Do You Need an Induction Burner?

To find out which induction burner is best, we selected six models, priced from about $45 all the way up to about $1,600. We used each to boil water, sear burgers, make All-Purpose Caramel Sauce, deep-fry Fried Zucchini Sticks, and keep Cheese Fondue warm for 4 hours.

An induction burner contains an electric coil that produces a magnetic field when it’s turned on. When a pan with a ferromagnetic bottom is placed on the burner, the energy from the magnetic field causes the material of the pan to produce heat (see “How Can You Tell If Your Cookware Is Induction Compatible?”). The induction burner won’t actually turn on unless there’s a compatible pan.

Since only the metal of the pan heats up, all the energy goes directly into the cookware, whereas with electric or gas stovetops, some of that energy spills over, heating the air and the surrounding stove area. This is one reason that induction burners are known as being more energy efficient than electric stovetops (and why they keep your kitchen cooler).

We began with the basics: boiling and simmering water. On each induction burner, we boiled 4 quarts of water and then reduced it to a simmer, timing how long the water took to boil and noting how responsive the burners were to changes in temperature by timing how long it took the water to return to a simmer. We compared the results with those of the same test done on gas and electric stovetops.

The conventional wisdom is that induction cooktops heat faster than electric or gas, but we did not find this to be true with the induction burners we tested. This is because they are plug-in countertop appliances, which means their power is limited, whereas a full-size induction cooktop is far more powerful. Interestingly, the only burners that could bring the water to a boil throughout the entire pot in 20 minutes—faster than a full-size induction stovetop—had the largest footprints and widest cooking surfaces (and one was the most expensive burner in our lineup).

To take a closer look at the burners’ heating patterns, we dusted a layer of flour onto the surfaces of skillets and placed the skillets on the induction burners over medium heat. We observed a similar pattern: On most burners, the heat was concentrated in the center of the pan—the flour in the middle toasted to a golden brown, while the flour around the edges remained white. We measured the diameter of the heating elements, and they matched the toasted circles. Most of the induction burners had coils that measured about 6 inches across— much smaller than the 9-inch bottoms of our full-size pots and pans. Only the largest burners, with 8.5- and 9-inch coils, could toast the flour evenly across the entire cooking surface.

We wondered why some of the heating coils were so much smaller than the bottoms of our full-size pans. One factor is that a smaller coil is cheaper to manufacture, so the less expensive units tended to have coils about 6 inches in diameter, while the priciest and most powerful unit's coil was approximately 9 inches.

An induction cooktop also needs a fair amount of space around its coil: space for the electronics, for a cooling fan, and—as David Perreault, professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told us—space that provides a path for the magnetic flux generated by the coil to return to, as well as room for airflow to cool the coil. The bigger the coil, the more space needed. The burner with the largest heating coil was almost twice as tall as the other models. That vertical space was mostly dedicated to its extensive fan system (one fan to cool the coil and another to cool the underside of the glass, a company representative told us). The large coil is likely why this burner toasted flour the most evenly and why it was the only model able to bring water to a boil faster than the stove.

While strange boiling patterns and unevenly toasted flour aren’t major issues, smaller heating coils also caused uneven cooking. Models with the smallest heating coils produced burgers with burnt patches on the parts of the patties that were toward the center of the pans and undercooked patches on the parts near the edges of the pans. Burners with larger heating coils were able to cook the burgers evenly, with no over- or underdone spots. 

Most of the burners’ temperatures also couldn’t go as high or as low as our recipes called for—and we found them to not be as responsive to their temperature controls as we would have liked. When we made cheese fondue, only two of the burners could keep fondue warm for 4 hours, as you might want for a party. Even on their lowest settings, three of the burners were much too hot, causing the fondue to break and scorch on the bottom of the pot in as little as 45 minutes. Curiously, despite having burned fondue, two models weren’t powerful enough to bring 2 quarts of oil to 375 degrees when we tried deep-frying. In fact, one of the burners was still 35 degrees shy of the desired temperature after an entire hour of heating. Our favorite induction burners were able to dial in very precise heat settings—low enough to keep fondue warm without scorching but high enough to accurately heat a pot of oil for deep frying.

On an electric or gas stove, power is usually indicated by markers noting low, medium, and high. Three of the burners allowed us to switch between “power mode”—which corresponds to the low, medium, and high of traditional burners—and “temperature mode,” which sets a specific temperature, such as 200 degrees. This sounded nice in theory, but we didn’t find it very useful in practice. The temperature mode is actually a measure of the temperature of the bottom of the pan (not its contents), so it wasn’t helpful for deep frying or making temperature-sensitive caramel sauce. Most stovetop recipes are also written using traditional temperature settings—not specific degrees—so we found ourselves relying on power mode much more often than temperature mode when cooking. 

That said, two of the burners came with temperature probes, which allowed us to set the temperature based on the probe, making the burners easier to use and more accurate. 

Most electric and gas burners are dead simple to operate: just turn the knob to the desired power setting. However, two of the induction burners we tried were far more complicated. 

One of the burners had a frustrating minimalist interface of 10 light-up dots instead of a control panel. To turn the burner on, you had to tap the power button, tap the plus sign repeatedly to select the power level, and then tap the power button again to set the power level. We found all the tapping tedious and the lack of information frustrating. This model did have a phone app that had a clearer display of power settings, but the app often quit on us, shutting down the burner and stopping the cooking in the process.

Another low-ranked induction burner left us guessing about how its power levels, called “P1” through “P8,” compared to more conventional settings such as low and high. Its manual didn’t provide any answers; it lacked any chart explaining how the various settings correspond to temperatures or power levels. We favored burners that had control panels that clearly displayed the power level or temperature settings. 

We also paid close attention to how loud the induction burners were. Induction burners emit a high-pitched whine and whir, some worse than others, because of the frequency generated by the vibrating magnetic coil. Fortunately, all the burners in our lineup proved to be fairly quiet; only one was loud enough for testers to find it distracting. 

Finally, we liked induction burners that were easy to clean. While most of them required just a quick wipe down to remove any grime from their surfaces, one of the burners collected grease in between the burner’s front panel and cooking surface. 

For most people satisfied with the cooktop in their kitchen, an induction burner isn’t a necessity, but we did identify a couple of scenarios where one might be helpful. Induction burners are a good option when your living space doesn’t have a stove, such as in an RV, on a boat, or in a small apartment. They can also be useful for catering. But by far the biggest reason to get an induction burner is that it offers a portable, powerful, and safe heat source when burner space is at a premium, such as during the holidays, or for dinner parties when you’re serving fondue or soup that needs to be kept warm for hours at a time. Since they don’t heat up the surrounding area, they’re safe to keep on the table. If you like to entertain or frequently find yourself cooking for large groups of people, an induction burner can be a saving grace in an otherwise crowded kitchen.

In the end, we found two induction burners we liked—at two very different prices. The Breville/PolyScience Control Freak, which costs about $1,600, is not for everyone, but if you have the budget, this is a next-level induction burner. It was the most accurate of the burners we tested and the most powerful, boiling 4 quarts of water in 20 minutes. It helped us make silky-smooth caramel sauce, kept fondue at the correct temperature for 4 hours, and seared burgers perfectly. The Control Freak allowed us to program our desired temperature to the exact degree for either the pan or the pan’s contents. Since it can hold an exact temperature, it's the only burner that is capable of sous vide cooking. We tried it out by preparing sous vide poached eggs, which emerged perfectly tender and creamy. 

We also recommend the Max Burton Digital Induction Cooktop, which costs about $90 and has an intuitive interface and helpful extra features, such as incompatible-cookware detection that alerts you if a pan does not work with induction. The burner was powerful enough to hold frying oil at a consistent temperature (and get it there within a reasonable amount of time) and accurate enough to keep cheese fondue warm and creamy for 4 hours (this model does automatically power off after 3 hours; however, we didn’t find this to be too problematic and simply turned it back on). It’s the new version of our former favorite induction burner, and we enjoyed its helpful features (such as a “boil” button, which automatically sets the temperature to its highest setting) that made it the easiest of all the induction burners to operate.