Just passed the sales stand on a sales fair: "Special price, before we include the projected price rise of copper on the international market" was about ... 200 euro for a single pot (almost 10 inch - 24 cm diameter), or near to 1000 euro for a "basic set": one frying pan, three pots (something like ... 16cm, 20 cm, 24 cm ?)
I think 1000 could be the right price, as copper hardly wears with use. But it's a lot to pay up front.
Oh, and as I really don't like cooking "on an open fire" (gas), I'd have to see how well they do on any type of "electric" stove.
I'd LOVE to exchange the stove for an induction one, but than too: I won't buy 1000 euro of kitchen gear, just to find out that for an induction plate to work, one should have "ferromagnetic" materials.
But my guess is, you don't. My guess is, that induction plates wiull induce "heating currents" in ANY well-conducting metal. But e.g. aluminium pans tend to be thin, so the overall electric resistance can be quite high, and as aluminium will melt at temperatures well below iron (or inox), a little imputity, locally enhancing resistance, will harm your pot if it's heated "from within".
I still see "induction cooking" as ... a microwave heating the pot instead of directly heating the food.
(Enjoyed the demonstration of Lenz's law back in highschool: "induction of an eddy current in any kind of metal ring"
The iron ring jumped right to the ceiling of the lab, rebouncing with a big "bang" and ... making the teacher cry out loud "NOT TO TOUCH THAT" ...
We saw very soon why: he took it, with a long piece of iron, and put it in a water-filled sink. We HEARED the steam and were glad we had not touched.
His aluminium ring (several millimeters thick) jumped fiercely too, but made a lesser bang on the ceiling (because, he said, it weighs less thus doesn't carry the same momentum) but hissed in the water just like the iron one, and the copper one.
AFAIK a "changing magnetic flux" will induce currents in ANY conductor, ferromagnetic or not. If this conductors RESISTANCE is low enough, the currents will be high, and big currents through non-zero resistors produce (significant) heat.
So -- still my guess -- the cry for "new pans" if one installs induction plates, may be part of the marketing: "Pay a lot of money for this new stuff, and you will immediately SEE that you now have totally renewed your kitche,n" (as all the new pots ... look new, of course) |
