Best portable induction cooker

Portable induction cooktops allow you to cook almost anywhere you can find an outlet—from your back porch to a dorm room to an RV.

Our favorite portable induction cooktop. Why we like the Duxtop LS. What is a portable induction cooktop, exactly? How does an induction cooktop work? Why is induction better than gas or electric cooking?

Best portable induction cooker

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more. It boiled water fast and had analog buttons that were easy to clean. We also liked the Hamilton Beach Portable Single Induction Cooktop , which had a responsive touchscreen panel, quickly heated oil for frying, and maintained temperatures well during long simmers. Gas stoves have long been the kings of the kitchen. These stoves have a reputation for being powerful, controlled, and, well, downright chef-y. Before doing this review, I had cooked with induction a handful of times. Six of them were single-burners, and one had a double-burner cooktop. All of the models topped out at watts of power, although I found that each one varied in actual efficiency.

How does an induction cooktop work? If you were to do a flour test best portable induction cooker we did with every model, you would easily see where the heat began to taper off of the outer edge of a skillet and in the very center of the pan.

More and more people are making the switch from gas cooktops to induction, and for good reason: gas prices are rising and research has linked gas cooking to various health issues. Induction is a great way to get those gas cooktop feels without the gas cooktop dramas. If you're contemplating induction but you're worried about dropping that sort of cash before knowing if you'll like it, a portable induction cooktop can be a way to get started — it's a lower-commitment option that's cheaper and doesn't require big changes to your kitchen like a full-size induction cooktop does. They are useful for small spaces like granny flats, campervans, tiny kitchens and office spaces where you can't squeeze in a full-size cooktop. And since they're so portable you can use them for cooking in other spaces — think outdoor cooking or keeping a dish warm on the dinner table. But while there's a lot to love about them, there are also some seriously underwhelming models on the market. Of the 15 models our experts recently tested, they recommend only two, so you need to be careful about what you buy.

For the easiest way to cook while camping and on the go, check out these portable induction cooktops. Jump to a Section. We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more.

Best portable induction cooker

Portable induction cooktops allow you to cook almost anywhere you can find an outlet—from your back porch to a dorm room to an RV. Our pick, the Duxtop LS , is reliable and precise, and it offers a wide range of temperatures to tackle everyday cooking. In our tests, this induction burner was the easiest to use for everyday cooking, with great features and a modest footprint. Every burner can get a pan blazing hot, but better models can maintain a temperature low enough to melt chocolate. We conducted a reader poll and also took reader comments into consideration to come up with our criteria. We also tested one double burner and two entry-level commercial burners just for kicks. For our recommendations from those tests, see Other good induction cooktops. The Duxtop LS has the best combination of settings, consistency, features, and usability in its category. It costs a bit more than our former main pick, the Duxtop MC , but the extra money buys you a slicker control panel, as well as the ability to cook everything with more precision and less frustration. The LS has 20 power settings and 20 temperature settings, the largest range of any burner we tested, and it maintains lower temperatures better than our previous pick.

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The Tests When we test products, we try to replicate the home user experience to give accurate impressions and measured results from practical scenarios. What is a portable induction cooktop, exactly? To determine this, we started with the simple task of boiling some pasta. Scott Misture, professor of materials science and engineering at Alfred University, told us that the pan with an encapsulated bottom likely cooked more evenly because it had a thicker layer of aluminum in its base. We found the temperature control to be intuitive and responsive, allowing us to easily fine-tune heat levels for various cooking tasks. With a pot that shape and size, no burner could maintain a boil at its highest wattage. The manual also recommends leaving 8 inches of space between the appliance and the wall, as well as plugging it into a wall outlet with a safety switch. There is a lock button, which can theoretically keep other people and kids from changing the settings accidentally or on purpose. Like most induction hobs, it heats the pan rather than the surface area, which is good from a safety perspective. Fast boiling is mostly what I used my older Duxtop model for, but I wanted to try and cook everything on the LS for two weeks. In his early 20s, his interests led him in two directions: he began working in farmers' markets around the Los Angeles area—including several years at the famed Wednesday Santa Monica farmers' market—and he began teaching himself to make sourdough bread. Some reviewers have reported that the lower a burner goes in temperature, the better it manages pulsing for all lower temperatures. The touchscreen is extremely sensitive, and the child lock prevented us from inadvertently changing the settings by bumping into it or fumbling with the other controls. When researching and testing portable induction cooktops, we wanted to rate them first and foremost on how easy they were to cook with. Unlike the Duxtop MC, the LS has rounded edges, which makes it just a little more space efficient.

Our favorite standalone burners provide speedy heating and steady simmering—and all you need is a standard electrical outlet.

When an induction-compatible pan magnetised pan is placed onto the surface of the hob, a magnetic field is created between the coils and the pan, causing an electrical current to run through it. Back to Recipes Low-calorie chicken recipes Low-calorie vegetarian recipes calorie meal recipes Low-carb family meals. Boost mode is a handy feature for ultra-quick results, and the surface doesn't get hot during cooking either. Even more important, an induction burner constantly adjusts itself to avoid overheating the vessel on its surface or to maintain a certain temperature, but with a disk, it is adjusting not to the pan but to the disk, which will always be hotter than the pan. A well-designed control panel: In our testing, we found that an angled display—rather than a fully flat top with the control panel on the same plane—was easier to see and use, since we could see the display without being right over it. Lydia Anderson. Back to top Why you should trust us Who should get this How we picked Less important considerations How we tested The best induction burner: Duxtop LS Flaws but not dealbreakers Budget pick: Duxtop MC Other good induction cooktops for special cases If you prioritize design over functionality: IKEA Tillreda Sustainability and portable induction cooktops How portable induction burners work The advantages of induction cooking The disadvantages of induction cooking Induction-compatible cookware Care and maintenance What to look forward to The competition Sources. Cookware must be ferromagnetic to be compatible with induction. We tested a few of the latter category and found that while those models did just fine on most cooking tests, they took a little longer to reach high heats and had a harder time holding them. Features Features vary by model, but one consistent feature we found is the ability to lock the controls. Not sure if you'll like it? You can read more about induction, including its pros and cons, here.