()I'd give the pan a "5" and the induction burner a "3".
The ceramic pan is great!For those of us who are health conscious it is very difficult to find a "non-toxic" pan that is easy to clean.This ceramic pan appears to be the ideal solution.This is a very nice high quality construction pan.It is fairly heavy.The ceramic surface in theory doesn't leach any toxins into the food you are cooking.Cleaning is a breeze as it wipes clean with a light touch.
The induction burner is a very cool piece of technology.Of course it only works with pans which will respond to a magnetic field (iron or some steel pans).
On "standby" the induction burner pulls 0.37 amps, so do follow the instructions and unplug it when you are not using it.
When drawing power it pulls 900 watts (I never tried it on full power).The default setting of "5" is equal to "270" degrees (far above boiling).They warn you not to use full power (450 degrees) for more than three minutes.
The instruction manual is one of the weakest points, it clearly was written by someone that doesn't fully understand English.In several places it just plain doesn't make sense.The company is Belgian but the unit is made in China.The unit itself is easy to use and the instruction manual isn't really necessary.
One of the best features is the instant responsiveness to temperature changes, it's like cooking with a gas stove top.The delivery of energy is extremely fast.You will feel like you are "instantly" cooking (instead of waiting for a heating element to warm up).As a test I was cooking at "210" and I decreased it to "180", the heater immediately responded by cutting power usage to only 5 watts as it cooled (power usage returned to 900 watts when it detected it needed to heat back up).
It isn't silent, the cooling fan built into the burner makes a fair amount of noise.
It's large and heavy, thus it will be hard to store.If you had the counter space it would make sense to leave it sit out on a counter but you have to remember to plug the unit in when you want to use it (and unplug it when you are done).
Perhaps my biggest disappointment is not having finer control of the power settings.The settings (according to the manual) are: 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, 330, 360, 390, 420, 450.Essentially this is 150 to 450 in 30 degree increments.Since in my opinion there is no reason to cook above 212 degrees (boiling), I would prefer if this ranged from 110 degrees to 240 degrees in smaller increments.
I do question the safety of using such a strong magnetic field.The manual warns anyone with a pacemaker to stay a minimum of 23 inches away.
The manual says it has a "short" power cord, but the power cord is actually quite long!
All in all this is an excellent product.
()The package contains the cooktop and the skillet, packaged separately. The skillet requires a bit of assembly and if you aren't used to putting the handles on your pot, it can be confusing. And the instructions left much to be desired (the skillet assembly instructions only included pictures which weren't all that clear) and the cooktop instructions made me wonder if someone had poorly translated it from another language.
That aside, I got the skillet together and inspected it. My first thought was: This sucker is heavy. It's a strong, well-made skillet and I've needed to use two hands when using it for making meals. Cleaning it was simple, except when something gets burned (I learned that the hard way early on). Which brings me to the next point, make certain you don't turn the heat too high.
When I first tried it out, I went ahead and set this thing on 4. That is high. And it heats up so quickly that if you step away for a moment, you can come back to a burning mess. There really is minimal heat-up time required, which may be unsettling if you're used to an electric range which needs a minute or two to get good-n-ready.
Newbie SNAFU aside, I've successfully been using this cooktop for the past several months and have made some observations:
+ Heat up happens quickly and doesn't require you to set it as high as you would with a typical electric range.
+ Certain foods do cook more quickly, while others still take roughly the same amount of time.
+ It used less energy than using my electric range which makes it a go-to for quick small meals.
+ It works with cast iron and some steel cookware (to test, just hold up a magnet and see if it sticks to the bottom of your cookware--if it does, it will work); I was pleasantly surprised to find my old cookware worked just fine with this.
+ I also like that it will switch itself off if it doesn't detect cookware on its surface after a minute or two.
+ The LEDs are very easy to read and, after some getting used to, understand.
However, there are a few things I didn't much care for:
It's not very quiet when it's on.
It draws energy when not in use, meaning you'll need to unplug it.
It's large and takes up a good amount of counter space in my kitchen. If I didn't use it about 3 times a week, it would quickly become a nuisance.
I also wish that it had finer temperature adjustments. It doesn't allow you to adjust by a degree or 10, but jumps in 30 degree increments.
So far, this cooktop has held up nicely and served me well for several months without problems.
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()This is a cool little cooking option if you have enough space in your kitchen to hook it up. It seems perfect to me for someone who wants to find out what it's like to cook with an induction stovetop without having to redo their whole kitchen. Our kitchen is a little small so there's not too much space to use it (but that's the fault of our kitchen not the product).
I didn't find it to be any different (cooking-wise, speed-wise) than using a regular cooktop but it has the added bonus of being safer and using less energy. The touchscreen is really easy to understand and use and makes using this thing easier.
The skillet that came with it is also great (but I'm not cookware snob so I probably wouldn't know "good" from "great" or just "okay").
I really love using this product and have used it several times just for the fun of it, but you do kind of have to plan ahead to clear out some space for it if you want to use it. Also seems like it would be convenient for camping (if you had an electrical outlet).
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()I love having this single cooktop as an option when I have dinner parties.I always seem to be a burner short when cooking and this will come in very handy during the holiday season.Since it uses induction as a method of heating, pots and pans with magnetic bottoms work best.The BerghHOFF induction cooktop is slim and easy to store away with no protruding parts to get stuck.No complaints from this user!
The cooktop has touch screen controls and my concern that they would get hot while cooking was unfounded.It's compact (18"L x 14"W x 7"H) and easy to pack for travel, as long as you have an outlet.We are going to bring it camping this summer.The 10" skillet is deep enough and includes a cover to make it versatile for most cooking needs except boiling water for pasta.Boiling water took the same amount of time to boil on this cooktop as the largest burner on my gas stovetop but did heat food quicker in most cases.I was leery of using this cooktop to fry foods but found it to work the same as my gas stovetop with the same results.
The only downside is the steep price.However, it is more energy efficient, can cook food faster in some instances and is the perfect solution when an extra burner is needed (and it stores away easily when not in use).Another bonus?Using an induction cooktop is perfect for dorm living it gets around that no hotplate rule!It ensures 100% safety and reliability against overheating or electrical overloads.Sweet.
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()The Berghoff touch screen induction cooktop is a pretty impressive piece of kitchen equipment, one I think could easily become my favorite.It has a lot of advanced features which give you more control than near anything out there, and that is speaking as someone with some of the top line appliances...One piece of equipment in my kitchen that falls short of the mark is our stove, which was replaced by American Home Shield with a piece of junk, when the old one broke.It is a glass cooktop which seems to have 2 settings: luke warm & burn.Now, in our old house we had a Jenn-aire which I was quite happy with. However, this cooktop both gives you more control, and is more responsive (and efficient).I decided to put it to the test by making some curry, which likely would have burned on our stove.I was not sure what to make of the preset #5 (though, I guess that is medium), when I noticed that there was an option to set the temperature.I set it to 360 and in less than a minute it was boiling.I turned it down to 330 worried about cooking chicken at a much lower temperature, and a few minutes later my daughter said she thought it was burning.I took the pot off and the cooktop turned off!At that point our dinner was nearly done, so I set it to 150 to keep warm.I love being able to select the temperature, set the timer (and have it automatically turn off). Beyond that, it is very responsive, heating and modulating temperature quickly. I guess this is also a unique feature of induction cooking.The pot gets hot, but not the cook top. There is no question but that this is the smartest piece of equipment in my kitchen.I will just have to get used to things cooking more quickly and at a lower temperature than I am used to.In that regard it is more efficient than our convection over; more like a pressure cooker (strictly in terms of time and efficiency).It is a well built, nice looking piece of equipment too!The only real issue I have with it is that the shorter (built in) handle is metal and gets very hot (as did the metal handle on the lid to the included pot).Because it is a large pot and was quite full I took it off using both hands and got a burn, at that point not thinking to use an over mitt when I reached for a handle. I have the same issue with my Caphalon pots, but know they do that so that the pans may be used it the oven (though I personally would prefer heat proof, seldom using a frying pan in the oven).In this instance I do not understand why the second handle is not heat proof since the pot was meant to be used on the cooktop, and not in the oven (and with one plastic handle, it couldn't).It is odd that they did not think of that, given that the manual notes that it is almost impossible to burn yoursefl as the cooktop itself never gets hot.I managed to (but, it was not a very bad burn).
While this is not a problem or defect, I wish I could use it outside (the manual says not to).Since it is a portable cooktop, that would be a nice feature.It is also fairly large and is going to present a bit of a challenge to store.That said, I may well find myself leaving it out because it works so much better than my stove.Ideally i would like to be able to replace my stovetop with something like this, and then there would be no storage issue ;)I am very impressed with its performance and suspect I will be using it more often than not.It is going to be awfully hard to risk burned or improperly cooked food now that I have this, and may just use my stove to do what it does best: boil water.
I'd say that this is just about the perfect solution for people in apartments, that is if you use it in place of a stove.I have a pretty good sized kitchen, but still have storage issues as I like to cook and have quite a few specialty appliances.This doesn't replace any of the small ones, but will likely in short order replace one of the large ones: my stove!Because it uses practically all the heat it generates, it has the additional benefit of not heating the kitchen up very much.the more I think about it, the more I think this will be replacing my stove, certainly during the summer!
one other thing worth noting is that it may not wortk with all of your old cookware.it comes with a very nice, large non-stick heavy cast aluminum pot.This was initially somewhat of a puzzle as the unit operates by magnetic induction, and comes with a magnet to test the appropriateness of your cookware.the manual says that it has a 'ferro-ceramic" coating.This is unique in my experience; a magnetic (ferrous) ceramic.It does make for a nice looking and more substantial non-stick surface; one which is easier to clean as well.I am very impressed with the qulity of the pot as well and will be looking at what else scala has in this line (ideally with all hea-proof handles) ;)
All in all, I love the cook top and the pot which came with it.I would just prefer one in which both handles are heat proof.Now that i know that the second handle gets hot I can work with it as I do my caphalon.Hopefully if you are aware of it too you can prevent that initial burn.
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I've owned several other Lodge products, both natural finish and preseasoned.When possible, I've usually been willing to spend and extra buck or two to get the preseasoned version of a cookware, because they've been worth it.The preseasoned cast iron cookware comes pitch black, like someone has cooked 200 pounds of bacon in it.However, something is amiss with this 7qt Dutch Oven it didn't meet my expectation of what a Lodge preseason cookware usually is.
