c/gas-stove-wars

Hot take: Gas stoves are worse for indoor air than I thought

I used to roll my eyes at people saying gas stoves were dangerous. I grew up cooking on one, no issues. Then last month I borrowed a cheap air quality monitor from a friend in Denver. I ran it during dinner prep, searing a steak on my gas burner. The nitrogen dioxide spiked to over 200 ppb in 10 minutes, way above the EPA outdoor standard. I kept the kitchen door open and ran the hood fan, but it barely helped. After that I looked up studies from places like Stanford and the California Air Resources Board. Now I'm seriously considering switching to induction, even though it hurts my pride a bit. Has anyone else tested their own air and changed their mind?

Finally switched from gas to induction and my kitchen air is way different after 3 weeks

I got a portable induction burner from a garage sale for $20 just to try it out. After 3 weeks of using it for almost everything, I noticed my kitchen doesn't get that greasy film on the counters anymore. Plus my air quality monitor went from showing 80-90 PM2.5 during gas cooking down to like 15 with induction. I have asthma and haven't used my rescue inhaler once since I switched. Anyone else see a big change in air quality after ditching gas?

The cheap hood vent trick that actually cut down my kitchen smoke

I've got a gas range and no matter what I did, the smoke detector would go off whenever I seared anything hot. My old vent was a recirculating one from the 90s, basically useless. I tried routing a duct through the wall myself with a $40 inline fan from Amazon and it worked way better than I expected. Has anyone else had luck with a DIY vent setup instead of dropping $500 on a new hood?

My gas stove lit up the smoke detector at 6am...

I was making pancakes last Tuesday and the burner flared up so high it singed my sleeve... turned out the drip pan was caked with grease from months ago. Has anyone else had their gas stove throw a big flame like that and just ignored it?

Appreciation post: the $20 air purifier that fixed my kitchen smoke problem

After 3 years of my gas stove setting off the smoke alarm every time I seared a steak, I finally tried one of those cheap Levoit 200S purifiers sitting right on the counter. Cost me $20 on Amazon and the alarm hasn't gone off once since I started running it while cooking. Anyone else find a simple fix like this that made their gas stove more bearable?

Rant: I just realized I've been using my vent hood wrong for 5 years

So I moved into this apartment in Chicago back in 2020 and it has a gas stove. I always just turned the vent hood fan on low whenever I cooked. Last week my buddy who is an HVAC guy came over and saw me doing that. He asked why I wasn't using the back burner vents and I had no idea what he was talking about. Turns out the hood has two separate fan speeds for each side of the stove and I never bothered to read the manual. Also the carbon filter was completely clogged with grease. I cleaned it out and now the thing actually works. How many other people are out there just running their vent hood wrong without knowing?

Found out my gas stove puts out as much NO2 as a busy intersection, anyone else seen that stat?

I was reading a study from Stanford that said gas stoves can emit nitrogen dioxide at levels comparable to a traffic-heavy street within 15 minutes of cooking. Idk if that's enough to make me switch to induction, but it's kind of wild to think about. Has anyone else come across a specific number or fact that actually changed their mind on this?

Shoutout to my neighbor Carol for insisting on a CO detector near my gas stove

She kept bugging me about it for like 6 months after I bragged about my new gas range. I thought she was just paranoid since my kitchen has a window I crack open when I cook. Last week I finally caved and stuck a plug-in detector on the counter about 4 feet from the stove. It went off twice during a 30 minute stir-fry session at medium heat. Now I'm wondering how many times I've been breathing in elevated CO levels without knowing. Has anyone else had a detector go off with normal cooking or is my burner just jacked up?

Gas stove gave me a reading of 85 ppm CO in my kitchen, should I be worried?

Spent 2 months trying to find a portable induction burner that wouldn't trip my apartment's ancient breaker

I live in a building built in the 1950s over in Portland and the wiring is a nightmare. After the gas stove debate got me curious, I bought a Duxtop 1800W burner and it kept popping the breaker every time I tried to boil pasta. Took me forever to realize I needed to run it on the low setting for the first 10 minutes and then ramp up slowly. Has anyone else dealt with older apartments and induction throwing a fit?