Sheldon said:I'm curious, why are your parents considering switching to induction?
I'm curious too. Here's the backstory (some relevant, some not).
My parents have had a gas stove for as long as I've known them.
(Actually, I don't remember if the stove at the old house before the one
the family moved to 35 years ago was gas or electric.) My parents are
in their 80s and in pretty good health. They're surprisingly good at
staying active and learning new things-- if they enjoy those new things.
They're not big on cooking and never have been. They're old and don't
eat much. I'm not sure how much they were using the gas stove. Let's
guess that it wasn't a lot, that they used it more to heat things up or
to make the occasional vegetable.
They get high quality take-out a lot. (We're talking gourmet stores,
not fast food.) They eat out a lot. I'm guessing that a typical day
for them would be a breakfast of cereal, fruit and toast (no cooking),
lunch out at a niceish restaurant (no cooking) and a simple dinner
consisting of the leftovers from lunch or some cold cuts or something
from a gourmet store (little cooking).
My father was considering not replacing the gas stove at all and just
getting by with the microwave.
They're considering replacing the gas stove because of the fire. They
had a repairman from the gas company do routine maintenance on the
stove. He moved the stove from the wall in order to do a good cleaning,
cleaned the jets to the pilot lights to adjust them, and checked on
everything. Then he pushed the stove back against the wall. My parents
paid him and left to go out for some groceries. When they got back
within the hour, they discovered the wall behind the stove on fire. The
9-1-1 firefighters diagnosed that the pipe bringing the gas into the
house from the tank outside was broken when the stove was pushed back.
The gas ignited from the pilots. Since all the safeties were in place,
nothing exploded. Still, there was a lot more damage than it looked
like at first.
My parents have spent these last weeks dealing with expert cleaners and
insurance adjusters. They've had people in and out scrubbing smoke
smell out of walls and furniture. Apparently it's quite a big deal.
Now the question of replacing the stove has come up. To the best of my
knowledge, the old stove is still working. My parents are getting
conflicting advice from friends and people coming in and out of the
house to clean, and they're not good at weighing the advice. Anything
scientific or mechanical has always thrown them for a loop. (We're
talking about people who have trouble changing light bulbs. Seriously,
my mother is an award winning college level teacher in the humanities,
and my father is an excellent lawyer. They're not practical with
anything that smacks of machinery. Witness the fact that they scarcely
cook.) When it comes to what stove to buy, my parents are likely to
believe the last person they've spoken to or to trust the advice of the
person they like best, not weigh the advantages and disadvantages for
themselves.
There's every indication that the insurance would pay for a new stove or
a good portion of a new stove. They might be thinking that induction is
a good idea because it's cool, the hot new thing. My mother mentioned
that "it's beautiful and environmentally friendly." I KNOW she didn't
come up with that because she researched it herself on the web. (Both
parents are computer savvy with email but disarmingly naive when it
comes to believing things they read on the Internet.) (Oh, and when I
put the sentence about how Mom's a teacher and Dad's a lawyer in the
present tense, that's because they're both still working, though part time.)
I'm leaning towards advising them to stick with gas but thought I'd get
other opinions here.
--Lia
