Cheap, er, low , priced induction cookware!!!
westsider40
13 years ago
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steff_1
13 years agobillp1
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Induction cookware review: long post
Comments (7)Great informative review. I only have a few comments. I am not a fan of cookware sets. I find they have pots/pans in sizes I'll never use, don't need, and take up room. And they lack pots/pans I do need. Not a good use of your money. I'd rather just buy pots/pans individually. When I renovated my kitchen, I gave away so many duplicative pots/pans, or pots/pans I never used, and distilled down my cookware collection to an essential few. Whew, what a relief, space-clearing, space-saving money-saving change. My other comment is in response to your comment about the Le Creuset knobs. Le Creuset makes a stainless knob to replace the phenolic plastic one. The stainless knob takes about 30 seconds to replace on the LC lid. It can withstand any heat in the oven. Le Creuset Stainless Knob. Alternatively, you can just go to a hardware store and buy a stainless drawer knob for a dollar or two, plus the correct size screw (I believe it's 3/8" diameter, not sure the length). If you don't want to spend the money on a Le Creuset dutch oven ($275+), buy a Tramontina enameled cast iron dutch oven at Walmart. It's fantastic. It may not last a lifetime the way LC does, but for $40, it'll last several years and is a great pot. It is induction-compatible. It does carry a lifetime warranty from Tramontina, plus Walmart's generous return policy. Tramontina 6.5 qt. Cast Iron Dutch Oven at Walmart...See MoreBosch 300 induction top & my new cookware (long)
Comments (14)sf3707: To add to what MizLizzie said, you might have a look at the link below to Bosch's specs page for the 300. It says the front left heating element (the 9" one) is rated to 2.2 kW (2200 watts) and can be boosted to 3.3 kW. The right rear (11" burner) is rated for 2.4 kW and boosts to 3.6 kW. The two 6" burners are rated for 1.4 kW and boost to 1.8 kW. You might also want to download and read the User's Manual for the 300 series induction cooktops. Go to this page: https://portal.bsh-partner.com/portalbD1kZSZjPTAwOQ==/PORTALFRAME.HTM and download the second item (the one with the biggest file size). As for using a 12-inch frying pan on the 11" burner, there should be no problem. As MizLizzie says, there shouldn't be any problem with using a pan large than the burner diameter. When MizLizzie pointed out that her Cuisnart pan was more than 12" across the base take that as a significant point. For induction burners, the important measurement is the diameter across base of the pan, not the ultimate diameter at across the top. Most 12" frying pans are measured across the top, but it is the size of the magnetic base that the burner's "pot sense" function will "see." The bases of many stainless steel 12" skillets will actually be about 9 inches or less. My cast iron 12" skillet is bit larger -- roughly 10" by my measurement and use on induction. Anything over 7.5" should be fine on an 11" induction burner. No problem with using the 9" burner, either. The one caveat is that, depending on how the pan is made and the amount of preheating you give it, and the kind of cooking you do, you might (or might not find) with a digital thermometer gun and a pan whose base is more than 12" across that the very outer edges (the parts beyond 12") might register a little cooler than the parts within the 12" area. This is very much a YMMV thing. For me, it has never been noticeable for what I cook, and does not seem to be one for MizLizzie, either, but other folks have, from time to time, seen this as an issue for their cooking. Here is a link that might be useful: Bosch 300 specs page This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, Aug 15, 13 at 11:05...See MorePortable induction cooktop and cookware
Comments (49)I have a NKW 10" portable induction burner from Amazon for about 55.00. I also bought a Cook's clad covered 12" saute pan for about 52.00 on Amazon so I could test this out. I plan to get the Cook set they sell on Costco now that I have seen this one saute pan in action. So far so good. One tip I have learned is to take care of your pots so they don't warp. You want your pans to be flat on these induction. So don't use high heat since this may warp your pans. Don't plunge a hot pan into cooler water since this will also warp the pan and even the cast iron ones. I won't be buying a bigger stove. I have been burned too many times by the big box store brand names for reasonably priced units. I can't afford to spent thousands on a stove either. I think this portable induction plate approach is a fine idea. I am surprised more aren't doing it. I was surprised such a thing existed and wondered why I hadn't hear of these before. With these inexpensive portables I am not so worried about using my cast iron pans since if they get too scratched I can replace them but honestly since I will be storing them in a drawer I really don't care if they have scratches. With a bigger expensive unit I would be extremely worried about ruining the top and I would end up spending at least 1,300.00 on one and to replace it would be awful on my budget. Where as I could replace a portable many times over before I reached 1,300.00 again. I also have been burned too many times by big brands and don't feel it is worth the investment to sink so much money into them anymore. I also ordered a Wolf counter top oven which I have heard great things about. I will probably ditch my older microwave. We are building our cabinets for our kitchen and I am stuck with one aspect of it. I intend to store my NKW, two of them in a top drawer. This way I will have more counter space to use for other things for my smaller kitchen. Also while we remodel the kitchen I can plug my counter top oven and induction plate(s) into any wall socket which will make things less of a hassle. I now can build more cabinet drawers instead of housing a big stovetop/oven. But I also need a better approach for exhausting smoke etc for the induction plate. My husband is 6' 4" ends up hitting his head on our Broan Allure kitchen exhaust fan. I would like to ditch this fan and put cabinets there and have a slide out exhaust fan or some other alternative. I found this study on basic common kitchen fans enlightening since they never extend far enough out to really capture all the harmful fumes from cooking oils etc. http://eetd.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/publications/lbnl-5545e.pdf There aren't that many slide out exhaust fans and not that many reviews and they are expensive for what you are getting at about 700.00 for a Bosch 30" fan. Maybe that explains why there are not that many reviews for them. Not sure they work that well either and local places don't display them. I am wondering if others who have made the switch to portable induction cooktops and have figured out a way to vent these without using the typical kitchen hood approach. Maybe install a cabinet fan insert box in a upper drawer to pull out over the portable cooktop since I typically cook in the area of where a front burner would sit and most fans have lights in the front and don't do a good job of grabbing the smoke fumes from the front burners per the study above. It is too bad these are not tested and rated better. One of my grandmothers had a large metal through wall vent above her stove and I wondered if this might be a way around it. Place it between the bottom of the cabinets and the counter top in the area you will use the portable cooktop. Maybe have a pull out of some sort on the bottom of the upper cabinet to prevent the smoke from rising too fast which will give the wall fan a chance to pull it outside. My kitchen is open to my living room and I really like the idea of a more modern look in a kitchen with less clutter and have the kitchen set up to be more flexible with regards to counter space....See MoreBest cookware for induction - Part II
Comments (17)> maybe your particular pan has an issue It's a lump of iron. There is not much scope to have an issue in something so very simple as a lump of iron. We can see that it is reasonably uniform in thickness (the base is flat and the inside is flat). > your sample size of one is kind of small to draw a general conclusion I don't believe there is significant variation in cast iron cookware beyond thickness (and the Lodge is by no means thinner than average). As such, I think it's reasonable to draw wider inferences from the tests we performed. I would be interested to see what results you obtain in similar test conditions. > How long did you let the CI skillet heat before you measured the > temperature variation? Did you measure more than once to get some > idea of variation vs time? We tried both rapid heating on a high (but not the highest) setting and slower heating increasing the setting in steps. We measured repeatedly during heating, dwell, and cooling - maybe 15 minutes in all. We had expected the variation to even out during cooling, but it was surprisingly persistent - heat loss to the air was apparently offsetting conduction across the pan. By contrast, the temperature of clad aluminum pans evened out rapidly (and obviously stayed even during cooling). > Also, how did you measure the surface temperature We used an IR thermometer from Thermoworks, and a bead thermistor held in contact with the pan. The results correlated between the two devices. I have since purchased a better contact probe thermistor (the bead is a bit flimsy); I will use that for future tests if/when we are able to perform them. Scorchprints are a handy technique if you don't have instrumentation (Google is your friend). Here is a link that might be useful: Thermoworks IR thermometer...See Moremichellemarie
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