I purchased mine from the Nuwave website. It was the BoGo offer with the cookware. As written in many other places the S&H for the cookware and second cook top negate any "get one free" benefit. That should be a considration of "how/where" you purchase.I immediately unpacked my 2 PIC to test boiling water. First thing I found out was my Calphalon cookware from Target is annodized aluminum...not magnetic and not induction compatible. That should be a considration about buying the PIC if you want to use current metal cookware...BE SURE IT'S Magnetic.
Ok, now for the review of actual functionality. I used both the "free" stainless steel cookpot and a castiron fry pan. Both PIC's that I received only had a functioning induction coil in the very center of the cooktop. If you see a picture without the pot or pan on the PIC it's the size of the center red circle that is intersected by the NuWave logo. This will affect the eveness of heat distribution and cooking...especially frying.
The button for "Med" indicates a temperature of 275. I just wanted to boil water for my first use(that's 212 degrees farenheight, actually slightly less here in Colorado Springs). After 5 minutes there were bubbles forming on the bottom of the pan in a 3-4 inch circle in the center. This is the location of the inner induction coil. According to the NuWave response on their facebook page the induction coils are supposed to be out to the OUTER red cirlce on the PIC cooktop so this indicated to me that the coils were not working properly.
To get the water to actually boil, and this is on the included DvD also, you need to select the SEAR/HIGH button and adjust down once you get to a boil.
I don't see this product being nearly as "precise" as the NuWave website indicates. There is definitely as much lag in heating pots as with a standard electric range. It may truly be more efficient overall because the heat is generated within the cooking pot by exciting the atoms and not transferred from the heating element to the pot...but speedwise I definitly saw zero improvment over conventional electric or gas. I have a GE Profile gas range and the small burner did a better/faster job boiling water, again probaly not as efficient since the flames must heat the pot.
Safety-wise there are indeed no open flames or electric burners but the glass cooktop does absorb heat from the cookware so there is a chance to burn yourself after extended cooking times with the PIC.
I think this may work fine as a hotplate for parties or for serving fondues...but for active cooking I feel it's quite a let down from what is shown on their site or in the informercials.
*** Updating to a 3 star rating after testing the green pans that came with the product. The heat convection in the "Perfect Green" 9" Duralon pan is very good and the non-stick surface is excellent(not sure about durability as this is day two with the product). I'm not sure why the sauce/steamer/fondue pan seems to work poorly but the Perfect Green fry pans work very well. I can't push this beyond 3 stars as it still seems as slow when using anything other than the fry pans. I bought this with the idea of having solid, precise control for frying chicken I will be trying that this weekend and hopefully reporting back here afterward.
### For those of you who wondered about chicken frying, it seems to hold temperature(once you get there !!!) much better than a standard electric skillet, and since it seems to cycle off when it reaches temp...unlike standard cooktops that keep adding heat unless you adjust them...it was a better final product. I was able to fry 12 chicken thighs in 3 batches of 4 without stopping or messing with the controls.
Still only a 3 because it definitly doesn't live up to the infomercials.
Our review from December published below originally gave this PIC a five star review. I have changed to only ONE star now. SO, if you happen to read any comments by other folks which might not make sence, that is why...
I also have added at the bottom of this review an email from The Induction Cooking website expert, addressing small induction burner elements and the cooking powers of these smaller Induction cooktops.
The Induction cooking method is a good choice.
THIS product has a defect which makes it cook at much higher temperature than the temperature you set.
I used a candy thermometer to measure the temperature of water and soup. THe temperature/thermostat was defective.
When the unit was set and 160, the thermometer measured 200 and a rolling boil occurred.
I returned the unit, exchanging it for another PIC.
THe same defect occurred.
I will be returning the second one now, and get my money back.
I hope that this update will serve to protect others from putting their money into a product which does not function properly.
ALSo, for reader's information. THe induction burner within this unit only measures 5 1/2 inches, so can't be used with larger pots.
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My question to Eric:
I've been looking at the listings on your site.What I am looking for is the
> ACTUAL size of the burner element in each of the countertop cooktops.
>
> I thought that the individual companies would have this information readily
> available, yet cannot seem to find it on amazon and your site. Do I need to
> call or write the individual companies to get this information.
Eric's answer to my question:
You could, but the answer will be pretty much the same (if you can get an
answer at al)--around the 5" to 6" that you have discovered by yourself. The
only exceptions would be in some units expressly designed for commercial use
(and priced accordingly).
One must remember that countertop units were not and are not intended as the
main station for cooking--they are improvements on the old "hot plate", which
is for lightweight supplementary cooking, from heating up a small pot of some
canned goods in a college dorm to at-the-table cooking of those few dishes
that need to go from pan to plate in a blink. They were never meant for 12"
skillets or huge, many-quart pots of soup or the like.
If one has to cook on them with anything much larger than 6" to 8" in
diameter, the material of the cookware and the natire of what's being cooked
come into play. Cast iron is a poor heat conductor, and so is quite slow to
carry heat from the center to its periphery; on the other hand, given enough
pre-heat, it will eventually get at least moderattely hot at the perimeter and
will tend to hold that heta. "Clad" stainless steel, on the other hand, is
designed to conduct heat well, and so will heat up more quickly; but it will
also cool down more quickly. Neither material on a small, countertop unit
will be really satisfactory in heating the outer annular area of any pot or
skillet, but whether that is critical depends on what one is cooking: if one
is making pancakes, or cooking anything that needs even heat throughout, it
will never be a real success; on the other hand, something like heating a
liquid will work tolerably well because the liquid itself will very rapidly
even out the temperatures.
There is always, though, the power limitation: 13,000 BTU/hour, which is the
equivalent of what a 1.8-kW tabletop can deliver, is a lof heat energy, and
will do well for most household tasks. But even that cannot boil several
quart of water in a flash. In a build-in unit, a 1.8-kW element would be one
of the small ones.
Buy NuWave PIC - Precision Induction Cooktop Now
I purchased through the TV Add BOGO. I couldn't wait to get my new induction cooktops because I want to replace my regular smooth cooktop with induction. Felt this would be an excellent way to try it out. Since I have ALL CLAD stainless steel cookware, I knew my cookware would not be a problem.When the units showed up, I opened the first unit, filled up one of my All Clad pots with about 3 inches of water and put it to the test! Unfortunately, only the very center of my pan tried to boil. I NEVER got a full boil going with the unit. It didn't even get the center of the pot of water boiling. Since that didn't work, I pulled out a smaller pot and tried again. Same result. To top off the poor performance, the fan is incredibily loud.
I emailed with customer service (Hearthware.Com) and their answer was "sorry". I was told if I wanted to send it back, I had to pay the shipping and handling. Now, that means I have to pay shipping and handling both ways for a poor product. So, I figured it was just the one unit so I opened up the 2nd unit and tried the same thing. This unit was worse than the first one since after 10 minutes I couldn't get anything to boil. Temperature of the "boiling" water never got over 140 degrees. Fan was just as loud on this unit as the first unit.
So, back to customer service (email) I went. Again, no assistance in saying "let's replace that for you". Same answer send them back at MY cost.
Needless to say, I will never purchase a product through HEARTHWARE again. I will NEVER purchase a NU WAVE product again. It cost me over $75 for shipping and handling for a product that did not work and I don't have. MAJOR disappointment.
Read Best Reviews of NuWave PIC - Precision Induction Cooktop Here
I purchased the NuWave cooktop and the "free" induction compatible cookware. Per the instructions I seasoned the smaller, 9" fry pan; "...using vegetable oil and allow to heat on MED for 1-3 minutes". Ok, set temp to MED, place oiled pan on cooktop, set timer for three minutes. Before the three minutes was up I began to smell hot oil. I went to the kitchen and the oil had turned black, BURNT! I used my infrared thermometer and the fry pan surface was 515 degrees at it's coolest point, almost 550 in two other spots! My thought was how can indicated 275 degrees produce 550 degrees! By the way, I have been unable to remove the burned on oil from the pan, without using some sort of scouring steel wool, which I have NOT done. So, the pan is no longer non-stick. I used another induction compatible small sauce pot to make a gravy; once again, the temperature with an indicated 275 degrees was hot enough to burn the flour to the bottom of the sauce pot, the drippings I was using were that hot and nothing short of a steel wool soap pad would clean the sauce pot after that. Needless to say, the gravy was ruined. I did manage to steam some fresh vegetables without incident using the cooktop. I have put the cooktop away and I do not know when I will use it again. I have better temperature control with an electric range than I do with the NuWave cooktop.In my opinion induction cooktops may be overrated. They don't heat up the kitchen like conventional appliances and they may save on energy costs; but, to give up the quality of my cooking does not justify the savings. I would rather pay more in energy costs than have my cooking suffer.
There are many induction cooktops on the market ranging from stand alone "hot plates" such as this, to full major appliance induction cooktop surfaces. I was considering the purchase of an induction/infrared/convection cooker of the same or like manufacture; but, since I am not fully satisfied with this "hot plate" I think I will stick to my microwave and standard electric oven, I know these two work as advertised.
I did not purchase this through Amazon but I did follow the link and subsequently went directly to nuwave.com to make the purchase.
I thought I would give my NuWave PIC one more try. I attempted to make fish and chips. The oil needs to be 370 to 380 degrees and I set the unit to "SEAR" to get the oil hot. Using a cast iron dutch oven, which is what I typically use when frying fish, I used two thermometers in the oil. When they reached 400 degrees I put the fish pieces in the oil and set the unit to 375 degrees, only to watch the temperature begin to drop before finally bottoming out at around 290 degrees; WITH THE UNIT TEMPERATURE CONTROL DISPLAYING 375 DEGREES, this "cooling off" took less than five minutes. Needless to say the fish was underdone and the breading soaked up so much oil I almost had to toss the whole mess! (A good Malt Vinegar does wonders!)
As I stated previously I firmly believe this product is far over "hyped". I have watched the infomercials since my purchase of this PIC and I focused on the two major selling points: 1) The kitchen does not heat up and, 2) The only part of the induction cooker that gets hot is directly under the cookware being used. This latter point seems to be repeated more than anything else, thus driving home the safety of the surface temperature, a major point particularly if there are children in the home.
I have, for the last time, put my NuWave PIC back in its box and have put it in a closet. It just does not seem to work as advertised for me; at least, mine doesn't! It will make a nice birthday or Christmas present I suppose.
Want NuWave PIC - Precision Induction Cooktop Discount?
I ordered on the internet assuming I would also get pans and the BOGO...beware buyers. You do not get any pans on the tv offer and the extra cooktop is $30. for shipping. If you want the pans, the shipping is almost $80. Buy through Amazon. They are honest and you can get two cooktops for less.Save 30% Off
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