duxtop1800W Portable Induction Cooktop Countertop Burner, Black 9100MC/BT-M20B

I am for the meantime living in a small cabin where the appliances are all 30-40 years old. My electricity bill is over $400 in the summer with no A/C. I decided to replace the landlord's stove (usage) with a toaster oven (efficient in energy) and this induction cooktop. I cannot yet vouch for a reduction in my bill, but I read for two hours today so as to jump into cooking without ruining any food. I started off with power level 5 as advised, then switched to sear at 320 degrees F. After searing my lamb, I sauteed at a temperature below my oil's smoke level and above the required safety (cooked) temperature of the meat I wanted to cook (so chose 180 degrees F). I bought two Duxtop skillets and used the 8" one (not the 10"). I am including all my numbers and settings as I found reviews with those details were essential to me teaching myself in 2 hours of reading how to cook with this induction cooktop. Everything went perfectly!There was some noise from the fan (a whine) but it wasn't very loud (and I am sensitive to noises) and was it well worth the excellent cooking results. There was much less spatter than I normally have when sauteeing, so I seemed to smell the meat less as it cooked. I relied more on visual cues to assure when it was cooked, consequently.The cooktop itself was much less messy after I finished than that old (very hard-to-clean) stove is. I am very grateful for the neat cleanup. It was much faster to cook my food, it didn't smell up the entire cabin and it was very easy to clean up. Even the skillet, itself, seemed somewhat less dirty than those I used on the old-fashioned (maybe 20% less spatter and the spatter wasn't dark or cooked-on), electric burners.Oh, and I did choose the Duxtop Triclad cookware, so stainless steel sandwiching a layer of aluminum, I believe. Using the correct tools made by the company for this specific cooktop was a great investment. All the meatballs cooked evenly despite the fact that many meatballs were on the outer edge. So, no hotspots and no movement or sliding of my skillet. Thank heavens!This cooktop is definitely more powerful and faster than my landlord's ancient electric oven. Despite its power, I also liked not feeling the heat on my hands, arms and face as I normally do in my small kitchen using the traditional stove. Also, I had no electrical problems (circuit outages, blown fuses) which sometimes happen in this poorly-wired living space.If this appliance lasts (over time) even a year or two, I will definitely not switch back (to non-induction) even after I move to a nicer place with better appliances. I am preparing to buy a Duxtop cooking set now.

I was very skeptical about getting an induction cooktop. I've seen some real bad reviews on many units , and I was concerned about the diameter of the heating area against the bottom of the pans. I've seen videos in my research on some of the induction tops and many of them looked as though the heating circle was only about 4 inches in the center because thats where the water was boiling, and I thought , if I put a skillet on it, I'll have to keep moving the food over the center, as the center is going to be the hot area and the outer portion of the pans are not going to get as much heat.Well, I searched and searched and came across this Duxtop 9100C model at a reasonable price and thought I would give it a try however, it says that for induction you need pans that a magnet will stick to or you can't use them. Well none of my stainless cookware would hold a magnet and I have a 32 piece set. So what I did was I researched more and came upon a nice 10 piece stainless set made by Duxtop for this induction top and I bought them. Boy, am I glad I did, but thats another review, if you're in need of a beautiful and very heavy triple clad set of pans check out the 10 piece set sold here on Amazon they are absolutely stunning. The bottom of each pan it a triple clad bottom with no line showing like my older stainless cook pans have, these Duxtop pans have a beautiful smooth rounded edge leading to the bottom so you dont even know they are clad on the bottom, plus the side walls of each pan has to be about 1/8 inch thick... I'm just amazed because they are so heavy, and my older set was very costly and the side walls of my stainless set are paper thin. The handles also on the Duxtop pans are solid not hollow. I have to say they cook so well on this Duxtop unit. The Duxtop unit itself is very accurate, and I put it the boil water test, and I took a 3 quart sauce pan and put is about half full of cold water they turned on the Duxtop. Well in less than 3 minutes I have a rolling boil. What I do it turn the unit on, and it defaults to a number 5 setting which is 320 degrees I believe on the dial when you press the temp button. When you press the Temp button you can toggle between the temperature you want of a number from 1 to 15. I also gave it the simmer test and yes it will simmer at 200 degrees, it will cycle on and off but you wont hear any changes. The unit has a fan that you can hear but it's not obnoxious or loud and it runs after you turn off the cooktop for about a minute to cool the internal parts. Nothing gets hot other than your pan like the commecials on Tv show about induction. The pan is hot but the cook top is not, and this is true you can put your hand right onto the glass cooktop right up to the pan you are cooking in and it is cool not even warm. I am very impressed with this unit, and it move in 20 degree increments when its in Temp mode, you can go 140, 160, 180, 200, etc all the way to 460 but I have found that I never have had to go beyond 320. Water will boil if you set it on 220 vigously so why set it higher and use more electricity? The unit begins at the bottom end using only 200 watts on the 140 degree setting, and it climbs up from there all the way to 1800 watts if you have it on 460 degrees. Personally I cant see having to set it very high because even frying eggs or burgers, or pork chops etc, I leave it about 320 and then I lower it down to about 200 to keep them hot. Nice thing is you can drop it to 140 and your food will stay nice and toasty. I can't do that on my Gas stove. I also can't boil a pot of water in 3 minutes, and with my gas stove there is always heat coming up around the sides of the pans, which make the handles super hot and I need pot holders a lot of the time. On the Duxtop you'll have cool handles and I really mean cool. I really like this Duxtop cooktop, so I purchased a second one and I plan on putting them side by side on the kitchen counter , but I'm going to install a separate 20 amp line for the second unit, as you can't run 2 of these on the same electric line or you will pop the breaker. Cleanup is very simple as the top is a tempered glass and very nice done up in black. Also what I was going to say is that the circle of magnetic force is larger on this Duxtop 9100MC. I would say it's 6 inches or better because when I put the 3 quart sauce pan on and boil water I can see the diameter of the bubbles and they pretty well cover the entire bottom of the pan. There are no humming sounds as I have read from some reviews, and I believe a humming or growling sound is due to the cookware being used. If you raise the pan off the surface the unit will display Error ,a and it will stop cooking but it resumes if you put the pan back on it . The unit is very light and you can take it anywhere. I've taken mine out on my back deck on a wood folding table and did some cooking outside with it . Also from the time I got the Duxtop units I've rarely used my gas stove, I prefer to use the Duxtop induction top to cook on. I can do fried eggs in minutes and not burn them and they don't stick. I make a grilled cheese sandwich in a couple of minutes and the bread comes out very nice with a golden tan and again no scorching, unless you set the temperature too high and don't flip it regularly. The cooktop is a 5 star unit in my book, I use it daily and out of all the units I reviewed this one is a Winner, you can't go wrong for the price and features. It's very safe, if you have a child you wont worry about them burning their hands unless they grab the pan itself, and when you turn the cooktop off, its instant off and the glass is just warm under the pan area and cools down rapidly. I like it a lot, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking they might want to try induction cooking. It really does get the job done and it's very safe, I leave the wooden spoon on the skillet at times and I have no worry that the flames will toast the wooden spoon which is what happens on gas stoves. Try it out, you can always send it back if you're not happy but I'm sure you will love it as I do mine....Also lots of safety features such as auto shut down, if you forget it's on , 2 hours it will shut down and you wont blow up your eggs. If you're elderly and fall asleep when you put your tea water on you wont have to worry about the pan being red hot if your water evaporates it has a temperature sensor that will turn it off if ti's goes to high so the safety features alone are well worth the peace of mind. I used to always worry about my mother who was in her 80s'and she often forgot the pan on her stove, she lived alone after my father passed away and I was always worried that she might set her kitchen on fire, but not with a Duxtop induction unit, I would have had peace of mind.... These units are awesome....