Food and Cooking

I have the cheapest, portable IKEA hob. I found one website that stated the build internals are extremely cheap (it didn't suggest which one to buy instead unfortunately when the person was obviously extremely knowledgeable in electrical engineering).

All the negatives aside and there are a few, it works perfectly fine for everything. I have an 8L pressure stockpot that fits on there to make cooking even more efficient. None of our pots or pans are too big for it.

Years ago, and also last year, I bought this duxtop model from Amazon:

Duxtop 1800W Portable Induction Cooktop Countertop Burner, Gold 8100MC/BT-180G3 https://a.co/d/4l21lmb

No issues. It’s been about 5-7 years. They’ve since introduced new (to me) models:

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-portable-induction-cooktop/

They’re worth looking into because they have more power levels.

I have this one.

Six months in with daily use and no issues, it was recommended by a couple sites in my research. So was the Ikea one. I bought it to validate my decision to switch to an induction hob in the next 3-4 years, and I'm completely sold in spite of a few hiccups.

Pros:

• Super easy to use
• Does not instantly shut off when lifting away a pan (there is a grace period and it resumes when a pan is detected)
• Super easy to clean
• Can be moved anywhere with a plug and taken to events or potlucks
• Boils water about 3x faster than my gas stove
• Don't need to constantly run vent fan
• Doesn't heat up kitchen while running
• Works extremely well with my old cast iron pans and dutch oven
• Has a keep-warm mode and timer that runs up to several hours

Cons:

• The heating area is smaller than it appears, not as large as the largest circle that they printed on the top but bigger than the smaller one. With cast iron or thick-bottomed pots this isn't an issue as the heat spreads, but with thinner pans there's a noticeable cold ring around the outside. Not important for boiling, which is about 60% of my use-case lol
• Obviously can't be used with non-magnetic pans, so all my cheap aluminum stuff stays dusty over on on the gas stove
• (US-specific) max power and boil functions can only be used for short periods of time unless your kitchen has 20-amp circuits (mine does but some don't)
• The temp control function is iffy. I find it mostly not useful compared to "regular" 1-10 stove control.
• Personally my biggest pet peeve, which is a little silly, is that the cord is very thick and difficult to deal with. I know it needs to be this way to handle the current, but it's still annoying. Currently using about 5 rubber bands keeping it tidy. On the balance, when I take it somewhere I appreciate it being longer so that it can reach floor outlets or be out on a counter.

Here's a very very informative video on the subject https://youtu.be/eUywI8YGy0Y