Induction kicks gas's butt for simmering low. If you make candy, you'll throw away your double boiler and get really fat with induction. :)

When rice boils over, you grab a towel or paper towel, lift the pot, ignore the beeps, wipe the burner and pot bottom, and continue. If you don't, it'll get a little crusty. You will not need a razor blade.

What Fori said.

Once I didn't clean up a mess right away. I had to use a plant fiber scrubbie. Nylon would be overkill.

I've had long simmering pots of stock or sauce that had drips down the side. They take a lot more cleaning than the cooktop.

Apples and rocketships difference.

Well my mom has a radiant and keeps a razor blade next to it because it's used daily for cleaning. I on the other hand have an induction and have never needed such drastic measure for cleaning. The worst clean-up involves some elbow grease and vary rarely will I leave a damp rag sitting on a spot for about 5 minutes to soften up, then wipe away and it's perfectly clean.

I'm a messy cook, I regularly boil stuff over (this is true no matter what type I'm using, I get distracted and oops). With the induction, I can lift my pan off, wipe underneath and set my pot back and resume cooking. Occasionally I don't notice/don't care and this is what happens. Yesterday I made oatmeal for the kids, Some burbled over the back side and collected between the pot and burner and sat there while it finished cooking. I didn't notice until I removed the pan to dish up. It wasn't scorched but definitely well dried on. I was rushing the kids out the door for an appointment and didn't bother to clean it up. The burner was still "hot" (not really hot compared to a radiant but hot enough that it would further "cook" the spilled oatmeal). Last night when we got home and things settled down, I wiped the stove off. The rest of the stove (splatters and all - see I told you I was a messy cook), took a single wipe to be clean. That spot required firm rubbing of about 3-4 swipes. Does that give you a visual of how easy it is to clean?

As far as cooking goes, I've never tried the paper towel, I have tried parchment paper and it works fine but it also browned a bit like it does in the oven. I didn't know if it was safe to use again so I'd toss it. That got old really fast. Then I bought these silicone mats that are rated up to 600 degrees. They work beautifully. They keep pots from sliding around and I can use my cast iron without worrying about scratching it. They don't really help with cleaning but since I've never needed anything more than a rag and water, I've never felt like I needed anything to make that easier (even with cooking greasy food).

Oh, right, the paper towel thing. I do it when I'm rendering fat. :) Works great and it's absorbent. :)

I had a radiant cooktop, like you had to use a razor to keep in clean. Stuff got on the touchpad and totalled the thing in less than 2 years.

How easy is it to clean induction.
Well, I made a messy breakfast of Sausage, Eggs & Hashbrowns.
How hard was it to clean up after the breakfast???

Click the link below.

Gary

Here is a link that might be useful: An Induction Breakfast on the Elux Icon

have induction and it really is a breeze to clean. just soap and water and wipe dry and you are done in about 3-5 minutes.

clean boiled over pasta, red gravy splatters, grease...
even left it for 2 days and it still cleaned up quickly ( not all them things at once..lol)

its a no brainer, induction is sooo much easier to clean,

no regrets here!!!

HTH

Excellent, thank you all for the helpful answers! Now to pick a brand/model and of course new cookware!

I'm probably the only one here who ever had a fire on induction. (Also in the wall where my vintage induction cooktop was the site of a little electrical fire--not its fault and it was fine afterwards...)

Don't use the paper towel if you're going to be cooking something hot for a long time. I was seasoning a cast iron something hot and long and...uh...yeah if you get something hot enough, it'll ignite paper. The new cooktops might shut off before you get that hot, but this was my '80s model. Anyway that cleaned up really well too. :)

Yes indeed! Remember your Ray Bradbury! :)

Agree with all above comments on ease of cleaning induction. One thing I also did was actually read the directions on my bottle of white cleaner/polish that came with the range. I had always used it to scrub with, then rinse off with a watered cloth. Between burnt on food and a darkened ring around used burners on my old ceran top, I ended up forgetting the cleaner after a while and just scrubbing it with an SOS pad (probably not the best for it, but it worked).

Anyway, the actual instructions say to use the cleaner more like a polish or wax (like for your car). Rub it on, then buff it. I guess it leaves a protective coating which makes it even easier to get stuff off. I do my induction top about 1x/week and it still looks amazing after almost 6 months of use.

I went from radiant glass to induction, and it's as easy as everyone says it is. Wipe with a wet cloth (soapy if it's greasy), wipe dry with a microfiber for spotless shine. It rocks.

Low temps are REALLY low. I had to bump my Miele up to 3 to get it to melt chocolate chips, but then 1 or 2 held it nicely for a few hours. Simmering is terrific.

If a magnet sticks to the bottom of your current cookware, you're good to go--unless, of course, you are looking for a reason to get new pans. :-)

Have fun shopping.
Cj

We've had a GE Profile (Bisque) range with radiant top for about 8 years. It cooks well, but the cooktop is always betting brown marks on it that requires daily use of the Cerama Bryte cleaner and blue scrub pads that come with it, and once a week use of the razor scraper to keep it looking good. When it's all cleaned, it looks brands new - but it's a pain.

I'm hoping in the next year or two to replace it with the new GE Profile Slide-In Induction Range, as it's stainless and will match the new stainless GE Profile Convection Microwave and Miele Dishwasher that I've had for a year. I've read and seen videos of people using paper towels on their induction between the cooktop and the pots/pans. My old pans can't work with induction (not magnetic) and are the T-Fal with the non-stick coating flaking off. Because of this, I purchased the Emerilware Pro-Clad 12-piece set of BedBathBeyond since it's all stainless, works on induction, and dishwasher safe. I've been using it for a week now on my GE Radiant and can tell it heats-up much faster, so I know it will work even better once I get the Induction range.

Same as cj47.

However, we never had a smoothtop, went right from coiltop to induction.

Simmering is great on Induction, alto I have to admit Mojavean beat me with his Blue Star gas simmer burner.

I did about 119F degrees and it held until I fell asleep (LOL) or is that (LULL)? Mojavean did about 112F as I recall.

In the interest of "Full Disclosure" I did goof , doing the test, I had the hob set to "1", instead of "0" but the temps you saw, are not that much hotter than a bright sunny day, where Mojaveans lives!!

Gary