@TechConnectify This was a neat video, and the best part about it for me was where you explain how glass-top stoves work primarily by /radiation/ instead of conduction (I would watch a whole separate video just on that). I feel better about ditching my gas stove after watching this. Thanks!
@TechConnectify Re: the duty cycles being too slow for some applications, the one thing I've run into that makes a serious difference is popcorn.
Having a consistent level of heat really helps to get all of the kernels to pop properly and quickly. There's plenty wrong with gas, but I've never gotten comparable popcorn from an electric stove; it tends to produce far more unpopped or burnt kernels, and it takes longer, too.
(A heavy-bottomed pot certainly helps, but isn't a cure-all.)
@TechConnectify reg. your last remark "adding some high-frequency switching [...] could turn that hum into a weird ring"
Yep. This very noticeably happens with my induction stove. It always has a high-frequency ring, which sometimes resonates with the cookware making a LOUD high-frequency ring.
I don't know if it's unlucky resonant frequencies or cheap switching equipment but that's the second-most annoying thing about my stove, behind the touch control. Still better than vitroceramic though.
@TechConnectify Shorter cycles can get annoying. I have a Winston HC4009 CVAP holding cabinet that cycles the elements at .5Hz. It causes many of the lights in the house to vary ever so slightly in brightness at that rate.
@TechConnectify Watching this I immediately start to wonder if the stove's duty cycle depends on the ambient temperature - Like, if your kitchen's at 65F does the duty cycle shift vs. a kitchen at 95F?
Or is a 30F (16C) temp delta too small for the Simmerstat to notice?
@TechConnectify huh, your remark about induction stoves not using these really surprised me
Mine either does, or just has an indistinguishable behaviour pattern... I'm not sure if that's a cost-cutting measure or what, but putting it on 6 to "simmer" will both visibly and audiably behave as if it's on 9 for a couple of seconds and the off for a couple of seconds (water boils, then calms, then boils...)
(It's quite annoying since there seems to be basically no smoothing of this behaviour)
@TechConnectify I once tried to use one of those cheap coil hotplates in place of a heating mantle for a science project.
At the time I had never used any kind of electric stove before and I had assumed that they worked the same way as heating mantles (which are apparently controlled using rheostats). It was not a positive experience.
I wouldn't comment on YT because that's where the worst comments go, but let me just say that I agree that these "clever" switches should no longer exist.
How hard is it for a single-chip controller to do things right and without getting hot enough to boil water?
@TechConnectify
The bit about cheap hotplates reminded me of the time when my induction broke and I had to use one of these for a few days. That thing couldn't get a pot of water to boiling because it was constantly switching off (yes, it was on the max setting). I had to point a hair dryer at it to cool down the thermostat. Absolutely ridiculous.
@TechConnectify My microwave also has long cycles on it's reduced power modes, and I wish it was using shorter cycles; in a microwave the effect is to switch between boiling over, and not heating and back to boiling over, rathr than a nice mid simmer.
@TechConnectify sadly, in the UK the switches are not called "hob knobs" because we have these (which I don't think exist there?). People who like them will tell you they're the finest biscuit in existence (well, second finest, with the ones with chocolate on being even better). People who do not like them will tell you they're like eating a drinks coaster made of cork and sadness. They're nice dunked in tea, though.
@TechConnectify It all makes sense now, having grown up with ceramic hobs (as we brits call the glass ones). Is the reason for not using the simmerstat on induction because those aren't resistive loads, and so the controls are more complex/precise?
@cs My guess is that these select between different resistor values to heat up the bimetallic strip at different rates.
I have seen really thick coils which could have multiple heating elements going through them but that doesn't look to be the case here, so I think it's more likely this is basically a conventional simmerstat but with several discrete settings (which would absolutely annoy the living daylights out of me)
Some were a double helix with 2 elements. High would be 240/240
medium high 240/120
medium 120/120 or 240/0
medium low 120/0
low 60/60 (series across 120).