Can't beat it for the price
Timer goes up to 2 hours in increments of 1 minute. You can use manual power control, or else set it to the desired temperature in Fahrenheit and let it take care of everything... this is nice because the presets are not based on arbitrary power levels but rather on temperature, which is way more useful when you are trying to simmer something. However, there is a caveat: at lower power levels/temperature settings, the cooker will cycle on/off so that the AVERAGE temperature will be right. It's like a person driving a car on a highway who veers too far left, then overcompensates and veers too far right, then too far left, then too far right, but on average they will drive in a straight line. Most 120-volt countertop/personal cookers do this, though, and at least this one is quiet.
Center of the induction ring is actually about an inch or so LOWER (closer to the front control panel) than the rings on the black ceramic surface would lead you to believe.
Must use...
excellent value
I recently saw a demo with an induction cooktop. I knew that Tuesday Morning sold them, so I checked out their stock. They had this one in stock for just $40...excellent value. I too it home last night and cooked on it...from pastry cream to sausages. I found my favorite pan for pastry cream would not heat directly on the cooktop because it didn't have sufficient magnetic properties. Instead I placed my cast iron skillet on the surface and then my favority pan on top through the cast iron. It heated gently but more quickly. I could definitely see using the induction burner for lots of uses ..., melting chocolate, fondue, etc and it would be a quick and safe way to heat in the middle of our table. I did use it for sausages later for dinner and I noticed that my skillet did not heat evenly. I suspect there is a slight curve to the bottom of my 9" cast iron skillet and caused it not to heat evenly...pans that are completely flush to the cooktop would heat more evenly. Other...
Flawed
My first experience with induction. Had some good sessions. Then parked a pan a little too far forward, and the hot bottom quickly melted the plastic face panel upon which the controls are mounted. Still works, but looks bad. It seems like a design flaw to me to put meltable materials so close to the heating element with no lip or other safeguard.
But worse, I notice that this unit can't maintain high power levels for long. Sure it can sear the first steak or 2, but after maybe 10 minutes of full power it seems to go into a wimpy rest state, letting the pan cool way down. I mean it wasn't overheating the pan in the first place; it just can't keep it good and hot for long. You can hear it power cycling, offering only short bursts of power intermittently even on the highest setting, while the pan continues to cool way down. This has messed up a couple meals. Only letting the unit cool down completely (wait for fan to shut off) lets it apply full power for another 10 minutes...
Click to Editorial Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment