Since my last post about induction cooking, we’ve tried two other induction devices, learned some lessons about tradeoffs, and found out about some alternatives coming to the market soon.
Standalone burners are loud
All induction cooktops have a fan underneath the cooking surface to keep the burner coils and other internal components cool. All induction cooktops also can cause some pans to vibrate at a high enough frequency to produce a buzzing or squealing noise.
What I’ve learned from trying different induction devices is that these problems are much worse with inexpensive standalone induction burners than with our beloved Vermicular Musui-Kamado, or with induction ranges. The fans in the cheap burners are louder because they’re less good fans. It’s not as clear why they make pans buzz louder, though the fact that the Vermicular uses a single-piece cast iron pot, with no bolted-on handle or sandwich of metal layers in the base, may contribute.
In any case, we tried the Duxtop 9600LS and Zavor Pro, two of the best reviewed consumer-grade standalone induction burners, and found them both way too noisy for comfortable kitchen use. They work fine as far as adjustable and effective cooking power, but the noise was a deal breaker.
Battery-backed ranges are coming
In my last post, I mentioned that one reason it’s expensive to upgrade from a gas range to an induction one is the electric line installation. You typically need a 240V, 50A circuit to power any sort of electric range, which is a significant cost in itself and may often require a panel upgrade if you don’t have a lot of spare capacity in your existing breaker panel.
Two new startups have a clever idea for getting around this: bundle a largish capacity battery (several kWh) into the body of the range, which can then discharge at a high rate when high peak wattage is needed, and recharge much more slowly when the range is not in use. That way you get the high power you need for an electric oven and range-quality induction burners, but you can plug the whole thing into a standard 120V outlet. As a bonus, the induction coils use DC rather than AC power which apparently doesn’t cause pans to buzz. And if you do already have a 240V outlet, you can use the battery to power the house as an emergency backup and grid balancer, Powerwall style.
These startups are:
Channing St Copper Company, which is developing a 30 inch battery backed range. They were taking preorders recently for their first batch of ranges, supposedly to ship next year at a $6K retail price. That price is pretty steep compared to the $3-4K for typical 30 inch induction ranges, but there may well be people in the Bay Area with extremely high electrical upgrade costs for whom it makes sense.
Impulse Labs which is developing a standalone cooktop, likely 36 inches wide, no pricing or ship estimate available yet.
If you’re an early adopter type and in a good position to benefit from one of these, consider joining their waitlist(s). There will probably be more companies entering the space in the next few years, but it’s too early to tell how big this retrofit market niche will be.