Induction Cooking vs. Gas ?

[Legendsk]

Actually, I use my RV gas oven a lot. It's a great place to store my George Foreman grill and a frying pan. Haven't ever lit it. My toaster oven has been ok, but is even a little smaller than the RV oven.

 

I've been thinking of getting an induction cook plate. I can see that I really want a griddle and a grill for it (then George can go away). When I used to go camping I had a portable oven that would work on a propane gas stove or camp fire. I haven't been able to find one that will work with an induction cook plate, but that seems to me like it would be a good seller. With one of those I could get rid of the toaster oven too.

 

Does anyone have an oven that works on an induction plate? A link to one?

 

TIA

Si

 

[lappir]

I really wanted my gas unit to have the ability to really use my griddle with it. I did during my first month when it was always below freezing but when I got to Florida and tried to use it the heat it generated inside was awful. Started using the induction plates and have ever since. Do I miss my griddle, yes some, but it will have to get real cold before I start using it with the gas cooktop. Would like to have one to use with an induction system. I find that I don't "NEED" on but maybe just want one.

 

Rod

[budeneighe]

You say your are "gasless"??? I assume you mean for cooking? Or do you mean you replaced your propane furnace and your propane hot water heater as well?

Gasless for cooking. I corrected the original post, thanks. Still have gas to back up my heat pump, though.

[budeneighe]

I really wanted my gas unit to have the ability to really use my griddle with it. I did during my first month when it was always below freezing but when I got to Florida and tried to use it the heat it generated inside was awful. Started using the induction plates and have ever since. Do I miss my griddle, yes some, but it will have to get real cold before I start using it with the gas cooktop. Would like to have one to use with an induction system. I find that I don't "NEED" on but maybe just want one.

 

Rod

Cast iron works fine on Induction as long as it does not have little "legs" on it. Just have to get the right size. You can start looking here:

[lappir]

Cast iron works find on Induction as long as it does not have little "legs" on it. Just have to get the right size. You can start looking here:

Budd, I actually already have a round griddle, but a 10 inch skillet is much better. I have a large 12 X 18 for the gas range but the grease rails around it lift it too much from the induction source to work. Looked today at an induction cooktop where I purchased my gas one. Only 3 times the money I paid for the gas. Will stick with the hot plates for a while.

 

Rod

[richfaa]

Checked out our Nu Wave Induction cooker with our Kill-A-Watt meter. It draws 8 amps on the high setting.

[Sehc]

My cheapy induction works great as a grill using a cast iron pan. It uses 1000 watts. That is 80 some 12 volt amps through the inverter. It may heat water quickly, but it still takes 10 minutes to cook spaghetti.

[docj]

It may heat water quickly, but it still takes 10 minutes to cook spaghetti.

 

It's a common misconception that induction burners heat water magically fast. They don't. I takes a specific amount of energy to raise water to the boiling point and supplying that energy to the pot and the water can't go any faster than the wattage rating of the burner. Yes, induction burners couple the energy efficiently to the contents of the pot, but a 1000W burner has only a specific heating rate. To say it another way, a thousand watt induction burner will be only a bit faster heating a pot of water than will a thousand watt hotplate. The only difference will be the heat lost to the room when the hotplate is doing the job.

[chirakawa]

So, a 1000 watt microwave doesn't boil water any faster than a 1000 watt hotplate? Interesting.

[Kirk W]

So, a 1000 watt microwave doesn't boil water any faster than a 1000 watt hotplate? Interesting.

That was not what Joel is saying. The actual energy to the water required is exactly the same, the differences are in the efficiency of getting it there. A microwave will waste less energy than most sources as is true of the induction plate. But unless you put a very small pan on a very large burner, the gas stove top isn't as wasteful as some folks expect. The microwave is by its design the most efficient of the three for several reasons. Induction has nearly as much energy loss to the surrounding air as does a gas burner if you use the proper match of burner & pan, but both will loose more than a container that is enclosed inside of the microwave where energy is absorbed into the contents and heated from the inside out.

 

With either a gas or an induction heat source, the heat is generated outside of the contents you wish to head and must be transmitted to the contents and some of that heat is lost to the surrounding air. Heat transfer is better with induction, but loss from the walls and top of the pan would be little if any different.

[chirakawa]

It's my understanding that in a typical hotplate, the appliance itself is heated through electrical resistance and then that heat is transferred to the cooking pot through conduction. In the induction process, the heating appliance is not heated at all, that magnetic energy is applied to the cooking pot which causes the pot to heat up. The heat is then transferred to the food. If that's the case, then it is much more efficient use of energy since energy is not wasted on heating the hotplate itself.

 

In microwaves, I understand that radio waves are concentrated on the target food to cause molecular activity within that food. Molecular activity is the essence of heat. So, no appliance must be heated, no pot must be heated, only the food must be heated.

 

Of course, my elementary understanding of the physics involved could be incorrect. It has been before.

[mohamer]

Efficiency, an interesting term. If you power the Induction cooking apparatus with an inverter you need to consider the efficiency of the inverter. There is always a loss when we modify power, battery losses can be high when you consider the power put into the battery and what you can get out of it. Inverters have some power loss in the inversion process.

I work with this a lot when working with transmitters and losses in amplifiers etc.

 

My Motorhome came with a Propane stove, we use it a lot, the capital expense is paid, we paid it when we purchased the MH. I also cook outside a lot, I have a propane grill, charcoal grill, and sometimes I use a fire ring to cook with, it all depends on the situation. The other day we pulled into a campground and they had a sign up "no wood or charcoal fires allowed" due to a burn ban. So I used the propane grill to cook the steak. Just takes situational awareness.

 

I love my American Junk RV!!!

[outwestbound]

My Carri Lite had an electric cooktop when I bought it in 2014. For boondocking, I replaced the electric Amana top with a Seaward (Princess 2277) marine gas two burner top with 7,000 and 10,000 btu burners. This allowed me to repurpose the electrical capacity, which is a scarce commodity in these little trailers. I'm no cook, but I know that there seems to be a great deal of personal preference involved for those that are.

[ganto]

I have induction now and it's ok I hate having to run the gen set even with 8 AGM batteries it still can't handle the load. and you don't need special cookware to go along with it.

[Yarome]

I have induction now and it's ok I hate having to run the gen set even with 8 AGM batteries it still can't handle the load. and you don't need special cookware to go along with it.

 

If you're talking 8 - deep cycle AGM's then you should have more than enough available energy to run your induction plate (judiciously). The shortcoming is more likely to be in your inverter. I'm assuming of course that if you're talking batteries and genny's you're talking about a boondocking situation.

[ganto]

If you're talking 8 - deep cycle AGM's then you should have more than enough available energy to run your induction plate (judiciously). The shortcoming is more likely to be in your inverter. I'm assuming of course that if you're talking batteries and genny's you're talking about a boondocking situation.yes I'm talking about batteries and genius and boondocking. I have a 5000 watt inverter more than enough power for the cooktop I'm gonna have to bring it in again for service and see what's going on as road trek claims that I should be able to run the a.c. unit for at least ten hours and I can't even get five hours out of it. The etrek is a complete price of carp I wish I researched before I bought!!!

[Yarome]

I have a 5000 watt inverter more than enough power for the cooktop

 

There certainly seems to be something hinky going on there. You should be having no problem whatsoever running a single induction plate. Do you have any other heavy loads on when trying to use it? You mentioned the A/C unit in a different context, but are you running your A/C while trying to cook?

 

How low do your batteries generally get between charges?

[ganto]

 

There certainly seems to be something hinky going on there. You should be having no problem whatsoever running a single induction plate. Do you have any other heavy loads on when trying to use it? You mentioned the A/C unit in a different context, but are you running your A/C while trying to cook?

 

How low do your batteries generally get between charges?

somethings going on!! I run one thing at a time when i'm boondocking so i'm not running everything at once unless i'm plugged in. I really don't like to cook inside because it gets to hot and to messy . it's going back to the stealership this week to have them look at it. I never looked at my battery levels between charges that might be something to look at also as that could be the problem I know that batteries can build a memory effect ( not sure about AGM batts though ).