Nov 02, 2011 05:29 PM
17049 Views
Background:- Induction cookers have been around for a few years now. I have been tracking their feedback for quite sometime now. A few months ago, when the talks for limited or no subsidized LPG cylinders picked up pace, I decided that time has now come to buy a induction cooker and change our cooking style. Another factor influencing us to buy this device was the actual cooking efficiency. LPG is considered to be 40% efficient. Induction cookers are said to be 80% efficient.
Purchasing the appliance:- I did research for the availability of induction cookers in the market. Pigeon, TCL, Prestige, Glen, Morphy Richards and Bajaj are few of the well known brands that have this appliance in the market. Out of these, Prestige has the worst reviews.Morphy Richards and Glen are priced on the higher side. For the sake of convenience, I bought TCL 2029A with SS vessel over internet. I placed the order at around 3pm. Since the manufacturer's outlet is located in Bangalore itself, while placing the order, I requested the appliance to be delivered the same day. To my surprise, the appliance was delivered at my home by 7pm the same day!
Features:- When I saw the device at first, I was not very excited to see so many buttons on it. It looked like it would be quite complicated to operate it. However, it is not so.
It has one on/off button.
It has a few preset program buttons.
It has one button to set the cutoff time.
It has a couple of buttons to increase/decrease appliance power/temperature.
It also has a button to view the amount of power consumed. It shows the power consumed for the current session only. There is no memory to store the previous consumptions.
Usage Experience:- Any one who is going to buy induction cooker should be aware that most of our non-stick vessels and aluminum based vessels cannot be used with induction cookers. Only stainless steel and iron or cast iron based flat bottomed vessels can be used on induction cooker. As of now prestige has got some nonstick induction friendly cookware available.
The product came with a stainless steel vessel. It is absolutely useless. Its very thin and cannot be used for anything other than boiling water.
The most commonly used predefined program is "Hot plate". This program allows us to set the power of the appliance. It moves in steps of 100W, 500W, 800W, 1000W, 1600W, 1800 and 2000W. The corresponding temperature steps are 70, 120, 160, 200, 220 etc.
In general using the appliance at power ratings more than 1000W is not advisable, except for when you are just boiling water. We haven't used it for deep frying, so cannot comment on the power setting required for that. In general what I have observed is 1000W is equivalent to large gas burner running on high. 800W is large gas burner running on medium and 500W is equal to gas burner running on slow. 100W is good to just keep things warm.
After 3 months of usage, I can say that my electricity bill has gone up by around 20 units per month. However, my LPG cylinder lasts for 1 month more(earlier it used to last for 2.5 months and now it lasted for 3.5 months).
As a safety feature, the appliance starts working only if there is a vessel compatible with induction cookers is kept on the plate.
The poweroff after certain amount of time is a very nice feature. When cooking vegetables, we generally know that it needs to be kept on low heat for 5 minutes before switching off. Scenarios like this can be set in the appliance and it will automatically switch off after given amount of time.
Pros:- Extremely fast cooking. Easy to use. Easy to clean.
Cons:- Granularity of power/temprature control should have been more. For ex it jumps directly from 70deg to 120deg. I would have preferred 100deg in between. Very small vessels cannot be kept on it. Vessels need to be atleast 4 inch in dia for the appliance to detect it and start working.
