Customer Reviews

Sunpentown SR-951T 1400-Watt Countertop Induction Cooktop

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Had this unit rather briefly because it turned out defective. It would not hold a set temperature and needed to be returned. I would have replaced it with another but for one limitation. The temperature seven settings (110F, 130, 160, 190, 250, 360, and 440) had a gap between 250 and 360. I would have like to have had one or two more setting to facilitate, say cooking with butter. In other respects I would not hesitate purchasing the unit again and intend to do so should they introduce a later version with more settings. The little experience I did have with it, concinved me of the merits of induction cooking. Until then, I have ordered a light duty Tuaton unit which has a 330 setting.

A very nice item indeed. I've been using it in my upstairs loft for about a month now:
- Sleek and attractive (looked a little goofy in the photos, but it's actually not bad looking, black cooking surfact with polished stainless sides
- Very effective!! I was afraid that, at 1400 watts, it would not heat very quickly. I was wrong. It's as effective as our natural gas range downstairs. And, doesn't generate as much heat (study induction cooking on the net; I'd never heard of it until I looked at countertop cooktops, very cool technology!)
- Doesn't get hot underneath: allows me to use it on many different types of surfaces.
- Easy to clean and store. Wipes down quickly, low profile allows me to either keep it unobtrusively on the countertop or pop it into a drawer
- All the bells and whistles working perfectly. Temperature control is good and seems accurate. Automatic shutdown when the pot is removed works flawlessly, timer function worked perfectly the time I tried it.

- All around, as an engineer, I'm really impressed with this unit. Given its price (compared to the other induction units I was looking at, which cost between 2 and 4 times as much), I expected that it might be a bit chincy. Again, wrong. It seems to be well made, well designed, and it's been very effective as a cooktop. I highly recommend.

I received this portable cooktop as a Christmas present in 2006. We are planning to build a retirement home in a few years and plan to install an induction cooktop. We bought this unit to explore the cooking technique needed for induction cooking. This unit has turned into our daily cooking tool since the day I received it. My wife has always wanted a "good" set of stainless cookware so we bought a nice set of All-Clad cookware to go with it.

The temp settings take a little getting used to but I've found that changing from temp to cook setting makes a big difference in the temperature. Once you determine the setting for the heat range your looking for then this unit will do whatever you need.

Pro's are the temperature comes up much quicker than an electric unit and acts more like a gas cooktop. We have a Jenn-Air ceramic cooktop and it doesn't even compare to this little portable unit. I'm cooking in half the time on the induction it takes to get up to temp on the Jenn-Air and using half the power to do it.

Con's are it takes longer to bring a pot of water to boil on this portable unit than our electric Jenn-Air. Around 5 minutes longer. But overall for a unit that's 120V vs. a 240v for a full fledge cooktop this unit is one nice piece of equipment and can supplement any gas or electric stove in your kitchen. The only other drawback is you need to have cookware that is magnetic, either stainless or cast iron, take a refrigerator magnet with you when shopping for new cookware. I would recommend this unit to anyone looking to compliment their existing kitchen appliances and reduce their electricity consumption and heat in the kitchen.

As an electronics engineer, I've been fascinated with the concept of induction cooking since the 1970s. Low-cost Magnetron tubes eventually put microwave ovens ahead of induction cooking technology in the kitchen, but microwave ovens don't allow for turning food over by hand, or allow for hand-stirring during cooking. A "must" for many types of food.

For the past 30 years, whenever my wife wanted to cook fried foods, she would do it on the patio - weather permitting - to keep the grease and spatter to a minimum inside her kitchen. She usually struggled with one type or another of a very hard to clean single-element "hotplate". With a large frying pan sitting on it, the thing was unstable, had too little power (only 750 watts) for frying, and was usually a mess from spills and splatters which "baked on" to the unit forming hard black deposits (the red hot heating elements are great for turning cooking oil into varnish - not to mention the fire hazard involved if splashed oil hits the element).

This Sunpentown unit provided a large flat stable (and cool) surface for her pans, and is simple to keep clean and "brand new"-looking all the time.

The 1250 cooking watts is plenty for deep frying. She prefers to use one of the 7 different "cooking levels" (duty cycle, actually - the same way a normal big electric range turns the element on and off to maintain an approximate heat setting); but doesn't care to use the built in temperature sensor settings.

The built in timer is nice, but we almost never use that feature either.

My only wish is that the built-in cooling fan for the electronics was just a wee bit quieter. It's quiet, but still noticeable in a quiet room.

Because the cooking vessel is heated directly (wasting little heat) I don't believe it's possible to deliver more heat to a pot from any 115V 'hotplate' style single-burner cooker. There's the added advantage that a misplaced towel cannot possibly catch fire either. It's also very difficult to burn one's self with this unit. The glass does become hot due to heat from the pan - but cools quickly enough (and, after all, when frying it only reaches about 425F - compared to a traditional hotplate's 1100F element).

I purchased this for camping.

If I wanted an 110v electric cooktop that was easy to keep clean and can get hot enough to boil water or sear meat without tripping an unknown circuit breaker somewhere or overheating the extension cord, then efficiency and therefore induction seemed the best (if not only) choice.

The power cord is very thick and does not lay down very well and therefore was difficult to get out of the way, but that is a minor point for my purpose.

My first test was with a 12" Lodge cast iron skillet. Very hot in the center and almost cold at the edges. I tested with drops of water that evaporated instantly in the center but did not even bubble at the edges. I never could get all that excided over cast iron anyway, so this was not a deal breaker by itself.

My second test (also using water droplets) was with a T-Fal 12" skillet (from their PERFORMANCE COPPER BOTTOM STAINLESS STEEL line). Again the pan was hotter in the center than the edges, but at least the water was boiling away at the edges. The troublesome part was this very annoying buzzing sound with this pan. Even putting a silicon baking sheet mat between the pan and the cooktop did not lessen this noise and I was ready to return it.

However, it has not buzzed once since that first test. Perhaps using the cast iron skillet first was somewhow responsible?

So far I have made scrambled eggs and fry burgers without any complaints.

If you are using a 12" pan, you really want to use a pan that uses copper and or aluminum (the t-fal skillet above uses both) to re-distribute that heat out away from the center.

I researched every model I could find and the only other model that I was tempted to buy was the $499 Viking brand because of the 1800 watt burner and the infinite variable heat via a knob (rather than just a few heat settings to choose from via a tempermental touch control). All others seemed prone to breaking or melting or under powered.

As has been mentioned by others, I had trouble getting the buttons to work as expected.

This morning, I truely thought it was broken because it just would not turn on, but I tried again in a few minutes to show my wife, but it turned on just fine and has ever since. Either the touch pad is not 100% reliable or there was condensation on the circuitry behind the button that had to dry out first (we stored it on our back porch and it is still getting into the 50s at night). Either way, I do not sense that this will be reliable when camping for making breakfast, so I am sticking with propane for now and forked over the $50 to return it (15% restocking fee + shipping).

I bought this product so I could move all my cooking outside to my porch. I live in central Texas, and it's been really hot this year. I already have a countertop convection oven, an electric frypan, a rice cooker and deep fryer, so this is the last piece I need. I found the cooktop to be intuitive and easy to use and it looks great. I was especially impressed with the one piece stainless steel frame, as well as the black glass top and control panel. The covered non-stick frypan they include is nice too.
So I first used it to make Thai basil soup. It did this well, although it's not especially challenging. After that I picked almost 6 gallons of wild grapes which I cooked down in 2 batches to make juice. I was impressed with how quickly it brought the grapes up to a boil. I then made jelly with the juice. I brought 5 cups of juice with pectin up to a rolling boil, added the 7 cups of sugar, back up to a rolling boil for a few minutes, and was done in 15 minutes. That's better than my stovetop. This thing is a workhorse. I have made breakfast with it, but still seem to char the bacon a bit. I have also used it to cook 12 quarts of salsa and then boil-process the jars (the timed cook feature is really nice for that). Also made stir-fry with my carbon steel wok at highest setting and got really good results. So far I'm totally impressed, I just hope it doesn't break. I've put it to some pretty serious use for a week, with a lot more to come, as I still have lots of tomato vines coming into production.
Just to update, over the last two years I used this cooker to can everything. I have used it to can 10 quarts and 18 pints of green beans, 20 pints of tomato sauce. 18 pints of pear sauce, 18 pints of squash relish, 20 pints of homemade sauerkraut, some prickly pear jam, I don't know what else. This is my go-to appliance for serious work. I still love it.

This is one of the neatest products I have bought in a long time. It makes cooking easy. You set the temperature and it hold it steady with no guess work. It cooks with any cookware that a magnet will stick to, which includes almost all stainless steel, all carbon steel and cast iron. I bought it to cook outside with, but I use it in the kitchen instead of the stove most of the time. I am sure I will have another one before the year is out. It is expensive, but It seems to be a high quality product.

I have just ordered the Sunpentown SR-951T which will be my third unit from them. I've had the other 2 for over 2 years, and with constant use at my B&B have had NO problem with them. I also have a $1400 Guggenau built in induction cooktop, but still prefer the Sunpentown units. They are much more responsive to change in temperature and the timer feature is invaluable so I can go about other duties with no fear of overcooking. They work incredible well with my Fagor duo pressure cooker because the temperature is so adjustable and sensitive, and again the timer is essential. As you can tell, I'm absolutely sold on Sunpentown and induction cooking, and this is a completely unsolicited review.

Dr. Jim Metcalf
Natchitoches, Lousiana
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I bought this item because the manual indicated it could be set to a certain temperature. This product had the lowest possible temp setting of the induction units I had seen. I was hoping to be able to use the 110F setting, but from my testing it over shoots by a pretty large amount.

The fan is very noisy. I'm considering swapping the fan to see if I can't make it more quiet.

The housing is very heavy duty stainless which I think is nice. You can tell it's actually hand crafted.

Overall the item performs well and I don't have any plans to replace it.

its a good product if it works, but apparently they don't ship well. An inner spring detaches and leaves the product non functional.