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Do you mean a full hob (e.g. 4-6 spots) or a single plug-in 'hot plate' type dealio? For the former Bosch or Hotpoint should be decent enough, I don't know if they make the latter though. I personally stay clear of Beko but that's not because of their hobs, used to have a washing machine they made and it was awful.
Either way we made the switch to induction earlier this year and love it. Just check your pans are magnetic first, or be willing to replace them!
I'm looking for a hotplate or portable type. One thing I've seen people take issue with is a small heating area? Is this an overblown issue? On many of the units I have been looking at they say there's a ring that's like 4-6 inches in diameter that heats and I'd like to be able to cook evenly on a larger skillet.
My frying pan extends over the ring by about an inch all around, until now it was never a problem because whatever I was cooking was getting stirred, but this morning I tried making pancakes and there was a very noticeable raw ring on the edge when the middle was fully cooked.
However, I think this is likely an issue of experience. I'm not used to cooking pancakes on induction so if I had used a slightly lower heat setting and let the pan properly heat up I think I could have avoided it.
Induction can be very quick to achieve a high temperature on areas with direct contact, but if the ring is small only the middle part of the pan will be hot enough. For things being stirred that's not much of an issue, but if even cooking is a big deal for you then it might take a bit of practice getting the pan right.
Thank you for sharing the experience, I'll have to adjust my expectations lol. Having an even heating is something I was hoping for for things like crepes or omelets. But on the other hand what I have now is a regular electric glass top, and it makes me nervous with how easy it is to scratch. Scratches can make the entire glass top crack and it's super expensive to replace. Any time any splatter happens or anything boils over for even a second if it drops onto the hot glass it INSTANTLY becomes burnt on and needs to be scraped off but you can only use special non-abrasive detergents..
Induction would suit my needs well enough for most things and I can probably adjust to the times it doesn't.
One of the things I like is because induction works by directly heating the metal, on the rare occasion something does spill over it doesn't burn nearly as badly because it only gets residual heat. Wipes off really easily.
They also cool down very quickly if you have children or pets to worry about.
I'm glad I made the switch. The pros far outweigh the cons for me, and with the pancakes/crepes I think it's just a learning curve.
Here's a very very informative video on the subject https://youtu.be/eUywI8YGy0Y
That's a video specifically about non-induction electric tops, but thank you!
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:
Cons:
Thanks for the well thought out response! I was looking at that one. How granular is the temperature at low temps? Will it keep something nicely at below the boiling point?
No prob! So, down at the lower levels (power settings 0.5-4.5, or below about 200F) it seems to switch to "pulsing" the burner. I think a lot of induction hobs do that... With anything that has some mass to it, this one can steadily keep it below boiling. My ikea kettle is pretty thin, sometimes it boils/hisses for just a split second even in keep-warm mode. Every other pot or cast iron I've used have enough mass that they don't do that.
I think the temp control mode actually works better at low temps (but only if the pan is already hot*). I'll either use the "keep warm" button and bump it up to 180f or just set my own timer.
*Something I noticed about most induction plates/hobs is that when you try to do temp control but have a cold pan, they just blast 100% power until the pan heats up. It's probably fine but sometimes overshoots. The "regular number" mode (which I use like 95% of the time) doesn't do that, it just does puts out whatever power you select
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.