Tell me about your all Induction Cooking

[OneKoolCat]

CatNewBee,

Sorry to hear you are having to live on your boat in such austere conditions.
Seriously that is awesome! Now I have to start looking at induction cook tops.

Cheers,
Peter

[JebLostInSpace]

I haven't read the full thread, so sorry if this is off the current topic, but I had to share. My PO pulled all the propane equipment out and set the galley up to be all electric, including an induction cooktop. The PO never left the dock. I'm at anchor almost every night. I HATE the all-electric galley. I hate it more than any other stupid thing my PO did. I have to run the generator every time I want a hot meal. Want eggs for breakfast? Generator. Want to stop for lunch and toast a sandwich? Generator. Dinner every. single. night. requires the generator.

It's a fairly quiet 6kw Northern Lights genny and it runs great, but I absolutely loathe starting it up just to cook. I find myself eating tons of microwaveable garbage because that means I only have to run the generator for a couple minutes.

I have enough solar, and use little enough power, that I could go without the generator on even moderately sunny days. But I never get to know that peace, because I gotta eat. It would be different if I hade to run it every evening anyway to charge the batteries, but that's not the case

Now if I could run the stove off the inverter, and if I had the solar & battery capacity to make that work, I would love it. The induction stove itself works great, looks good, and is easy to keep clean. Mine uses at most 1800 watts with the burner turned all the way up. So if you can pull off drawing 1800 watts for, say, 40 minutes in the evening without wrecking your batteries, you might love it.

[250224]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Glass top ranges are less than that, and because they have temperature sensors they will reduce power somewhat as they get hotter to avoid overheating internally. Again you'll never know for sure what's going on unless you measure. ...
The great thing about induction is that you get the speed and convenience of electric with the instantaneous control of gas, but the heat is less even and there is more noise.

[Here] is an induction cooking plate which is quiet and has a reliable sensor (i.e. you know what is going on).

I measured the electric draw and it seams feasible to run with a not too big inverter:

- Power level(W): 3(290), 4(360), 5(450), 6(650), 7(800), 8(1200), 9(1440), 10(1500)
- Temp level(W): e.g. at 100°(260 to 1000), at 180°(up to 1350)


[Here]: https://www.rommelsbacher.de/en/cook...induktion.html

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by JebLostInSpace

I haven't read the full thread

Never admit that you haven't read the full thread.

Mine uses at most 1800 watts with the burner turned all the way up. So if you can pull off drawing 1800 watts for, say, 40 minutes in the evening without wrecking your batteries, you might love it.

The actual power and energy required is much less than this. There's almost nothing that requires the full 1800 watts -- it's a convenience that provides speed -- and you'll never use full power for more than about 10 minutes unless you're trying to boil a 20 quart pot of water.


Power on induction burners is generally adjustable. You can run at 800 watts if that's all you have available and still cook. It's more heat than you'll get from an alcohol stove and people live with those aboard.

[zstine]

Originally Posted by JebLostInSpace

I HATE the all-electric galley. . . . .

Now if I could run the stove off the inverter, and if I had the solar & battery capacity to make that work, I would love it. The induction stove itself works great, looks good, and is easy to keep clean. Mine uses at most 1800 watts with the burner turned all the way up. So if you can pull off drawing 1800 watts for, say, 40 minutes in the evening without wrecking your batteries, you might love it.

So why haven't you? A 2000W inverter is ~$200 and you need ~100Ahr capacity (you don't have that?) for a meal or 2... not crazy amounts.. So with all the fuel you've burned in the generator you probably could have bought an inverter and added a battery!


While I don't have an electric galley, we use a 1500W electric kettle to pre-boil water for rice, pasta, coffee, etc. We have CNG stove and living aboard in the Caribbean where CNG is unobtainable, so we conserve. My 530W solar and 400 AHr Lead-Acid bank has no issue keeping up with making RO water, refrigeration and boiling 3 or 4 Liters of water every day.. We do not carry a generator at all. I would imagine something like 800W solar and maybe 600Ahr batts (assume L.A., Lithium could about 1/2 size) with a 3000W inverter would be an okay minimal setup for an induction/electric galley with only a small amount of reserve.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Jammer

You'll never know for sure unless you measure the electricity being used. Actual induction ranges (as opposed to hotplates) sometimes have just enormous wattage output -- over 3000 watts per burner in some cases -- and they can fit this into a remarkably small burner circle. Glass top ranges are less than that, and because they have temperature sensors they will reduce power somewhat as they get hotter to avoid overheating internally. Again you'll never know for sure what's going on unless you measure.

Smaller pot used on the smaller coil, which I believe was rated at 1200W so basically the same as a conventional burner of that size.

Old-school electric coil burner ranges heat somewhat faster and are somewhat more efficient, compared to glass top, but are responsible for more fires and are more difficult to clean.

Honestly, I could never tell a difference between coil and conventional glass as far as that metric goes. I've done a lot of cooking on both over the past 40 yrs.

In my tests, the most efficient (and fastest) way to boil water is in one of those cheap electric tea kettles. My 120v one checks out at 86% efficiency and can boil two quarts of water in four minutes. The 220v ones in Europe and the UK are higher wattage and can boil water faster, and are probably equally efficient.

No surprise an immersion element is going to be more efficient.

The great thing about induction is that you get the speed and convenience of electric with the instantaneous control of gas, but the heat is less even and there is more noise.

What noise? There are sounds, like the fan and sometimes clicking, but not particularly loud, and certainly not enough to compete with the normal sounds of cooking. Catnewbee talks about the other benefits.

I tried using my cast iron pans on induction and while they work, everything burns in a ring shape right over the induction coils. Not a problem on gas or trad electric.

Not experienced that on either induction range or portable hob.

[JamesPNW]

Originally Posted by TRob

Also interested in hearing what equipment people are using. The only proper piece of kit I have found is something like $6,000 US - insane



https://gn-espace.com/product/oceanc...uction-cooker/

IKEA sells a portable induction cooktop for under $50. This technology is not rocket science.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by TRob

Also interested in hearing what equipment people are using. The only proper piece of kit I have found is something like $6,000 US - insane

https://gn-espace.com/product/oceanc...uction-cooker/

A simple portable 1800W cooktop is all we need for much of our cooking and costs well under $100. Can use it in the galley or in the cockpit. With suitable cookware there's little it can't do.

[JebLostInSpace]

Originally Posted by zstine

So why haven't you? A 2000W inverter is ~$200 and you need ~100Ahr capacity (you don't have that?) for a meal or 2... not crazy amounts.. So with all the fuel you've burned in the generator you probably could have bought an inverter and added a battery!

Well mainly because it's never made it high enough on my list of boat projects. But the inverter may only be $200, but by the time I add wiring, switches, breakers, etc. it'll be more. And with my lack of experience with AC circuits, it'll be lots of trips to the hardware & marine stores as well, while I figure out what the heck I'm doing. Plus, I've got to find a place to mount it that's not terrible, which is a challenge for me at this point. All of this is of course overcomeable, but as I said it's never made it high enough on the list of projects to actually happen.

As for the cost of fuel I burn in the genset, it's really quite tiny. The genset and main diesel pull from the same tank, and I'm not able to detect the fuel draw from the genset when I calculate gph on the diesel.

What I do have is a 1000W inverter, which I use with an itty bitty electric kettle so I can at least have my morning coffee.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by StuM

A simple portable 1800W cooktop is all we need for much of our cooking and costs well under $100. Can use it in the galley or in the cockpit. With suitable cookware there's little it can't do.

Same here. A NuWave precision induction cooktop gives a lot of control over Induction cooking - more than many of the large stove top things. Cook where you want (in the galley, in the cockpit etc).

For rice cooking, Panasonic and one or two other manufacturers make Induction rice cookers, for around US$500. I've one. I struggle to find much advantage over a regular resistance/conduction rice cooker, other than the quality of the rice (absolutely perfect every time).

[Lepke]

I have a couple NuWave cook tops. I use them when it's too hot to run the diesel stove. They run off my inverter or generator.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Check your math. 30 minutes a day is 15 hours a month. At 0.5 gph diesel that should be 7.5 gallons diesel per month.

Doh! Thanks... I was typing furiously.

I'd agree with you about the convenience. Our new boat has a clothes washing machine and it saved a ton of time and effort these last three months in the bahamas. I think we used a marina washing machine once in the three months.

[sailcrazy]

For comparison, FWIW, we deliberately converted to all-electric about 15 years ago! The Admiral much prefers an electric stove to propane, we had a real near-miss with propane, and threw the old propane stove off the boat. We also have AC-powered refer/frzr, our waterheater works off AC as does the batt chgr, and so does our watermaker. We run our genset about 1/2- 1 hour each morning(pull down the refer+frzr, water heater, make coffee, recharge the batts if needed, etc), and in the evening (pull down the refer, heat water, recharge the batts as needed, cook, make water 1 day out of 5-6, etc). We do have 320 watts solar and a windgen to help. Our genset is relatively quiet, doesn't burn much diesel, and the whole system seems to work. We just bought an induction cookplate....it is much faster than the Force 10 stove burners, and only heats the stuff in the pan....and not everything around it. So far, it works well. We're on the dock only when we resplash, and just before we go back on the hard for hurricane storage....all the rest of a 6-mo season is at anchor.

[Mauruuru]

I don't cook just heat stuff up or cook really simple stuff (eggs and bacon in am) so I have two burner induction stove top and microwave oven. Got rid of the two burner propane and installed the induction top in its place. I have an inverter for using house batteries if just heating up soup or something quick and also a generator for charging/cooking something more substantial...

[Josehoya]

Half time live aboard gunk holer in Chesapeake Bay 1985 38 foot sailboat.

-Small Starter battery
-310 Ah AGMs power the essentials (lights, nav, autopilot, vhf, small fans, diesel heater (I know), and fridge)
-280 Ah DIY lithium powers only luxury items ($79 single induction stove top, small $100 ice maker, laptop, Sonos speaker, vacuum, electric water kettle, large box fans, and at some point I will figure out how to run small 5000 cruisair). I have a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter draws 1 amp and a 2000 watt modified inverter draws 1.5 amps(which I don’t really like and hope to replace)

-AGMs and starter are powered by 220 watt solar/ 12 amps per hour, shore power and 50 amp alternator
-Lithium is only powered by 320 watt solar/18 amps per hour (No shore power, no dc to dc, no alternator)

No propane. No oven. Backup butane camping single stove top.

Based on Victron BMS for lithium:

Water kettle sucks up about 7 amps for 2 large cups is coffee

1 hr of leisurely KBBQ cooking in the cockpit was about 40-50 amps on 5 out of 10 setting.

2 egg small griddle for breakfast sandwich 3-4 amps

Ice maker is about 10-13 amps an hour

Sonos, laptop, WiFi repeater 2-3 amps

Now that it’s closer to summer I’m able to leave the boat unplugged and batteries are usually topped off same day. If I cooked a lot and made a lot of ice and made coffee and breakfast...and it’s not sunny one day...then they get topped off the next day or the day after and I’m not worried because they have no problems till they get below 20% SOC. Looking forward to a great summer of cruising in luxury ⛵️����.
Best of luck!