Customer Reviews

Waring SB30 1300-Watt Portable Single Burner

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Length:: 4:37 Mins

I have owned single burners in the past for several reasons. They are nice to have when entertaining, especially around the holidays. Also, when I make shabu shabu, fondue, or a hot-pot dish, a tabletop burner is much nicer that using candles or alcohol-type burners.

I occasionally help out a friend at trade shows, demonstrating cooking techniques, and we always use single gas burners. I bought this one for when I need a slow, low heat for a long time. Gas burners need to have the butane canisters changed fairly often where this one plugs in and stays hot for as long as you need it. At home however, gas burners will be a great back-up during power outages where this one would be worthless.

I decided to show how this burner works by making this short video. I hope that it is helpful to you! Thanks.

EDIT: I am including this information about the boiling water demonstration by request: I used a heavy-duty anodized aluminium pan; the water was room temerature (72 degrees Fahrenheit); and the experiment was conducted at approximately 700 feet about sea level.

I have been using an Eclipse single for about 3 years now. Before that I used another Eclipse model but it finally quit working. Recently my latest Eclipse started acting funny and so I thought it was time to fund a replacement and while I was at it, I thought I would try to find a higher quality unit. The Waring SB30 was well rated and not too expensive, so I grabbed one.

My initial take on the SB30 was that it was very well built and sturdy. This is a great improvement over the Eclipse burners I have used in the past. My only complaint is that cord is fairly short, maybe 3ft long. The knob has a very nice and smooth action to it. The base is rather large but it is very stable with an 8qt stock pot on it, so I guess I can't complain too much about that. The burner weighs a lot. I believe most of that weight is from the metal burner itself. More on this later on.

I use this burner as my main burner as I live in a rental and the range is not so good. The burner heats up a little slow but transfers that heat to the pan very quickly. I believe this is because the burner has a lot of metal in it and that allows it to store a lot of heat. This is a very good thing for boiling water and sauteing but not such a good thing for cooking touchier foods like milk and sauces.

ONE YEAR UPDATE: The SB30 has performed great over the past year. I have not had a single problem with the burner, it looks and works like new. All in all I am very happy with it.

This product should have been used in our motorhome a looong time ago. Countertop space is minimal so the top overlaying our stove is used as a workspace which makes using the burners almost impossible. Well, problem is solved with my Waring burner. It takes up very little counter space, element heats up quickly to the exact temperature I've set it for & distributes an even heat to the bottom of all my pans & skillets. The burner is NOT 900 watts like it is advertised BUT 1300 watts which I think contributes to the burner being more efficient. The unit takes awhile to cool down but with the built-in hand holds on each side, I just pick it up (not hot to handle at all) & set it outside to cool. If I were using it my home, I would move it to another part of the kitchen or utility rm to cool. The burner is all that it claims to be ... and more!

This is the second identical unit I've owned. The first one worked fine for about 6-8 months, then the temperature knob stopped working and I could only use it for 100% hot (5 on the knob) or nothing at all. Then it stopped working altogether.

The most recent one had a problem the second time I used it. I was cooking poached eggs and some water boiled over the pan. The burner shot sparks about 2 feet out the side and burned my wooden counter, smoked, and shot out another big spark before blowing out the electrical breaker. The company should look into these issues and fix them. The second one could have been really dangerous.

Waring Pro SB30 1300-Watt Portable Single Burner

A profesional looking and operating burner. I use it for my pressure cooker and it works great. It takes a couple of minutes to heat up and maitains proper heat setting on a costant basis. Great product.

All the above reviews are correct.
However; none of the reviewers mentioned that the cheap plastic side walls of the burner melted. This Pro Burner should have been all stainless steel.

Similar to another reviewer here, the plastic sides of my burner melted and now I have a functional but ugly product.

I boiled a big pot of potatoes on this burner (which took a while but did its job just fine) and the pot had some overhang beyond the cast iron plate. Well, the heat from the pot melted a circular pattern into the plastic.

Make sure you keep the heat low if you're going to cook with a pot or pan larger than the diameter of the cast iron plate.

Works GREAT!!! I do cooking demos and have tried several in the past that wouldn't get hot enought to cook the food, and this one will. It takes about 5 min. to heat up before its ready to use. It is stable and not to heavy to carry around.

I purchased this burner because my home's stove is a flat top glass type. I am unable to use my aluminum 5 gallon brew kettle for doing home brews on this type of stove. So I was in the market for a single unit electric burner. Well I am currently 2.5 hours into the brew process and I have been waiting for my boil to start for 1.5 hours of this time. It seems this burner is not suited for getting a boil of 2.5 gallons of water with seeped grains with 13 pounds of liquid malt extract up to the boil needed to toss in my hops in a reasonable time. I have been stuck at 165 degrees for quite a while and it doesn't seem to be climbing at all. At the rate this burner is bringing my brew to a boil, this process, which normally should take a few hours tops (30 minute grain seep, 1 hour hard boil) has already taken 2.5 hours ( long time to get to 155 to steep the grainand I haven't even began the hour long boil yet).

To be fair, the burner is of nice quality, is well constructed (albeit a little on the inexpensive side), and has a nice min-5 burner temperature knob, but it's just not the right fit for my home brewing process. I'd say if you have to boil anything more than a gallon, don't do it in a large aluminum pot like mine. Maybe this is the perfect burner for those looking for an extra burner around the house for every day use (small pots or pans), but don't buy this product if you are a home brewer with a glass flat top stove looking for an alternative way to boil up your wert.

In the 5 minutes or so it's taken me to write this review, edit it, reword a few things, and get to this paragraph, I've raised 3 degrees. If I do the math right, this burner will get me from 170 to the 212 boiling point in another hour. NOT WORTH IT FOR HOME BREWERS!

This appliance is perfect for my lab. I needed a unit that would heat my 24-quart pressure cooker and allow me to sterilize media and utensils. This unit does it well. It does take several minutes to heat up to ready on the highest setting, but once it gets there, it heats flawlessly.

Because I had read that it smells when it is first used, I did the first heat-up outside on the deck. Since it was heating up, I decided to make scrambled eggs and I can't remember eggs that tasted better. Maybe it was the outside cooking or the feeling of being camping, but I thoroughly enjoyed cooking and eating them.

This is a well-made hot plate and worth every cent. I researched long and hard and finally found a unit beefy enough for my application that didn't break the bank. Other items of the same caliber would have cost me 3-4 times as much. Don't look any farther. Buy this unit today.