Ease Induction Cooktop

Details

A portable induction cooktop measured at 89 percent of the energy it draws going into the vessel, tested to the IEC 60350-2 hob method, against roughly 68 percent for a compliant gas burner and none of it into the room. On the 2000 W setting a litre of water in a 1 kg steel pan with a lid goes from 25 C to boil in 3 min 20 s and takes about 0.11 units, close to Rs 0.90 at Rs 8 a unit. Three cheats run this category. The first is wattage: a plate sold as 2000 W whose measured input at the wall never passes 1600, because the number on the box is the inverter's peak and not its rated continuous draw. Ours is stated as measured input at 230 V under a standard vessel, and it is the same number the rating plate carries. The second is the one nobody names, and it is the reason milk boils over on a cheap induction plate at a low setting. Below a certain power the cheap inverter cannot modulate, so it duty-cycles the full output on and off; a 200 W setting is really 2000 W for a tenth of the time, which scorches what is against the base and then lets it sit. This one modulates continuously from full power down to 200 W, and below 200 W it does cycle, and we say so rather than pretending the floor is lower than it is. The third is the top. A 4 mm black plate described as ceramic glass is usually tempered soda-lime float with a ceramic print, and the lithium-aluminosilicate glass-ceramic of a built-in European hob costs more than this whole appliance, so anyone claiming it here is claiming a material they have not bought.

• Measured input power at 230 V, not a peak figure: 1200 W, 1600 W or 2000 W by variant, matching the rating plate
• 89 percent of input into the vessel, tested to IEC 60350-2 with a standard test pan
• Continuous power modulation from full down to 200 W, no duty cycling above that floor. Below 200 W it cycles, which is a real limit and not a feature
• 20 power steps and 10 temperature steps on a detented rotary dial with a push select, so a setting repeats instead of being tapped up and guessed at
• 4 mm black micro-crystalline tempered top, thermal-shock tested through 20 cycles of 200 C to a wet cloth. It is not the glass-ceramic of a built-in hob and it is not sold as one
• Vessel detection, dry-heat cutout, IGBT over-temperature cutback and a voltage guard that holds from 160 V to 280 V, which matters more in most Indian houses than any of the above
• 44 dB(A) at 1 m on the 2000 W setting, measured against a 34 dB(A) background, using a larger slow fan rather than a small fast one
• The fan sits behind a mesh you unclip and wash, and the fan, the IGBT, the coil, the board and the glass top are five separately stocked parts, not one sealed assembly
• The fan runs on for 60 seconds after cooking to pull heat out of the IGBT. That is the noise you hear after you have finished, and it is doing something
• Induction needs a ferrous base, 120 mm to 240 mm. Your brass and aluminium vessels will not work on it, and no induction plate at any price changes that
• It draws its full rating from one 6 A point. On a weak or aluminium house circuit the voltage guard will cut in and it will feel like a fault. It is not one