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kristin_rindone

New Bosch Gas Range Won't Boil Water

8 years ago

Hello all. First time poster, here! I posted this on a board on Chowhound, and they suggested I posted here as well.


After much research and deliberation, I settled on this Bosch range below. Three weeks later (and $2,000), I've tried to boil little saucepans of an inch or two of water on the smaller burners and the water NEVER boils. Even after 15-18 minutes when most of the water has evaporated out of the pans. I just had a service technician from the appliance store over and he said that "everything was working fine and there was nothing he could do." Even after witnessing pots not boiling. A call to the sales rep that sold me the stove said that I can only use 2 of the 5 burners to boil water - the rest will never boil. The front left burner puts off 10,000BTU, the center 18,000 and the front right 15,000. The others are 5,000.


Granted, it's been a while since I purchased a new range however, shouldn't I be able to boil water even on the 10k burner....and it shouldn't take nearly 20 minutes? I don't know but now I'm having seriously buyers remorse. Is something wrong or am I just overreacting? My old GE profile had a "precise simmer" burner that was only 5,000btu's and it boil water like a champ!


Link - Bosch Range


Thoughts?


Additional update from Chowhound post:


It wasn't actually the Bosch rep, but the appliance shop that sold me the range that told me that. Like you, I just find that really hard to believe. I think most of us, especially growing up, have used stoves with far less output with a good - possibly even better - result than this.


I told the manager that I can't wrap my head around spending $2,000 on a stove where I can only boil water on 2 burners when I can go to the local Lowe's and spend $900 for a product that will work on all 4 burners. They're "doing some additional research" and getting back to me. They insist that this range has comparable output to a Thermador or Viking...


To answer whether I have covered the pans - 1 I have not because it's a small saucepan that doesn't have a lid. I've used a similar size pan with a cover and it still takes approx 14 minutes to come to a simmer around the outer edges of the pan but never a rolling boil.

Comments (36)

  • 8 years ago

    There seems to be some missing information that will help determine what might be wrong. What size are the pans, How heavy are the pans, How much water, Temperature of the water at start, Type of gas you are using?

    If a pan is too small the flame can spread around the outside causing water to not boil. This could also be the reason you only see a simmer around the outer edge.

    If a pan is too large you can disapate a lot of heat or if the pan is of a heavy construction it can take much longer to heat.

    Not using a lid will allow an enormous amount of heat to excape.

    Starting with very cold water will take longer to heat. My water is about 20 degs colder in the winter compared to summer so in the winter it takes longer to bring a pot to boil.

    How many pots of water do you expect to boil at one time? I think most people even if using all 4 or 5 burners only will have 1 or 2 at high and the rest at much lower temps to simmer foods.

    Many of the higher end manufacturers try to give several different burners sizes because 1 size does not fit all and customers buying these ranges expect a certain amount of versitility in their ranges that multiple burner sizes give.

  • 8 years ago

    Hi Kristin, did the technician adjust or inspect your shutters? Your flame may not be as hot as its 5k btu rating. Not to mention with a sealed burner and tiny pan, much of the heat may be wasted heating up the air around your pot. I've never been willing to spend the time boiling water on the least powerful burner without a lid, but my guess is 5k btu should be enough to eventually boil water. You would be surprised what a difference a lid can make.

  • 8 years ago
    Have you used a thermometer to see how hot the water is getting? What Jakvis said about the pan being too small for the burner reminded me of something we learned in school which is basically that any part of the flame going up the side of the pot is wasted energy. The only work being done is by the part of the flame that is underneath the pot. When water reaches the boiling point, it will stop getting hotter and remain at a constant temperature. I would check to make sure the flame is under the pot. A stove that won't boil water defies the laws of physics.
  • 8 years ago

    Thank you for the responses.

    Jakvis - I've tried boiling water in my 2, 1qt saucepans. One is a heavy copper bottomed pot, the other just a standard Farberware aluminum pot from circa 1978. Each had the same amount of water from the warm tap. I didn't test the temp out of the tap. Because of the size of the pans, I had them on the smaller burners (left front and back 10k/5k btu) and I'm using natural gas. I do not have lids for either. After 14 minutes, the majority of the water had evaporated and the temperature of the water was only at 202 degrees.


    Steve - the technician said he couldn't do anything to adjust the size of the flame.


    My last stove was a 10 year old GE Profile gas range - standard, run of the mill that you can get at any big box appliance store - and I had no issue boiling water in either one of the pans I've mentioned (without a lid) on the smallest 5btu burner.

    Like a couple of you have said, I find it ridiculous that I have to put a pan that small on my biggest burner with flames basically engulfing it to get it to a freaking boil. That seems unacceptable to me....not to mention a waste of gas.

  • 8 years ago

    I'm curious what is your need to boil these small quantities of water.

  • 8 years ago

    I guess I should have also asked what your elevation is at your home.

    After 14 minutes, the majority of the
    water had evaporated and the temperature of the water was only at 202 degrees.

    If the water has evaporatorated it is through the process of changing a liquid to a gas, which in this case, would be boiling. Water boils at 212F (100C) at Sea Level. As you increase in elevation the water boils at a lower temperature. This is why it takes longer to cook pasta in Denver than it does in Los Angeles.

  • 8 years ago

    I'm at 59' feet about sea level.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    If you see bubbles, that water is boiling. That’s basic physics. The liquid is reaching boiling point and turning into gas. You are not going to get a full rolling boil on a 5K simmer burner.

    Its far faster and less energy is consumed to heat a cup of water 90 seconds in a 1200 watt microwave for tea or for a French press coffee.

  • 8 years ago

    Well, I think there must be something seriously wrong with your stove. I had read your post soon before cooking 1.5 Cups of water with a chopped mushroom and a little kale in preparation for some ramin soup; so I remembered to time it and it took less than 6 minutes to vigorously boil on my regular lower gas burner.

    I casually cooked for 45 years on old natural gas stoves, but now cook on less effective propane gas sealed burner cook-tops. I first had a KitchenAid that was OK, but its glass top broke and I replaced it with the cheapest (Whirlpool) cooktop I could find that had heavy grates. Unfortunately, the deranged engineers who designed this POS failed to provide low flame adjusters that went down to zero flow and I therefore have flames that are above simmer on all burners. I already decreased orifices on the lower burners so that they come closer to simmer. This of course, decreases the top output for these burners. It is one of these lowered burners that still provided a six minute boil. I am probably at ~59' as well.

    I would guess that there is something wrong with your gas line or the regulator at the stove end.

  • 8 years ago

    "Kristin K: Seriously? For the record, I boil "small quantities of water" for a cup of tea or coffee."

    Yes, seriously. :-)

    I don't drink coffee but I use my microwave for hot tea or hot chocolate. Everyone has their own procedures so of course you should do whatever works best for you. :-)

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    One of my clients had a new glass cooktop installed and he phoned to tell me it took forever to boil water I went to see waht was wrong and his pots were so rounded on the bottom that only small part was actually in touch with the heat. IMO boiling water on the stove in a pot for tea is a huge waste of energy get a kettle water in 2 minutes. As for being told that some burners boil water better than othrs that is true. You do have to use the proper sized pot for the burner or else the flame goes outside the pot and wastes energy.

  • 8 years ago
    We have the same Bosch and even on the center and front right burner it seems to take a significant amount of time to boil a pot of water. I just thing this cooktop is underpowered in general. I am definitely disappointed with it.
  • 8 years ago

    I used a tea kettle for a while - then get a Utili-Tea from Agagio Teas. Dedicated electric teapot was the best thing ever. Firing up a 54" hood and a gas burner to boil water was a huge waste.

    And really - IMO any burner on a stove ought to boil water.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    If you want every eye to be able to boil water at a full rolling boil? Then don’t buy mod KD with simmer burners. 5K burners are for melting chocolate and holding gravy. Not boiling water. But then you give up melting chocolate and holding gravy.

  • 8 years ago

    Kristin K: I am currently having the same problem. I purchased this Bosch dual fuel range:

    http://www.bosch-home.com/us/productslist/cooking-baking/slide-in-ranges/dual-fuel-slide-in-ranges/HDI8054U?breadcrumb=freestandingcombicookers

    Our range had the appropriate conversions done for propane operation. I had a technician out today, who also told me that there are no was nothing he could do. He stated, "I'd be disappointed too." There is nothing wrong with the range, it just doesn't perform.

    We have combed through the manual multiple times and have ruled out every possible reason why it would struggle to boil water. We are using stainless cookware, starting with hot tap water, covering with a lid, our flames are as they should be, we are using the right sized burners for the right sized pots.

    I cannot cook anything that requires boiling water. It takes over an hour to cook hard-boiled eggs. Once I finally get the water to boil, it stops boiling as soon as pasta or rice is added. It doesn't re-boil for another 5-10 minutes. It never EVER comes to a rapid boil, just a simmer. I am an experienced cook who splurged on buying what I thought would be a high performance range, and I am SO disappointed. I wish I would have bought a range <$1,000 from that probably would perform better than this $2,500 range.

    I will continue to seek help from Bosch directly on this, but let me know if you figure anything out!


  • 8 years ago

    @Sophie Wheeler, I'd much rather have more high-powered burners than simmer burners. In fact, on my Bluestar RNB, the first thing that I did was replace the simmer burner with another 15kBTU burner.

    For everyday use, even the 22kBTU burners in the front go low enough that they can simmer things. But if I want to melt chocolate, I use the microwave. And if I need to hold something at a low temperature for an extended amount of time, I use the oven. The same is true, if I want to slow-cook a stew for hours. The oven heats much more evenly, than any burner that only heats from the bottom.

    I also have a simmer plate heat diffuser, and I can adjust the grates to move the pot further away from the flames, if I really wanted to reduce heat output even further. But I can't recall the last time I had to use either of these options. I'm not even sure where my simmer plate is stored right now.

    So, yes, I understand @Kristin K's pain. A stove that optimizes for multiple low-power burners must be incredibly painful to use. I can't believe Bosch decided that this was a good thing.

    It's easy to find work-arounds for simmer burners; it's much more difficult to do so for high-powered burners. An electric water kettle solves the problem for boiling water. But it doesn't actually solve it for making pasta or boiling eggs...

  • 8 years ago

    This question perplexed me so I asked my son who is a nuclear engineer and knows a thing or two about heat transfer. He said 5,000 BTUs should boil water but there is much more to the equation than that. His suggestion: "She could try not turning it on full blast and heating it slower. When you have the stove full blast on a small object the surface of the object gets way above 212F, so you make a lot more bubbles on the bottom of the surface, which eventually detach and float away. If you drop the temperature way down it takes longer to bring the whole volume to boil but you make less vapor in the process."

    He went into a whole bunch of complicated stuff - amazing how much goes into "simply" boiling water - but long story short, it is probably not the stove but a combination of a small pot, small volume of water and the full 5,000 BTUs.

  • 8 years ago

    Bluestar's "simmer" burner, and it's annoying they name it that, still puts out 9k btu, plenty enough to boil water or whathaveyou, in a smaller pan. M's swap out of that burner is an intriguing idea, but I like the burner and its tight ring of flame for small sauce and saute pans more so than for the lower overall heat output. Maybe if I had four burners instead of six that would be a great move - the 15k for the 9k.

  • 8 years ago

    I had the same issue - can’t get a rolling boil on my Bosch electric induction stove - had tech out - he could do it, showed me an icon on the range - large broken circle outside a smaller intact circle - he said to push this if you want the heat to be constant - otherwise the heat goes off & on in a cycle - for some magical reason, he was able to get rolling boils on all my burners...cut to cooking by myself without his assistance - no rolling boils....I am so disappointed with this stove

  • 8 years ago

    @stevep2005, with only four burners, I find it annoying if I have to give up a burner to be "special purpose". I find that both the 22kBTU and 15kBTU are pretty general purpose. I only need the top-end of the 22kBTU burners when actively stir frying, searing or starting to boil, and that naturally happens on one of the front burners. But as soon as I want to sustain heat, 15kBTU is plenty.

    If I had the space for a 36" range (and if I didn't think that a 36" oven is probably too large for me), then yes, I'd likely think differently about giving up one of my burners for a special application.

  • 8 years ago

    I have a Bosch stove also. We have the same problem boiling water.

    When attempting to make pasta the boil time is way too long. Have resorted to putting a lid on the pots. That’s just wrong. My KithenAide island cook top did the job in minutes.

    Very disappointed with the performance. Especially since I thought I did my homework before our renovation. That was one year ago. Until I read these posts I thought I was just being paranoid.


  • 8 years ago

    That’s so odd. I had a 30” Bosch all gas range for 10 years in my old house and never had any issues. I’d be frustrated and disappointed too. However, when my son was born, my husband installed instant hot water (for baby bottles) and I’ve never looked back.

  • 8 years ago
    Same problem with my Bosch range taking a long time to boil. Has anyone been able to get the issue resolved with Bosch or a technician?
  • 6 years ago

    I too have this issue, my stove is a five burner from 2015, been suffering with this issue for four years. had someone out to look at burners who said they were fine. I have a feeling the grates are too high and thus the pans are too far from the heat source. Any thoughts, anyone have success with Bosch?

  • 6 years ago

    The grates being to high would only have limited effect on the ability to heat up a pot. The heat can't just disappear. it needs to go somewhere. If you make the grates higher, you give the hot air more space to move sideways and around the pot. And yes, that's a way that heat could escape.


    But this would only be an issue if you regularly used pots that were too small for your burners. I'd expect that you'd know if this was what is happening to you.

  • 6 years ago

    yes, I've tried many different ways, using smaller pots (burnt handles), correct sized pots but lowered the heat so the flames are just inside the circumference of the pot. All to no avail. I've started microwaving the water to get a head start and not waste the natural gas :/

  • 6 years ago

    My Bosch has the same issue, very frustrating for what we paid. We now bring water to boil in an electric tea kettle to get it started. The 2 issues are the height of the grates and the close gas burners. They are very inefficient and would not recommend buying them. Easier to clean but not good for cooking.

  • 6 years ago

    Same issue. Just installed. I should have read this thread first. Absurd that we cannot boil two eggs in a small saucepan on the back burners without waiting 15 minutes to boil four cups of water.

  • 6 years ago

    I just looked this up on line because I moved into a house with a Bosch gas range and I cannot get water to boil in anything. Very disappointing. I’ve been cooking with gas stoves for five years and never experienced this.

  • 6 years ago

    This thread has been around for awhile, so I don't know if the OP solved her problem. Crucially, she did NOT mention whether her range was setup for NATURAL GAS or PROPANE (aka LP.)


    But I just purchased a new/open box Bosch HDI8054 (now discontinued) which should have been setup for natural gas, but when I was getting almost no flame from it I opened up the convertible gas pressure regulator and found out that it was set for propane! In this setting with a natural gas source it will produce much smaller gas flow. Also, I believe my range has the the propane burner orifices installed, which are much smaller (by half) than the ones for natural gas and will also produce an anemic heat output.


    So anyone who is having trouble with low output from their range should check that it is setup correctly for their fuel source.

  • 5 years ago

    hawthorn13k and so with the proper natural gas regulator and orifices, how is your boiling water experience? asking as we are considering this range.


  • 5 years ago

    We love this range, the burners have plenty of power. 2qts of water will boil on the high-powered corner burner in about 5 minutes, even faster in a big pot on the center burner. The center burner has plenty of power for authentic stir-frying with a residential-sized wok. The oven is fantastic and the even heat has really upped our baking game.


    (Note that the unit I bought also had gas orifices for each burner that that were sized for propane; these orifices are much smaller than those for natural gas and I had to drill them out to achieve the approximately equivalent BTU rating for natural gas as stock natural gas orifices were not available for any source I could find. Drilling all 5 orifices required getting consulting a chart to determine the right size drill bits but only took 15 minutes.)


    A couple of issues we have found: there is some coupling between the air supply for the top burners and the oven, which has a very tight seal; we have found that closing the oven door abruptly when there are many burners in use can cause the smaller burners to go out. However, the auto-relighting system immediately kicks in and the spark generator will cause them to fire up again. Another issue is that the top burner grates have been designed with a pattern that is very stylish but fails to support smaller saucepans at more than the 4 closest points, so a small saucepan or frying pan has to be centered carefully or it may tip over without the outer 4 points of the grating to support it.



  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    I know the comments I’m responding to are old, but the small burners should absolutely boil water. Here’s 3 cups, starting temp 64 deg after 6.5 minutes on a 6000 BTU burner, no lid.


    (Older Viking cooktop)

  • 5 years ago

    To reiterate: to get my Bosch HGI8054UC properly converted from LP back to natural gas operation I had to 1) open up the big hex bolt on the regulator and flip over the gas regulator diaphragm inside so that the "Nat" legend is facing up, and replace, then 2) remove and drill out the brass burner orifices to the correct size for the BTUs you are targeting for each burner and replace them. There are charts like this one to help you figure out the orifice sizes you need, and any competent plumber should be able to perform this operation. https://www.manualsdir.com/manuals/709711/reznor-sft-parts-manuals-ft-parts-manuals.html?page=13&original=1


    The gas regulator supplied from the factory by Bosch is a common Maxitrol RV47CL as seen here: https://www.amazon.com/Maxitrol-RV47CL12-PSIG-Poppet-Regulator/dp/B008HOYVTC. It is located at the lower rear of your range and connects directly to the natural gas connection hose attached to the shutoff valve that emerges from your kitchen wall or floor. If the LP->Natural gas switch has already been performed on the regulator and you are still having low output, try replacing the regulator as they are quite cheap and easy to get.

  • 2 years ago

    I recently took delivery of this Bosch gas top slide-in range, and am very disappointed. 10 minutes to bring 3 cups of water to boil using the rear small burners, in a small teapot. I am hopeful a larger teapot will work.