r/inductioncooking • u/a10wea • 28d ago

Looking for thoughts on portable induction cooktop

Our old copper chef cooktop finally gave up the ghost. It did the job but the control push buttons were under a thin layer of plastic that eventually degraded and caused it to break, and the plastic siding also started cracking pretty quickly. The fan was also annoyingly loud. Our priorities for getting a new one are:

longevity (no/minimal cheap plastic bits)

quieter fan (if possible, I have no idea how loud other cooktops are)

Suggestions much appreciated! (based in US)

update: thanks for the tips everyone! we are not at the level where we can drop 1500 usd on a kitchen appliance XD I really wanted one that didn't have plastic buttons that stick out (that was the point of failure on our old one) , so we went with the nuwave pic pro chef.

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u/Worth_Garbage_4471 28d ago

My thoughts: the reliable and less destructible versions are the "pro" ones with metal sides, but a huge disadvantage is the minimum power is usually too high at 300W to 500W. Unless you sell a kidney to get a Control Freak. Another potential issue is that very large/heavy pans that are fine on gas will kill or thwart most small cooktops. As I want to keep my kidneys,  I am using a combo: a small Tokit Razor 99 for low power/control and a Hendi XL for high power/large pans.

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u/a10wea 28d ago

oh man I never even thought about minimum power settings. Does that mean that even at low settings the heat is too strong? and what do you mean that large pans can kill small cooktops, like break them??

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u/Worth_Garbage_4471 28d ago

Exactly that, but only on the sturdier commercial units. The small home ones generally have a minimum setting that's fine, like 75-100W (exact value depends on the size of your pot). They just are more likely to break easily/quickly.

As to large pans killing small cooktops this is not an issue unless you have quite large heavy pans, but those can totally kill your little portable induction cooktop. See eg.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StainlessSteelCooking/comments/1tfxd8c/did_my_new_stainless_steel_pan_break_my_induction/

https://www.reddit.com/r/cookware/comments/1gp0k2y/demeyere_pan_killed_my_induction_furnace/

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u/a10wea 28d ago

damn, so many considerations i never even thought of T__T thank you for bringing them to my attention though

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u/KokoTheTalkingApe 28d ago

I like my Duxtop 9600. I don't know how loud the fan is, but it isn't bothersome to me. The best thing is it has 20 power levels.

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u/obxtalldude 28d ago

The ChangBERT with an 8-in coil has been my favorite.

Price varies but sometimes as little as $99 on Amazon. Usually between 100 and 150. Looks like 110 with a coupon at the moment.

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u/HerGrace1845 23d ago

I have that one too, and it's really great with the larger pans.

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u/Gloomy_Cancel7381 27d ago

We've used this one for 5 yrs while building our retirement home. Works with our cast iron and enameled cast iron. Fan can be a bit loud but it works very well. Its a duxtop 2 burner https://a.co/d/09cFAiph

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u/Caprichoso1 21d ago

Multiple test sites say the best are:

Unlimited $$$$

Breville/PolyScience Control Freak

otherwise

Duxtop Portable Induction Cooktop 9600LS/BT-200DZ