Induction cooker hot on inner circle only
My induction cooker has two circles marked on it, a small one and a big one. It came with a set of small and big pots that match the size of the circles. After a year, all the pots have a small circle burned into them. Does that imply that the the outer circle on the cooker is not working? Or could it be because the pots have warped - the centers all bow up a little now (about 2mm).
Best Answer
Warping doesn't matter with induction, since you don't need the pan to touch the surface, unlike resistive electric technology.
I suspect that your unit is working as intended. I have personally never seen home units with a large coil, they typically have a 12 cm coil or less, and since most pans are larger, they only create direct heat in the middle of the pan. You can use larger pans on it because there is thermal conduction happening both within the pan metal and within the food in the pan. My guess is that the outer circle is an indication of what is the maximum suggested size of pan, presumably because the conduction will not be sufficient to produce good results. I have not seen units with an inner circle painted on, but it could be a guideline for the minimum size of pan that the unit accepts. This is very likely if the size of the inner circle is the same as the size of the coil (your burn mark).
And by the way, your burn mark and your warping both mean that you are using extremely high heat to cook. There are almost no foods which benefit from that. You may consider reducing to medium-high for most cooking - when I had induction, that typically meant using the first or second wattage setting on my unit (cooking for 1 person).
Pictures about "Induction cooker hot on inner circle only"
Does the underside of an induction hob get hot?
Yes! It is one of the most attractive parts of opting for induction cooking. The hob may get warm underneath, but not too terribly hot. The top drawer can be used for cooking utensils, lids, or other common cooking supplies.Should an induction hob be hot to touch?
Induction cooktops do get hot but only in the area where the cookware is kept. This means that these are safe and even if you touch the cooking zone on an induction cooktop while it's switched on, it's not going to burn you. But be cautious as it will heat up the cookware on it and you don't want to touch hot cookware.Does induction heat the entire pan?
Even cooking at home can be quite inefficient: you're wasting energy heating the cooktop and (in the case of a stove with a roaring gas flame) the air all around your pots and pans. With induction cooking, the heat is produced in the pan, not the cooktop, and much more of the energy goes into the food.Why is my induction hob hot?
The surface of an induction hob certainly doesn't get as hot as a traditional glass-topped hob, but it does get warm because it comes in contact with hot pans. So, while you or a child won't burn themselves if you were to touch the hob after use, you will still notice that there is some heat there.Induction Stove Repair Part 1
More answers regarding induction cooker hot on inner circle only
Answer 2
There are some factors to consider
- Coil size and pan size detection
- Induction pulsing
- Pan material
Usually cheaper ICs have a smaller coil size (4 instead of 6 inches), and the induction pulsing (power control) is not working optimally.
The IC cookware size detection might also be defective (if the unit has one), or the pan doesn't trigger the "bigger size" threshold.
The pan base material (and depth) play an important role, if not the most important. The pan base has to be from a ferrous metal for the induction to work. The base can be composed of several layers, the lower one is heated from induction, the upper one spreads the heat more uniformly (if it isn't too thin).
For instance, cast-iron is known to spread the heat more uniformly thanks to its thermal inertia.
See also this Wikipedia article.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Kamaji Ogino, Timur Saglambilek, Jeremy Perkins, Anna Shvets