What is a halogen burner or (?) cooktop? How does it work?

What is a halogen burner or (?) cooktop? How does it work? - Crop of unrecognizable scientist wearing lab coat and gloves and inserting pipette into empty flask mounted on ring stand while working in laboratory

I often order from a restaurant supply store for commercial quality items. I just received a new fry pan and on the label it noted that it was safe for electric, gas, and halogen.

I haven't ever heard of halogen burners or cooktops. I looked up "halogen burner" and the results were for stand alone burners that are electric (plug in).

So, I guess I want to know if halogen burners would have a commercial purpose and what the benefits or downsides would be. And, how do they work?



Best Answer

Halogen hobs are a type of electrical resistive hob which work just like a halogen incandescent bulb. In fact, the reason why incandescent bulbs are being phased out is that they are so inefficient, giving off most of the energy they use as heat instead of light. A halogen hob uses the same kind of tungsten filament as the lamps, instead of the iron found in the widespread electrical hobs.

The benefit is that it warms up quite fast, much faster than iron.

I haven't shopped for resistive cooktops in recent years, so I don't know how the market is. It's possible that they are very rare and expensive, or that all the new ceramic cooktops use them and the manufacturers don't mention it on the label, so the public is unaware of it. They don't work differently than standard burners, just faster, and they don't look much different from the outside. You also don't need any kind of special cookware for them, I have no idea why the manufacturer of that pan decided to tell you that it works on both "electric" and "halogen", when it is the same thing where pan suitability is concerned.

Update as per ChrisH's comment: Because the halogen works mostly with radiant heat, it's important that you don't use a pan with mirroring bottom, that's probably why the pan was labelled as suitable for halogen besides "electric". This is probably important for iron-heating ceramic cooktops too, because the ceramic also lets a significant part of the iron's radiant heat through.




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What is a halogen burner or (?) cooktop? How does it work? - Chemical test with empty flask mounted on ring stand while burner under flask and tubes filled with reagents in modern lab
What is a halogen burner or (?) cooktop? How does it work? - A Man Working with Irons Wearing an Apron
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Quick Answer about "What is a halogen burner or (?) cooktop? How does it work?"

A halogen cooktop uses a halogen bulb to heat food instead of an electric coil or a gas flame. Its ease of use and ability to be quickly cleaned makes it a very popular kitchen stove option, but there are some things to consider before choosing it over a gas or electric cooktop.

What is the difference between radiant and halogen?

Halogen and radiant elements are basically the same. They both use radiant energy to conduct heat to the cookware and food. The only difference is that halogen elements also have a halogen bulb that circles their radiant element. It will light up instantly to show you that the cooktop is turned on.

How do you use a halogen stove?

Beneath the glass-ceramic surface, electrical current flows through a unique metal coil. Electrical resistance heats to generate a hot glowing metal coil that transfers its heat through the glass-ceramic via infrared energy and to the glass-ceramic via convective heat.



Gas, Induction, Electric: The Complete Guide to Kitchen Stovetops




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