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Baumatic BHC605
by robertcheadle
£150 for a touch control ceramic hob.
If you can found anything anywhere near this price then well done!
If you look at premium brands then your looking at two or three times the price. Seriously £450 for something that does not perform any better.
Maybe the energy ratings and the energy consumption costs are less on a ... more expensive appliance but were talking pennies or pounds per year.
The beauty of a touch control hob is the cleaning aspect, wipe down and its done in seconds, no trapped food in the knobs.
They just look so much neater
As far as the operation and quality are concerned I have had no problems with this product. I have used other ceramic touch control hobs and they all suffer somewhat from the learning process that is required in how hard to press the control, at what angle and for how long but thats a couple of days or uses of learning.
The quality is good, fitted it myself with no problems and the glass is robust enough, dropped a couple of heavy pans and skillets on it with a leading edge and not marks. It does not scratch and any burnt on bits can be removed with a window scraper in seconds again without scratching the glass.
The heat is consistent and the difference between each level of power is noticeable. I normally change the heat levels two at a time and the low power levels allow simmering and not boiling to be achieved easily.
Still cannot get over the price!
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Bosch PCQ715B90E
by Holland1
This hob was another of the appliances we had installed when we had our new kitchen fitted a few months ago. Previously we had been using an electric hob, and we decided we would prefer a gas hob as the electric one took forever to get to temperature. This hob was chosen due to the fact it was a 5-pan hob, with a large plate in the ... centre for woks, which is something we use quite often in our house.
We bought the hob as part of the kitchen, and we chose Bosch over other brands because it has a good reputation, and the company providing the kitchen did a price match on all Bosch appliances. This basically meant that instead of paying an inflated price, we paid the minimum we could have purchased this hob for elsewhere. We paid £260, but searching online I notice it now costs around £317 from the likes of Currys and Comet, and the cheapest I have found it is £307 from applianceworld.co.uk.
The hob is steel with cast iron pan supports. It is stylish but sturdy looking, and very classy with the Bosch logo embossed onto the cast iron surround. It is longer than most hobs due to the number of pan burners, and so this is something to take into account if you are a bit short of worktop space. The hob measures 70cm by 52cm so is quite large, but it sits in the worktop. It is only 5cm high, however, so it doesn't "eat into" too much of your cupboard or drawer space underneath the unit where it sits.
The hob offers a choice of burners, including two standard burners, a high-speed burner, an economy burner, and a high-speed wok burner. This means that you're not likely to be short of hob space if you're cooking a roast or entertaining people, and also you have a choice of which burner to use depending on what you're cooking. For example, the high-speed burner is great when you've realised you need to cook something pretty quickly, especially if you're trying to time a meal and some parts are nearly ready whereas your spuds are still rock hard. The economy burner is useful for heating things like milk in the pan (isn't that what a microwave is for I hear you ask?!), because it would be wasteful to have one of the larger rings on high for a tiny milk pan. The economy ring is still pretty quick at heating things up though.
As this appliance is gas fuelled, it has a Flame Failure Device built in, which basically means it detects when the flame has been extinguished and automatically cuts off the gas supply in order to prevent any gas leaks. You will, of course, need the services of a qualified gas fitter to fit this hob.
We absolutely love this hob, and find we use it most days for one thing or another. We eat a lot of rice and pasta based dishes in our household, and when we're in a hurry we tend to use the wok or deep casserole pan for things like curries, casseroles, and stir fries. The great thing about this hob is that it can fit five pans on it at the same time, without having to juggle things round or finding that the wok is too big and gets in the way of the other rings. The wok plate is large and has plenty of space around it, so you can comfortably fit five pans on the hob.
In my opinion, the best feature about this hob is the speed with which it cooks food. That might sound daft because you'd expect most appliances to cook food within the same time frame, but I find using the wok plate or the high-speed burner really does cook our food so quickly, it's great if you're in a hurry or you've forgotten to put the rice on when you're cooking your main meal. The downside to this is that it takes a bit of getting used to when you first start using the hob, because initially I found myself drying food out as I was misjudging how long things would take to cook.
The hob is easy to use in terms of turning the different rings on and off. It has brushed-steel knobs at the front which control each different ring, and it is simply a case of pressing the button down until you hear it igniting (the clicking sound), and then adjusting the heat from minimum to maximum. You'll be surprised at how high the flame can get on the maximum setting! There are pictures beneath each control showing which ring it operates, so there's no room for confusion over this.
Cleaning the hob is very very easy. The first time I cleaned it (which I have to admit was after the first time of using it, I'm quite precious about our new kitchen!), I didn't realise the iron pan supports come off and tried cleaning around them. This led to some swearing as I hit my hand quite heavily on a bit of the iron, and it was only then I realised that they lift off to allow for easy cleaning. So far, I have only used a damp cloth to clean the hob, as we never let splattered food sit there for long, so I'm not sure what I would use if it needed a deeper clean. I expect some kind of generic kitchen spray would be ok but like I say, I'm still a bit obsessive about keeping it clean so I just use a dishcloth which has been dampened with a little washing up liquid. I did expect it to attract fingerprints with it being stainless steel, but to be honest I've not noticed this being a problem as it's not really something you put your fingers on to use it.
I can't really think of any negatives to this hob as I absolutely love it. Although it's not the cheapest, for something we use every day I think it was a worthwhile investment, and I would never go back to using an electric hob after using this. Obviously I can't comment on durability as we've only had it a few months, but we also had a two year warranty with it, and Bosch have a good reputation so I would expect to have no issues with this hob. Five stars from me (and my husband!).
(Review may also appear on Ciao under the username Gingerkitty)
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Indesit VIA 640 C
by Matheson80
I work in a kitchen showroom, so I guess I am at a bit of an advantage when it come to buying certain items: I can get staff prices, and I also hear feedback about any items that are either great, or are fault prone.
One piece of kit that has always has positive feedback is the Indesit VIA 640 C induction hob. Another member ... of staff got one, and was instantly singing its praises. Despite this model being a couple of years old, there are still not that many new induction hobs on the market, and back in 2010, this one was awarded a 'Which Best Buy'. Indeed this is still Indesits only worktop-fitted induction model.
In general induction technology is still not a well established market, probably due to its higher pricing. However, shop about for one...online the prices vary from £245 to £499, so dont over pay. I guess many are also wary of new technology in-case it is simply an overpriced gimic.
Regardelss, when it came to replacing some worktops and a hob in my kitchen, I decided to take the plunge and try one out.
* Info & Design *
There are a couple of things to be carefully of: First, you may need to replace your pans. They need too be magnetic, like steel, and they cant be copper based, otherwise the hob wont heat up!. Secondly, at 510mm depth, its slighly deeper than some hobs, although the bottom of the hob is sealed and flat. This means it is not recommended to fit with intergrated double ovens. The main problem is ventilation, the hobs have built in fans, but can overheat without enough airspace. so either get a single oven, or place your oven in a tall unit.
The Indesit model is a standard 4 hob layout, and is a fairly normal 590 x 520 mm, so will fit within a standard 600mm unit. Visually it is very minimal, with a slimline black glass plate, and touch controls. This makes it very easy to wipe clean. There are white circles to identify the four heating zones.
* In use *
The controls are: an on/off button, 4 zone selectors, + & - temp selectors and a saftey lock. If you are used to 4 dials like a conventional hob, it may take a bit of getting used to it, but after a few evenings, I got into the habit easily. I found the buttons pretty responsive, although make sure you push them directly and firmly to ensure the press registers.
The first thing you notice using this hob is the speed it can heat up the pan contents. My old ceramic hob took ages to boil a pan of water. Although I have not got out my stopwatch, the induction takes less than half the time to do the same. Oil seems to heat almost instantly.
This hob is also very safe, as any zones left on dont heat anything until a pan is placed on them, making it very kid friendly. This also means they only use power when you are cooking, so it saves energy.
The only problem I have come up against is wok cooking, as the domed bottom of the pan doesnt give much contact with the hob. There are some inductions out there with a concave shaped hob for this, but unless you use one a lot, and have plenty money to spare, its not worth it. I just use a deep sided frying pan for things like stir-fry, as I dont do much Asian style cooking. If you do this might not be for you...probably best to stick to gas.
* Care & Maintenance *
As far as maintenance is concerned, I have never had an easier hob to clean. I hate cleaning pan supports on gas hobs, and my old ceramic hob incinerated any food that fell out, or boiled over the side. With the induction, since only the actual area under the hob heats up, any liquid spilt else-where doesnt get instantly charred and stuck to the glass. You can even put a paper kitchen towel between the pan and the hob to catch any spillage. Its counter intuitive to want to put paper on a hob, but its safe. This also helps to preserve the finish of the gloss glass surface from scratches.
As I mentioned before, cleaning is easy since it a smooth glass panel with no dials, but do not use any abrasive cleaners, as they will damage the surface. As it is glass, you can scratch or chip the surface, but if you already have a ceramic hob, you will probably be familiar with these issues.
* Summary *
I think its safe to say Im an induction convert. They may be fairly expensive, but I think if you can afford to pick one up, the benefits long term outweigh the initial cost. They are efficient, easy to look after, and safe to use.
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