The Best Induction Burners | America’s Test Kitchen



Induction burners have become increasingly popular. But can they do enough to justify a place in your kitchen?

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48 Comments

  1. I would have liked a mention about the wattage. It makes a BIG difference in energy output. ( and your experience of cooking ). See how long it takes to boil water with a 1750-1900w versus a 3500w or 4000w boost power. ( user of induction for 14 yrs )

  2. I wish there was an induction burner with 3 coils besides the $1500. Breville. All the other induction burners are 2 coil , that are two small for normal 9-12 in pans. Consequently, pans buckle due to the temperature difference in the ban where you get a crown in the middle of the pan. I’m willing to pay more for a 3 coil burner, but not $1300-$1400 more.

  3. In 2000 I installed two Cook-Tek induction cooktops. I started using induction in 1970 and discovered that it really is the way to cook! That 1970's cooktop now resides in my cabin in the mountains of West Virginia. The Cook-Tek hobs are wonderful as i can set the temperature of the pan! Cleanup is easy and the temperature is extremely accurate. Induction really is the way to cook!!! Mark

  4. My son and DIL loved their induction cooktop so much, that, when they moved to a new apartment, bought a portable one and placed it on top of their gas cooktop. And, gas had been their go-to before the induction! My daughter has since bought one, and that’s my next purchase, because my oven is giving me fits, so…

  5. Thermador has a really nice induction cooktop that's designed so that you're not limited to just four or five or six burners. You can place/position the pans anywhere on the surface, and the system will recognize it, plus it knows when you've moved them around.

  6. I'm surprised they didn't mention any drop in induction ranges. The best part of the Control Freak is its 10" coil, I don't know any other portables above 8" so the edges of your pan aren't cold. It's cheaper to get a whole Samsung 4 element cooktop with a 10" coil than the Breville. Plus, since they are larger and have better heat dissipation, you don't have an annoying fan whine.

  7. I love my Control Freak. I use it and the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro for the vast majority of my cooking even though I have a Wolf gas range. However, learning to cook on induction is a process. I would love for ATK to do a series of videos devoted to induction cooking technique.

  8. I appreciate seeing an update to this video, but there some key points that were overlooked. Comparing the Duxtop to the Breville are two ends of an extreme.

    The Duxtops do not have a large enough coil to evely heat a pan over 8 inches, because copper coil is expensive (and, the exterior ring is not the actual burner size). They're not built sturdy enough to handle a full pot of stock or canning and they can't hold low temps for delicate sauces, tempering, ect (large fluctuations at the low end). The Breville on the other hand is 1,500 dollars.

    If you need a portable unit, buy something like a a Volrath Mirage 59300. If you need dual burners and/or live in a house, buy a built in.

  9. About 5 years ago, I was planning a kitchen remodel. Existing stove was electric. I was looking at installing a gas line or switching to induction.

    I bought a portable NuWave induction cooktop and it was great for sauces and scrambled eggs, but searing a steak or deep frying Chile Rellanos was impossible, The NuWave appears to be designed to control temperature rather than just get hot. I could get a cast iron pan hot and start to sear a steak, but then the power would drop and the pan would sit warm for a few minutes before getting hot again. I tried making a blooming onion and 30 seconds into the fry, the oil temp plummeted.

    A friend told me their Duxtop didn't do this so I bought one. Perfect. I could set it on 9 or 10 and get a pan blazing hot and fry a steak or get oil to a steady 375F for frying.

    Based on that, I got a Bosch 4 burner stove for the remodel that used my existing 240V, 30 Amp service. And I still use the Duxtop for messy frying outside.

  10. You have totally missed the entire scam. The magnetic coil is totally smaller than the circle drawn on the top. So the heat is only transferred to the portion of the pan on the coil. The result is completely uneven heating. Just look at where the bubbles form when boiling water. Cast iron and carbon steel retain heat so badly they will never get evenly heated. Do delicate food is out. What is worse, water in a large point will never come to a rolling boil. I even went to Williams Sonoma and made the claim. We used the “magical” Heston manikins with Heston induction. After 20 minutes the water never boiled. The Control Freak is $1500! Just get a nice gas cooktop instead and forget the gimmick. It is almost impossible to find out from the manufacturers how big the coil is because they are scamming. For ATK to only lightly mention the scandal of induction coil size completely destroys your credibility. I wasted money on several induction burners and you are part of the reading why.

  11. The control freak home version is less expensive and is totally amazing and worth every penny! Cooking with precision temperature really works well. Has options to cook by ingredient, or technique or manual setting. For example, programmed options make perfect caramelized onions or perfect scrambled eggs… every time. We hardly ever use our normal electric stove top anymore.

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