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As an experienced cook with many years of cooking with Induction under my belt, I would like to share my experience, and clear up a lot of bad information propagated by some well meaning, but totally unqualified people who have submitted comments about the Max Burton 6000 Induction Cooker. I am also an Electronics & Mechanical Engineer, giving me additional insight into some of the issues being discussed.
First off, this Induction Cooker is a tremendous bargain, comparing favorably with products many times its cost. It is truly an 1800 Watt (input) Induction Cooker. Induction Cookers cannot be compared in any way to simple hotplates that use a resistive heating element. Electric hotplates, similar to conventional gas and electric burners are at best around 50% efficient. The wasted heat simply goes into heating your kitchen and makes your stove and cookware handles scorching hot. Induction Cooking is typically 80-90% efficient. Remember that even though the Max Burton 6000 is a great value, it is still a light duty, "entry level" Induction Cooker (NOT for continuous commercial cooking use). If it is used properly, it should give years of reliable service. Even though I own a big Wolf commercial gas range, Induction hobs such as this have become my cooking "weapon of choice".
You can consider the following to be "Induction Cooking 101". This will help cooks who are new to Induction Cooking get a quick grip on the basics:
Cookware: Your satisfaction with Induction Cooking is directly proportional to the quality of your cookware. The cookware MUST have the following two characteristics:
First: At least the bottom must be ferrous (in other words, a magnet must strongly "stick" to it). Hint: Take a magnet with you when searching for cookware.
Second: Your cookware must also be a good heat conductor of heat. Induction cooking only generates heat in a 5-7" circle in the bottom of your pan. The heat conduction characteristics of the pan allow the heat to travel outward and up the sides of the pan. If the pan is a poor heat conductor, you will have a small hot spot in the center of the pan, and the rest will be relatively cool. The best cookware is triple-clad (magnetic stainless steel outside, aluminum or copper center layer, non-magnetic stainless interior cooking surface). Vollrath "Tribute" cookware is my favorite (not inexpensive, but really performs great!!). Next best is a laminated pad or "cap" on the bottom of a stainless pan (similar to the totally triple-clad, but doesn't conduct much heat far up the sides of the pan). Cast Iron and Enameled Cast Iron works fairly well for slow cooking and braising, but in spite of popular belief, it is not a great conductor of heat, and can exhibit hot spots if used at high heat settings. AGAIN, Induction Cooking has no radiant energy, nor a gas flame to heat the sides of your cookware. Your cookware MUST be a good heat conductor!
Yes you can preheat an empty pan (if you follow my directions)!. First a little information about the way your Induction Cooker senses the temperature of your pan. The heat sensor is located under the glass/ceramic cooking surface. Because of the thickness of this surface, it takes a finite amount of time for heat from the bottom of the pan to "soak" downward through the cooking surface in order to reach the temperature sensor. If you select a high heat or temperature setting initially, the pan will quickly get screaming hot before the heat sensor "knows" about it (a phenomenon called "overshoot"). The remedy is to start your pan in the "temp" mode at a low temp. setting (like 180°F). Once the pan, cooking surface and temp sensor has stabilized (you will hear a clicking sound as the cooker cycles the power on and off), you can advance to higher settings in a similar way and get on with your cooking.
I have read the comments about some users developing cracks in the top surface of the plastic housing to the left of the display & keypad. This is almost certainly caused by using cookware that laps over the edges of the cooking surface, or using very high heat settings, The flat part of the bottom of your cookware should not exceed 10 1/2" inches.
Unless you are bringing a pot of water to a boil, resist the temptation to cook at the higher heat and temperature settings unless it is really necessary. Remember that Induction Cooking pumps an astonishingly great amount of thermal energy into the BOTTOM of your cookware. Make sure that you and your cookware are up to the task!
The only big gripes that I have with the Max Burton 6000 is the INTOLERABLY LOUD BEEPER and the incredibly stiff, cheap power cord ("MAX", ARE YOU READING THIS??!!). As a qualified engineer, I have already "reasoned" with the beeper. . .
Happy Cooking! Bob Ziller
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There's good news and bad news. I bought this unit as a training unit to check out the technology and have a good extra hob on hand for times when we strain our kitchen resources. The intent is to eventually equip our kitchen with an induction cooktop for energy efficiency.
The good news is that the technology works as advertised. It's remarkably quick and has plenty of power despite running off a normal power outlet. The bad news is that on this unit the heating element (if that is the correct terminology) is only about 7 to 8 inches across. It worked fine when we made soups, though we did notice that only the middle boiled or simmered. However, when frying, the limitation of the element size became a problem. We used a lodge 12" cast iron skillet to fry fish. The center of the pan put a beautiful tan on the panko, but the outside of the pan was relatively cool, requiring that each piece of fish be flipped to four positions before it was properly cooked.
We tested the unit by wetting the bottom of a cold pan and watching how it dried. The center bubbled and dried, but the outer bottom was only warm to the touch. I thought perhaps it was defective, but other reviewers have commented on the problem.
I notice that most of the units on the market do not specify the size of the heating element. Whether this exposes a problem with the technology or is just marketing avoiding a problem with inexpensive units I can't tell.
I am hopeful of the technology, but returned this unit because of it's limitations. If you only use smaller pans, or rarely, if ever, fry, I recommend it.
As has been mentioned before the first unit arrived broken.
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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.
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 "E2" 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 (thus aluminum and most stainless steel won't work). 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.
Honest reviews on Max Burton 6000 1800-Watt Portable Induction Cooktop, Black
What a find! This lightweight cooker is quite a workhorse. It boils water faster than my professional-grade Viking, and I can control the heat as quickly and precisely as I can on a gas range. From simmer to sear, it does it all. I teach cooking to kids, so I especially like that it's safer than other cooktops--no flame, and the surface stays relatively cool (there's some heat transfer from the pot, however, so you still need to be careful). Two drawbacks: you can only use induction-compatable cookware (anything that attracts a magnet will do), and you need a very reliable power supply, because this little guy requires a lot of juice.
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You have to use the Max Burton Induction Cooktop to fully appreciate the induction cooking experience.
At your command are the power and instant response of an 11500 BTU gas burner without a natural gas line or a butane cylinder in sight. You're cooking with electricity, but unlike a hotplate, an induction cooktop doesn't emit a single degree of thermal energy. Switch it on without a pan in place and it just shuts itself off. Center a pot of water on the circles, crank the power up to the highest setting, and in minutes, the water's boiling like there's no tomorrow. Amazingly, you can rest your hand an eighth of an inch from the pan and the cooking surface is barely warm. At a half-inch, it's downright cool to the touch. In fact, about the only heat escaping into the room is from the steam itself. The cooking surface is producing NO heat of its own!
Don't believe me? Take the pot away, drop a paper napkin on the cooking surface and . . . nothing. No fireball, no billows of smoke, no glowing ashes flitting around the room. Yes, the surface is hot, but only because it absorbed some heat from the pot.
It's not magic. It's induction. Computer-controlled electromagnetic energy induces the bottom of the pot or pan to produce its own heat. It all seems so futuristic but in reality, it's been around since the previous century. As is true with all things electronic, the technology gets cheaper as it gets better. Today's countertop induction cookers are giving their built-in big brothers some real competition. Factor in portability and a small trade-off in power, and many folks are thinking twice about remodeling the kitchen. Just plug one or two of these into separate circuits, and your kitchen is ready for any season.
In the summer, use your induction cooker for stovetop cooking. And don't be afraid to crank up the A/C and turn the ceiling fan to High, even if you're simmering a delicate Hollandaise. There's no flame to blow out, so there's no danger of gassing up the kitchen.
In the winter, an induction cooktop becomes a handy keep-warm burner while the waste heat from conventional cooking warms up the kitchen. Of course, you already know you should NEVER use the stove or oven solely to heat the kitchen but when you're cooking in the dead of winter, that extra warmth won't go to waste.
Any time of year, induction is the method of choice for sustained low-heat cooking that would normally call for a double boiler.
And who says you have to keep it in the kitchen? I know folks who take their induction cookers out on the patio when the weather's nice or when they want to cook fish without smelling up the house for weeks. Max Burton even offers an induction-ready stovetop smoker. Truckers use high-wattage inverters to power their induction cooktops when they're on the road. Take it to work, find a vacant outlet in the break room, and wow your fellow cubicle-dwellers with one of your culinary specialties prepared on the spot, not reheated in the microwave oven. RV cookery no longer needs to feel like you're fixing dinner in a phone booth over a blast furnace. Remember: Electrical outlet + induction cooker = instant kitchen.
At 1600 watts, the Max Burton offers the most bang for the buck among 120-volt units. The next step up in power, 1800 watts (equivalent to 13000 BTU), is found mainly on commercial units that require beefier electrical circuits than are found in the average home. They also cost about five times the price! Maybe YOU have that kind of money to burn but I'd rather wait a little longer for my pasta water to come to a boil and pocket the difference.
The control panel is simple and uncluttered. If you're comfortable with the touchpad controls on a modern oven, you'll be right at home. The Function touchpad cycles through Power or Temperature cooking modes and a Timer mode. The Power mode provides 10 settings and the Temperature mode steps from 150 to 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Setting the timer is a little tricky because it counts up in 5-minute jumps but counts down 1 minute at a time, so to set 13 minutes, you push the up-arrow three times to get to 15 minutes, then the down-arrow twice to subtract two minutes.
Now, I can already hear your know-it-all friends warning "If you buy one of those, you'll have to replace EVERY POT AND PAN IN THE KITCHEN!" Not very likely. Line up all your pots and pans and pick out those with perfectly flat bottoms. Grab a magnet off the fridge and see if it clings to any of those bottoms. Chances are, it clings to quite a few, like Grandma's cast iron skillet and Aunt Sophie's enamelware Dutch oven. Hey, look, it clings to the bottom of that pressure cooker you picked up on your last trip to the Galleria! Well, whaddaya know! You DO have some induction-ready cookware!
If your kitchen has stainless steel counters or other metal work surfaces, they're off-limits because they can weaken the electromagnetic field. A small amount of energy radiates from the bottom of the cooktop and can make the surface below too hot to touch. Reserve a spot on a Formica, marble, granite or wooden countertop near an electrical outlet.
And, yes, it's true that every induction cooktop has a fan to keep the magnetic coils cool. The sound is more noticeable on a countertop unit than on a built-in but much quieter than a range hood exhaust fan or a microwave oven. If that's the sound of a cooler kitchen, it's music to my ear.
