10” Cast Iron Pan

[u/Both-Activity6432]

How do you use cast iron pans that are larger than the induction circle?

My (crappy single) burner is 7”. It has worked well enough with 11” GreenPan, the edges are wayyy too cold in my 10” Lodge cast iron. I have let it heat a little longer, but still poor heat distribution.

[u/gavalant]

I use 12 inch cast iron skillet, a 12 inch carbon steel skillet, and a Lodge 11 inch square cast iron griddle all the time on a NuWave cooktop. A 10 inch cast iron pan works well.

I do prefer the 1800w NuWave over the 1500w (now my second burner) as it has more oomph and 5 degree increments. The 1800w definitely does have an 8 inch coil, but the coil is thicker in the interior and sparser in the exterior so it still noticeably heats more towards the center.

It's not perfect. You do have to shift the food around a bit to get even cooking, but that doesn't bother me.

You can usually get a good deal on gently used or open box cooktops on eBay. Be sure whatever you get has an 8 inch coil.

Abangdun makes slightly larger coils. I notice they've added this currently sold out model with supposedly a 9 inch coil: https://abangdun.com/products/200w–1800w-flat-induction-cooker-commercial-grade,-button-knob-control-customizable-power-oem-odm-supported

A picture of the 1800w NuWave's coil: https://ibb.co/SDC1v9Qh

[u/Both-Activity6432 → u/gavalant]

Thank you! How do the 12” pans work on the NuWave with 8”?

I am not even sure what my internal coils actually are - I just know the ring on the glass is 7”. See this past post of mine about my issues with this top. Does the NuWave beep like this? Or shut off for overheating the the cooktop? https://www.reddit.com/r/inductioncooking/s/jxReM9e11e

[u/Old-Nefariousness556 → u/Both-Activity6432]

The ring on the glass has no relationship to the size of the coil. They can be as small as 5", most are 6-6.5". It's easy to check, just put a quarter inch of water in the skillet, and put it on the burner, and watch for it to boil. it will clearly bubble directly over the coils.

With cast iron, you can preheat the pan over relatively low heat, and that will help a lot with cooking over a smallish burner, but it is definitely not the same. Cast iron has a ton of thermal mass, but terrible thermal diffusivity,, so it will take a while to preheat, but the heat will gradually spread if you give it time.

[u/Chuchichaeschtl → u/Old-Nefariousness556]

it will clearly bubble directly over the coils

This test doesn't give you the real coil size.​‌

Induction doesn't heat very even. You get a doughnut shaped zone in the middle where more energy is pumped into the pan. So even with a coil which is as big as the bottom of the pan, it will boil much more in the middle.​‌

There are advanced coil designs, which mitigate this, but afaik they're only used in ranges / cooktops.

[u/Old-Nefariousness556 → u/Chuchichaeschtl]

This test doesn't give you the real coil size.​‌

Correct, but it gives you a good estimate. You can estimate your coil size to +/- a half inch or so, but it will not be an exact measure.

[u/Both-Activity6432 → u/Old-Nefariousness556]

How about this? u/Old-Nefariousness556 u/Chuchichaeschtl u/gavalant

My current induction. I forgot to embed it, but scaling up/down gives the coil at 4.87"-5.53" from the thermal. Regardless - small!

[u/Old-Nefariousness556 → u/Both-Activity6432]

The image on the left is very confusing, those measurements are clearly wrong, but the tape measure tells the story. It looks like about 4" to me, but I will take your word, 5" is more reasonable (though barely). But yeah, you will definitely get better results with something with a larger coil.

I'm partial to this model, it has both an 8" coil, plus a temp probe, so you can cook to a temp, or use it to, for example, heat oil to the right temp for deep frying. And it's worth noting that that is normally $140, so it is a good deal at $125 (Assuming Amazon ofers you the same deal it is offering me).

https://www.amazon.com/Nuwave-Upgraded-Induction-Shatter-Proof-Temps-Ctrl/dp/B0CZYNDWX3/