Are Electric Cookers Safer Than Gas Cookers?
Ever since cooking stoves replaced bare fire in helping man prepare food, technology has consistently helped these evolve into the cookers that we know today. We are now able to cook with electricity, gas and even coal. In some instances there are stoves that actually do all three. Today almost every home has a cooking stove of some sort. In the much more industrialized world, apartment homes come with pre-installed electric or gas cookers making them a standard. Between coal, electric cookers and gas cookers, the latter two have become the prevalent except in the remotest parts of the world where coal and firewood is still used. In the US, Europe, Russia, China, India and South America and also in large swaths of Africa, electric cookers and gas cookers are widely used. But there has been debate as to which of the two, electric cookers and gas cookers, is safer.
Gas cookers work by pumping natural gas through a network of gas pipes usually located underground, to the cooking stove in the house. The gas is provided and regulated by the gas utility company much in the same way that way electric companies and water companies provide and regulate their services. The gas company can disconnect or interrupt the gas supply to your home if their bill is not paid in a timely fashion.
Gas cookers look more or less like their counterpart the electic cooker. They are freestanding with four surfaces where the cooking pot will stand. Gas cookers also come in-built with an oven. Gas cookers are the professional cook’s choice when it comes to cooking because they can better regulate the flame via a series of easy-to-use knobs.
There have been safety issues raised regarding gas cookers ever since they appeared on the scene. The danger of fires is real especially where there is an unknown gas leak or if someone in the house forgets to properly turn off the gas. In the past, the actually gas that emanates from the gas burner was odorless which rendered it extremely dangerous because there was no way to detect a leakage until it was too late. Nowadaysa chemical compound has been added to the gas to give it its distinct smell which alerts anyone as to whether there is a gas leak.
Electric cookers are relatively safe. There is flame to contend with and no danger of leaks. If you forget to turn off the cooker, the coil simply remains hot. Newer electric gas cookers have fail-safe mechanisms designed to cut off power when it detects that the cooker is on and there is no usage. One danger with electrical cookers is that the exposed coil on the surface of the cooker can be extremely hot without appearing so. This can cause someone to touch without realizing the danger and there have been serious burns that have been caused by this. To counter this, newer cookers come with covered surfaces and there are even magnetic induction cookers which only get hot when they detect a metallic object, in this case the cooking pot, on their surface.
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Analysing Types Of Electric Cookers
The popularity of electric cookers remains at an all-time high although gas cookers are also very widespread. In the United States, many apartment complexes and homes come with pre-installed electric cookers which consists of 4 electrical coils or elements and an in-built oven. This enables the cook to prepare different meals at the same time for maximum efficiency.
Electric cookers have their share of advantages. The first and obvious one is that they are easy to operate. There are no manuals needed to operate an electric cooker as the functionality is pretty straight-forward. This is one of the reasons that companies like General Electric generally prefer to mass-produce and mass-install electric cookers in housing units and complexes.
Electric cookers are also considered safer than gas cookers when it comes to public housing. This is because the risk of fires stemming from an electric cooker malfunction is lower than that of a gas cooker. While the potential still exists especially where someone forgets oily food on the stove or in the oven, the risks are lower than when dealing with, say, a gas leak and someone lighting a match. One downside of this is that when the electric coils found on the electric cooker stove are hot, they sometimes do not appear to be so and there is a danger that one’s hand can come into contact with the hot coil causing serious burns. This is unlike the flame of the gas cooker which is clearly visible and therefore conspicuous enough for someone to avoid it.
There are different types of electric cookers:
Rice cookers
Rice cookers are one type of electric cookers. When refering to electric cookers, there is a tendency to associate the term with the convenctional cookers we see and use in everyday kitchens around the world. But rice cookers also fall under electric cookers. These are round compact cookers which contain of an electrical device attached to an electrical outlet via a cord and a metallic pot where the rice is measured. They also have a timer and a lid where the rice is trapped and steamed to perfection. Rice cookers are extremely safe and rarely cause any problems. They can also be operated easily by anyone regardless of their level of culinary expertise.
Freestanding cookers
These are perhaps the ones we are accustomed to the most. These electric cookers are more prevalent in homes and apartments. They usually contain a number, usually four, coil elements which may or may not be covered. In-built inside the cooker is an oven which has the capability to bake and also to broil food. Innovations made to the freestanding cooker have included the magnetic induction cooker which works by means of a current which is induced only when there is a metallic object, in this case the cooking pot is placed on the coil surface which is usually covered. The magnetic induction cooker does not respond to non-metallic objects being placed on it for instance your hand, or glass for that matter.
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Can Electric Cookers Dominate The Market?
After experimenting with coal cookers for centuries, most countries except the most under-developed Third Word nations, have made the smooth transition to electric cookers and gas cookers. Even in the Third World where there is still a struggle to take the plunge to modern ways of food preparation, electric cookers are turning the tide. This is because they are uncomplicated and only require one to plug them to an electrical outlet and use a simple knob to turn them on and off. There is no guide or manual required to operate most electrical cookers.
Nowadays, electric cookers are jostling for market supremacy with gas cookers. Gas cookers are very popular. While there are those that contend that there is not much difference between electric cookers and their counterpart the gas cooker, professional chefs tend to lean toward the gas cooker being that it is easier to regulate the flame. This, they say, is not the case with the electric cooker which poses a problem of regulation especially for those who want to bake bread, cake or cookies.
The electric cooker is already installed in many apartment condominiums in the United States. This means that the tenant need not install anything in order to prepare meals. The electric cooker consists mainly of 4 electrical coils of differing size plus an oven usually in-built under the stove. The whole unit is then controlled using a series of over-sized knobs with simple numbers and letters. These are so easy to operate most people do not need any instructions at the onset.
Electric cookers are also very safe. With gas cookers, there is always a danger of fire especially if there is a gas leak. In the past before a chemical ingredient that gives gas its distinct odor was implemented, many people died in house fires caused by unattended gas leaks or gas knobs turned on and left on. There has rarely been cases where electric cookers have caused fires although this is indeed possible if there is something left unattended on the stove or in the oven. Recently General Electric has invented electric cookers that have a fail-safe feature that cuts off power to the unit in the event that there was a meltdown or smoke.
Gas cookers as convenient as they are, tend to be expensive. This is because on top of the charge of purchasing the unit, you will need to purchase the actual gas service from the gas company. In some cases the size of the gas bill depends on the amount of gas that has been consumed in one calendar month. This obviously means that in some months especially the cold months, the gas bill can skyrocket. Also, unlike many apartment homes where the electric cooker is pre-installed when one moves in, this is not the case with the gas cooker. In many cases the person moving into the home has to purchase a gas cooker of their own. This can add to the costs of owning and operating a gas cooker.
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