Our Bosch made Thermador induction cooktop often pulses in the lower settings. Usually I don't notice it but sometimes it's a bit noisy. There have been discussions and explanations about this in other topic here.

Thanks for the response. Is the pulsing only noticeable because of the clicking? Or is it actually noticeable in terms of cooking, in that it is providing uneven/inconsistent heat?

Wifey here... you may not be interested in my response because it is a Wolf. Just had it installed last week. Pulses at very low setting but no clicking sound. Almost inaudible. If any activity in kitchen or you are more than 2 ft away from cooktop you have no idea it is doing so. I just noticed because it was my first time using it and was literally standing over it.

Ed, thanks for the response. Does the pulsing make it difficult to simmer? Or do you find it to be a non-issue?

I have a Bosch slide in. If you are close by, you can hear it pulsing. It is very low, so with the hood going on, it is not possible to hear it. I do not find it to be an issue simmering, but I am sure that this will depend on the quality of the pot being used (and the food being cooked) as different materials have different temperature inertia. Or maybe I am not as picky :) What I like is the fine graduation of settings and the "instant" response I get when changing them, specially when I decrease the temp. The individual timers are a plus.

It seems that the word "pulsing" cannotes a noise problem rather than observable swings in power/heat levels in the pot. I took Anon's question to be about the latter. Maybe the question might be clearer if we asked whether the Bosch slide in stove has observable heat swings at low settings or do the low heat settings appear to be a steady state of low heat.

Here is a video link showing such swings with the Kitchenaid Induction Slide-in. (Thanks to Ron Varrial who made the video and provided the link in the thread on the KitchenAid Slide-In Induction range.) Notice how the bacon sizzles for a bit, stops sizzling, sizzles for a bit, stops sizzling, etc. A contrasting video, done by dodge59 with his Electrolux cooktop, shows no heat swings/pulsing heat patterns at low burner settings.

If you want to check this out for yourself, try this experiment. Put a cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring it to boil on an induction hob. Turn the heat down to a simmer level. Watch what happens of over the next few minutes. Does the water stay in a steady state (maybe with a few bubbles on the bottom of the pan) or, instead, does it bubble for a bit, go still, bubble, go still, etc?

I have a Bosch Induction slide in and have not seen or heard any pulsing noise or temperature fluctuations at low simmer settings.

olc57:

interesting that you should mention testing with cast iron and using several different induction burners. My experience is that cast iron provides a lot more thermal smoothing at higher temps than it does at low induction power settings.

Appliance geek that I am, I actually tried to test out the thermal averaging idea a while back. I used a 10" Lodge cast iron fry pan as well as a regular induction capable sauce pan (Circulon annodized aluminum with an induction base). I ran these tests when I got a chance to participate in a demo of some induction cooktops and ranges at a local dealer's store.

The demo included a Whirlpool cooktop and Maytag stove, both believed to have observable pulsing of bubbling-still cycles at low heat. With a cup of water in the CI pan when placed on the induction burners that had
observable pulsing -- meaning that low settings cycled temps between
bubbling near boil and still --- the heat cycling/bubbling was a little
slower but still distinct when compared with the more responsive
Circulon sauce pan. Basically, similar cycling but the CI seemed to lag the audible pulsing a bit. With the GE induction range in that demo, however, I did not see bubbling/still cycles at low heat settings with either the Circulon or Lodge pans. (It exhibited the same behavior as what you see in Gary's video of his Electrolux Icon cooktop.)

I also repeated this comparison later, after I received a Max Burton portable induction cooker. Got similar results except the bubble-cycling was more extreme with both pans. (That is doubtless because the MB's pulse-width-modulation was even cruder than that on the Whirlpool-made stove and cooktop.)

Maybe somebody here can repeat this kind of test with a Bosch range? OTOH, maybe lisa's answer is already good enough for Anon?

My bosch nitp668uc does pulse heat/no heat on the center hob. The center hob is made of 3 coils that detect pan size. When only 1 coil is used (smaler pans) , no pulsing. When more then 1 coil used ( larger pans) then pulsing start. It just started to do that with all my pans after barely 1 year of use. And it looks like there is almost no heat in the center.