Inducto A79 Professional Portable Induction Cooktop Counter Top Burner

I bought this because I wanted to use less energy heating up food. And this induction heating is very quick and effective. If you don't use a wide enough or thick enough stainless steel pan, it will not heat up, it stays at E0, which means there is no heat. But when I used a wide iron skillet, it was off to the races. I'll buy an iron dutch oven and experiment with how the plate cooks. Oh, and did I mention it is beautiful to look at and super easy to clean.

Every kitchen should have this induction cooktop it has completely replaced my stovetop. The Inducto A79 heats pans almost instantly, boils water in a fraction of the time, and heats pans evenly. It also has a temperature function so you can set it to the exact temperature you want your pan to be at which is perfect for deep frying things, The A79 is also incredibly easy to clean after you are done using it. The only minor complaint I have with it is sometimes when using a cast iron pan the cooktop will automatically switch to the lowest temperature setting and will refuse to revert back to the numbered preset that I had it on. I assume this is some type of safety feature to prevent the pan from getting too hot. All in all the A79 is an amazing cooktop!

We purchased this item for when the power goes out, as we did not have the backup generator set to run most 220 volt items. We did a test and it work fast and very efficiently. Would suggest that it gets bundled with the heat diffuser as most of our pots & pans are aluminum. Having it at a special price with the diffuser I would have purchased it that way instead of separately. I have opted to go to the local thrift store and buy another fry pan instead.

I originally ordered two of these to replace the conventional stove top in my kitchen as a more sustainable, energy-efficient alternative. They look nice, and are easy to clean, and certainly did the job for awhile. However, within about 6 months one of the burners stopped working. I think it may have been the fan that stopped working (it would no rotate, thus causing the burner to overheat). I chalked it up to bad luck, and continued using just the second burner. However, this one too has now failed, with effectively the same problem.

I don't recommend using the temperature settings at all... It goes to FULL POWER to get the temperature up to the range specified, then stops. I get water pouring out the top of the pot, then stopping. Even on the Watt/Power settings, it does a duty-cycle thing, so on the lowest 120W setting it'll be on mid-level power (700W) for maybe 3 seconds, then about 10 seconds off, then all over again (just approximate numbers to give you an idea). Again, you can boil-over with rice/potatoes, and unfortunately burns the bottom of the food. I highly recommend buying a new set of nonstick aluminum pans with an induction compatible base . There's no reason at all to bother trying cast iron, stainless steel, enamled, or other cookware... There's good reason everybody uses teflon/ceramic nonstick aluminum pots/pans. With hot-plates, crock pots, and resistive or infrared burners, you really want the highest power you can get in order to start cooking in a reasonable amount of time, but that NOT true with induction... Even with much lower power induction cooktops, they will still heat up very, very fast, and you might not have boil-overs, or burn all your food. Even on the lowest 150W setting this is an issue. I've resorted to using extra water, and shutting off the stove halfway though cooking to let things cool down. Still, I'm using it successfully for most cooking needs, but can't quite get pasta and rice to the texture I want. This cooktop really needs to have another, even lower power setting (75W?) unless you only ever cook in huge multi-gallon sauce pots to feed a family of 8+. With some modest adjustments like increasing water or shutting it off for a few minutes during cooking, it will still cook up rice, noodles, hamburgers, chili, eggs, and many other foods just fine. But for the life of nude, I can't get it to cook boxes of macaroni and cheese to an edible state. Somehow those thick hard dry noodles always end up either still raw, or soggy and glued together in a giant lump. Never had any problem with a gas stove, but the lack of a lower setting just doesn't allow nice even slow simmering/low boiling. There are no useful instructions included. My quick tips: 1. Place the cookware in the center, push the power button, THEN THE FUNCTION BUTTON. If it says E0 your cookware is not compatible. 2. It starts in "Hot Pot" mode. Up/Down control the approximate power level in watts (W). Cycling on/off is normal in lower power settings. 3. To set a temperature, hit "Function" to choose either "Barbecue" or "Fry" mode. Up/Down control the temperature, in degrees fahrenheit (F). This will cycle on/off to maintain the approximate temperature. 4. To switch back to power level, hit "Function" until you go back to "Hot Pot" mode. 5. In Hot Pot mode you can set a timer for automatic shut-off. Set the power level first, then hit "Timer/Preset", use up/down to set the time in minutes. Hold the up/down buttons to jump 10-minute increments. 6. You can lift the cookware away from the induction at any time. It will beep to alert you, but if placed back within a few seconds, will resume cooking as previously set. 7. To shut off, hit the Power button. 8. The surface will be very hot. Give it a couple minutes to cool off before cleaning the surface of all the food that boiled-over.

This is an incredible burner. You have to have stainless steel, because it will not work with aluminum. I have only used this for boiling water, but it boils it fast and keeps it hot for as long as I need. I like the wide base. Large enough for my biggest stock pot. Lightweight and flat so it is easy to store.

It's basically just good for quickly boiling water and related things likes pasta. There is no happy medium. The frying setting quickly blackened bacon towards the center of the frying pan while the outer edges were practically raw. I bought this because I am doing some kitchen remodeling and I am without a range for a while. It takes up a bit too much counter space. For everything other than boiling water I use a conventional hotplate from Walmart. This will go back into its box and be forgotten once my stove is installed....

This works great. I've used pans from 6 inches to 12 inches, so far. Also used a large Dutch Oven. No problems with any of them. The only problem is the "Manual" which is basically a sheet of paper lacking any real help. I had to learn by doing. This is a wonderful piece of kitchen equipment.