Yes, definitely go for it. You certainly won't be disappointed. We refitted our kitchen last November and when looking in showrooms I began to tell them that I wanted a double oven and a gas hob. The first planner was a lady in her 50s and she asked, 'Why do you want a gas hob?' I explained that gas is easy to control and heats up quickly and when turned off heat dissipates quickly too. She asked me if I'd ever used an induction hob and the only one I'd tried was to heat some soup in a church hall and I wasn't impressed. I told her this and she asked if the hob had been wired in or whether it was plugged into a 13 amp socket. This is the reason that some of them do not heat up 4 pans at one time as the power is shared between the 4 zones when plugged into an ordinary socket. She explained that as long as it's wired into a 30 amp cooker socket then there's no problem. I have the AEG hob and it is excellent. I can have the 4 zones on full power at the same time as it's wired in with a cooker cable. If you've been using gas and do not have a cooker cable installed and don't want to change any of the electrics in the kitchen then maybe this type of induction hob would not an option for you.
Here are some of the benefits I've found. It looks very smart and is sleek, set flush with the worktop. It's very clean to use and very easy to clean if something boils over. The lady in the showroom explained that when she's frying something, she puts kitchen paper over the hob and the pan on top of the paper. The paper won't burn as it works by magnetism and when she's finished the paper goes straight in the bin, one quick wipe over with a damp microfibre cloth and it's pristine again. It will heat water as fast, if not a little faster than an electric kettle. I experimented to try it out, putting the same amount of water in a saucepan as I put in the kettle and switching both on simultaneously. It is amazingly fast and as soon as you turn the heat down it reduces to a simmer very quickly and is definitely even more controllable than gas as it's easier to control with the variable settings from 1 -14, plus there's a further high power option for very fast heat up to begin with. It even has an automatic setting so you can set the temperature you want to cook with but start it off on high power. This setting then automatically adjusts the heat after the high power heat up. It has a child lock and if the phone rings or there's someone at the door when you have everything boiling away then you just touch an area on the glass and it will go into 'keep hot' mode until you touch it again. This is the best appliance I have in my kitchen and I will never regret it. I'm not sure why people think it's noisy. On a very high power setting there is a little bit of a buzz but there is no noise at lower temperatures. There is no need to heat it up first before you cook and if you switch it on and forget to put the pan on it will bleep to let you know and then switch itself off automatically if you do not put anything on top. As far as pans is concerned, I didn't need to change my pans as I already had Meyer saucepans. The way to test if your pans will work is to put a magnet on the bottom of the pan. If the magnet is attracted to the surface then the pan will work and if it falls off then it won't. You cannot use copper bottom pans on an induction hob. Most of the showrooms had hobs they used for a demonstration. We have a very helpful electrical retailer in our area who were excellent at explaining, demonstrating andanswering my questions. It was a big expense and I was worried about making a mistake but I am very, very pleased with it.
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