How we test hobs

We’ve been lab testing hobs for more than 50 years, so we’re well equipped to spot impressive products – and those that will leave you with baked beans burnt onto your saucepan. 

We buy all the hobs we test directly from retailers; we never accept freebies or samples. We do this so that we get exactly the same hobs our members might, without any influence from manufacturers. Our testing is always independent, and our verdicts are never for sale. 

We're not funded by advertisers, either – our operating costs are covered by our members, and they are the only people we need to please. This means we don’t have to answer to oven brands to secure our next paycheck. If a hob is a dud, we’re completely free to say so.

Reviews you read elsewhere may be based on a single user’s experience in a kitchen. We conduct our tests in a laboratory under scientific conditions. We review and update our tests regularly to ensure they simulate the habits of actual home cooks. 

Nobody goes to the lengths we do to find the best hobs.

Cooking: how well does the hob heat up, simmer and fry?

Waiting for a pan of water to boil so you can cook your pasta is a bore – so to see how quick and efficient a hob is, we time how long it takes to heat water from room temperature to 90°C. A fantastic hob takes less than four minutes to heat 1.5 litres of water, while the worst will take more than 10 minutes. We also record how much energy each hob uses in the process.

To assess how gently a hob heats and how responsive the controls are, we heat a pan of baked beans and then attempt to leave it so it stays warm. Hobs that can’t maintain a gentle simmer will quickly dry them out.

To see how well heat spreads across the base of a frying pan, we heat it to 200°C and then photograph it with a thermal imaging camera. This shows how far the heat has spread across the pan and identifies any cold spots.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

A five-star hob is quick, easy to control and easy to adjust. A hob with a poor score in this area will leave you waiting around, and when it finally gets going, you could find it hard to control. It will also leave your food with cold patches or even burnt.

Ease of use: is it easy to use and clean?

A panel of three experts at the Which? lab tests to find out how easy a hob is to use. They assess how simple it is to operate the controls, how clear the markings are and whether there’s enough space to use all cooking zones at the same time for more complex dinners. Kitchens are often the conversational hub of the home, so testers also listen for any unusual or irritating sounds that could be distracting. 

To see how easy each hob is to clean, they heat cooking oil and let it splatter onto the burners, and let a pan of rice boil over. The grimy hobs are left to dry overnight, after which the technicians try to clean them with washing-up liquid and a sponge.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

Great hobs are intuitive to use and spacious enough for you to comfortably use all cooking zones at once, while a low scorer will leave you reaching for the manual and constantly readjusting pans. 

A five-star score for ease of cleaning means the hob is pretty low maintenance. Steer clear of those with one star if you don’t want a difficult clean-up after every meal.

Energy efficiency: does it waste energy? 

We assess how much energy a zone consumes when raising the temperature of a pan of water by 75°C. Based on this result, we work out how efficient the hob is by seeing how much energy is successfully directed at the base of the pan, rather than being wasted by escaping into the atmosphere.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

Good hobs lose very little energy to the surroundings, directing it into the pan instead. A poor hob could double as a very expensive heater and warm up your kitchen, not your food.

Jamie Mayne, Which? hob expert, says:

‘We know from our testing that induction hobs use energy more efficiently than gas, electric or ceramic hobs.

'Gas hobs are the least energy efficient of the three main types: a significant amount of heat is lost heating up your kitchen, rather than your dinner. However, because gas is cheaper, you might save a few pounds a year with a gas hob over an electric one, so it’s really down to your personal priorities.’

Which? members can filter all our hob reviews by heating speed on single and all zones, heat distribution, ease of use, cleaning and more of our expert test results

How we calculate the scores

Ruby Gordon, Which? senior scientific adviser, says:

‘We regularly check in with Which? members to find out what's most important to them when buying a hob. I use this information to create a tailored test programme and evaluate the lab results.

'Members tell us they most value how evenly a hob spreads heat across the base of the pan and how quickly it can boil a pan of water. That’s why I give these factors the highest weighting of all the elements we test when calculating the final score and giving out recommendations.’

How the overall hobs test score is calculated:

• 50% performance

• 25% ease of use

• 20% ease of cleaning

• 5% energy efficiency

How we choose the products

To make sure our reviews are 100% independent, we never accept free product samples. Instead, we spend more than £25,000 every year buying hobs directly from major retailers and testing them in our lab. 

While we aim to test around 18 hobs a year, we do include more if there are hobs we simply can’t ignore. We test regularly throughout the year so we can get our reviews and verdicts to members as quickly as possible.

Sarah Hiscock, Which? senior market analyst, says:

'To offer the best market coverage, I choose products from popular hob brands like AEG, Beko, Hotpoint and Neff, and try to identify all the key models you’d be shopping for at major retailers like AO, Argos, Currys and John Lewis.

'We don’t just test flagship models that companies want to promote – I track product launches, market trends and consumer habits by speaking directly with manufacturers and attending events. This means we stay on top of developments and test hobs consumers actually consider buying.’

Is it a Best Buy hob? What our verdicts mean

Our recommendations should help you to narrow down your shortlist, but it's always best to read our reviews in full to check for any deal breakers before parting with your hard-earned cash.

Best Buy-recommended hobs

The hobs that impress the most in our tests get our Best Buy recommendation.

Induction hobs need to score 82% or more to be a Best Buy, electric ceramic hobs 70% and gas (including gas-on-glass) hobs 65%.

To help members compare models when deciding which to buy, we test each type of hob using the same test programme. This means they're directly comparable, but – because some types consistently do better than others – they have different cut-offs to be Best Buys. The cut-off for induction hobs is higher because they generally perform better (so where possible, we recommend opting for one of these), but the Best Buy options in other categories are still the best of their type.

Best Buy hobs typically do well in most, if not all, our tests. They excel at heating quickly and are good at low-temperature simmering. They distribute heat evenly across the burner/cooking zones, which is important when you're cooking something you can't stir, such as a pancake or an omelette. They are also a breeze to keep clean.

Great Value-recommended hobs

If you're looking to keep costs down, our Great Value recommendations are for you.

Great Value hobs are at least 20% cheaper than the average price of the hobs we've tested and do pretty well in our tests, scoring 70% or more for induction and ceramic, and 60% for gas.

Great Value hobs can also be Best Buys if they score highly enough.

Don't Buy hobs

Any hob that scores 45% or less should be avoided, so we highlight them as Don't Buys.

Don't Buy hobs are beset with flaws, so don't expect them to do a good job of heating up your food.

Discover which models impressed in our lab – filter our hob reviews by Best Buy and Great Value to help find the right model for you

Our hob experts

Running our test projects is a group effort, with several team members contributing to each one. 

We thoroughly re-evaluate our testing processes every year to ensure they're useful to you, and we ask the Which? community to tell us what matters the most when choosing a new hob.

Here's the team that makes it happen:

Researcher & writer, Jamie Mayne: Jamie turns technical lab reports into in-depth, accessible product reviews and buying advice to separate great hobs from the duds. She cuts through marketing fluff and unclear jargon to make sure you spend your money on a quality hob that serves your needs. 

Senior market analyst, Sarah Hiscock: Sarah tracks the hob market to ensure we test the products you care about most. She cuts through the hype to choose a representative range you can rely on, from household names to up-and-comers.

Senior scientific adviser, Ruby Gordon: Ruby helps to shape our rigorous test programme to make sure it answers our members' key questions. She meticulously converts hundreds of facts and figures into easily digestible scores and star ratings to help inform our members' buying decisions.

Home editor, Jackie Gallego: Jackie makes sure what you’re reading is what you want to know about hobs. This means keeping a close eye on what's trending in the world of cooking appliances and finding out the answers to questions Which? readers really need to know.