Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is the best induction cooktop for the money @ $99. Much better than NuWave and stays on temp better w/less temp fluctuation
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2018
First let me point out that induction cooktops from different manufacturers ALL heat at different rates so please stop saying dumb things like: "My other (insert other brand here) induction cooktop doesn't burn my (whatever) on 50% power setting but this brand does so that means this one isn't as good." That is actually ass-backwards because the more powerful one is better, you just have to figure out the correct power level for whatever you're cooking with your specific pots/pans. The reason no induction cooktop has (or should have) a temp readout is because the temp will NOT be constant with different size/shape pots/pans therefore a temp readout is useless since a small saucepan will appear to get hot faster than an 8qt stock pot and the actual temp could vary by more than 100 degrees on the same power setting. The only way for a temp gauge to be accurate is for the induction cooktop to have a thermal probe INSIDE the pot/pan and it would also need the programming to adjust the cooktop based on the thermal probe's temp reading to keep it as close to the selected temp as possible. A sous vide machine such as the popular Anova does exactly this and can regulate the waterbath temp to stay within 1/10th of 1 degree of the desired temp setting. WIthout the thermal probe inside the pot/pan a temp gauge is pointless as it's literally just guessing the temp which obviously isn't accurate at all. Once you understand how the power levels work and understand that "power level" has nothing to do with "temperature measurement", you can use trial and error to figure out which power settings work best for each thing you cook with your particular cookware. The Duxtop 9600LS's designer was pretty smart in that he made power levels from 0.5 through 5.5 to be 80W intervals for finer heating adjustment, and power levels 5.5 to 10.0 to be 100W intervals since most of the finer adjusting is only needed at the lower power settings. Any setting above 6.0 is usually just for maintaining a boil or bringing your pan up to heat as fast as possible so fine adjustments are not critical for the higher settings. Most other brands have fewer intervals, or pulse the power on and off at longer intervals which causes more burning becuase they may pulse 800W power for 10 seconds then turn off for 10 seconds to maintain the equivalent of power setting "3.0" but that 10sec blast of 800W power is long enough to burn delicate foods like cream/sauces/eggs/fish/etc. This unit has finer power interval adjustments and also has shoter power pulses than most other brands so setting 3.0 will use 500W power and pulse on for something like only 6 seconds and off for 3 seconds. Both methods keep the food at about the same temp overall, but the heat fluctuation is much greater with other brands compared to this Duxtop 9600LS which tries to keep the temp fluctuation to a minimum to avoid burning delicate foods. These are features that almost no one ever thinks of, and they aren't even listed in the description of any induction cooktop but they are CRITICAL to the proper cooking of a lot of different dishes! I've used the (discontinued) model from YouTube's Binging With Babish, the NuWave 1300W 2016 model, and NuWave 1800W Platinum 2017 model, and this is easily the best of all of them. The only better one I've used was a popular commercial $800 model used in restaurants that I can't remember the manufactuer's name of. It was definitely the best but I can't justify spending 8x the price of this one just for my home cooking...unless I was rich. That's why I bought 2 of these to put next to my 4-burner gas stove which allows me to cook multi-course meals all at the same time MasterChef style!
