I also moved into a town home with an electric range and I always had gas in the past. I ended up getting the free standing Electrolux induction range about a year ago and it's been great so far. At this point I don't think I'd ever go back to gas if I had a choice. I did upgrade my electrical to the range from 40 to 50 amp and they also had to upgrade the wiring. Fortunately it wasn't too difficult to fish that through from the unfinished part of my basement.

You may want your search for induction ranges on this forum as there are a lot of threads about pros and cons and making the switch. I read many of those before finally making the decision.

Didn't know about upgrading the electrical. Good information. I will definitely read more about the pros & cons. Thank you.

The feedback I read on induction is that most owners love them until they break down and then they hate the cost to repair them. If you go with induction then research which brand / model are the most reliable and consider purchasing an extended warranty.

I didn't think about if they break down. This forum has been very helpful. Thank you.

On break downs and expense, just about every major brand stove you buy these days --- gas, radiant electric (coil and smoothtops), and induction --- will be run via electronic controller boards All of them are expensive to replace. Once a stove is beyond five years old, any board failure may well be be more expensive than the stove is worth. To be sure, there is a rule of thumb that the more expensive the stove, the more expensive the replacement boards and other parts and induction stovs are mostly more expensive than comparably featured radiant electric ranges.

Induction ranges are sometimes thought to be more prone to electronic failure because they have additional controllers for the inductors in addition to the usual array of other control boards. More electronic parts, more to fail, is the thinking. Unfortunately, meaningful reliabity and durability data is well nigh impossible to come by. We really do not know whether or to what extent induction ranges are significantly less durable than other current models of ranges.

On the subject of wiring upgrades, you might or might not need to upgrade a stove circuit. If your townhome was built in the last 30 years, your existing stove wiring will almost undoubtedly be at least a 40 amp circuit. Many electric ranges --- including a fair number of induction ranges --- specify a minimum 40 amp circuit. No upgrade would be be needed for them. For example, the highly regarded (and expensive) Bosch induction ranges (HIIP055U and HII8055u) only require a 40 Amp circuit as does the least expensive induction slide in (Frigidaire FGIS3065) and so does the freestanding Electrolux range that 3katz4me bought. (IIRC, that was an EI301F40).

Other higher end stoves --- both induction and other electric and sometimes dual fuel ranges --- will specify a minimum 50 amp circuit. Almost any stove you research will have a specs page that will list a specification for "Amps" and that will give you the spec to tell you if you would need a wiring upgrade.

Thank you for this information. I have my get busy with my research so I can make a decision. This was very helpful.

I just redid my kitchen in a condo where gas is forbidden, but I upgraded from a traditional electric to an induction (LG). I couldn't be happier - the difference is amazing. Yes, it has a computer board that is likely to be expensive to fix, but so do most appliances these days. My condo building is about 15 years old, and the wiring was not a problem for me - just plug and go.

I should be good to go. My neighborhood is 5 years old. Thank you for your feedback.

I will add that I didn't think I needed to upgrade my electrical. However I found conflicting info in the specifications and installation instructions for my Electrolux. I spoke with an electrician and it came down to how many of the different functions you thought you'd use at the same time. Four hobs, warming burner, powerboost, oven, warming drawer. I decided I'd just go with the upper end recommendation so I didn't have to worry about something being non-functional when I really needed it. And it was relatively easy and inexpensive ($500) to upgrade.

Also, one of the reasons I didn't splurge on anything more expensive than the freestanding Electrolux is that I'd read all the horror stories about fatal problems relatively early in the life of these ranges. So I bought one that was relatively inexpensive and got a five year extended warranty.