Comparison between natural gas, electric, and induction cooktops

This comparison is just qualitative and not quantitative with no numerical facts or typical values. This comparison is inspired by some videos on YouTube and some data in ElectroLuxAplliances.com.

	Natural gas cooktop	Electric cooktop	Induction cooktop
Electric supply	Optional for spark	Essential	Essential
Heating power	Small	High	Very high
Boiling time	Large	Small	Very small
Pan material	Any heat conductive material	Any heat conductive material	Heat conductive material which attracts to magnets
Cooktop components heating	Heated	Heated	Only pan is heated
Heating area	Constant. Different heating areas are provided by using different eyes.	Constant	Dependent on pan base area
Putting hand on cooktop’s surface	Burning hazard	Burning hazard	No burning
Heating power control	Control gas flow rate	Control electric current	Control electric current
	If flame is fade out, an external source is required to ignite the gas to continue heating	If electricity is out for certain time, the heater will continue heating when electricity is back	If electricity is out for certain time, the heater will continue heating when electricity is back
Mechanical maintenance	Difficult and required after small operating periods due to blocking of gas paths and galleries	Not required	Not required
Plug and play	Requires some setup. Difficult	Easy	Easy
Outdoor operation in strong winds, sandy environments, very cold places	No	Yes	Yes
Boil over effect	§  Kills flame §  Requires cleaning after boil over §  Requires re-ignition §  Hazardous	Continues heating when boil over takes place	Continues heating when boil over takes place
Cleaning and washing	Difficult	Easy	Easier
Flexibility to move cooktop to another place	Difficult	Easy	Easy
Effect on inhaling in closed rooms (places)	Dangerous due to emission of carbon dioxide and monoxide	No effect	No effect
Hazard propagation	Wide (global) due to propagation of natural gas when flame is killed and natural gas is fed to the cooktop	Local	Local
Operating cost (in Egypt)	Low	High	High
Maximum temperature	Low	High	Very high
Pan blackening	Yes, because of carbon content of exhaust gases	No	No
Burning of plastic handles	May be burnt due to direct flame	No	No
Direct visual inspection of heat power	Easy	Hard	Very hard