If "isn't too pricey" means under $100, then I'd suggest Secura (a/k/a Duxtop) models 9600LS and 9100MX. Last time I looked, the 9600 was $99 on Amazon and the 9100 was $70. For a write-up on them, have a look at this blog posting on the 9600 and this one on the 9100.

Do you currently have an electric range/stove?

If so, you may already have 220V electric power in the kitchen. A 220v induction hob is more expensive, but it is a lot more powerful.

You do need an electrician to install a 220v outlet.

dcarch

I had the cheapest one on the market. It was adequate, but you could do better. A lot of people like Max Burton units. Sekura and Duxtop look like the same thing. (Often a factory in China will make the same item for many different brands.) Also, check restaurant supply houses. They often have 110V induction units for buffet service. You'd have to check the stats and reviews, but those may be more powerful and/or more durable. Durable might be useful if you're cooking on it constantly. The more power levels to the controls, the better.

Also, check 2ManyDiversions's sous vide threads. She's made wonders using a sous vide circulator in the absence of a kitchen. The immersion circulators aren't expensive.

The thing to keep in mind most with induction is it's the pot that does the cooking. Even though cast iron will take a lot longer to heat up given a standard 110V outlet, it will hold the heat better and give you less trouble as than a thinner, more reactive pot. Heavy stainless is next best.

All the best for the remodel!

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm wanting this mainly to boil water for oatmeal and cook eggs for breakfast.

JWVideo: The Secura looks like it will probably meet my needs and can get it on Amazon.

Olivia: I will keep that in mind. I have thought about an Instapot before this-just not sure if I want the learning curve in the midst of a remodel.

Fori: Thanks for the tip about circuit overload; I wouldn't have thought of that.

DCArch: I do have an electric stove now, but not sure if I need a 220v for my temporary solution. I will look at the features of both and go from there.

Pillog: Thanks for the info on 2Many's sous vide thread. I need to educate myself on sous vide; not sure with all that's going on now is the time.

Lizbeth, the thing about both the Instapot and the sous vide is that gives you an oven. 2Many had a temp-temp kitchen. The great thing about sous vide is that one can make a clean prep space, seal the food, and put it away from the not so great temp kitchen to cook while the work is happening. The Instapot or similar (mine is the Breville Fast Slow) can work similarly, though more for braising than for a cut of meat. But it doesn't require the sealing. If you have a stable and protected place for the Instapot to run, it's better at slowcooking than most slow cookers. My Breville does a half decent job of searing and a good job of reducing, so, perhaps with the addition of a prep bowl or two for things that need to take turns, it can sort of take the place of a range.

If you're not accustomed to pressure cooking, that feature might take a learning curve, or maybe just some open brain space to look up the instructions, but for a stew or soup or other slow kind of thing, you probably already know what you need to do and just follow the settings menus.

Either is a good choice for a temp kitchen for homemade food.

I bought one a few years ago to use in the caravan, so on low voltage. It was a cheapy from Amazon.....around $35, and it works very well. If you want it for water...then it would be just fine.

” If you have a stable and protected place for the Instapot to run, it's better at slowcooking than most slow cookers.“

Just a note that while your Breville may do great at slow cooking, most of what I hear about the slow cook feature on the actual “Instapot” brand pressure cooker is negative. I have some friends who have tried it without success, and in an online community I am on people overall seem to feel it doesn't work well. Not sure why it doesn't work well, but most people seem to find it doesn‘t. It does do a great job at the fast cooking though!

>>>"Sekura and Duxtop look like the same thing."<<<

And, in fact, they are the same thing. Secura is the name of the company and Duxtop is what it calls its line of portable induction cookers (PICs).

>>>"Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm wanting this mainly to boil water for oatmeal and cook eggs for breakfast."<<<

If that were all you ever want to do, you could save yourself a few dollars and buy one of the near-disposable models of inexpensive PICs. I think IKEA sells one for something like $50 as does Secura. Or spend half that on an old-fashioned coil-burner hot plate.

IMO, you consider a Duxtop (or better) PIC for broader cooking chores during your remodel period and because you might still find it useful after the remodel is done. As you might if, say, your remodel doesn't include an induction stove or cooktop with timer-controlled burners or if you do enough production cooking that an extra burner will come in handy.

I also agree with what Kazmom said about multi-cookers. I do think there is much to be said for the Breville and Instant Pot units as pressure cookers and much to be said about why you might or might not care about slow-cooking abilities when speedy pressure cooking modes often accomplish the same things in a small fraction of the time. Indeed, I have been known to say this at eye-glazing length, too. :>) These days I just refer folks to this article on the Serious Eats site which covers the subject lucidly and well.

FWIW, I've recommended Instant Pots and Brevilles to friends (who all like them a lot) but I do not have one myself. I already had several stove-top pressure cookers before Instant Pot opened up the market for countertop units, and I have a timer-controlled induction cooktop which gives me as much fire-and-forget pressure cooking as I want. While this suits my own cooking style and preferences, this is also very much a matter of personal preferences, so your YMMV.

Interesting, Kazmom. I haven't studied it (my Breville was a surprise gift), but I've been left with the impression previously from others that the sear function on the Instapot isn't as good as on the Breville (which is adequate, not brilliant), but that it slow cooked just fine. The big advantage is being able to use the same pot/device for the whole dish, but if it turns on and cooks at the correct temperature, how can the slow cook function fail? It's slow. It cooks. People have been doing it for centuries.

I disagree with the idea that any kind of pressure cooking can give you the same results. There is a depth of flavor that develops during low and slow that you just don't get using other methods. Cooked is good. I've used the pressure settings on the Breville to achieve that and it works well. But fast and slow just aren't the same.

Which is all a digression.

Lizbeth, for your oatmeal, you don't need a lot of fancy. You could make it using an IP or SV, but you could also use a $35 two burner electric hot plate. Really. If you want more control than that with induction, you need the better kind that has the 17 power levels. My big issue with my ultracheapie that I got just to see what induction was (when it was barely available in the US) and used during my remodel wasn't the lack of power or speed but the few levels. I would be constantly adjusting up and down one click because I needed in between. For your uses you could also use an alcohol stove or can of sterno, or a gas buffet cooker, or a barbecue/grill, or campfire.

Since 2Many jumped into the sous vide, she has been feeding them amazing meals nicer than most people make in finished kitchens. :) You need a lot less oomph for eggs and oatmeal. You could even get one of those combo units that has a little toasting oven with a couple burners on top and a coffeemaker on the side. :)

I agree with what has been said here. If you need a compact temporary kitchen during remodel, investing in a sous-vide setup is a great idea. I like our plumbed Miele CSO for sous-vide, as it is so quick and painless to set-up and clean-up. So, for the completed remodel, that's a consideration. But during the remodel, a cheap immersion heater is all you need. Perfectly serviceable models cost less than $100.

You also need a container to hold the water. That'll set you back between $5 and $20. Almost any large container will do.

And you need to decide whether you want to get a vacuum sealer. For many situations, you can get away with using Ziplok bags (look on Youtube for instructions). But if you are looking at a multi-months remodel, maybe a vacuum sealer is a good idea. It's less messy and it also allows you to cook and advance and then freeze your food for long times without risking freezer burn.

We bought a SINBO DZ-280/2SE from Doug Care. It has the advantage that ongoing costs are low, as it can use cheap commercial-grade bags instead of fancy FoodSaver bags. It also can safely seal liquids, which is a big advantage when cooking sous-vide. But as I said, a vacuum sealer is a nice-to-have not a 100% required tool. You can always decide later, when you know whether you like cooking sous-vide.

Finally, you need some way of searing. Your PIC induction hob should work fine for that. Or you can buy a Bernzomatic at Home Depot. It'll cost you about $40. It's nice to have in any kitchen. But again, it's not really a must-have item.

Access to an out-door BBQ would also be really useful when relying on a temporary kitchen.

Plllog - I am by no means an expert but my understanding is that the issues are around a few things. 1) the temperature settings for slow cooking on the IP don’t really correspond to the settings on a slow cooker, so it can be hard to get the temp right 2) they cook differently, with the slow cooker using the heating of the appliance to cook and the IP using steam and 3) the fact that the IP doesnt release (evaporate) as much liquid while cooking as the slow cooker does. I don’t know if those are right, but I do know that many people and articles advice against it, or say the food doesn’t come out the same. I personally haven’t slow cooked in mine (or seared!) I use it mainly to fast cook meat from frozen, although I will say I made the best ribs I have ever done in it, finishing them in the broiler.

I bought one of the Duxtop induction burners (around $80.00) several years ago, just to try it out. I thought it would work well to heat water for tea, which it did, but I had it for less than a week, then gave it to my younger DD. My elder DD hated the sound the burner made when it was turned on. I could hear the sound, but it didn't irritate me as it did her--if you have sensitive ears you might be better off with one of the alternatives suggested above.

A few years ago I bought a portable induction unit. They weren't widely popular in Canada yet, but I thought it would be great to cut down on the hydro usage. (Faster heating etc than a coil burner).

I got an Aroma burner, which I wouldn't recommend, It only has 6 heat settings and #1 is still too hot for a slow simmer. Plus my cast iron would quickly overheat even on level 2 and the unit would start beeping. I had to remove the skillet to let it cool down.

I since sold it and bought a Canadian brand, with several heat settings, both in Temperature and Wattage. It's the same price $99 as I paid for the Aroma, and runs circles around it. My dear hubby loved using it outside on the balcony, great place to cook bacon and keep the smells out of the kitchen, etc.

Kazmom, thanks, that all makes a lot of sense. The Breville heats (not steam) and has a detailed menu for settings. When I'd read about people using an Instapot, that hadn't come up. I've slow cooked in a pot in the oven, in a warming drawer, on a gas ring, and in dedicated slow cookers. I never liked the results from the slow cookers, but none were the original low heat Crock Pots. I can see, however, that trying to convert a known recipe from an old style Crock Pot to an IP or one like mine might be as daunting as trying to convert one to an oven. I gave up thinking about it and just substitute the word "braise" in my head and wing it on that basis, rather than using recipes.

I also like the old Zojirushi, but the updated one may not be better than the previous one at some points. The updated model's top surface is very flat (whereas the old model had some strange indentations where rice always got stuck). Cooking pans don't have handles and rotate when scooped. It was easier to lift and hold in the old model because the handles were plastic. There is also the Panasonic SR-HZ106 and Cuckoo CRP-HR0867F. I liked the I have a The Panasonic SR-HZ106 features an induction rice cooker whose bottom, top lid, and sidewalls are lined with magnetic coils that heat the induction-ready pot insert simultaneously, thus ensuring that the contents cook uniformly. I mostly bought this thing out of curiosity after a relative said he'd had a similar/older model for over a decade. I can say that it's worth it if you cook rice on a daily basis. Otherwise?

I'd suggest something cheaper unless you have the money to spend. The problem I had initially was that the rice was coming out hard and ""boro boro"" (which was the way my mom would describe rice that would not stick to each other; for example - Carolina rice or other long grain rice Americans typically eat).About the noise: not so disturbing as when the lawnmower is running in the kitchen. I mean the microwave makes a louder noise than this. About 60 minutes of cooking rice: because the soaking time is included. With my other rice cooker, I had to soak it and sometimes forgot to turn it on precisely 30 minutes before serving.

The noise issue is a good reason to have a kitchen that is well separated from the living room. My Duxtop makes a fair amount of noise in L.A., but my kitchen is sufficiently separated from the living room, so that one can watch TV while it is running. The blenders make the most noise, but they are on for only short times.

I bought a Navaris induction burner this week, which is almost identical to the Duxtop, but it is no better and costs a few dollars more. I'm in the middle of a minor kitchen reno in Cathedral City (just new cabinets and countertops), but all appliances have been moved out of the kitchen temporarily.

My advice for setting up a temporary kitchen is to make sure that you know where you put the aluminum foil and plastic wrap. You may need the foil when heating things in the toaster oven. My microwave is non-functional at the moment, and so I ordered a glass electric kettle for heating water. It was supposed to be delivered yesterday but now is supposed to be delivered today.