Top Rated Portable Induction Cooktops

Induction cooking uses induction heating to directly heat a cooking vessel, as opposed to using heat transfer from electrical coils or burning gas as with a traditional cooking stove. For nearly all models of induction cooktop, a cooking vessel must be made of a ferromagnetic metal, or placed on an interface disk which enables non-induction cookware to be used on induction cooking surfaces.

LISA SIMPSON had been a professional cook, so when she remodeled her kitchen she was counting on a big, powerful gas range. But that would have meant installing a huge propane tank on her rural property outside Seattle. It would have been expensive, ugly and, in an area prone to earthquakes, nerve-racking.

Coil produces electromagnetic energy The first part of induction cooking is a coil of copper. When an electrical current is passed through this coil, it creates an electromagnetic field of energy. Electromagnetic energy is around us every day in the form of AM and FM radio, cell phones, wireless laptops, microwave ovens, infrared, and visible light.

A small induction cooker. Photo © Danilo Alfaro Induction cooktops use an electromagnetic field to heat up a pan while leaving the cooking surface cool to the touch and without heating the air around the cooktop. It's much safer and more energy efficient than either gas or electric cooking.