NuWave PIC2 Portable Induction Cooktop

A few days after I recommended the Rosewill induction cooktop that I've been using in the office for over three years, it started making odd clicking noising and giving me a brief "E1" message.  After a few seconds it would start heating but continued to make the clicking noises as long as it was operating.  After removing the casing to see if I could see an obvious cause I just decided it was time for a replacement.  I didn't want to spend too much money since this was going to live in my office, so after a brief search I settled on a NuWave PIC2 Induction Cooktop.

I remember seeing their infomercials on late-night TV and had heard good things about the hardware, but not so good things about buying it directly from them.  Since I have Amazon Prime I just ordered it from there for just under $60.  The PIC2 is a little less powerful than the Rosewill it's replacing, 1300 watts vs. 1500 watts.  For a little more money (about $75) there is the NuWave PIC Pro, which delivers 1800 watts of power.

Upon opening the box I was pleasantly surprised to find that the PIC2 came with a 9" Duralon ceramic coated non-stick fry pan.  I didn't really have a need for another frying pan at the house so it made the trip with the cooktop to live in my office.  The cooktop has six preset levels (Low-100°f, Med Low-175°f, Med-275°f, Med-High-375°f, High-425°f and Max/Sear-575°f) but you can use the controls to set the temperature to anything you want in 1° increments up to 575°f.  The cooktop is also programmable so you can set it to cook at one temperature for a set amount of time, them automatically lower to another temperature for holding.

So far I've only done one test run, I measured out 1 liter of cold tap water (50°f) and timed how long it took to come to a rolling boil using the Max/Sear setting.  This is pretty subjecting since results will vary greatly depending on the quality of the pan being used, and since these stay in my office I'm using the cheapest pans I could find.  It took 5 minutes and 45 seconds for the water to go from tap temperature up to a rolling boil.  This is actually a little faster than it took the Rosewill cooktop to bring 1 liter of cold tap water up to a rolling boil, but that was in a different pan.  Tomorrow will be the first time I use the new cooktop to make lunch, hopefully it'll be as good and last at least as long as the Rosewill did.

Playing with the Paragon Induction Cooktop

Over the weekend I had finally some time to play around with my Paragon Induction Cooktop.  Before I could do that however, I needed to invest in some induction-ready cookware.  My T-fal professional skillet  is induction ready as well as my cast iron and carbon steel skillets, but none of my pots or saucepans would work with the new cooktop.  I went out looking for some suitable pots to use with the Paragon.

When I first became aware of the Paragon Indigogo campaign I thought it would be ideal to control the temperature during the mashing phase of homebrewing.  For this I needed an induction ready stockpot large enough to contain the mash, and because it would be exposed to acidic conditions it needed to have a stainless steel interior rather than aluminum.  The Tramontina 22 quart stockpot pictures to the left fits the bill nicely and at a low price to boot.  I also wanted a smaller saucepan to use for deep frying, soups and of course, sauces.  I ended up buying a 3 quart non-stick saucepan from Nuwave.  The Duralon non-stick coating is ceramic based and can withstand temperatures up to 475°f so it should have no problem with the temperatures needed for deep frying.  I plan on making some hush puppies later tonight so I'll get to see how it fares.

As a test I filled up the stockpot with around 14.5 liters of cold tap water to see how long it would to bring it up to 150°f.  Pairing the wireless probe to the cooktop is simple, just plug in the Paragon and push the button on the side to the probe battery case.  A Bluetooth symbol will flash three times and the probe will sync with the cooktop.  Once that is done you can select the rapid or gentle precise mode and set the desired temperature with the +/- buttons.  My understanding is that rapid mode will allow the maximum power level to go up to 10, while in gentle mode it is restricted to 5.  The starting temperature of the water was 50°f and in an uncovered pot is took 1 hour 10 minutes to reach 150°f (quick tip, the adhesive on the sticker started to loosen at around 110°f allowing it to be peeled off).  I did notice that the temperature consistently read 2°f higher using my Thermapen than what the wireless probe was showing, I'm not sure if there's a way to program in an offset but if not I'll just know to set the temperature 2°f lower than I want.  While I had the cooktop on I took the opportunity to sync it up to the FirstBuild app, I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet so I'm not sure what additional features it opens up but will try and do so this afternoon.

It's Here!: Paragon Precision Induction Cooktop Edition.

My latest gadget just arrived, the Paragon Induction Cooktop!  I haven't had a chance to play with it too much, probably won't be able to do so until the weekend, but wanted to post a few pics of the unboxing.

Here's the box as delivered.  A little damage on the corners and the box wasn't taped at all to prevent the box from being opened en route.

Here is the box opened to show all the gadgetry goodness!  The cooktop itself is a bit larger than I expected, the cooking surface is 12" across with an 18" diameter including the controls and feet.































Here is everything removed from the box.  The most interesting thing to me is the wireless probe shown in front.  When paired to the cooktop and attached to a pot of liquid it is supposed to allow you to control the temperature of the liquid in the pot to +/- 1°f up to 375°f.  My original thought when backing the campaign was that it would be very useful for home brewing beer, during the mash you need to bring the pot up to a precise temperature and hold it there while the enzymes in the malt convert starches to sugars.  This should make that job much easier.  Sous vide cooking it another cooking method that could be performed with this piece of equipment, but I'll probably stick with my Nomiku for that.  I can see myself using it for deep frying, I do have a dedicated fryer, but it requires 5 liters of oil and is a pain in the arse to clean up.  That's fine if I'm cooking for a crowd but not worth the trouble if it's just for two ot three.  The Paragon cooktop will allow me to use whatever size pot is most suitable for what I'm making.  This should also shine at low temperature poaching in whatever liquid I want to use be it court bouillon, olive oil or even butter!  I have the probe charging now and hope to put the Paragon Induction Cooktop through its paces soon!

Rosewill RHIC-11001 Induction cooker with Stainless steel pot

Lately I've been trying to eat a little healthier during the day by NOT going to the hospital cafeteria.  With the exception of the salad bar, most of the choices each day are fairly large portions and many seem loaded with salt and fat.  I'd rather save my "bad" eating for after work.  Lately soup has been the option of choice, but the only thing in the office to heat it up in is a commercial microwave.  I'm not a big fan of nuking food in the first place, but this particular microwave presents more issues than most because of its power.  Each time I heat a bowl of soup in this microwave some portion becomes super-heated and erupts all over the interior.  Not only does this make a huge mess I have to clean up but some of the liquid hits the dirty top of the chamber and drips back down in to the bowl. Covering the bowl would seem like a good idea, but the eruptions are often strong enough to kick off the cover and send even more of my lunch out of the bowl.  Additionally, I could only get the soup lukewarm in the center before the sides would start to boil over.  I decided to buy a hot plate to put in my office so I could make lunch the way I want to make lunch.

Since this is the office a butane burner is out of the question, so the choice was of a model with an electric coil heating element or an induction cooker.  I ended up looking for an induction cooker from various sources and eventually decided on this particular one for a few reasons.  First, it's cheap.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that I'll be keeping in the office.  Second, it came with a pot so I wouldn't have to hope I would have something laying around that would be compatible with induction.  Finally, I had an Amazon.com gift card from Christmas that I could apply towards the price.  A few days before the cooker arrived I saw another induction cooker at Costco (Aroma model AID-506) for $49.99. It doesn't come with a pot but I probably would have bought it if I hadn't already spent the money at Amazon.  Oh well.

  The cooker arrived yesterday afternoon and the first thing I thought when unpacking was that it is BIG!  Overall dimensions for the cooker are 12 1/2" x 15" x 2 3/4" high.  The pot supplied is pretty chincy, very lightweight but does work with the cooker.  I brought everything in to the office this morning, heated up some soup for lunch and was very satisfied with the results.  I was able to quickly heat up the soup to a uniformly hot temperature without making a mess in the microwave and without any crusty bits of dried soup around the rim of the bowl to be scrubbed off.  The pot was a little big for one can of soup, so tonight when I get home I'll go through the tote of old pots and pans I have in the garage to look for something more appropriate for the job.

As usual, I took a little spare time to do a test on the cooker.  1 liter of water from the tap was placed in the pot, the temperature recorded at 51.5 degrees Fahrenheit and the lid put on.  The cooker was turned on full power and I timed how long it took for the water to start boiling.  In 6 minutes the water was boiling, my guess would be that a pot made of thicker gauge steel would give better results, once I find something better I'll repeat the test and post the results.  I'm looking forward to better, healthier lunches at work!