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Ceramic Hob Buying Guide
If you’re in the market for a new hob and have been looking around at the different types we have to offer such as ceramic, induction, domino and gas, this article is going to talk you through ceramic hobs. Buying appliances for your home can’t be done on a whim, you need to make sure you’re putting in the right groundwork to ensure you make the best decision for your home.
In this post, we’re going to look at:
Read on to see if a ceramic hob will be a good fit for your kitchen.
What is a Ceramic Hob?
A ceramic hob is an electronically powered hob. It has heating ‘zones’ rather than the traditional burners you would find on a gas hob. They come in a variety of styles to suit any kitchen and represent an alternative to the traditional gas method of cooking.
The ‘ceramic’ part of the name refers to the glass finish of the hob. It’s not referring to the same ceramic that you would expect a plate to be made of. Ceramic glass is shatterproof, tough, able to withstand large amounts of heat (it would be pretty useless if it couldn’t) and easy to clean.
How Does a Ceramic Hob Work?
Ceramic Hobs have heating elements beneath the surface of its zones. There will be often be a coil underneath the heating zone that is activated by the electrical current. As the coil heats you’ll see it glowing red. This in turn heats the glass which is then transferred over to your food.
There’s no special requirements for installing one, it just needs to be within reach of a suitable power source. There’s no need to connect it to your gas supply, after all.
Great deals available on our Ceramic Hobs, free delivery is available if you buy today. Save money and update your kitchen at Appliance City today!
How to Use Your Ceramic Hob
Ceramic hobs often feature touch controls now. When they first entered the consumer market, it took them a while to take off. Since their explosion in the 1990s, much more consideration has been given to its usability and they now often have great, instinctive controls.
They have residual heat indicators to show you when a zone has just been used and is too hot to touch. Otherwise, they have the same capabilities as any other hob and you can use them to cook exactly the same things, from frying eggs to boiling potatoes.
How Do I Clean My Ceramic Hob?
One of the best things about ceramic hobs is how easy they are to clean. As they are normally flush with the worktop and are effaced with glass, they are just as easy to clean as your surfaces. You can use your standard kitchen cleaner products on them, but just double check before you do to see if they’re going to be suitable.
Not everyone has kitchen cleaner on hand. So, if it’s an emergency or you want to try something different, here’s how you clean your ceramic hob without kitchen cleaner. You will need:
Follow these steps to have your ceramic hob surface shining again:
- Fill a bowl with hot water and mix in your washing up liquid. Leave the cloth to soak in this bowl.
- Apply a generous amount of bicarbonate of soda all over your cooktop.
- Squeeze the liquid from the cloth all over the cooktop and let that soak for about 15 minutes.
- You may want to wear some marigolds for this part if you have them. After the 15 minutes is up, grab your cloth and polish your cooktop, moving it in a circular motion. Make sure you remove all the baking soda as you do this. Leave it to dry.
- Your ceramic hob will be looking squeaky clean after this. Once it’s dry you may want to give it a once over with a cleaning wipe or something to buff it up a bit and enhance that shine.
Ceramic Hob vs Induction Hob
The debate of which type of hob cooking has been blown wide open by the rise of induction cooking. Induction cooking embraces the aesthetic and control of electric hobs and also adds the responsiveness and speed of gas cooking.
As induction hobs and ceramic hobs look very much the same, people wonder what the difference is. In this section, we’re going to break down the differences between the two different types of hob.
Speed
Ceramic hobs are much quicker than another commonly-known electric method of cooking, the hot plate. However, the ceramic hob doesn’t match up to the gas hob or induction in terms of speed. In fact, an induction hob can boil small amounts of water faster than a kettle can. If you want your stove to be able to cook your food quickly more than anything else, we recommend you look at our gas or induction hobs.
Efficiency
One shortcoming of the gas and ceramic hob is their efficiency. They weren’t really ever seen as a problem until induction cooking entered the fray and demonstrated a much more energy-efficient method of cooking. Instead of heating a whole zone like a ceramic hob does, induction cooking uses electromagnetic waves to focus its energy purely on a conductive pan or pot.
Where gas and ceramic hobs waste energy by heating the air around the pan, an induction hob only heats the pan. The energy transfer of an induction hob is around 85% whereas gas and ceramic hobs clock in at around 75%. Induction hobs also use 90% of the energy that is required to use them, making them an efficient choice.
That being said, gas and ceramic hobs have been in use for many, many years without any kind of crisis on people’s energy bills.
Price
If you’re on a budget for your new kitchen installation, then a ceramic hob will give you that complete control of electric cooking, the gorgeous design and easy-to-use surface in your kitchen without breaking the bank. Induction cooking doesn’t exactly come cheap when compared to gas or ceramic hobs.
Having said that, the investment in an induction hob can be a worthwhile one. It will save you money through its efficient use of energy in the long-run and offers a more complete range of abilities in your kitchen. Induction cooking is slowly becoming the standard of household kitchens and are well worth your consideration if you’re already interested in what a ceramic hob has to offer.
For our full range of ceramic hobs, you’ll find them in our cooking section. We also have ranges of domino hobs, induction hobs and gas hobs as well as our outstanding line of range cookers and built in ovens. For a matching cooker hood, head to our extraction section. We also have more helpful guides on hobs here:
