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You may have heard about induction cooktops, increasingly used in fine restaurants the world over. What you may not realize is that they’re also an excellent option for your home kitchen; induction is the ideal cooking method for almost all cooktop uses, and right now, you can upgrade your kitchen to it more affordably than ever.
For the purposes of this review, all you need to know about induction is this: it’s a highly efficient, safe, and plain cool way to cook. Two recent developments may put it on the average US consumer’s radar:
- Induction is now available on ranges, the most popular type of cooktop/oven setup in the American kitchen, and
- Prices are finally in the mid-high range, rather than astronomically high.
Why are ranges more popular than separate cooktops and ovens? Simple: they’re cheaper and easier to install since they only require 30” of space (rather than custom cabinets) and one wall oven-rated receptacle (rather than two, where the installation of the second one can be costly).
Back to induction - the main thing to remember is that unlike gas or traditional electric cooktops which transfer heat to the cooking vessel, induction generates heat inside the cooking vessel itself. This means very little heat is lost to the environment (gas flame is highly inefficient at this) and the cooktop only gets hot from contact with the pot or pan. You put on a solid metal pan, it heats up as it enters the electromagnetic field generated by the cooktop; you take the pan off, there’s no heat. It’s a bit magical.
Most induction cooktops are about 20% more efficient than equally rated electric cooktops, which are in turn 80% more efficient than gas(!) I’ve heard gas-fans say that they love it because they can roast peppers on the open flame; that sounds to me like a really minor feature to gain from trading for the inconvenience of having a burning fire in your kitchen. Think for a second about how weird that actually is.
A common misconception is that induction requires “special cookware”. There’s no such thing as “induction cookware”; all you need are ferromagnetic pots and pans. What does that mean? Well, if a fridge magnet sticks to the bottom of your pan, you’re good to go. This isn’t just a hallmark of “induction-ready” cookware; any good pot you ever use should be this way. Basically the rule is, don’t use aluminum. I’m not being a snob about this; I can’t afford to convert my whole kitchen to All-Clad cookware (though I would if I could - it’s that good). You don’t have to spend hundreds. IKEA’s dirt-cheap cookware works fine with induction! Just bring a magnet and test.
In any case, if you need further convincing, keep in mind that induction is an interesting technology to dork on so rather than attempt to explain it further, I’ll humbly point you to The Induction Site which has all the info you’ll ever need (except, well, induction range reviews!)
Today, you can buy two induction ranges in the US: Kenmore 99913 and GE Profile PHB925SPSS. Both are sold by Sears, and the GE is also available from Home Depot and Best Buy (Update: Amazon now also carries the GE range.) Prices vary by as much as $600 between these retailers; check each and see if they’ll price-match, in case the other stores drop their prices. You should be able to get either range for no more than $2,500 (excluding the service plan, which I recommend you get since there are first-of-breed products and, well, kinks may need to be worked out!)
I recently bought the GE range. I picked that one over the Kenmore based on pure instinct; when I compared them in person, it seemed to be built better. The previous GE cooktop and oven I used performed without any issues, so I went with that.
How well does it work? It boiled 2 qt of water - enough for mac’n’cheese for two, or larger pasta for one - in 3 minutes. It’s quite remarkable - a few seconds after you turn the element on, bubbles start forming in your water. Here’s a video demoing the same, and showing the basic look of the range:
Another (minor) benefit - when I was done cooking some chicken thighs, I moved them to a plate (a plastic one - don’t ask) right on the cooktop. Really, you can do that - put a plastic bowl right next to your boiling water. It’ll get as warm as it would if you had left it by the window on a sunny day.
The GE induction range has four heating elements and one warming area. Note that you don’t have to worry about picking the exact right size of element for your pan - since the cooktop doesn’t heat itself (sorry to belabor the point) it’s fine if there’s an inch or two of unused element around it.
There’s an auto-shutoff feature which turns off an element if no ferromagnetic pan touches it for 30 seconds. This is useful if you forget to turn it off yourself, but it also works as a keep-on feature. When you saute, you take the pan off the heat quite a bit; this cooktop gives you 30 seconds to set the pan back down.
GE’s cooktop is not as stunningly minimalist as those made by Bosch or Miele; this is most noticeable in the rather chunky raised edge surrounding both the cooktop and the controls. It’s not a bad idea as it helps contain spills, but there’s a slight dorkiness to it. Also, the seal between the cooktop and the bevel seems to be prone to dirt-trapping; it cleans up easily, but not in the most intuitive way. GE says to put a moist towel over it for a few minutes (to hydrate it, I imagine) and then wipe clean. It worked as advertised for me.
The controls are fairly intuitive, and they respond to touch very well; you don’t have to mash them like with some touch cooktops I’ve used. The label design is good but not great; it makes the classic mistake of wanting to look both futuristic and classy-cute. My advice to GE is, learn the former from Miele and leave the latter to Big Chill.
Spills, boil-overs, and oil spray all clean up beautifully, of course, since food won’t stick to the cooktop. You’ll want to clean the cooktop itself with a professional glass-cooktop cleaner such as Cerama Bryte; a small bottle is included with the range. Since all it takes is two wipes, you have no excuse not to polish up the glass after each meal.
The oven is on the higher end of GE’s product line. It’s convection, fully coated, including the smooth, easy-gliding racks you can leave in the oven during the self-cleaning cycle. No heat escaped around the door as I burned pizza at 500°F, and it appeared to cook evenly. When preheating, you’ll get a live readout of the current temperature (after it hits 160°F) - it amazes me that some high-end ovens don’t do this, lighting a fairly useless preheat-indicator lamp instead. There’s a removable warming drawer, of course.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the oven includes a detachable probe thermometer. These are great; you hook them up inside the oven, stick them in the bird or roast or whatever you’re cooking for hours and hours, and the oven can be set to shut off and alert you when your target temperature has been reached. Beats opening the over door every few minutes to check.
I’ll update this review if I run into any problems down the road. For now, the range is delivering the exact sort of induction performance I was hoping for.
