Induction Cooktop Buying Guide | What Factors to Consider

Imagine a common family situation – you are going to boil soup or preparing to fry an egg in a frying pan. Frying pan is left one the stove for being heated. At this time your kid runs into the kitchen and accidentally touches the “burner” – on which you are going to cook – with his/her hands. Under normal circumstances, it could have ended very sadly. However, if you are going to cook through the induction cooking process, then no unfortunate thing will happen to your kid. Is it a magic? Can you imagine a burner that remains cool during and after cooking? Read the following article about induction cooktop buying guide. It will help you to choose the best induction stove with your budget range.

Induction Cooktop Buying Guide

To find the best induction oven for your kitchen, you need to check out whether your chosen burner offers some essential features. These features will not only help you to perform the cooking task precisely, but also provide safety to the cookware, cooktop and persons, who will stay close to the cooktop. Some most essential factor for considering to buy a top rated induction range cooktop have been stated below:

Dimension

Size consideration should be given the first priority while purchasing a portable induction cooktop. Induction panels come in different shapes: square, rectangular and hexagonal. The panel-size of an induction cooktop can start from as low as about 30cm x 30cm or more than 100cm of width per unit. The average size of cooktop with four cooking zones is about 60cm. During the purchase of a new induction cooker, you need to consider several facts to find the appropriate size for your cooker.

Types: Counter-top/ Free Standing/ Portable

At first you need to decide what type of induction cooker you want. You can choose countertops, free standing range or portable induction cooktop, depending on your need, available space and budget range.

• If you need to travel outside home for long time, for hiking or any other similar purpose, then choose a portable one. Portable induction cooktop are lightweight. Therefore, you can carry a portable induction burner without much effort. Moreover, it can be stored safely in a smaller place. 
• If you want to embed the induction range stove in a fixed place in your kitchen or other place in the house, then counter-top induction burner option would be the best for you.
• When you are looking for an induction range for commercial purpose like, semi restaurant, then you have to go for free standing induction oven. You can also choose this range for heavy residential use, such as, feast meal preparation.

Number of Cooking Zones

Induction Ranges offer one to six cooking zones. Portable induction cooktops offer single burner and double burner cookers. The countertops come with one to five cooking zones. The free standing ranges offer multiple cooking zones.You can select the number of cooking zones depending on your specific need.

Over-heated Pan Detection Sensor

It often happens that in kitchen that the cook becomes busy with some other task and forget about the cooking for a few moments. And then the pot left over the cooking surface gets burned. Sometimes, it may happen that you have set a timer; but the liquid has blown away before your pre-assumed time. In such cases, there is a risk that the pan placed over the cooktop will get burned. However, if your chosen induction burner includes a [highlight]safety sensor for detecting the over-heated pans[/highlight], then this feature will enable the burner to shut-off automatically before the pan-surface gets burned. Under this mechanism, an induction cooktop can detect the bottom-temperature of the cookware and stops heating, if the cookware is left empty. This feature can efficiently adjust the cooktop’s power output for avoiding any damage to the induction-cookware due to over-heating.

Booster

This feature serves in a similar way like the previously mentioned auto heat-up setting. It enables the induction stovetop to reach at the highest temperature setting for cooking food or boiling liquid in the least possible time. After that the temperature plunges automatically to your pre-selected lower heat level.

Protection Against Spilling

This feature enables the induction cooktop to shut off or sounding like a beep, if the cooking items start overflowing or spilling over the cooking surface. This allows the cook to clean the spilt food and then continue the cooking process.

 Pan Detection Sensor

This feature stops heating process of the induction oven, if no pan is left over the cooking surface or heating zone. Generally, a symbol appears when the pan is removed and within few seconds (depending on the special feature of the specific induction range model) the heating stops. However, the symbol gets off, when an induction cookware is replaced over the induction stovetop. This feature also shows a symbol like a “beep” and switches off automatically, if the cookware is not compatible for induction cooking.

Timer for Auto Heat-up

This feature allows the cook to program the heat-setting of the induction stove. For instance, at the initial level of cooking, you can set a higher temperature setting for a specific amount of time and after that you can again set a lower temperature or switch off option. This feature gives you the opportunity to focus on other cooking task during that specified time duration.

Lock Feature

Lock and Timer Feature

While buying the best rated induction stove for your family, don’t forget to check whether the stove owns Lock feature for the control panel . It is a very useful feature, especially if your family has little kids with playful little hands. Though the risk of danger with an induction oven is almost zero in comparison with gas ranges or other traditional cookers, this feature will prevent your little one to play with the oven’s control system.

Auto Shut Down

Safety shutdown is another necessary feature that you must check while purchasing an induction burner. This feature will shut down the burner automatically, if something goes wrong; for instance, the pan may get overheated. Sometimes, the cook forgets to shut down the induction burner after completion of cooking. This feature, shuts down the burner after a fixed time, like about 30 seconds, if it detects to pan/cookware over it’s surface-panel.

Digital Display

LED Digital Display

The LED display system helps you to see the reading clearly, when you program the heat or temperature or time for cooking. In other words, the digital control readouts feature ensures that you have set the precise temperature for perfect cooking.

Power Showing Heat Light

The heat light should offer enough brightness to display the heat-output of the induction burner. It would be the best, if each cooking zone includes respective heat light option.

Power Management in Cooking Zones

This feature can efficiently distribute the power-output through the presence of a pair of induction cooking zones. It facilitates in cooking more amount of food in lesser amount of time. Generally, this mechanism allows maxim-level power output for one cooking zone, while decreasing the power-output automatically to a lower temperature for the other burner. However, you can get maximum-heating level for two pans at a time by placing them in opposite induction cooking zones.

Efficient Design

The controlling system must be properly designed. The positions of the push-buttons and sliders should be proportioned, coherent and not placed at too closer to the burners and other elements.

Mechanism to Keep Food Warm

You will certainly not use the induction range only for cooking. You may need options for keeping the dish until your family members reach the dining table. This feature offers a simmer type mechanism for keeping the food warm. However, some induction burners are capable of utilizing the residual heat.

Concluding Remarks

Induction cooktops offer a bunch of innovative and handy features to make your cooking experience more flexible, easy and precise. Generally, each cooktop under induction ranges offers more safety mechanism and energy efficiency. However, few brands offer some advance level features to make the burner more user-friendly and safe-to-use. However, to pick out the best induction oven for your kitchen or restaurant, you can make a little research on the features – both basic and advance level – offered by your primary selected induction burners. You can look for the special safety features, if you have kids at home.