鶹
Customer Review
- Reviewed in Canada on August 15, 2016Hi.
I received my Cook-top in four days, which was great. It arrived without issue and worked properly out of the box. The top is made of glass except for the control panel which is some sort of rigid plastic integrating the touch pad controls. The base is all plastic with four small rubber stops. The power cord is hefty to support the 1800 Watt rating. A serial-number label is stuck on the outside of the box that it came in, but I am unable to find its matching label on my Duxtop unit itself. There is no label on the exterior of the unit at all for that matter, and suspect that the label must be stuck somewhere on the interior of the unit.
I purchased the Duxtop to use it mostly outside during the hottest summer days, to prevent unnecessary warming of my house. I will use it to boil water for corn, and other lengthy type cooking during the summer. My outdoor BBQ does not have any build in cook-top on its side tablets, so I plan to sit it on either side when I use it to cook. As other reviewers mentioned, I will also use it as a fifth indoor cook-top element if/when needed.
I already owned a set of German made stainless steel pots (set of four), with thick sandwiched bottoms. I was happy to see my magnet stick to the bottom of these pots just fine. My magnet does NOT however stick to the sides of the same pots.
I tried all four pots, ranging from 5.25 inches to 8.5 inches, and indeed they all work fine. Turning the Duxtop on without a pot, or using aluminium pots and pans displayed an error, as expected.
I boiled water to test my Duxtop, and compared it to my 1.7L Oster 1500W electric kettle for the boil times. Here are all my observations:
- Time to boil 1.7L room temperature water: Duxtop on Hi (10) power setting: 7 minutes vs. Oster: 6m 50 sec.
- Turned on full power: Duxtop on Hi (10) power setting draws 14.10 Amps vs. Oster (no power settings) draws 12.33 Amps.
- Turned off, but plugged in: Duxtop draws .31 Amp idle. That means it draws power even when sleeping. I will unplug it when not being used.
- Duxtop on medium (5) power setting draws 8.66 Amp.
- Duxtop on low (1) power setting draws between 0.33 Amp to 5.7 Amp (as it toggles itself on and off to maintain this low heat setting).
- Duxtop on medium (320 degrees F.) temp setting draws 8.31 Amp.
- Duxtop on high (460 degrees F.) temp setting draws 10.33 Amp.
Duxtop glass-top does stay relatively cool after coking, with the only heat emanating from it after cooking being the heat transferred from the hot pot to the glass-top. My biggest surprise is that I did NOT notice any speed difference boiling water. From the reviews that I read, I expected a better boil time from the Duxtop (maybe my Oster got wind of what I was dong, and tried harder). Also, my Duxtop unit does NOT support Celsius units.
There is a high pitched squeak almost like fingernails on a chalkboard, but even higher pitched, which occurs when starting a cooking session: When the high pitch tone does appear, it is only from the moment the Duxtop starts cooking. Then the high pitched tone changes tone slightly a couple of times (squeals), and dies down after ~10 seconds from the initial power-on. Once the high pitched tone goes away, it never comes back for the rest of the cooking session. Note that if I don't hear the high pitch tone from the moment that I power-on my Duxtop, then there is no high pitched tone during the cooking session: the high pitched tone starts from power-on, or not at all, and always goes away within a short period of time. I am guessing that it has something to do with the electronics driving the electro-magnetic field. As long as this appears to be normal behaviour, it's a non-issue for me. I have NOT been able to explain the logic of its intermittent characteristic.
Reliability can only be determined with time and frequency of use.
In summary, for the price, I think that this is an affordable, useful item, that will see most of its use outdoor, next to my BBQ, during the hot summer days.
I took one STAR off for the "disappointment" that my hot water kettle boils water just as quickly, while using less power than my Duxtop (kettle rated at 1500W vs. Duxtop rated at 1800 Watt).
I would not hesitate to by this product. I am satisfied with the delivery, build quality, functionality, finish, and initial performance.
TZ.
