NuWave 30153 Precision Induction Cooktop with Pan - 1800W Portable Electric Stove, 15 Temperature Settings, Fast Heating for Cooking, Boiling & Frying - Perfect for Kitchen, RV, Dorm & Outdoor Use

Edit 2/2/13:I still love it and I am using it a lot. I hardly use my stove anymore. It really works great with a wok! I am also really liking the cheap supermarket wok (see below) with induction cooking, although the nonstick is mostly worthless.Original review:I have a 20 year old Jenn-Air electric range which is slow to heat. Induction heating is faster so I purchased this cooktop from amazon to supplement my range. If not available from Amazon, it can be purchased from the NuWave web site at reasonable cost (but beware their S&H). The cooktop has an induction coil of about 6 inches in diameter with a temperature probe in the center below the glass top to detect the temperature of the pan bottom. It seems very well made.PRECISE HEAT? More or less (see my uploaded customer image)To turn unit on you must select a heat range and then press start. If you select Low, the display shows a temperature of 100F. This means the unit is both throttling down its power to avoid burning your food and then trying to control the temperature at 100F. I used a 12 inch induction fry pan with one inch of water to test temperature control. With a setting of 100F, the cooktop initially over-shot the set point to 125F before settling down to 110F. I consider this to be excellent temperature control. I then pressed the "+" button to raise the set point to 110F. The unit responded and quickly raised the temperature to 115F. A setting of 120F was actually 124F, and so on up to a setting of 180F which was 174F (see my customer image). As I was increasing the temperature set point, the unit was automatically raising the power setting from Low to Medium Low to try and keep up with the heating demand. However, it was clear that by a setting of 180F the power was barely enough so when I increased the setting to 190F (and then to 200, 210, 220, etc.) the actual temperature did not change. The cooktop was trying to increase the heat, but did not have enough energy at the Medium Low setting. For this reason, the temperature did not increase until the setting hit 275F because the power was now increased to the Medium setting and finally the water (barely) began to boil. To get a vigorous boil, I needed to increase the heat setting to Medium High which was a temperature set point of 375F (of course you can't heat water past the boiling point of 212F).Summary: Even in a 12 inch large fry pan, the temperature control was excellent up to 180F. NOTE: in a smaller pan or using oil (which is easier to heat), temperature control will work at higher temperatures.EVEN HEAT? More or lessMany reviewers have complained that the although the induction coils are around 6-7 inches in diameter, water boils in only a 4 inch diameter area. However, that depends on how well your pan is able to conduct and spread the heat. My induction ready Emerilware top-of-the-line Tri-Ply fry pan is, unfortunately, not as good at spreading heat as cheaper pans with a thick metal disk on the bottom. So the cooktop does not produce even heating with my pan. BUT LET'S BE FAIR, because the heating on my Jenn-air electric range elements is not even either! I love the pan, but even heat is not its strong point. One of the other reviewers here has noted that the NuWave optional pans (sold on their web site) do give even heat.WOK? Works good. (see my uploaded image)I used a wok in college and I know that the only way to cook Chinese is with a round bottom wok on a high output gas burner. But will a flat bottom steel wok give acceptable results with an induction cooktop? I bought the cheapest supermarket wok I could find (metal thickness is so thin I can flex it with my fingers, but I tested it anyway). It turns out that a cooktop setting of High with 1-2 tablespoons oil and 1-2 cups vegetables gives an good rate of frying. Cut-up meat requires the heat be raised to Sear, but again the results are good. One BIG advantage with the cooktop is that the heat is temperature controlled and so the risk of smoking the oil is much less. I found that the cooktop does raise the actual oil temperature to approximately the set point although the flat bottom of my cheap wok was warping from the heat.RAISE BREAD? Yes. (see my uploaded image)Many homes are chilly in the winter and yeast won't grow properly to raise dough for bread. You can briefly turn on the oven to warm it, shove the bread dough in and hope it is a suitable temperature. OR you could use the induction cooktop. Merely place dough into bread pan and put pan in a 12 inch induction fry pan. Add 1 inch of water, place on the cooktop and heat at 100F (Low). The actual temperature in the bread pan is 105F (see my uploaded image), but this is suitable for rising bread dough. Works great, but remember to set additional time if you expect to rise the dough more than 2 hours.Burgers? Perfect.I like browned burgers so on my Jenn-Air I always set it on high. I don't use nonstick because I get better browning without. So I did it on the induction cooktop. What was I thinking!? The burger instantly welded itself to the pan. After chiseling it out, I tried again but at Medium (275F). The burger had great browning but cooked so quickly it was still medium on the inside (perfect). Best yet, it slide right out of the pan.NEGATIVES:Power cord is an absurd 3 foot long.There is no way to change temperature display to metric/Celsius.The temperature set point is displayed, but not the observed temperature.1300 watts of power compared to 1800 watts on some other brands.The glass cooktop is flat from right to left and flat from front to back on the left, but is 1/16 bowed on the right. Annoying, but does not affect cooking.