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[–] 41 points 10 months ago

There are two kinds of studies I really enjoy. 1. Some wildly unexpected result in a classic field. Rare. 2. Quantification of some phenomenon in greater detail, which confirms current understanding. Happens all the time. Love it the most.

Integrating indoor and outdoor nitrogen dioxide exposures in US homes nationally by ZIP code https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/12/pgaf341/8361964?login=false

Switching to electric stoves can dramatically cut indoor air pollution https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/12/gas-propane-stoves-nitrogen-dioxide-exposure-health-risks-switching-electric

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  • [–] 55 points 10 months ago* (15 children)

    I used to prefer gas ranges. I grew up with one and really liked that we could still cook when the power was out. Also, fire. I just... kinda like fire.

    But learning about the dangers has changed my view. Funny enough, I recently moved into a new place and have an electric stove for the first time. My heart is upset at me, but I can't deny that it's better. Not only are there fewer dangers, but it seems to heat up really fast. Much faster than any of the gas stoves I've used (which have been in almost every house and apartment that I've lived in til now.) I set a pot to boil, go sit down, and it's bubbling before the YouTuber I'm watching finishes gargling their sponsor's balls.

    (Kidding, of course. I always skip the sponsor placement.)

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  • [–] 37 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Induction tops are the best. Instant heat, very safe and energy efficient. Not compatible with cheap non magnetic cookware though.

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  • [+] -11 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    I fucking hated the induction stove we had in the 90s, and awe moved into a place with a very nice gas range. One of them rich people brands. And I'm a food snob. Well okay I was before I wokenboken. It's going to be hard to convince me.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    The fact you didn't reply to any of the replies here makes me think you're not capable of having your mind changed.

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  • [–] 17 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    I think a big part of the issue is the wild variances on electric stove quality.

    The landlord specials are dogshit and what most people have experience with. Even a bad gas stove is 10x better than those.

    But once you get to quality electric ranges, and then induction options, they are superior to gas in basically every way. But very few people have experience with these, or the money to afford upgrading to them when their existing stoves breakdown unexpectedly. So most are stuck with the cheap crappy electric options.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    See this explains my experience. Shitty induction range and expensive gas range. Like, if I had a jennair induction to compare to I could make an intelligent analysis but as is I fucking love gas ranges. Very easy to see what you're getting as far as heat.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Fwiw my induction range has blue LEDs built into the glass top so so can see when the big burner is on. I thought it was a stupid gimmick, but it really makes a nice stand-in for that flame

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I've got a higher range induction and there are worlds between that and the run of the mill portable induction stove I bought for cooking smelly/smoky stuff outside. So much so that I prefer the 80's electric hot plate of my mother.

    That mobile induction abomination regulates like a microwave: full blast or nothing (in much too long pulses). Cooking on that is a challenge. My stovetop tho goes from just hand warm (keep warm function) to the fires of mount doom in 17 silky smooth steps. I could hardly believe my eyes when it boiled pasta water faster than my electric kettle. As nice as cooking is with that, the biggest advantage is the cleaning...

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I will never own another Jenn-Air. We had one for a brief period of time. It tried it's best to burn the house down 3 times by shorting out 2 twice and having the thermocouple induce a runaway the last time.

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago

    Full size entry level induction is in the 200-300 € range nowadays and already beats gas stoves. Just check your nearest IKEA. There is ZERO reason resistive stoves should still be allowed for sale. NONE. The idea that "induction" is a premium offering is a complete myth and has been for years.

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    If you have a gas stove and can't afford, or don't want to switch to electric, keep a window open in the kitchen while you cook. This is especially important if your over-the-range hood does not vent to the outside (yes, that's a thing.) If your hood does vent to the outside, turn it on every time you cook and you're golden.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Where the fuck else can it vent to?

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Through an activated charcoal filter and right back into your face.

    This is depressingly common and functionally accomplishes just about as much as you expect it does.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Ohhh, thanks. With the right filter it can make sense but it will be far cheaper to just pipe it out.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Not just the right filter but a strong enough fan motor to draw air through it. The filter needs to be changed so at some point outside venting becomes cheaper.

    The reality is most people never change the filter and rarely use the fan.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah, I'm going to open a window every time I want to fry a couple of eggs or bake a loaf of bread at -25F/-32C.

    Just how many hours a day do you think any stove is continuously on? That 3D printer you might own runs far, far longer.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    If you don't want to poison yourself with fumes, then yes.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Then you must only breathe the finest purified filtered canned air. And not the dirty polluted air in whatever big city you live in.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I actually have more air quality measures in my home than most and I have multiple sensors measuring the quality of the air. I be been measuring it long enough to know exactly what causes my air quality to decrease.

    I also do not live in or near a big city.

    Your ignorance is not equal to my knowledge situation. I wouldn't expect a willfully ignorant person to believe this.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago* (9 children)

    I wish someone pointed this out 20 years ago (enough to be heard). I raised two kids with occasional asthma in a house with gas stove, and maybe that could have been different.

    I recently converted from gas to induction, and find it a much better cooking appliance in every way. Pans on the stovetop heat up faster than with gas, and I can boil a pot of water faster. The oven has more options and more consistent heating, especially on the broiler.

    The only problem was the cost. Way too much money to get a new circuit installed but also the range was double or more what I would have spent on gas. There were very few options at appliance stores, and I never did find one on display, of any brand. In the US, it’s unnecessarily difficult to make this switch.

    When I was shopping for one I was told to pay attention to coil sizes. Sure enough experimenting with a large skillet on small coil shows very uneven heating. I did find one or two reasonable priced ranges but with only tiny coils. Even at spending way too much, I only have one coil that works well with 12” skillet or stock pot. I know ikea now sells an induction range for more reasonable price but coil size is critical and the first thing I’d look at

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Having a proper exhaust hood that sucks air outside mitigates this to a huge degree, but a lot of us have hoods that "filter" the air through nothing and then shoot it up towards the ceiling.

    The flippers who did my house disconnected the outside air vent, I'm still pissed and mean to get it fixed, cause I can't afford an induction range either.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    As a taller guy who wears glasses, I’ve had the horrible experience of some of these filters blowing greasy air in my face and settling on my glasses. Not pleasant

    Mine has a vent, but no hood so there’s only so much it can do. And the way they built out the kitchen means there’s no good way to install a hood without remodelling.

    But now I don’t care as much. The current vent (and window) is good enough for induction

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    If you think you can't afford an induction range, you also can't afford to hire contractors to have your new ductwork put in and/or unborked.

    Much as I hate to recommend Frigidaire for various reasons, the FCFI3083AS is I think the most economical freestanding 30" induction range on the market at the moment and has an MSRP of $1099. You can probably score one from some discount or independent appliance retailers (i.e. not Home Depot, Lowes, or Best Buy) for a little under a thousand.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (4 children)

    A lot of us

    Everyone I know has a microwave. Is that a class thing?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

    It's a failure to read the manual thing. Every OTR microwave ever manufactured functions as a hood by definition, and basically all of them (I can only think of like two exceptions) have the option to be configured for either recirculation or to duct outside. It's just that most models come out of the box already configured for recirculation and most people ('s contractors) are so averse to reading that they fail to realize you can flip the blower motor over and thus cause it to actually accomplish something (provided a duct is in place) rather than just blowing stale air back in your face.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    The ducting behind a microwave is not that common in my experience. It makes sense for microwaves to come preconfigured to recirculate instead of trying to exhaust to a sheet of drywall because most people are going to install it how it comes out of the box. I’ve installed dozens of microwaves and only twice has ducting existed to flip the venting for. Higher end houses typically have dedicated exhaust fans and lower end houses never seem to have ducting for a microwave. I installed a dedicated fan that exhausts out the roof at my house. Even with ducting those microwave exhaust fans barely provide anything of value. I’m sure my experience is very regional but it seems like a really niche middle ground where someone would bother venting out of the kitchen but also not care enough to have a purpose built exhaust fan.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Part of the problem there is I have guys just absolutely insist at me that a microwave "can't" be vented outside so they don't bother to install a duct, and tell me that in order to vent outside you "have" to get a hood instead. This is obviously bogus.

    This also leads to the inevitable Contractor Special where a duct was there, often when the user is replacing an old hood with a microwave, but the installer just shrugs and slaps the microwave on the wall as-is where A) it is inevitably too tall and now way too close to the stovetop, and B) covering the duct outlet while still recirculating back into the room. Whenever I unearth one of these in my travels it makes me want to track down whoever the hell installed it and then punch them so hard they come clean out of their socks.

    People are for some reason hyperfixated on getting appliances off of their countertops, which is why the over-the-range microwaves became so prevalent in the first place. (And then they all immediately filled the spot where their countertop microwave used to be with a countertop air fryer instead, but that's a whole different discussion.)

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    Yeah that would drive me insane to run across. It’s not even particularly hard to tell that the exhaust fan motor is reversible just by looking at the top/back of the microwave before it is installed. Every one I’ve seen looks pretty damn modular in comparison to the rest of the microwave shell.

    Edit: reversible is the wrong word, able to be unscrewed and rotated, I’m sure you know what I meant but on a reread of my comment I wanted to clarify.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    We replaced our gas stove with induction and our water heater with an electric one this past year and disconnected the gas. Now our solar panels offset a lot of the cost of electricity and our main bill is for water.

    Happy with an induction cooktop, it boils water quicker and is easier to keep clean. My only concern is someone dropping a heavy pot onto the glass surface.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Your main bill is for WATER?? Maybe this is because water in Spain is subsidized, but may I ask how much water you use per month?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    We averaged 1800 litres a day according to our last bill, but it’s summer here in Australia so the reticulation for the garden is on and the pool needs to be topped up because of evaporation.

    Our last bill showed an average of 763 litres a day usage so that would represent the cooler months.

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  • [–] 41 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    Induction stoves should be Mandatory in mew construction. Coil electric works just fine but we need to introduce people to tech that's superior to gas to get the switch to stick

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I got an induction maybe 10 years ago or so. It is amazing how fast I can boil water or just get going in general. Lovely tech

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  • I think that electric cooking speed is only limited by how much power you can draw from your wiring. And if you have good wiring, cooking speeds can be extremely fast. It's a bit like with cars, where people get excited about having a lot of HP (horse power) where idk (i'm not a car expert) sth like 100 HP is considered "crazy good" and everybody wants to have it (that's combustion engine cars). Then, an electric vehicle comes across the corner (and it's not even an expensive EV, just a cheap one) and it easily has 700 HP. Like, the acceleration power is immense, it's enormous. EVs accelerate crazy fast, and it would actually be dangerously powerful if they didn't have software control to throttle the maximum engine power.

    Suddenly, everybody stopped talking about HP. All these car-crazy friends i had when i was in school, the moment EVs appeared on the stage, they stopped being impressed by HP.

    The same is with electric appliances like cooking stoves. They can be crazy fast and there's no upper limit on power if you get good wiring. It's only limited by the device so you don't accidentally burn your food all the time.

    I think that with gas flames, the flames are more-or-less always the same size, while for electric cooking, there's a much greater range in heating power, both up and down. You can also have very small, very gentle heating, that is difficult to get with gas.

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  • [–] -2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I don't get why there's such a huge push from self-declared "left-wing" people to prescribe others what to do. Supposedly, "left-wing" people don't like being told what to do, i.e. by employers (who are making them work in bad ways) or by "main-stream dominant right-wing culture". At the same time, the very same people who don't like being told what to do, tell others what to do. Such as by wanting to force everyone to switch to a specific type of technology that's supposedly superior. I don't get this behavior.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Renters don't get a choice, and pollution affects everyone

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (1 child)

    renters don't get a choice in practice, but they should in theory, and pollution from gas stoves is less than from combustion cars, just that it's densely concentrated in your apartment, so levels are still high for you. but it does not affect everyone

    a better move would be to actually build social housing, instead of prescribing others what they should build. otherwise you're simply seen as "the party that wants to forbid others from doing what they like", instead of being seen as "the party that actually does some meaningful construction and adds to society that way".

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    A quality electric makes a big difference fwiw. I’ve gone through several types depending on where I lived. I gotta admit that gas is my favorite to cook on. Just so many ways to control heat, where the heat is, and how quickly the heat can be changed. Most electric cooktops and ovens are shit unless you buy an upper tier brand, and even then heating a big coil under a glass top is inefficient AF.

    Just switched to induction. While not the same as gas, and it does have a few peculiarities, it is by far better than standard electric cooktops. Way fast, more efficient, easy. These need to come down in price to help win over people used to gas.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (7 children)

    I have found gas consistently shit for cooking at low temperatures because you can't turn it down low enough. Minimum power on the lowest ring, nope, still far too hot right in the middle of the pan.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    So put the pan on the edge of the burner…

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (2 children)

    Guess I was lucky? Our burner had a very low setting, perfect for low heat and reducing things like jams or whatever.

    Electric is horrible. It’s either full on or off. No moderation other than time.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Staying indoors during rain can dramatically cut wetness.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago*

    you don't say, captain obvious is on it again today

    but i guess it's nice that we now have quantitative data on it

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    real men use diesel stoves

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Having a gas stove certainly came in handy when we've had blackouts.

    Electricity is expensive in my state but gas is relatively cheap.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (10 children)

    How often are yall getting power outages?

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    Regardless of that, higher end modern gas stoves won't allow you to use the stovetop during a power outage anyway even if you match light them, because they have electronic flame presence sensors for safety. And no modern gas range or gas oven with electronic oven controls will allow you to use the oven without power.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    We had maybe one in the past 12 years where I live. A lot of people around me have had more, but my house specifically hasn't had a major one that I can recall. We've been thinking about switching away from gas stove eventually.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    the question might be more properly phrased as:

    what is better, using electricity + backup power generator, or using gas stove in the first place?

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    A backup power generator that will run a household stove is kind of a tall order; most of the portable gasoline models on the American market won't put out 220v.

    I've got an electric stove, and I've got a backyard grill that runs on propane and propane accessories. Ain't no power outage gonna starve me.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    I switched from gas to a 200v induction cooktop and I don't think I would go back. Quality definitely matters. I have a cassette gas stove for power outages or if I have something that absolutely must use gas (so far, it's never been pulled out).

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    A I understand it the temperature control with an induction stovetop is just as good, if not better than gas. Is that your experience?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Depends on the quality of the stove. The bad ones regulate like most resistive glass ceramic stoves in on/off pulses, which is fine for ceramic because the thermal capacity smoothes everything. I've got a mobile induction plate like that tho and it is absolutely horrible to work with.

    My decent quality stove top goes from just hand warm (keep warm function) to the fires of mount doom (power function for boiling water) in 17 silky smooth steps. On top of the pulses there is some power regulation as well (you can hear the coil hum change depending on power).

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    It depends on the stove. The gas stoves in my building are much better, but that is because this place is ancient and the electric cooktops in question are whatever crap they find secondhand.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I just like being able to put tortillas directly on the flame burner.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Gas stoves have a place, and I'm not about to take away anyone's choice on the matter. With all that being said, to the title of this article, I say "duh".... Honestly, who thought that cooking using an open flame inside your home was somehow safer than the alternative?

    I use electric, I've pretty much always used electric. I will continue to use some form of electric stove. I want to have complete control over the heat going into my cookware, and while it may not be as flashy or as quick to use electric, I can't see any situation where electric would not be safer.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    It also seems safer to only attach each house to one sort of potentially deadly infrastructure.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Can we choose because I vote geothermal

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    I was thinking of the electrical grid :-) And then heating with heat exchange either to air or to ground, which of course also requires electrical power.

    Edit: Unless you want to go autonomous with regards to electrical power. Then the energy storage would become the potentially deadly local infrastructure, I suppose.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago*

    plus electricity is crazy flexible. you can easily transform electric power into other types of power, such as mechanical power (rotary movement), lighting, heat, computation.

    with gas, you can only really turn it into heat. for all other uses, you'd first have to translate it into electric power or use a very bulky combustion engine.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    I'd rather have health than maybe marginally better cooking experiences

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    It’s not marginally. It’s a superior all issues aside.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Gas? What are you talking about?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (5 children)

    Gas is dogshit. You've never used induction.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (4 children)

    I have. You haven’t used a proper gas stove.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    LOL if you have to get a "proper" stove to beat a 49$ IKEA portable induction cooktop, you've already lost.

    GTFOH with your bullshit. Gas. FFS.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    Wow calm there buddy. Ask any chef and they’ll tell you why the use gas. Inductions… a fancy gimmick if you have a good set of pots. Try using a wok on an induction stove 🤣

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Any chef? OK!

    https://youtu.be/ooNzRrHA9VY

    But you're probably the reason chefs won't admit it, you're a bit of a bully aren't you?

    Induction makes kitchens cooler and that's beneficial for chefs.

    But you keep rolling coal in your cave, chief!

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago*

    Cheap 90s era induction stoves in apartments that are still kicking give induction a bad name. New ones are the closest thing you can get to temperature control and speed of a full burner stove. My ideal would be an induction stove with one zone rounded for a round bottom wok. For a home kitchen, it's the best choice because you're not going to get the amazing jet burner stoves you get in commercial kitchens

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