review – I’ve had a gas stove since I was a kid and have installed them in almost every house I’ve ever lived in. This is the selling point of our current house. It’s familiar and simple, and I love cooking with gas. The heat is steady, on and off instantly, and you can see what’s going on just by peeking under the pot. But recently, there has been a lot of coverage in the media about the health effects of gas stoves and poor indoor air quality. More and more cities are banning gas appliances in new buildings for health and climate change reasons. So when I started reading about the impact, I was concerned. I really don’t want to switch to “traditional” electric. Few serious cooks do this. But induction cooktops seem like a lot of fun. Most of the benefits of cooking with gas without worrying about safety or climate change (depending on where your electricity comes from). So when I got the chance to review the Amzchef 2 burner induction cooktop, I jumped up.
what is it?
The Amzchef 2 Burner Induction Cooktop is a dual burner countertop induction cooktop with a maximum power of 1800 watts, which means most household sockets can handle it.
What’s in the box?
Just Amzchef 2 burner cooker and manual.
Hardware Specifications
- Voltage: 120V, household plug
- Dimensions: 22.83″×14.17″×2.68″ IN (L*W*H)
- Timer: 3 hours
- Pot size: 4-10 inches in diameter (10cm-26cm)
- 6 non-slip feet
- Dual fan cooling system
Design and Features
The most striking part of the design of the Amzchef 2 Burner Induction Cooktop is that the entire cooktop is basically a large piece of glass. It’s completely flat, with touch-sensitive buttons under the glass. There are two cooktops connected together, each with the same set of controls. A unique feature of this cooktop is that you can choose to adjust power (wattage) or temperature. In the center of each cooktop is a temperature sensor that measures the temperature of the cookware. To use the cooktop, simply press the power button for the burner you want to use, select power or temperature adjustment, and use the up or down buttons to select the desired level. The pan gets hot instantly. There is a timer up to 3 hours which will turn off the cooktop after a selected time. There is also a child lock to prevent the unit from being accidentally opened.
The combined maximum power of the two burners is 1800 W. This means it can reach 1800 W if you only use one burner. But if two are used, the total power usage of the two burners cannot exceed 1800 W. The two burners of the Amzchef 2-Burner Induction Cooker appear to be independent, but they are actually connected together and will not exceed the total power consumption. Interestingly, the product’s website shows a display configuration that isn’t possible in reality — at least in the US. The photos on the website show the burner on the left at 2000 W and the burner on the right at 1500 W, for a total of 3500 W, or 1700 W more than the total system rating. The Amazon image shows a similar situation.
Performance
To understand the performance of an Amzchef induction cooker, it is helpful to understand how an induction cooker works. Most cooktops generate heat through a flame (gas) or resistance in a coil (traditional electricity), and the heat enters the cooker by conduction. Induction cooking uses electricity to heat cookware directly through magnetic induction. Your pan becomes the heating element. Now in order for this to work, your pan must either react to a magnet, or be ferrous (made of iron or steel). Aluminum, ceramic, glass and copper cookware will not work. But most of my cookware is stainless steel or cast iron, so I’m in great shape. I did test a copper clad pan with no luck.
In short, the Amzchef 2 burner induction cooktop works great. I was immediately impressed. One of my favorite things to make is a 3 egg omelet in the morning. Usually when I cook with my gas stove, I put the pan on the stove, put some butter, and when the butter melts, I scramble the eggs into an omelet. I tried the same process on an Amzchef induction cooker, but didn’t realize the cooker would generate heat immediately. My butter was burnt by the time I was about to put the eggs in. So it heats up quickly, which makes sense when you remember that the pan became the heating element. Adjustments are also instant, which is a big gripe with traditional electric cooktops.
Another nice feature is that the cooktop itself doesn’t get hot. This means that when you spill a bit of sauce from the pan and land on the cooktop, you just wipe it off. No worries about cooked food or melted sponges. And because it’s a piece of glass, it’s actually pretty easy to clean. It’s a bit streaky (it’s glass!) so a proper cleaner would help, but I’m a messy cook and everything gets wiped clean.
The Amzchef 2-Burner Induction Cooker is lightweight and easy to move, weighing less than 10 pounds. It also seems to be robust. Once I put a cast iron pan so hard I thought I must have shattered the glass, but that’s ok.
One of the early complaints about induction cooktops was that they were loud – making some dull noises. I haven’t experienced any of that on this unit, but it’s not silent. There is a fan under each burner that turns on during operation and one minute after operation. The fans aren’t loud and definitely quieter than the range hood I’ve been using recently when using a gas stove to vent any gas that could cause poor indoor air quality.
The completely flat glass surface is beautiful, and the touch-sensitive buttons are very responsive. In fact, they reacted too quickly. When cleaning the cooktop, I often turn it on with a damp sponge. Once I took a baked cookie out of the oven, put it on the stovetop, and it opened. The nice thing about induction cooking is that it doesn’t produce any cleaning unless there’s a pot on it, so accidentally opening it while cleaning surfaces isn’t a big deal. But my cookie sheet is steel so it does start to generate heat and coIf I hadn’t noticed, I’d be messed up. Fortunately, the system beeps whenever the button is pressed. The same beeping can be a little annoying, though. Whenever the pan is lifted from the cooktop, the unit will beep to let you know it has lost its connection. It can become a little difficult if you lift the pan a lot while cooking, such as when stirring food in the pan.
One thing that most people use on their cooktops on a regular basis is boiling water. The amount of food that can be made with simple boiling water is astounding. So how fast does this boil water? I did an experiment. I compared the Amzchef cooktop to my standard gas cooktop.I use the same pan, the same amount of water (2 C, 473 mL), at the same starting temperature (60 degrees F, 15.6 degrees C). Honestly, I was surprised by the results. Amzchef 2 burner induction cooker boils water in 2:26. The gas stove took more than twice as long and didn’t boil until 5:40. This may be at least in part because in induction cooking, all the energy goes into the pot. When cooking with gas, a lot of energy is wasted as it flows around the pot. Whatever the reason, induction cooktops definitely boil faster.
what do I like
- Instant heating, instant adjustment, instant shutdown
- Flat glass surface, no cooked food
- easy to clean
what would i change
- It beeps every time you pick up the pan. That’s not bad, but does it have to be executed immediately? A delay of a few seconds will fix this.
- It’s a little too easy to push the button
- The manual is terrible – the English translation is very dangerous – often mistaking “on” for “off”.
final thoughts
Induction cooking seems to be maturing to the point where gas cooktops are obsolete. The Amzchef 2 burner induction cooker is powerful, compact, lightweight and convenient. This is absolutely fantastic for a secondary kitchen without built-in appliances. I use it now on our patio, next to our grill. Camping where you have access to power is also a good option. The flexibility of the Amzchef induction cooktop is almost limitless and I now want to replace my gas cooktop with the built-in induction model.
price: $166.99
where to buy (this: head chef or Amazon
resource: Samples for this review provided by head chef.
