Honest answer: Induction stoves aren’t shit in the US. They don’t run at a lower voltage because our homes are wired for 240V same as Europe.
Honest explanation: The American power grid closely remembles anyone else’s, we’ve got the big long distance power lines up on those big pylons that transmit power in the megavolts, those get stepped down at substations to a dozen kilovolts to snake into neighborhoods, and then those pole mounted transformers step it down to 240V to make the couple hundred foot trip from the pole to a few houses. The difference is that in America, the transformer is connected to the house with three wires, not two. The third wire is a center tap, so you have the two outer wires and a center wire.
Measure the voltage between the outer two wires, you find 240V. Measure between the center wire and either of the outer two, you find 120V.
Most of the normal outlets throughout an American home or business are wired between one of the outers and the center, to deliver 120V. But, we routinely wire some circuits across the two outer wires for 240V, we even have special plugs for this to make sure you don’t plug a 120V appliance into a 240V outlet. Things such as electric water heaters, HVAC units, clothes dryers, electric car chargers and electric stoves are indeed wired for 240V here.
Induction cooktops took on a low reputation in the US because early models were hilariously expensive (Westinghouse was selling an induction range in the 70’s for $1500, that’s about $10,000 in today’s money) and not particularly reliable. Another factor was all the trendy cookware from the 60’s on. CorningWare and Pyrex (ceramic and borosilicate glass) was huge in the 70’s, Calphalon (anodized aluminum) and Revere Ware (high-nickel stainless steel) was on all the wedding registries in the 80’s, and solid copper was big in the early 90’s. None of which work on induction stoves. Which means, for decades, Americans perceived induction ranges as gimmicky crap that required “special” cookware, that to buy into an induction range would require throwing away all your pots and pans. Americans continued preferring resistive coil electric or natural gas stoves.
Well, we arrived into the 21st century, teflon-coated steel and tri-ply stainless pans come into vogue, Corning stops making consumer ceramic and glass products, Revere changes their stainless formula, and now we find that most cookware on the market is induction compatible. Induction stoves are the fastest growing market segment in kitchen appliances in the US, everybody wants one.
In the us, wall sockets run on 110v, but it’s standard for all residencies to also have specific appliance wall sockets specially wired for 220v, usually two areas of a home, for washer/dryer and stove/oven. It’s a totally different plug design, too.
I don’t personally have induction, but I know people that have them and say they love them.
What nobody is saying is that they’re viewed and priced as premium items, almost double the cost of a cheap electric cooktop and even more than gas. For instance, cheapest I could find for a basic multi-burner in-countertop cooktop with a quick search: Gas $175, Electric $199, Induction $330. This gets worse for a typical range that is found in most homes (cooktop/oven combo). You can get a cheap gas range for under $500. An induction range starts at just under $1000.
220v isn’t achieved via two phases; we get 110v out of a single phase by center tapping the transformer. The center tap wire is called the “neutral” and is at ground potential, and then the two “hot” wires. There’s 110v between the neutral and either one of the hots, and the hots are 220v apart. It’s still one phase.
Note I used 110/220v here and 120/240 above. peak-to-peak, root-mean-square, ask an actual electrician, I’m just an asshole on the internet.
You’d presumably install a 240, a NEMA 6-20, so you can get all the power you need. So a 6-20 gets about 5k watts, versus 3k for standard British plug, versus 2400 on US standard. And these numbers are all fudgy because for some reason it all varies.
Are induction stoves shit in the US because of the lower voltage? Honest question
Honest answer: Induction stoves aren’t shit in the US. They don’t run at a lower voltage because our homes are wired for 240V same as Europe.
Honest explanation: The American power grid closely remembles anyone else’s, we’ve got the big long distance power lines up on those big pylons that transmit power in the megavolts, those get stepped down at substations to a dozen kilovolts to snake into neighborhoods, and then those pole mounted transformers step it down to 240V to make the couple hundred foot trip from the pole to a few houses. The difference is that in America, the transformer is connected to the house with three wires, not two. The third wire is a center tap, so you have the two outer wires and a center wire.
Measure the voltage between the outer two wires, you find 240V. Measure between the center wire and either of the outer two, you find 120V.
Most of the normal outlets throughout an American home or business are wired between one of the outers and the center, to deliver 120V. But, we routinely wire some circuits across the two outer wires for 240V, we even have special plugs for this to make sure you don’t plug a 120V appliance into a 240V outlet. Things such as electric water heaters, HVAC units, clothes dryers, electric car chargers and electric stoves are indeed wired for 240V here.
Induction cooktops took on a low reputation in the US because early models were hilariously expensive (Westinghouse was selling an induction range in the 70’s for $1500, that’s about $10,000 in today’s money) and not particularly reliable. Another factor was all the trendy cookware from the 60’s on. CorningWare and Pyrex (ceramic and borosilicate glass) was huge in the 70’s, Calphalon (anodized aluminum) and Revere Ware (high-nickel stainless steel) was on all the wedding registries in the 80’s, and solid copper was big in the early 90’s. None of which work on induction stoves. Which means, for decades, Americans perceived induction ranges as gimmicky crap that required “special” cookware, that to buy into an induction range would require throwing away all your pots and pans. Americans continued preferring resistive coil electric or natural gas stoves.
Well, we arrived into the 21st century, teflon-coated steel and tri-ply stainless pans come into vogue, Corning stops making consumer ceramic and glass products, Revere changes their stainless formula, and now we find that most cookware on the market is induction compatible. Induction stoves are the fastest growing market segment in kitchen appliances in the US, everybody wants one.
In Germany we have 230V for normal appliances and 400V for stoves.
Why?
The same reason you use 240V for stoves instead of 110V
To make food hotter fasterer.
My induction stove is actually insane.
It can get a gallon of water boiling in 2 minutes (11kW power).
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In the us, wall sockets run on 110v, but it’s standard for all residencies to also have specific appliance wall sockets specially wired for 220v, usually two areas of a home, for washer/dryer and stove/oven. It’s a totally different plug design, too.
I don’t personally have induction, but I know people that have them and say they love them.
We’re actually split phase and higher power appliances like stoves, EV chargers, water heaters run on 240 volts.
But the “standard” wall outlets are 15 amps at 120 volts.
Electric stoves run on 400v in Europe, so they are still faster
pretty sure that’s due to the spoiler and racing stripe.
And how many amps? My search says in Europe 230-240 volts at 32 amps are most common.
Just switched to induction. They work great.
What nobody is saying is that they’re viewed and priced as premium items, almost double the cost of a cheap electric cooktop and even more than gas. For instance, cheapest I could find for a basic multi-burner in-countertop cooktop with a quick search: Gas $175, Electric $199, Induction $330. This gets worse for a typical range that is found in most homes (cooktop/oven combo). You can get a cheap gas range for under $500. An induction range starts at just under $1000.
No, they work really well because they run on two phases so 220v.
220v isn’t achieved via two phases; we get 110v out of a single phase by center tapping the transformer. The center tap wire is called the “neutral” and is at ground potential, and then the two “hot” wires. There’s 110v between the neutral and either one of the hots, and the hots are 220v apart. It’s still one phase.
Note I used 110/220v here and 120/240 above. peak-to-peak, root-mean-square, ask an actual electrician, I’m just an asshole on the internet.
You’re correct. I tried to keep it short and misspoke. Two hot wires from previously split phase.
You’d presumably install a 240, a NEMA 6-20, so you can get all the power you need. So a 6-20 gets about 5k watts, versus 3k for standard British plug, versus 2400 on US standard. And these numbers are all fudgy because for some reason it all varies.