HomeAppliancesUK.com for Hobs

HomeAppliancesUK offers listings for all makes and types of hobs including gas, electric, ceramic and halogen models. We make it easy for you to find a cheap deal on your hob purchase. Choosing a hob can be difficult as there is such a wide range of choice. First you must know if you want a gas, electric, built-in hotplates, traditional gas ring burner, or a more contemporary style ceramic hob.

Gas Hobs Find the ideal gas hob for you from gas manufacturers such as AEG, Zanussi and Smeg. They come in a range of sizes from 2 burner, 4 burner, 5 burner and 6 burner units.

Electric Hobs Buy your electric hob from leading manufacturers such as AEG, Belling, Bosch, Electrolux, Hotpoint, Indesit, Miele, Neff, Rangemaster, Siemens, Smeg, Stoves, Whirlpool and Zanussi at discounted prices.

Halogen Hobs Halogen hobs are ideal for cooking and the heat is instantly controllable. Buy from the best and cheapest online kitchen applaince shops.

Ceramic Hobs Choose from a huge range of ceramic hobs from manufaturuers such as Rangemaster, Zanussi, Neff, Smeg, Bosch and many more.

When purchasing a hob you should first identify the features that you consider most important to you and your needs. There are a considerable number of hobs on the market so finding the feature you want will help you choose the right hob.

There are two fuel types of hobs that are available - Gas or Electric.

ELECTRIC

Surfaces of electric hobs are generally easy to clean and so pretty much maintainance free. The main disadvantage with electric hobs though is that they are slower to heat up / cool down and less controllable than gas hobs and cost more to run than gas hobs. However there is an increasing range of electric hobs now available, some of which have features, which reduce the above advantages at reasonable extra expense.

Heating Zones / Plates
With advanced technology, electric hobs are now available with the following heating zones or plates:

Induction - This is a new feature in which an induction coil is used. Its advantages include, energy saving, increased speed of heating and safety. A magnetic field is used to heat the pan only and thus only gets hot from it contact with the pan. Keep in mind that specific pans may be required.

Solid Plate - These electric sealed plates have been in use longer than their counterparts. These are generally slower than other options available. Plates containing a red dot are slightly faster which you might find useful.

Halogen zones - Halogen tubes respond immediately after the hob is switched on. Cooling of this type of hob is considerably quicker than other methods.

Quick-light zones - This method is considerably quicker than solid plates and also heats up the glass quicker than halogen lamps.

Digital Display
Digital display is currently predominately used in hobs with touch control. The display may either indicate time and/or temperature.

Touch Control
These are used on ceramic surfaces where the controls are placed under the glass. These are activated through the light pressure being applied by placing a finger on them.

Timer
Those hobs with more advanced timers allow you to program up to 99 minutes.


GAS

Safety
Flame failure is a useful gas hob feature. Its sensors detect when no heat is being generated and will automatically switch off the gas flow.

Ignition type
There are two basic ignition types onh gas hobs:
Automatic Ignition - As soon as the gas is switched on then the burners light automatically.
Integral Ignition - Lighting the burners by pushing an ignition button or through the use of a control knob.

GENERAL ADVICE
Surface Type

Gas and electric hobs will either have enamel, stainless steel or ceramic surfaces. Ceramic surfaces are available for gas hobs but are mainly used for electric hobs.

Heat Indicators
A heat indicator is a means of the hob indicating that the cooking surface is hot. This can be a very basic system as with gas or halogen hobs where it is quite obvious if heat is being generated i.e. a flame for gas hobs and lights for halogen hobs.

The more advanced cookers have an additional feature of residual heat indicator lights. These will contain a digital display, which will indicate if the cooking zones are above or below a certain temperature.

Number of Plates
The standard number of plates for both electric and gas hobs is four. There are hobs though, which can have the number of plates ranging from one to six.

Colour
Hobs with enamel surfaces are available in a variety of colours. Ceramic hobs have a black surface but their frames are available in a wide selection of colours. Stainless steel surfaces do not offer variety in terms of colour although the stainless steel may be brushed which offers two alternative effects.

Child Safety
Some hobs include a mechanism which ensures that the hob cannot be switched on easily by a child.