While induction cooking technology has been around for decades and these stoves have long been common in commercial kitchens, they are now trending in many regular people’s homes. An induction cooktop uses an electromagnetic field to heat up a pan while leaving the cooking surface cool to the touch and without heating up the kitchen. Even high-end gas or electric cooktops can’t perform the same as the induction. Upgrading to an induction appliance offers many benefits. Moreover, there are plenty of advantages when comparing it to gas or electric ranges. Not only are these induction cooktop ranges help you save on your energy bill, they also help you get meals faster to the dinner table and are easy to clean.

Advantages of using an induction cooktop:

Heats 50 percent quicker

Because the induction cooktop creates instant heat within the metal of pots and pans, no heat is wasted in the process. This means water will boil up to 50 percent faster on induction cooktops compared to electric cooktops.

Accurate temperature control

Induction allows you to control heat more precisely, as opposed to conduction whether electric and gas cooktops. This better temperature control reduces the risk of over or under cooking. Consistent heat delivers tasty results every time.

Easy to clean surface

Induction has a smooth surface, much like modern electric cooktops. However, because induction burners don’t heat the surface of the cooktop, you’ll never have to deal with cooked-on messes and spills. Almost immediately after you finish cooking, the cooktop itself will be cool enough to easily clean whatever mess is left behind.

Auto-sizing burners

Induction heats through an electromagnetic current passed into the pots and pans in use. Frigidaire induction cooktops uses pan detection to place heat where it’s needed, by automatically adjusting to cookware size.

An induction cooktop heats more quickly than gas or electric, saving energy as well as time. A 12,000-BTU gas burner takes 36 minutes to boil 5 gallons of water, but an 1,800-watt induction hob, or heating element, will boil the same 5 gallons in only 22 minutes. If you’re wondering, a watt is equal to 3.4 BTUs, so even in absolute terms, induction is still faster. Additionally, an induction cooktop responds immediately to temperature adjustments, so when you lower the heat, you’ll see the results right away—just like with a gas range. Most induction and ceramic cooktops feature digital touch controls meaning they are totally flat. This is great news when it comes to cleaning the induction cooktop. Most ceramic and induction cooktops are flat, smooth surfaces which means there are no crevices for food to fall into. This in turn means that cleaning the cooktop is usually just a case of wiping it down. However, because ceramic cooktops heat up, spilled food can bake onto the surface. It’s important to wipe spills from a ceramic cooktop when safe to do so. Leaving cooked or burnt food on the cooktop will only make cleaning and maintenance harder.

First, the basic technology of induction cooking is cooking using the heat produced by the cooking vessel itself instead of heat from a flame or electrical heating element. In the induction cooktop, a copper wire is placed under the pot. The electricity used heats up the pot by way of oscillating magnetic induction.

These cooktops are usually made of, or contain, a magnetic metal like cast iron or some stainless steel that directly heats up. However, copper and other non-magnetic steel and aluminum vessels including glass can be used if put on top of a ferromagnetic disk that functions like a conventional hot plate.

As a cooking procedure, induction cooking is also very efficient. It saves of wasted heat in the kitchen and can be quickly turned off, with a better safety quotient than a gas stove. Moreover, they are easy to clean because the cooktop itself is cold and can be wiped with cloth to clean it.

Advantages

This new technology gives us a faster cooking time because the induction element (magnetic induction) is faster than the others to heat up. (|It can heat up 6 quarts of water 4 to 6 minutes faster than the others.)

The cooktops can get hot with the heat transferred from the cooking pot to the glass top (heat conduction) like when a hot pan is set on the glass to rest. However, as soon as the pot is removed, the heating stops. The glass top does not get as hot as it does on traditional radiant heat source (gas range, stove).

Safety / speed

If the induction burner is turned on and there is no pot on the glass countertop, it will not get hot because the magnet (that heats up a metal pot) cannot magnetize the glass. This is one safety feature for anyone who cooks.

The speed on the cooking process has been getting the attention of home cooks. Aside from cooking faster, it responds much faster when you dial back the temperature.

Likewise, the prices for the induction cooking equipment have been dropping. However, these induction equipments still tend to cost more that electric smoothtops. The big difference is in the performance which is significant.

Some details

In essence, the induction process cut out the intermediary step in heating up a burner and transferring the heat to the pot.  In induction, the heat is directly heating the magnetic cookware (pot and pans) causing them to heat up immediately.

Induction ranges look like the typical glass-top electric ranges. The big difference that you can see (or can’t see) is that the cooktop does not create a glow like the other heat producing devices. You would not know that the appliance is already on. (Makers have started adding virtual flames and other lighting cues for users.)

Like the ovens in other electric ovens, the ovens in induction rages also broil and bake the same way. Some equipment makers have put marks in their pots and pans “induction-compatible”. This means they can be used on an induction cooktop like the other iron and steel utensils. (See if a magnet sticks to them.)