The Best Induction Cookers of 2024

A Buying Guide to the Best Induction Cookers

What Is an Induction Cooker?

Before you go out and attempt to purchase an induction cooker, it is important that you fully understand what it is, and why one will be beneficial for your future cooking endeavors. Induction cookers are a fairly novel invention, only gaining traction and coming into the mainstream in recent decades. For most of modern cooking history, electric and gas cooking methods have dominated the kitchen. Simply put, you will rarely find a home that is fitted solely with induction cookers, as electric and gas cooking is the standard.

The most defining factor as to why people are beginning to switch to induction cooking is the energy-saving benefits it provides. Induction cooking works differently than traditional cooking methods. It employs the use of electromagnetic waves to heat your pots and pans without involving any direct heat or flame.

Overall, with the help of induction cookers, your cookware creates heat with the magnetism of its material. This use of electromagnetism allows for rapid heating that can be controlled to a specific temperature range. This will make accidents like over-boiling and spills less common as heat is always uniformly given. Induction cookers are also usually compact and portable, which is great for any picnics or cooking on the go.

What Does Power Rate Mean?

When browsing through the many options of induction cookers on the market, you may come across most products mentioning a specific number of watts in the product title. This number is very significant and you shouldn’t ignore it, as this is the power rate of the appliance and will determine the energy that the induction cooker can provide.

For example, a high power rate means that the induction cooker will give you more rapid heating and, therefore, faster cooking. If your primary goal is to reduce your time in the kitchen cooking meals, then you should focus on a high power rate. The power rate of any induction cooker will usually fall in the range of 1000 to 3000 Watts, with the ones that possess a higher power rating being the most expensive.

If the time it takes to heat up to a certain temperature doesn’t matter to you, then don’t go for the expensive, high-power-rated options; a standard one will be just fine.

Temperature Levels and Precision

One of the most important features to look at when buying an induction cooker is the temperature levels that the appliance is pre-fitted with. This is an increasingly popular trend in modern induction cookers and is what controls the precision of your cooker’s temperature.

Preset menus are advantageous in the sense that you don’t need to worry about the exact temperatures that your food may require for the best cooking. If you aren’t sure how induction cookers work, a preset menu may be something you should look at. That being said, sometimes induction cookers come with preset levels that are only temperature-specific, with ranges that have very wide increments.

As an example, there may be eight levels in an induction cooker but at 50-degree intervals. This can limit the precision of your cooking and can make controlling the temperature and heating a challenge. For the most precise cooking, go for an induction cooker that has a large number of preset temperature levels with smaller intervals between them.

Buying Tips To Keep In Mind

Portability

Many induction cookers, in addition to being small and compact, are also portable. This feature is incredibly advantageous and, given the option of a portable cooker vs. a fixed one, the portable one is what you should consider.

As an induction cooker makes use of electromagnetism to create heat, a portable induction cooker will essentially let you cook anywhere with just the appliance and your pots and pans. This can be very helpful if you are ever traveling, going camping, or staying at a place without electricity.

Safety features

Since induction cookers produce heat at a very rapid rate, having safety measures in place is extremely important. An example of a safety feature you can be on the lookout for is automatic shutdown. This feature will cause the appliance to shut down automatically if a certain amount of time passes by without any cookware being placed on the glass plate, saving electricity and keeping others safe. Other good safety features are foreign object detection, temperature alerts, and spill detection.

Pan compatibility

Induction cookers depend a lot on the type of cookware that is being used on them, as not all types of pots and pans will work. Cookware that is metal is compatible with induction cooking, as only then will an electromagnetic current flow and create heat.

Size is another thing to keep in mind, as not every size of pot and pan will work with every appliance. Check the minimum and maximum diameter that is compatible with an induction cooker before purchasing.