portable induction cooktops

[Anonymous No.18109166]

anyone have much experience with portable induction cooktops? looking at getting one for using outdoors to avoid filling the house with smoke. that, and cooking outside is just more fun.
the Ikea tillreda is fairly cheap, but ive seen some complaints about a too-small heating surface when using larger pans

[Anonymous No.18109242]

>>18109166
i use one on hot days, to avoid turning on the gas stovetop. i think all of them have pretty small heating circles. if you plan on sauteeing with them, it helps if you have pans that distribute heat evenly, like tri-ply ones. if it's more for boiling water for pasta or something, it doesn't matter as much.

[Anonymous No.18109247]

>>18109166
If you want something for outdoors, why not just use a butane burner so you don't have to worry about a power cord? Gas burners are wonderful to cook on.

[Anonymous No.18109254]

I've used them a lot.
>easy to clean
>saves tons of bench space
>cheap (unless gas is cheaper)
>use wierd things as pots
>great for hot pot/fondu

The downsides
>can't char anything
>tops can crack
>heat output pretty poor
>can't use a wok
>will struggle to sear batches of meat

[Anonymous No.18109266]

>>18109166
I use jaun almost daily to supplement my house stove (last 3 apts had gas, glass convection, and solid hot plate electric) and it's the bees tits!

at 2kW it gets WAY hotter than any of the others, sears beef in literally 4 seconds, will destroy the seasoning on cast iron in like 10 (which is fine because it's a workhorse and should be treated as such). boils a sosspin full of water in like a minute, boils water violently unless you drop it back to 800W.

you won't regret it, it may not be the best tool for slow simmers or woks (lol) but for general cooking, searing, boiling and for what you want it's amazing.

bonus: it's nearly 100% efficient

[Anonymous No.18109272]

Just buy a super small charcoal bbq instead so your food actually tastes of something

[Anonymous No.18109285]

>>18109272
good cookin' but terribly inconvenient comparatively. these items are def no mutually exclusive

[Anonymous No.18110065]

>>18109166
I do and I'm here to shill you pic related
>no pulsing over the entire power range
>99 levels adjustment
>$50
Though it only runs on 220V

This thing has more or less completely replaced my gas top. I don't use it outside though.

[Anonymous No.18110631]

>>18109166
>a too-small heating surface
They are all like that, even expensive name-brand devices. None of them have coils much bigger than around 6''(15 c, in diameter. Even if they say for "for 28 cm pans", that just means that the glass ceramic field is big enough to accomodate them. I have a Tillreda and I like it a lot. It is pretty much the only portable induction too with a setting low enough to allow a real simmer, 100 Watts. All others have at least 300W to 400W, that is enough ti keep even a large gallon pot of potatoes at a roiling boil and evaporate an inch of water over 25 minutes. A huge waste of energy. The only downside is that it has no temperature function unlike other tops. That function is great for keeping soup, stews, coffee or tea hot, or to heat up thick sausages before frying them. I have even had surprisingly good success with using the 60°C setting as a poor man's sous vide device. You can forget all the other settings for other temperatures though, they dont work because the sensor in the top doesnt respoind quickly enough.

[Anonymous No.18111828]

>>18109242
>>18109254
>>18109266
>>18110631
thanks for the input lads

>>18109247
>>18109272
also want something id be able to use indoors if need be, and charcoal seems like a pain in the ass to get up to temp each time i want to cook a steak or whatever.

>>18110065
that the xiaomi one? will have to look into it. 220v isnt an issue since im an ausfag. thanks mate.

[Anonymous No.18111887]

>>18111828
Yeah it's the xiaomi one. The one I got is the first gen model which isn't available anymore. They have a second gen that's basically the same, and a super thin model for whatever reason.

[Anonymous No.18111925]

>>18111828
Mine >>18109266 is a Contempo I got for $30 from Big W brah. Used several times a week for almost 4 years now and still going. Check it out.

Also when the beeping starts to drive you mad post again and I'll walk you through removing the beeper

[Anonymous No.18111952]

>>18111925
looks like they might not sell it anymore?
www.bigw.com.au/search?text=induction

[Anonymous No.18111978]

>>18111952
dang they don't

Kmart has one, also 2kW. the inner working are probably all made in the same fact'ry anyway

[Anonymous No.18112056]

>>18111887
I have had both the 1st and 2nd gen (non-thin versions). The 1st was really good but there was an...incident (not it's or my fault). The 2nd I only just got and, maybe I misremember, but it seems to cycle more than the 1st. Still better than other portables I have used though.

The 2nd version uses the inner coil ring only for power levels 0-35, the outer ring only for power levels 36-55 and both coils for power levels 56-99. I don't remember if the 1st version worked like that - does it?

[Anonymous No.18112077]

>>18112056
So if I use a small cast iron pan I’m fucked?

[Anonymous No.18112104]

>>18112077
only got my new one the other day and have barely used it and I don't remember ever using my cast iron on my old one, sorry.
In general cast iron will have a hot spots on induction and will need more preheating to mitigate this. Also it tends to overheat the unit but the xiaomi does have a better cooling system than most. Hopefully the other guy has some actual experience he can share.

[Anonymous No.18112139]

>>18112104
> In general cast iron will have a hot spots on induction
They get hotspots even on gas lmao
> Also it tends to overheat the unit
Care to elaborate on instances of the thing overheating?

[Anonymous No.18112175]

>>18112139
not him but I use cast iron on mine all the time (at full bore) and never had an issue with the unit. I mean the things are cool the touch immediately after use

[Anonymous No.18112198]

>>18112139
Yeah, I know they get hot spots on everything but have you used them on induction? Gas is always better at distributing heat.

Induction units have 2 temp sensors. One on the glass-ceramic to prevent damage to the surface (shutoff at ~220C or something -not sure and probably depends) and one around the IGBT component to prevent damage to the electronics (shutoff at 105C or 95C on shitty units).
I have had 4 different portable induction units and have opened up 2 of them and seen many tearodwns on youtube. The xiaomi is the only one with a good cooling system but I never actually used my xiaomi with very high heat cooking.

[Anonymous No.18112202]

>>18112139
Sorry, as for instances of overheating - preheating cast iron for searing steak.

[Anonymous No.18112207]

>>18112175
What model do you have?

[Anonymous No.18112222]

>>18112207
the Contempo that Biggie Dubz doesn't have anymore :[

[Anonymous No.18112240]

you shouldn't use induction it will fuck up your pacemaker

[Anonymous No.18112393]

>>18112202
Do you think it would overheat if you left a stew or similar cooking ad medium/low heat for 2~4 hours?

[Anonymous No.18112403]

>>18112393
no but the unit might have a 2 hour automatic shutoff or soemthing but you could probably just turn it back on.

[Anonymous No.18112814]

>>18111925
>contemp
kek

[Anonymous No.18112833]

>>18112056
Mine switch mode at 51
Also I don't remember it switching between coils, infact I don't see how that's even possible, there's only one coil.

[Anonymous No.18112874]

>>18112833
Thanks. Maybe it is only the 2nd version. I have that old 1st version sitting open right here too (has a fuckton of goop everywhere) and it looks like a single coil (although there is a gap about twho thirds in) but maybe there is some magic happening. The 2nd version definitely operates like it has two coils though. You can see it when water is boiling and the manual also specifies that it has the different coil usage depending on the power level.

I haven't opened my v2 up but the offical video shows the internals and the coil looks similar but has different windings and less toriodal inductors.

I am wondering if the 2nd version is actually a step back in quality. I haven't used it enough to say yet but it looks worse that I remember the 1st one being. This one makes clicks like a relay switching, which I also don't remember.
I am worried that I should try and find an old v1 around.

[Anonymous No.18112896]

>>18112814
what are you saying

[Anonymous No.18113008]

>>18112874
There's kinda no reason to make it that way though. Costs more for no benefit.
Afaik the only difference between v1 and v2 is NFC. Haven't seen inside the v2 though.
Also v2 should look identical to v1, you might be referring to a different unit altogether. And the v1 definitely clicks.

[Anonymous No.18113032]

>>18112077
Cast iron works with induction. You can test all your cookware to see if it will, if a magnet sticks to it it works.

[Anonymous No.18113068]

>>18113008
I thought it was gonna be identical too but it is definitely different. There is definitely an inner and outer coil. I can see it when boiling and it's workings are specified in the manual and also available in the app.
The models I am talking about are DCL01CM and MCL02M and have owned and used both, although the DCL01CM was a few years back and my recollection is hazy how well it workd. They do look externally identical apart from the NFC label.
Pic is a still from the ad for the v2 - you can see the coil is different and if you watch the rest you can see the electronics are different, at least in the video.

[Anonymous No.18113071]

>>18113032
I don't think that is what they were asking - I suspect they are concerned about what is essentially a really small coil when operating at low power.

[Anonymous No.18113126]

>>18109166
thefuk is wrong with your hand?

[Anonymous No.18113250]

>>18113126

[Anonymous No.18114172]

>>18113068
Well it's weird they changed how it works then, the way the new one works, I wouldn't be able to use my moka pot with it lol.

[Anonymous No.18115474]

>>18114172
Yeah, I am not happy about it. That said, I haven't used it much at all yet. It might still work ok with a moka pot as it could boil a small amount of water with just the inner coil. Personally, I am worried about it warping my carbon steel due to the small inner ring.
I do wanna know why they changed it cos the old one seemed to work very well and the new one seems kinda crap or at least weird so far.

[Anonymous No.18115507]

>>18115474
I blast mine on 60-70 for the moka pot. Boils the water in 20 seconds. Then drop the power to 30 for the extraction.
As for why, I noticed the microcontroller they use to control the induction circuit is deprecated, but still available. Plus it wouldn't be hard for them to just switch to another one. So this is very unlikely the reason, but I can't think of anything else.
I suppose the new design has one (theoretical) advantage: there's no need to shut the coil off when moving between low-high power ranges like on the first model. So you don't get that 2-sec cold period anymore.

[Anonymous No.18115558]

>>18115474
Also, if you have time, open it up. I can't find teardowns for the second one.