Cooktops. They’re so ubiquitous, a staple in every single kitchen that we hardly give them a second thought! They’re just always there, ready to cook our favorite pastas, veggies, sauces or anything else we’d ever want to make. In fact, most of us probably take our cooktops for granted! It isn’t until something goes wrong that we take a closer look at our stoves and examine which type of cooktop and which brand we should be using.
In reality, it shouldn’t take your old stovetop breaking down to get you thinking about upgrading your setup! Don’t wait until absolutely necessary, start researching the top-rated cooktop brands to consider now! We’ll even give you a crash course into the best cooktop options if you read on.
Types of Cooktops
When choosing a new cooktop, you should first decide the type of cooktop you want.
- Gas
- This tried-and-true cooktop style utilizes natural gas to create an open flame on your stove which generates heat beneath your cookware to heat your food. While this is a popular method for commercial kitchens, it’s falling out of favor in home kitchens due to the high energy costs and potential safety risk. In fact, some states are working to ban gas ranges in new homes!
- Electric
- Another common stove type, this cooktop style utilizes electric coils which are heated up below your cookware to heat your food. While this tends to be cheaper than gas stoves, electric ranges often heat up very slowly and the heat lingers long after you’re done cooking, posing a potential safety risk. It’s also extremely imprecise and inefficient.
- Induction
- Becoming more and more popular in recent years, induction cooktops are a more energy-efficient method than both gas and electric stoves. Induction cooktops have coils underneath the cooking surface that generate a magnetic field which reacts to metal in your cookware, vibrating the molecules and generating heat directly in your cookware itself. This results in faster, safer heating than traditional methods. The only potential downside to induction is that it requires iron-based cookware, but almost all new cookware sets made today are compatible and even your old cast iron pans will work so that’s no issue!
So it’s become obvious that induction is the way to go, now it’s time to consider what type of induction cooktop to go with. Unlike gas and electric stoves, there’s one more unique feature to consider when choosing an induction cooktop – portability.
Induction Cooktops
- Traditional Cooktops
- Your first instinct will probably be to check out a hardware store to outright replace your old gas or electric range with a new induction cooktop. And it is true, these cooktops are superior to those old ranges and offer so many perks, there’s just one problem: they’re expensive! If you want a halfway decent induction cooktop to be installed in your home, you’re looking at thousands of dollars just to buy the new cooktop and that’s before you factor in delivery and setup costs. Why pay that much when you can enjoy something just as powerful, more convenient and costs much, much less?
- Portable Cooktops
- Portable induction cooktops offer similar cooking power as their traditional counterparts, but they can be brought to the backyard, to the campsite or even in an RV or hotel room while traveling and still deliver a top-notch cooking experience. As long as you have access to an electrical outlet, you can cook just about anywhere when you have a portable induction cooktop. Even if you don’t plan on cooking outside your kitchen, these compact beauties still deliver a top-notch cooking experience.
So it looks like portable is the way to go, now we have to pick the brand that works best for us. While there are many options out there, just one brand offers power, precision, convenience AND affordability all rolled into one and that brand is Nuwave.
Nuwave Cooktops
With their line of Precision Induction Cooktops, Nuwave is a true leader when it comes to induction cooktop brands. Their PIC cooktops offer unbeatable precision, cooking as low as 100°F or as high as 575°F with precise temperature settings adjustable in 5 or 10-degree increments. And with large, easy-to-read buttons for all of the common temperature settings, it’s incredibly easy to quickly adjust the temperature to suit your needs. You can melt chocolate at a low temperature or sear a steak at a high temperature all on the same cooktop! And Nuwave cooktops pack a punch too, cooking with up to 1,800 watts for truly powerful cooking. But if your power supply is limited, that’s alright too! You can lower the wattage settings on all cooktops with the simple press of a button. All Nuwave cooktops have a built-in timer that automatically shuts the unit off when it reaches zero. They can even be programmed to cook in stages, automatically adjusting the temperature at specific times based on your recipe! Sear, boil, sauté, simmer, deep fry, slow cook or melt on the PIC and your food will turn out perfect
Conclusion
Shopping for a new stovetop isn’t something to take lightly. We’ve seen how induction technology is the way to go and how portable induction cooktops are the superior option. And the best portable induction cooktop out there is the Precision Induction Cooktop from Nuwave, truly the top-rated cooktop brands to consider when switching to induction.