If you love quick, easy and efficient cooking, an induction cooktop is a kitchen hero you're bound to find useful. Whether you're looking to make the switch from a gas or ceramic cooktop, or replacing an older induction cooktop in your current kitchen, there are many benefits to installing one of the high-performing induction cooktops in our latest CHOICE reviews.
Preparing meals on an induction cooktop is one of the safest and most efficient ways to cook. An induction cooktop heats your food quickly because it produces an electro-magnetic field between the stove and the cookware to directly heat your cookware, rather than heating via a gas-powered element or a traditional ceramic cooktop (which heats up an element and transfers that heat through glass). This means that not only will cooking your dinner be quicker and more energy efficient, but your stove will stay cool to touch during cooking, too.
Not only will cooking your dinner be quicker and more energy efficient, but your stove will stay cool to touch during cooking
Many Australians are also turning to induction due to the concerns around the impact of cooking with gas in the home, particularly for people who have respiratory issues such as asthma. While using any cooktop surface to cook your dinner can produce pollutants, such as the smoke you may see coming from the surface of a hot pan, gas cooking is the most concerning, as the burning of gas produces additional pollution with the release of harmful gases and particulate matter that can have a harmful effect on our respiratory health, particularly that of children.
While you will need induction-compatible cookware, and a heftier budget due to the higher purchase prices of induction cooktops as compared to gas or ceramic, induction cooking is a popular choice for many home cooks.
CHOICE experts regularly put various types of cooktops to the test and recently reviewed 26 of the latest induction cooktop models. They give each product a CHOICE Expert Rating based on their cooking performance (for example, how well the high heat or low heat settings work), and how easy they are to use (looking at factors such as their control settings, the size and type of cooking zones available and how easy they are to clean).
You don't have to pay top dollar to get a good-quality cooktop, so it pays to do your research
And it's a closely run race, with four models tying for first place in our review. "The best induction cooktops in our cooking tests are those that did very well across both high heat and low heat settings, and those that have a variety of sizes of cooking zones, which means they are more versatile and can accommodate different-sized pans," says CHOICE kitchen expert Fiona Mair.
"The models in our latest test of induction cooktops cost between $515 and $6349, but we've found that you don't have to pay top dollar to get a good-quality cooktop, so it pays to do your research.
"For CHOICE members only, we've revealed below the top-performing induction cooktops in our latest review. If you're not yet a member, join CHOICE to get instant access to all of our expert, independent reviews.
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