The other reviews cover everything else nicely, except:
1. The difference between the model 6200 and the 6000 is that the 6200 has a stainless steel skin, while the 6000 is black plastic. The innards and wattage are identical.
2. If you purchase this with 1-click ordering, you'll miss out on free shipping. Grrrrr. To avoid spending an extra $9.00 on postage, use the checkout cart instead, then change the shipping method to "Free Shipping"
3. If you want an excellent overview of induction cookers, look up the topic in wiki-pedia.
4. (Updated 8-2011). Someone in the comments below asked what the wattages are: When the "Power" mode is selected, Level 1: 200w. 2-500. 3-800. 4-1000. 5-1200. 6-1300. 7-1400. 8-1500. 9-1600. 10-1800w. When the "Temperature" mode is selected, the ranges (1-10) are (in degrees F): 140, 180, 210, 250, 280, 320, 360, 390, 430, 450.
5. (Updated 11-2012). I had not used the "Temperature" mode at all. A friend came over for Thanksgiving with his bacon/watercress soup (thick) and needed to re-heat it. After messing around with the "Power" and "Time" settings, he finally chose "Temperature" at 140. There was much less stirring, and no fussy regulation of a flame (all to avoid burning the soup on the bottom of the pan). He was mightily impressed, and since he is an excellent cook, I was mightily impressed too. Reminder: his excellent soup pot was aluminum, and so it would not heat at all (Error "E0" in the display, after two seconds). We loaned him a nice cast iron Le Creuset pot and all progressed smoothly. Remember that any pot that attracts a magnet will work, and that excludes all aluminum and most stainless steel. Furthermore: the traditional cooks swarming and crowding the kitchen stove on Thanksgiving were just as glad to have him and the induction unit out on the patio, and out of the way.
Please click the "helpful" button if any of this was useful. Thanks.
I have only had this unit for a few days, so don't know how it will hold up over time, but it works like it's supposed to, and I'm very happy with it so far. I'm not thrilled, however, that the price has dropped by $20 in the few days since I bought mine! Like others have said for others of the induction cooktops, the heat is concentrated in the center 4" of the plate, but this is not a real problem for boiling water, etc. And, if using a pot/pan that spreads the heat well, such as iron or pots with a thick clad bottom, it seems to mostly work out ok for other things. I had a problem trying to make an omelet, but maybe if I heat the pan slower and then add the eggs, the heat might spread out to the edge of the pan better (scrambled omelet wasn't bad, however). It might not work well for everything, but for most everything I've tried so far, it worked fine, and doesn't heat the kitchen up a lot. My 3 different sized steel pots with steamer inserts worked fine 2 are Tramontina (from Walmart I think) as did my iron and iron-enamelled pans, so I probably won't need to buy any pans especially for this cooktop.
After 5 months my unit is still working fine, and I use it for most of my "stovetop" cooking. I wouldn't mind a finer control for very low temps, but the 10 settings provided work pretty well for most everything. For a few things I switch back and forth between setting 1 & 2 or 2 & 3 mainly things like hot toasted sandwiches (which I cook in an iron fajita skillet, with a 2nd skillet on top to weigh it down). I found that a silicon potholder (got mine from Target) works great to put under the pots to protect the cooktop from scratches. I haven't noticed that it matters whether the pan is perfectly flat (maybe the potholder underneath helps this?). Also, the manual says not to use the cooktop on a metal surface because the magnetic heating may heat the metal surface underneath, but I put a large wooden cutting board (about 3/4" thick) over the 2 LEFT burners (oven heat exhausts through the RIGHT rear burner on my stove) and put the Burton cooktop on top of that to cook and have not had any problem with the stovetop underneath becoming warm. I don't do huge amounts of cooking, so with this one on the left, along with the small and large regular burners on the right, I have all my cooktop needs met. I use this, my microwave, outdoor grilling, and a toaster oven & crockpot which I use outside on the porch, to minimize kitchen/house heat from cooking during the summer, which of course is very helpful in Texas.
(Note that there are some very informative reviews for the Burton 6000 model which are relavent to induction cooktops in general.)
2nd update: This unit has performed flawlessly for over a year now. I use it frequently to boil water for when I wash dishes by hand hot water heater is far from the kitchen and no matter how high I set it the hot water is just not hot enough. So, I lowered the thermostat to 120 deg and just heat a small pot of water to add to the dishwater. However, I do not use this burner for some things, such as deep frying, and it doesn't work with my old-school Corningware which I like to use for some things, like making jam, so I would not want a stove with only induction burners; a couple of each would suit my needs better.
Buy Max Burton 6200 Deluxe 1800-Watt Induction Cooktop Now
... for your learning dollars, that is.
Had this for a month; free-shipped, it arrived intact and within a very reasonable time. Manual is brief and to the point.
Works fabulously with simple time-proven cast iron cookware, but don't expect omelets to come off whole easily might do with enameled cast iron which I do not have. It is great to have minimal heat dumped into the house when you are paying for your air conditioning and it is 90°+ outside. That it worked just fine with some of my older cheaper stainless steel pots that didn't pass the magnet test was a pleasant surprise. I plan to move it to the back porch before I try my heavy-flavored grill-pan fried fish!
Took away the 5th star since (a) heat is so localized over the center that it charred stir-fry veggies and burnt the thin-gauge pan when I got a bit over zealous with the power settings and (b) the temperature preset increments are too far apart for my liking. It shouldn't be a big deal to have more numbers of and more uniformly spaced steps since the controls are all electronic. I would use cast iron cookware exclusively unless heating a liquid, -the thickness helps distribute heat more quickly and evenlybut you will want to be extra careful of the delicate-looking ceramic cooktop surface.
All in all, a great inexpensive tool to learn induction cooking and what to look for before you plonk your money down for that big-bucks 4 or 5 element full size induction cooktop kitchen upgrade. I am happy with the purchase.
Read Best Reviews of Max Burton 6200 Deluxe 1800-Watt Induction Cooktop Here
We finally moved to the country where I can have a huge garden, but I almost panicked when I saw how much food I was going to have to put up. Our little chest freezer is no match for it, and my dehydrator can only handle so much and is not good for everything. And DH likes "variety," meaning he grumbles if he has to eat the same thing two days in a row, so I knew I'd have to break down and do some canning. But the thought of adding all that heat on top of our Georgia heatwave was unbearable.
This Max Burton induction cooktop is a godsend. My Fagor 10-quart pressure canner works perfectly with it, and the best part is that I can bring it up to pressure with FAR less heat than electric or gas stoves put out. I just listen for it to come up to pressure, then with just a few clicks adjust the temperature down to maintenance level, set the timer, and walk off and leave it. When the time's up, the burner shuts off, and the heat is instantly OFF. This makes canning so easy and so much cooler that I find myself doing it more often. I can cook a big batch of something for dinner, then can the leftovers without it being a big ordeal. So happy DH, and I still have the economy and time-saving benefit of large-batch cooking. Cleanup is easy.
Another thing, too, is that I'm getting older and more forgetful (or maybe it's because I have a whole lot more I have to juggle now as a "country wife"). I've actually burned up pots on the stove that I've forgotten about while I was busy trying to do six gazillion other things. It's a lot harder to burn down the house when using this cooktop. :)
Other than the induction-ready cookware issue (not a problem for me), the only caveat I'd give potential buyers is that this really needs to be on its own electrical circuit. Our old house has few outlets and iffy wiring, so I do not even attempt to run the microwave and the induction cooktop at the same time because they are on the same circuit.
This induction cooktop has really changed my life. I think everybody ought to try cooking this way. It's got to be more energy efficient. But beware: Once you've familiarized yourself with an induction cooktop, you probably won't want to cook on anything else.
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I bought this induction cooktop for my Mom instead of a standard cooktop because I liked the concept of the surface not staying hot after you take the pan off in fact it automatically shuts off when you take the pan off. She loved cooking with it for the past few months, but then it starting giving error codes and not working last week. We have contacted Max Burton customer service as it is past it's return period for Amazon. Initial response from Max Burton indicates good customer service. I'll update once we see how this all works out. Hopefully this failure is a glitch as the cooktop has only been used since mid-March of this year.
June 18 update. The replacement unit from the manufacturer arrived. Took a bit long to get the replacement unit about 3 weeks since we first contacted Max Burton. Return shipping cost of $20 was my responsibility.
July 8 update. The replacement unit from the manufacturer just quit. Less than a month of use and this new cooktop broke! I'm changing my rating to 1 star because of unreliability.
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Our old wireless thermometer died and this was the closest item I could find (same brand). During the first stages of cooking the unit would shut off every 15 min. or so. I had to reset it several times, kinda frustrating. However, once the mid pint time of cooking was reached (when the temp was changing more rapidly) the thermometer performed great. I contacted the manufacturer and they stated that during the initial cooking process we may experience this problem because the temp is not changing quickly enough for the unit to respond and therefore it shuts off. It was a learning experience albeit slightly frustrating as the old unit did not do this. I am still a fan of the wireless remote thermometer.
