The weekend of WordCamp US 2022, I took Sunday off to attend another event happening in San Diego that weekend: Fully Charged Live. Fully Charged is a YouTube show that centers around electric vehicles, but it’s really about electrification of everything. In the same vein, the show had a plethora of electric cars, but it had a lot more: electric motorcycles, bikes, skateboards, and one wheels. Also there was a lot of information about non-transport related electrification, such as efficiency in your home. One suggestion: try a portable induction cooktop to see if you like it.

Portable Cooktop

Induction cooking is up to 95% efficient. All the heat goes into the pot – not the air or the even the cooking surface itself. Straight into the cooking vessel. I’ve always been intrigued, so I bought this Duxtop model on Amazon that came with a sauce pan for $150.

I have to get new pots⁉️

Since induction cooktops require “special” pots and pans, buying this combination made sense. The saucepan included was a great place to start, as it’s the sort of pan I use most often.

But you might already have some pots & pans that work. Take a refridgerator magnet to the bottom, if it has a good stick, it will work. One thing that will work for-sure: cast iron 🧲

Great features

Besides being able to bring that full saucepan to a boil in less than 5 minutes(!), there are a lot of other nice features that I didn’t expect…

Timer

There’s a built-in timer to automatically stop after a set amount of time. It’s great for boiling rice or pasta. It’s also good for making water for coffee or tea. When I’m making Aeropress coffee I like the water to be about 180-190°F. For me this means filling the kettle consistently and setting the boil timer to 4 minutes.

Keep Warm

The keep warm feature is programmable in 20°F increments. I can use it for my coffee water to keep at 180°F or make sure dinner waits perfectly at 140°F.

No flame

I trust my 13yo to make macaroni and cheese on this thing without burning the house down.🧯 Sure there’s still a scalding concern with boiling water, but he’s good with that part.

Clean Up

Because the surface itself doesn’t get hot, clean-up is a snap. Simply wipe the surface off. Nothing gets burnt or caked on.

Downsides?

The only annoying thing about induction cooking is the cooktop knows when the pot is and isn’t there. So when you lift the pot off the surface while it’s heating, it will beep.

If you’re the type of person that likes to shake the pan rather than use a spatula to mix the contents, the cooktop will beep at you. No harm, no foul – it will be fine, but it will keep beeping until you set the pot back down.

Gateway to a full induction cooktop

This is the best way to try induction cooking before switching to a full induction cooktop for thousands of dollars. But I expect we’ll switch to an induction range as part of electrifying our home.

What about the portable cooktop? I still think this thing is useful. I’d for sure lend it to anyone wanting to try induction cooking. Also, I plan on buying an induction fondue set for it so we can retire our setup.🔥