Gas stoves fill the air in your home with particulate matter (pm), which has been found to increase cancer risk in the long term.
So next time you buy a stove, consider choosing an induction stove.
Btw, gas stoves being better or faster than induction is a myth. They have certain specific advantages, but they are actually slower.
Obligatory Technology Connections video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUywI8YGy0Y
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Induction is the best, I’ll never go back
Induction is best in theory, however in practice it’s unfortunately often paired with these shitty buttonless capacitive controls that are harder to decipher that hieroglyphics as well as “”“smart”“” features
They do still sell induction stoves with classic dumb buttons but they are either hard to come buy or aimed at professional chefs, which instantly adds two zeros to their price
Tbf the flat buttonless style makes them really easy to clean.
Mine has simple capacitive controls. Turn it on, higher number is more hotter. Very simple.
Apparently it has other features, not bothered with them.
My stove apparently has wifi. But why I would put that thing on my network is beyond me.
wireless house fire
It’s the best, got one not too long ago, and same, I’ll never go back. Immediate temperature control.
I mean, you have immediate temp control with gas too?
I’ve never seen a gas stove with temp control. I’m not even sure how that would work. Controlling the amount of gas, sure, but not the temperature. In an induction stove, you can set it to 150 degrees, and it will hold that.
The studies I read, there was no ventilation / exhaust fan. The point was that low income households using these stoves often don’t have proper ventilation and it makes them dangerous. I didn’t find much evidence that using them with proper ventilation is actually a serious problem.
Further, cooking releases all sorts of chemicals from incomplete combustion in the air if something is burning, as well as the toxic chemicals release from nonstick cookware at very high temperatures, so cooking without ventilation is bad for your health would be the message I’d take away. I find most people are completely unaware of the hazard.
Very few residences have proper ventilation. In the US, a microwave above the stove is common. Microwave often do have a fan function, but the vast majority don’t vent outdoors. I doubt that running air through a very thin filter will do much good.
Even charcoal grills inside are fine with proper ventilation. So you’re right, but your also not saying very much.
Yeah I’m not sure what the purpose of the comment was. To convince people to continue using gas on the off chance it won’t increase cancer risk? That’s not a compelling reason to use gas. It might not kill me.
With proper ventilation you can do everything, you can work with hazardous gases and nuclear materials, if the ventilation is sufficient.
Radiation ventilation is fun to say
Radioactive particles perhaps but nuclear radiation is not affected by airflow
But if the flow is good enough, all the material will be sucked away before it has time to emit.
I didnt watch the video yet but do you have any estimates on how much pm is released? Where I live the air contains about 50 mikrograms per cubic meter and I’d like to know which is unhealthier: using a gas stove without ventilation or going outside and breathing fresh air
The gas stove would add pm on top of what the air in your area has
Appliance repairman here. What I tell my clients about gas in general is that: 1. When natural gas burns it create CO. 2. There is a none zero chance the thing can blow up.
Electric cooking appliances have an absolute zero chance of either of these two things happening.
I try to get people to switch to electric for these reasons some just like the aesthetic of cooking on gas.
yeah blah blah blah but honestly… we are humans, we do crazy shit daily like driving 200 kph in a metal can while blasting rave or metal music. If something goes out in flames just say that new years eve came in early - if you are still alive. Life isn’t for the faint of heart for sure
In my third world country the real issue is about costs. At this very moment cooking with gas is cheaper than cooking with electric.
The gas provider company mandates an inspection on every home gas apppliance and the installation every 5 years to check for good connections and correct ventilation (if a home does not pass the checks the service is suspended), so I guess at least it diminishes the risks to some degree.
But still since gas is going to be a lot expensive in the following weeks, maybe the tables will turn. But then you’ll need to get an electric stove.
Vent your home as much as possible when cooking, that should help with the health risks.
Maybe you can get a small induction stove like this to use the gas stove less
Those things suck at keeping a small volume of liquid at a simmer. I always burn my rice on mine.
Fantastic for boiling huge pots of water or searing things, though
We like to see it - fire, heat.
We like using pans that may not be induction friendly.
Ceramic stoves also work on other types of pans and emit a bright red glow when they’re hot. However, they are less efficient.
They are ass for trying to control the temperature of your pan.
Of all the stoves I’ve cooked on, ceramic stoves are the worst. No temperature control and anything that spills is instantly burned into the stovetop unless you want to spend your weekend scrubbing it out.
You like using cheap aluminum pans?
I like my carbon steel and my grandma’s cast iron.
Both of those work on induction perfectly well.
My carbon steel pan works almost too well on induction
I absolutely agree. I’m happy to switch to a new technology as long as it performs at least as well as my current implementation.
I have a few cast iron and carbon steel pans, but most of my cooking vessels are thick copper (not copper inserts, full 3mm or more copper). Copper pans are superior to any other material (unless you prioritize cost) and are sadly incompatible with induction.
Don’t even talk to me about electric element (non induction) stoves, they’re garbage for heat control.
They are garbage for heat control if you use them the same way you would a gas or induction stove. If you learn how to use one, resistive electric stoves cook just fine.
Hard disagree. Try making a sauce which requires high heat, then very low heat. Turning the electric burner down doesn’t immediately reduce heat, it cools off relatively slowly. I guess you could switch to another burner that was preheated to a low temp, assuming you have a free burner while cooking.
I’ve worked for years in several professional kitchens and cook 3 meals a day, 7 days a week from scratch at home. I know how to use the tools in a kitchen, and non-induction electric burners are absolute garbage.
Induction is even better at quick temperature changes then gas is, which really surprised me.
I absolutely hate that I have a gas stove and water heater mainly for reason 2. It fills me with pure anxiety.
I know there’s a relatively small chance, but whenever we’re turning the corner and I see the house is still there it’s a huge relief. In the next year or two we should be able to put out the money to put in outlets and get rid of gas.
I do almost everything in my house but the 2 things I won’t touch are electric and gas.
heatpump water heaters are looking good. Super easy to install. No venting needed and they run on 120v.
I love my heat pump water heater because it cools down the room it’s in to root cellar temperatures perfect for storing things like potatoes and pumpkins
I haven’t met an electric stove I like cooking on as much as gas. I’m willing to give induction a try, but I’m not dropping three grand on a stove and another grand to get a 240V line run to my kitchen just to find out the damn thing burns my marinara like every other electric stove and the induction hot plate I have with pulse-widths measured in seconds.
My ideal stove would be induction, but it would be on one end of a long, thick sheet of stainless steel. There’d be a thermometer embedded in it, and if I wanted a proper low heat I could just move the pot the cooler part of the stovetop.
Yes, the entire thing would be blisteringly hot, but I could get a nice, even heat and use any pot I wanted.
Or I want an induction stove with remote temperature sensors and magnetic stirrers like in lab equipment so it knows how hot the pot is and can adjust accordingly, instead of just turning on and off at five second intervals.
Since this is the stove thread:
I had a pot of salt water overflow from boiling on a electric stove and now there is this tough ring of residue around the burner caked on and it won’t scrub off. Is using a razor blade to scrape it off really the only option?
I’m worried I will scratch the stove top and the landleech will have an excuse to steal my security deposit.
Edit: thank you all for your helpful advice
Magic eraser might be worth a shot. Melamine foam is the generic name for it and you can get a ton of it cheap. It destroys stains easily. Even if it doesn’t handle the burner stains I highly recommend it for cleaning around the house anyway.
I legit used car polish once to clean my electric glass stovetop
Works fine as long as you work it by hand and wipe the residue off with a wet rag
BarTenders friend is really the best for everything in the kitchen, but leaving some CLR on it overnight should break it down enough to clean up with a warm sponge. Calcium is probably the white stuff.
Bartender’s Friend or Pink Stuff should take it right off.
*Bar Keepers Friend
Nothing stopping you from using diluted lye / oven cleaner and wiping it off, just be very sure you take the necessary precautions. Do not breathe that shit in or let it get on your skin.
as long as you’re careful, it will be fine. been using a razorblade on them my whole life
I’ve used a razor for really stuck on bits on our glass top stove, but this cleaner also seems to do quite well: https://weiman.com/glass-cooktop-cleaner-polish
For the razor, keep it at a shallow angle (I tend to go around 20 or 30 degrees above the stovetop), and keep a small amount of water on the surface. I usually have a damp rag that I wipe the razor and stovetop with occasionally during the scraping process, to remove the small pieces that come off.
Also, if you are nervous about damaging the stovetop itself, maybe try something only lightly abrasive and warm water, and let the water work it’s magic. (I see you have already tried this, so maybe that isn’t helpful :/ ) From a chemistry perspective, salt water shouldn’t exactly leave behind an insoluble residue, but IDK what else was cooking in the water.
One thing I like about gas stoves is the ones with sealed burners are a hell of a lot easier to get clean-looking than the glass tops of electric stoves. They get nasty so quick I prefer the old-style coil ones.
For your problem I’d try soaking a paper towel in CLR cleaner. It’s probably lime from the water and not salt.
I mean… paying for shit you damaged during your stay is kind of the point of a security deposit.
YSK: Everything causes cancer. Drinking water causes cancer. Living causes cancer.
the maillard reaction causes cancer. I’m still not boiling my beef.
Photons cause cancer so I guess I may as well do nothing at all.
Yes, but…
Cooking itself also does this. If you are searing or frying that will also release dangerous particulates. Make sure you have and use a vent hood that vents outside the living space when you cook regardless of fuel.
I can say from personal experience of using every kind of home stove, that gas is both the worst and slowest. Boiling water for my morning coffee is fastest on induction, which takes about half the time as resistive or radiant electric, and gas takes nearly three times longer than that.
Though it might just be the american style of burner that directs the flame away from the center of the pan. I’ve not yet tried any other kind.
It probably has to do with the type of burner I’m going to guess.
We’ve had both induction and electric stoves for our whole lives. And the home we recently moved into has a fancy dancy natural gas stove with star shaped burners.
It is night and day compared to anything else we’ve used before, water boils so much faster, I can actually sear a pen full of vegetables now instead of just making them mushy.
Honestly I love it. I just wish the hood wasn’t so shitty and actually had a hood to capture all of the output from the stove.
Check and see if you need to change the filter in the hood.
Oh dear Lord. The hood has a filter???
Yeah, that’s probably fucked up, none of the filters in anything in this house had been changed in years when we got the place. The filter for the furnace was black.
And it’s been over a year since then I’m sure if the hood fan has a filter it’s absolutely disgusting.
But I also meant that the hood could have a shape to it so that it collects air from the front burners which it doesn’t.
Yeah, fam… airborne grease particles. They’re the reason for hood fan filters, and the reason they clog. I would recommend getting a full box of nitrile gloves. And definitely clean the screen cover over the filter.
Edit: re-shaped for collection of fumes from the front burners… Idk, sometimes people change the stove but not the hood, or get a stove and think the hood that would work best with it “clashes” and gets an objectively shit hood instead. Beauty is pain. Or some shit. Idk. I put stones on top of other stones for a living…
I’ve got a gas stove that I love, but my shitty little induction hotplate that I hate for anything other than searing is better at searing. It’ll get a cast iron pan up to 700-800 degrees and my carbon steel gets to like 900, which is perfect for searing.
But the damn thing turns off when I try to toss anything, and it can’t maintain a low temperature because the pulse-width modulation is 1Hz.
Everything else being equal, of course electric and induction stoves are preferable to gas. I spend most of my life with an electric stove, no apartment I ever saw had induction, but I didn’t particularly like the gas stove I had to use for some years.
But if you want the worst user experience ever, find an electric stove with touchscreen controls. What the hell, landlord, where did you even find that one?
Having only cooked on radiant electric and gas, I gotta say I prefer the experience of cooking on gas, but not by enough to accept the documented risks, even if they are small. I hope at some point I’ll be able to have an induction range top as my primary.
idk - there should be some very clear cancer statistics to back up such a claim between countries like Sweden (<1% gas stoves, all are electric) vs other countries then.
One cause of cancer like this probably won’t be visible on a national scale, too many other factors come into play that will muddy the data
However, it’s not “idk”, the current science on gas stoves being bad for your health is quite clear. Not just cancer, but also for other lung-related issues like asthma: https://www.cancercenter.com/community/blog/2024/09/are-gas-stoves-bad-for-your-health
You’re right - the report they link to here (Table 2 is good) makes that quite clear.
Dihydrogen monoxide is a dangerous chemical 😉
