Induction Cooktops: The Hot New Appliance

Induction cooking has long been the gold standard of cooking technology in European restaurants and is now commonplace in many European households. It has failed, however, to catch on with American consumers. That seems about to change as manufacturers have adapted induction products to the U.S. market, and the U.S. market is adapting to the new technology.

“It was first introduced to the states in the 1980s, and their bulky size was one factor in their failure,” says Gudrun Berger, product manager for Gaggenau, a high-end appliance manufacturer with American headquarters in Canton, Mass. “The technology is more mature now, and it represents one of the fastest-growing segments in the U.S. market.”

Induction technology fits well with the increasing importance placed on green building and resource efficiency. Since it is the pot itself and not the cooktop element that actually heats up to cook food, the time required for cooking is reduced and less heat is released into the kitchen. This can result in dramatic energy savings over traditional electric or gas cooktops.

“This technology has been popular in Europe because they have had to be concerned about their natural resources for a longer period of time,” says Patricio Barriga, president of Fagor America in Lyndhurst, N.J. “Now things are starting to converge in the United States and people are realizing the benefits of resource efficiency and are approaching things differently.”

How induction works

Induction cooking bypasses heating the cooktop surface and goes directly to heating the pot. Electromagnetic elements under a ceramic glass surface send a current into the iron atoms of cookware and they react by moving around, which causes friction and heat. Cookware must be made from ferric content such as steel, iron, nickel and various alloys to work on an induction cooktop; if a magnet sticks to the pan, it will work on an induction cooktop. The higher the ferrous content, the more efficient the cooktop will be. In general, induction cooking is 90 percent efficient (meaning 90 percent of the energy produced goes directly into heating the pot), where electric is about 65 percent efficient and gas is around 55 percent.

“Restaurants and professional chefs love induction because it cuts down on cook time and does not add additional heat to a kitchen. This can be another large energy savings for residential consumers,” says Sue Bailey, manager of product development, major appliances at Viking Range.

Induction cooktops also feature nearly instantaneous reaction to increasing or decreasing heat, giving users precise control over cooking temperatures. They also feature more settings than traditional cooktops, with everything from ultra- high (capable of boiling a pot of water in about half the time as gas), to just warm enough to keep a pot of food at serving temperature.

Because the cooktop itself rarely gets too hot to the touch, spills do not have the chance to burn, smolder or ignite. This makes it easy to not only clean and maintain, but it is attractive from a universal design standpoint as well. Those who may be visually impaired don’t have to worry about accidentally touching a hot surface when they can’t see a warning light, and children are much safer from accidents as well. “Nothing is safer than induction if you have children in the house,” Berger says.

Potentially sizzling market

Induction cooktops are not for everyone, as they are still expensive enough to be considered a high-end appliance. But entry points have come down in recent years, with prices ranging from $1,200 up to $4,000 or more. But with people spending tens of thousands of dollars on kitchen remodels and new kitchen appliance packages, more people are willing to take the leap to induction.