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My Induction Range Review: 4 Years Later And Your Biggest Questions Answered

Every time we post about the kitchen near our induction range, we get so many questions in my DMs. A lot of people are debating traditional gas ranges and induction, and my kitchen is a really public example (dare I say, poster child for induction). It’s been four years with this beautiful gal, our 48″ induction range by Aga, so I figured it’s worth the update. I took the most popular questions and answered them (and happy to do more in the comments). This isn’t a debate on what to buy, just an induction range review from our experience. If you are about to start a kitchen remodel, you want what works for your lifestyle, your family, your style, your health, your budget, and of course – you want it to last a very, very, very long time. Now, I originally wrote about our range years ago, so if you want a tour and a 6-month review, read that as well.

About My Family And How We Cook

  1. We do a lot of Sunday and Monday meal prep (and family dinners), but we don’t cook complicated full meals Tuesday- Thursday and usually grill or get takeout on Fridays because our kids have sports til 7:30. Our repertoire is making large batches of a one-pot or one-pan meal – think roasted chickens, soups, chilis, casseroles, meatballs, quesadillas, energy muffins. We also use our slow cooker, Instant Pot, and air fryer on heavy rotation. I actually think this is typical, but if you are a real home chef, I may not be the right reviewer for you.
  2. We don’t throw dinner parties (we do a ton of BBQs outside). We don’t host Thanksgiving, but we do have a lot of potlucks in the winter. While I think this range would work great for larger gatherings, too, the oven size might be hard for hosting a 25 lb turkey or baking huge batches of cookies.
  3. We barely bake. Elliot makes a lot of cupcakes with her friends, but I don’t have the precision skills to do complicated pastries (a secret shame is that I don’t even do Christmas cookies). This range is both convection and normal (from the top), and if you are a baker, you might have some specific preferences that I don’t really have or know.

So my review of this range for our family is a 10/10, and my goodness, it’s stunning and easy to deal with and clean, but I can’t speak for all types of cooking and baking. I honestly haven’t thought about it functionally or practically in years, which I think speaks to how well it works and the practically zero pain points I have with it.

Has It Scratched?

Nope. Not that we can see. Which is actually surprising since the most used pot/pan that we use weekly is our Dutch oven, and I slide it without really thinking. If I’m pulling something out of the oven and I haven’t cleared the space on top, I don’t pick up the Dutch oven and move it to allow space; I shove it. I’d say the top gets a ton of wear and tear, and it looks perfect still. The surface is unbelievably easy to clean and satisfying to wipe down.

Have You Ever Put A Griddle On It? One Of My Favorite Parts About Gas Is Putting A Griddle In The Middle

Yes! The website says you can, but we haven’t. You just have to use a compatible griddle. I’m not sure how it works since the heat is localized to the circle of each burner.

How Easy Is It To Clean?

SO EASY. Listen if I’m being honest, the reason to get this range is 1. If you want to electrify your house (or stay electric and not have to run gas lines) and 2. If you want an easy-to-clean surface (gas burners are universally annoying to keep clean). Sure, it heats up faster, but honestly it’s kinda negligible (so boiling water might take 2 minutes faster than gas, but that is not a reason to go this route, IMHO).

Has It Changed The Way You Bake?

Kinda. We had to change the way we bake meatballs or cookies/cupcakes, as it won’t fit larger cookie/baking sheets. We either do it in batches, use the second oven, or put two in one oven on different racks. I haven’t thought about this in years though; it’s not a pain point at all. But technically we don’t use large batch cookie sheets anymore, so I guess yes. We use 11×16 sheets.

Have You Had To Modify Any Recipes?

  1. Brian’s famous gas flame butter-basted steak is 10% less easy to make because the cast iron pan needs to be crazy hot to retain the heat as you lift it up. Very specific, I know.
  2. Overnight simmering bone broth. I also used to make a ton of overnight bone broth, but it turns off after a couple of hours for safety when I’m in bed, even if a pot is on it (it always turns off if a pot is NOT on it, which is GREAT). Admittedly, it was super weird that I would leave a small gas flame on all night long, btw. And that was more of a lockdown tradition that I had anyway. But I just Googled it to make sure that I was right, and the quick search said that it turns off and that you should instead put it on low in the oven (which is a great idea, but won’t make the house smell as good, which I loved).
  3. You have to use smaller cookie/baking sheets. I use 2 11×16 sheets and have gotten super used to it. But I could see that if you bake a LOT of cookies, you might want bigger sheets (but this is a double oven, so you do have more room to spread out).

Have You Needed To Fix It? If Yes, Is It Easy To Find Someone To Work On It?

No. We have had zero issues with it, which I can’t say is the same for our pebble ice machine or our kegerator – both of which have broken down a frustrating number of times (the pebble ice machine is now discontinued, so that’s cool – we are researching what to replace it with). If you bought appliances in 2020 – 2022, you might have issues (this was a universal problem) because the demand was so extreme during the lockdown remodel frenzy and every appliance company was panic-hiring to meet the needs, so there are simply more glitches. What I’ve heard is that most of these bugs are worked out. The only thing that we had to “repair” was that a handle became loose and came off, and Brian had to find one of those tiny Allen wrenches to put it back on. But it wasn’t a thing and was an easy fix. There is nothing more frustrating than when a huge, expensive appliance breaks down, so I’m happy to report how great it has been.

induction range review

Do Your Kids Use The Stove? A Friend Had To Replace Hers Twice Due To Her Kids Breaking The Glass Top

Our kids make eggs, grilled cheese, quesadillas, and Rice-a-Roni, but they aren’t manhandling the Dutch ovens or larger pans like we are. So yes, they cook, but it’s pretty minimal stuff (one pan), and no, they didn’t break the glass. I really think the glass is super high quality and must be super thick.

Are You Able To Slightly Change Heat Intensity Like Gas, Or Is It Incremental Like Electric?

It’s a 1-9 number and often depends on the pan. I feel like 6 sometimes feels like 3/4, and then 9 is CRAZY HOT. So yes, you can change the heat, but sometimes the amount you change doesn’t reflect the heat. Sometimes low and slow (1-2) can be really, really slow. But again, we aren’t chefs, and it’s never bugged us. Brian never complains, and I don’t know if I would notice.

Does It Make That High-Pitched Sound Many Induction Ranges Make? Is Yours As Noisy As Mine?

It buzzes a bit on the metal when the pan is on it, actually, but I barely notice it. I remember when we first got it, the kids could hear a pitch that we couldn’t. They would complain, but they haven’t in a while, so now I’m confused whether I imagined that or not. It’s definitely not noisy at all, but is there a slight pitch change? Yes, but slight. I’m extremely sensitive to noise TBH (always that person that asks to turn the music down because I get overstimulated), so I feel like it would absolutely drive me nuts if it were annoying at all.

How Do You Find Having Multiple Smaller Ovens?

It has two ovens – one convection and one electric. They are both smaller, so we use them both when we are meal prepping and need one for a roast chicken and the other for meatballs. We haven’t fully nailed the difference between the two, and we aren’t picky enough to really care. What we know is that convection cooks both from the top and bottom, and the electric just from the top (like a normal oven). We know that convection is hotter and faster than regular, so we usually set the timer for less time and turn it down 5-10 degrees. I think if you are a baker, you would want to do more research to make sure that this isn’t a huge pain point for you. But for us it’s been fine, and we’ve just made small adaptations.

How Long Was The Learning Curve?

It was a short learning curve, and really best by trial and error. But it’s not as intuitive as old-school ranges – just with the knobs and the oven options. There is nothing “smart” about it, which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE (I really wish appliance companies would stop “innovating” by making us use more apps that just break down and are impossible to fix), but there are a lot of dials that we don’t use that make it hard for someone coming in for the first time to figure out.

Do You Miss Having The Gas Range At All?

Not at all. We don’t even think about it – which is again, the point. Appliances should just work. We love how this looks and cooks:) Now, if you live somewhere where your power goes out a lot, then obviously an electric oven won’t work during outages (Our power goes out a lot in the winter, but we have a generator, so it’s fine). And I want to be clear that I can’t speak for other electric or induction ranges, and this one is high-end, so it better work. I just bought the small 24″ Smeg electric range for the guest cottage, so I’m excited to try it and use that (and will report back). We didn’t want to have to bring gas over there because it’s so expensive, so everything at that house is electric.

Which Pots And Pans Do You Use?

All of our normal Dutch ovens work that I’ve had for years (I have a Made-In and Le Creuset). It’s the pans that were trickier on the cooktop (they need to have enough metal properties for the magnet to work). Brian just switched all our pans to these (Made-In Stainless clad) because we are trying to avoid ingesting microplastics and read this article about coatings. Brian wants us to mostly use stainless, cast iron, or carbon steel, but we have one non-stick that we use for eggs and will unfortunately ditch when it scratches because that is when it’s believed to release the PFAS directly into our food. Listen, if you care about this stuff, it’s a massive rabbit hole, so we are trying to use common sense and reason and mostly just keep all the plastics away from our kids’ direct ingestion in their bodies (food and water) while knowing it’s actually impossible to avoid plastic while living in this world. He also got all glass storage containers for Father’s Day 🙂 But anyway, there are tons of pots and pans on the market that are great for induction, so don’t worry about that!

Final Words For My Induction Range Review – Aga 48″ Induction Range

We love how it looks and cooks. I LOVE how it cleans – not having to take off each burner to clean the stainless saves us and our cleaning service 15 minutes each week (and they never really feel clean). So having a wipeable glass surface is great. Many people love convection ovens more than a normal one, but Brian and I don’t really have an opinion about it because we simply don’t bake enough to clock much of a difference.

If you are a baker or home chef, please let us know in the comments if you have good or bad experiences with induction/convection ranges.

*Photos by Kaitlin Green

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Georgina
1 minute ago

I have this exact range and the speed of boiling a huge pot of water is one of induction’s game-changing advantages imo! I *think* maybe Emily you haven’t discovered the P (for power) setting? When you’re turning the knob to increase the heat, keep turning and holding it once you get to 9 and a P will appear. That’s the one you want! It’ll heat a whole big pasta-size pot of water in maybe 3 mins — way faster than the 10-15 it used to take me on my gas stove.

To anyone else considering induction out there — and I say this as a very enthusiastic cook who had to really be convinced to part ways with gas — go for it! Would never go back!

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