bent pans, bent coils. Questions about electric cooking.

Post date: 2024-07-24 04:58:06

Get outta here, gas cooking ranges, we're going electric. My rental house has an electric range, which I prefer over gas. However, there are gaps where the bottoms of my pots and pans don't touch the heating elements. How does this impact heat transfer, and how do I fix it?

I was boiling water for soup last night, and I lifted the saucepan. About 1/4 of the pan was making contact with the coil, and that section was a dim red / normal black.

The other 3/4 of the coil was "red hot". Inspecting the bottom of my sauce pan, it has a slight curve to it, so it would not make perfect connection with the coil even if the coil were completely flat.

Inspecting the elements (when cool), I notice that some of the wraps of coil stand higher or lower than others. And, the bottoms of my (copper-bottom Revere Ware heirloom) pots and pans are slightly warped, and wobble when put on a flat counter.

I suspect that the heat transfer on the parts where the coil touches the pan directly is much more powerful than the heat transfer on the parts where the coil gets hot, heats the air, and the hot air touches the pan. Is that true?

If so, does the "red hot" part of the coil contribute any heating to the pan? How much?

My theory is that the black part of the coil is the only part transferring heat energy into the pan to boil the water, and the "red hot" parts of the pan pushing heat into the air, which rises away from the pan before transferring a significant amount of energy into the pan. Is that true?

I've tried to research what to do about this but my google fu has failed me. I expected there to be blogs about how to flatten the bottom of cooking pans using hammer taps, or heating and pressing, or something. I expected there to be youtube tutorials for how to level the bits of the coiled heating elements where they rise and fall, but I've seen only recommendations for replacing the coils.

So, what's the deal? Is this a non-issue? Or is this making me use 4x the energy to cook my food, and there are good ways to solve this

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