I know there's a lot of interest in these units, and we have been using
2 now for about 9 months. Actually one died with a pop when we first got
it and Cooktek was very quick to replace it including free shipping.
This is in a home kitchen. We've got 2 double hob drop in units, 2500W
per hob mounted in a line so we can both cook simultaneously without any
"back burners". I recommend this if 2 people cook together. We also
mounted them flush with the counter top, not the normal drop in mount
that leaves a 1/2" lip. This mounting makes cleanup much easier.
We mainly use Sitram Profiseries cookware, although AllClad works very
well, as does plain steel, cast iron, enameled iron and anything else
that's magnetic.
Cooking on these is great, it was the best thing we put into the
kitchen! When we cook at a friend's house with a Viking gas range we are
always impressed by how much better the Cooktek is.
The max power is amazing, heating tea in an enameled pot takes about the
same time as getting the tea bags and cups out. Heating up an oiled pan
to smoking is a matter of seconds, you don't want to do anything else,
because it's so fast it will burn if you're not paying attention. It's
equivalent to something like a 22000 BTU burner. For frying eggs, I heat
the oil for about 10-15 sec at max (20) till it smokes, then turn it
down to 5 to get crisp, but not hard eggs. The response is instantaneous.
You can see how instantaneous it is by simmering a pan of water on low
power. It pulses the heat about twice a second, and on each pulse you
get a burst of tiny bubbles on the bottom. The response time for these
cooktops is really just a matter of the mass of the pan, that's the only
lag.
The really great thing about these though is the low power settings.
They are very low and very controlled. I saute garlic, which is very
sensitive, by starting it at level 5 to get it just sizzling, then turn
down to 2 and can walk away and do something else for a few minutes
beause I know it won't burn. Simmering BBQ sauce for 3 or 4 hours is
done by setting it at level 4 or 5 for the first couple of hours,
stirring a bit every 30-45 minutes, then as it concentrates, turn down
to 3, still stirring only occasionally. It heats very uniformly across
the pan bottom and while it gets quite thick, it never burns.
Since the heat is only on the bottom of the pan, there are some other
very nice advantages.
The pan handles don't get hot since there is no waste heat running up
the sides of the pan. For the same reason, the kitchen gets much less
hot since cooking is done with much less heat input as there's very
little wasted.
There also isn't the problem of sauces or scrambled eggs burning on the
pan sides, the sides aren't very hot.
The cooktop doesn't heat itself, but will get hot from the bottom of the
pan. However, an inch away, it is cool to the touch, so you can put
non-magnetic utensils down right next to a cooking pan.
Once you get used to all this, be careful! Your friend's gas stove
doesn't behave this way. In particular, the handles get very hot!
Cleanup, once cool, is very easy, just spray with an alcohol based
cleaner, no ammonia, and wipe with a couple of paper towels. If you've
been cooking hot, and something spilled over and burned onto the glass,
an abrasive pad or in extreme cases a razor blade gets it off.
Generally, the top is cool enough, that boil overs can be cleaned up
with a sponge while cooking. Just lift off the pan and wipe it up, then
put the pan back down. The top is hot from the bottom of the pan, but
not usually too hot to wipe if you're careful. I wouldn't recommend this
though if you are frying something. The top can get quite hot.
Cooktek warns that it won't sense small pans and so won't heat them.
That has not been my experience using a 5" Sitram sauce pan. It works
fine. Maybe some very small butter melters might not work, but it hasn't
been an issue at all for us.
Some people and manufacturers seem to think that a combination of
burners, induction and gas or something is a good mix. IMHO, get all
induction, I can't imagine why you'd ever use the other burners. If you
do a lot of wok cooking, you'll need a flat bottom wok, or, Cooktek
makes a line of wok heaters, up to 30000 BTU.
Problems:
IMHO Cooktek is very misleading in the way they advertise that you can
set the temperature of the pan and it will hold it.
This is simply not true.
I talked to a Cooktek engineer and he admitted that they have a temp
sensor under the top that measures the temp of the underside of the
glass top, not the pan as they say. This temperature has very little to
do with the actual pan temperature and the "feature" is pretty much
completely useless. It might stabilize over 15 minutes or so, but if you
are relying on it to make a sauce, as they say in their ads, you'll have
carbon in your pan and a very smokey kitchen. The $120 Sunpentown
actually works pretty well for this. I think because their top is
plastic so it changes temp much more quickly.
Cooktek should fix this. It would be a great feature, but as it is, it's
a useless crock.
The control knobs are very free turning, so it's all too easy to change
them by brushing against them.
There is a fused on pattern on the top that makes cleaning up very
burned on stuff unnecessarily difficult. It would be much better if it
were a completely smooth top.
The glass surface is somewhat susceptible to scratching. You can't
really shake a pan while in contact with the cooktop without danger of
scratching. I suppose you could put a paper towel down between the pan
and top to protect it while cooking. If you don't get the pan
ridiculously hot, the paper won't burn.
The top generally doesn't get dangerously hot, but that can engender bad
habits. For safety it would be good if the above mentioned temp sensor
lit up a light or something when the glass was too hot to touch, even
after the unit was turned off.