Sunday, January 13, 2008

Induction Junction, What's Your Function?


The Waring Pro Induction Cooktop taking its' rightful place on the line.


While I was out with my nephew the other day, I noticed this Waring Pro Induction Cooktop at Williams Sonoma for $169. It's not quite a CookTek but it looked interesting.

I spent the next couple of days thinking about it and then decided, what the hell - why not? Okay, so you can't set it to a particular cooking temperature like the Cooktek, but it doesn't cost $650 either. With that in mind, off to Williams Sonoma I went.

As the staff there readily admits, this is not a usual item for them and when the display was no longer where it was on Tuesday, one of the didn't even know what I was talking about. After a few minutes, we found one on display next to some chili bowls. After a few more minutes searching, they discovered that this was their last one - but they would be happy to knock off ten percent since it was the floor model. Okay, deal - and out the door for $162, including tax.

I've had it at home for a couple of days now and it's a pretty cool device. The heat is fast and efficient but the magnetized surface area is smaller than the Cooktek. The digital controls are easy to use and I seem to have little use for the on-board timer. Otherwise, so far so good.

One of the problems with induction is that it won't work with everything and I've got a number of pans that just won't work on the cooktop. That's a bummer. But the cast iron works fine, which means I've got 90% efficiency for cooking my steaks!

Onward and I'll report back later.

3 comments:

  1. does it get hot enough though to sear?

    One complaint I've seen of these cheap home inductions is that since they're running of a standard wall wart they can't draw the necessary juice to get super hot.

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  2. I have cooked and seared a steak using the induction, so I'd have to say "yes."

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  3. I have cooked and seared a steak using the induction, so I'd have to say "yes."

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