Induction cooktop

I had recently bought an Induction based cooktop. Actually i was looking for some alternative to Gas stoves (Getting a government subsidised gas connection is very difficult in many places :( ).
I was looking at many alternatives like the Electric hotplates, microwaves etc.. Thats when I came to know about something called induction cooktop from my parents. It is relatively a new entrant in the kitchen scene. It is widely used in Europe, Australia and other far eastern countries. It is quite new to the US and in India it is available for the past 2 years or so. It is based on the phenomenon of induction which the electrical and electronics engineers would have studied in their engineering days!

The stove is very light weight (single burner), weighs around 2kgs.. and is very sleek.. There is a coil below the surface (invisible to the eye, ofcourse) and it produces alternating magnetic field. This alternating magnetic field induces heat on the vessel placed on top of it through hysteris loss. I guess we dont need to go too technical. All that is important is that the thermal efficiency of this process is around 90%. This is considered excellent compared to Gas which is only 50% or so. Atleast this is what is claimed by most of the websites :P.

I went to a home appliances store in thippasandara, bangalore and had a demo of the product. I was really impressed. Just place a steel vessel on top of it with some water and switch it on.. Zoooom, in matter of seconds, the water begins to boil. There is no fire or flames. I decided to buy it but was postponed my purchase when the shop keeper told me that you should use only steel vessels on it. Glass, ceramic, copper bottom, aluminium or indalium alloys will not work. So once again I decided to get some more insights in to the induction cookware.

I already had quite a few vessels (stainless steel) and I did not want to spend on a new set of cookware. When I searched online for induction cookware, all the sites gave one thing in common. That is, for the vessel to be induction compatible, it must be made of ferro-magnetic material like iron. To test whether a vessel is suitable for induction cooktop, just stick a magnet to the base of the vessel. It it sticks then it will certainly work on the induction stove. So I bought some magnets and tested all my vessels. To my dismay, the magnet wont stick to anyone of them. I thought that I had to buy the entire cookware for using the induction stove. I was in two minds whether to buy it or not. Then somehow I decided to buy the induction stove and some vessels.

So, I bought an Pigeon Induction cook-top, 1800W. It comes with a free steel vessel. I had taken along the magnet with me to the shop and when I placed the magnet on the vessel it stuck onto it. I thought the info given on the internet on the inducion cookware is right. The induction stove costs Rs. 2450 but there was a combo offer. You get a Pigeon induction compatible pressure cooker (5 lts) with the induction stove for Rs.3000. I went with the combo offer.

As soon as I came home, I began testing my vessels and to my surprise all my vessels (normal stainless steel ones) worked on the induction stove. It is not necessary that a magnet must stick on to the the vessel for it to be induction compatible. This was the conclusion I drew. This information was not present anywhere on the web explicitly. It saved me from buying a new set of cookware.

Cooking in induction is pretty fast. According to many websites, it is almost double the speed as a gas stove. I had cooked rice for two people in 10 minutes. It normally takes more than 20 mins on a gas stove. I am yet to experiment on my induction stove. But one thing is that one must use vessels with thick (reasonably) base as it heats very fast.

I cant say whether i am really satisfied with my induction stove at this moment thought. But it seems as though it is worth it!!


Some Facts

Brands Available: Prestige, Pigeon and other chinese makes
Cost: Pigeon 1800W - Rs. 2450 (with a free vessel, but this vessel is not very good)
Prestige costs around Rs. 2200 and other chinese makes costs from Rs. 1700 onwards.
Actually the cost varies according the the design and the power.
Warranty: 1Year

Some points to consider while buying/cooking on induction cooktops

1. cannot fully replace gas, sometimes you need to cook something directly on fire, like roasting etc..
2. Always use thick bottomed vessels and vessels with flat bottom
3. Very efficient, can cook upto two times faster that gas. Most of the models come with various presets and you can adjust the temperatures as well.
4. The pigeon model comes with a feature that will tell you how much power you have consumed while cooking in KwH. This is an interesting feature for those who are energy conscious :)
5. Common non-stick cookwares cannot be used, beware!!! There are special induction enabled non-stick cookwares available in the market