stand in the way of a good story?
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We've used induction for maybe 8 years. Never had cause to regret it. Nothing fancy, bog standard square separate Neff hob. Cheap s/s pans won't do though, you need the sandwich bases. You soon get to know the simmer setting for each ring. The front 2 rings have a 'super power' override which makes them quite fast for boiling up - not sure what the power is but they aren't what I would call weedy.
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The beauty is that you can boil a pan of water almost as quickly as a kettle can and the control (in my experience) is as instantaneous as gas - see a pan about to boil over, I just touch the hob in the right place and the power and heat stop. And if it does boil over, the heat of the ceramic is lower so no nasty brown marks to scrape or scour off.
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About 8 years here too, we wouldn't go back to other methods which might as well be a pot slung over an open peat fire in comparison.
DeDietrich hob with easy touch controls, which to be fair do not respond if water gets between them and your fingers.
The price of that cooker sounds outrageous, seem to recall the hob cost about £250 but might have been a little more.
Not a scratch or blemish on it despite my best efforts, any heat in the hob only comes from transfer from the base of the pan, so as said spills just wipe off the instant they happen, and the cookware last years.
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>> The price of that cooker sounds outrageous
Tell me about it! :)
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>> >> The price of that cooker sounds outrageous
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>> Tell me about it! :)
...and when you're (thinking of) paying that amount of money, you'd expect a decent standard of customer service. Well I emailed them about the hob rating typo in the specs on the web page, and initially got a nice reply admitting the spec was wrong and giving correct information. Then a bit later I received this:
"Good afternoon and thank you for you're email in answer to you're
question the rating are all different I would need to know what size of
classic you have you can telephone us with rating queries on ..."
Yes, I can understand it, and no, it wouldn't stop me buying one. But I'm a bit surprised that given the intended market of their product they don't ensure their staff have a basic grasp of the English language, or ensure they can be bothered to use it if they do.
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...they don't ensure their staff have a basic grasp of the English language...
Yet another example of our failed education system, billions of pounds spent and spending for a very poor return.
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>> ...they don't ensure their staff have a basic grasp of the English language...
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>> Yet another example of our failed education system, billions of pounds spent and spending for
>> a very poor return.
Judging by the name, it might not have been our education system. But that's no excuse - someone in that position should be able to do better.
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I'll be honest, I've tried to like Rangemaster - especially as I used to live in Warwickshire and shopped for years at the butchers just round the corner from their Leamington factory. But I couldn't get past the feeling that their cookers are poorly designed and cheaply made, just oversized versions of the kind of cooker you could buy for £300 at Curry's. Their hobs seem especially poor - six burners sounds impressive until you realize that they're so close together that you'll struggle to use more than three at once.
Sorry to be a wet blanket but do pause to wonder why the Aga group (which owns Rangemaster) also makes Falcon and Mercury cookers at more than twice the price. I can't help these 'range lite' cookers owe more to fashion driven by home makeover programmes and magazines than to real usefulness.
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>> Sorry to be a wet blanket
No need to apologise - it might save us a load of money :)
Will try to bring up your points tactfully with SWMBO...
Last edited by: Focus on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 10:15
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I don't know about the current Rangemaster ones, but WdB is right about the lower priced range cookers - they are essentially of the same construction as a normal 60cm free standing gas cooker.
I remember a pal of mine (or his wife at any rate) buying a Lacanche range a while back - I've just looked at the prices and they aren't cheap either. I think he bought it in the Harrods sale!
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induction hob - any good? - Pezzer
