How Induction Cooktop Works? Cooking is the art of preparing food for consumption. This oldest technology provides heat to food to kill bacteria and make it delicious and nutritious for us. There’s not a lot of difference between cooking a large piece of meat in a gas or electric oven, as we do today, and roasting it on an open outdoor fire, as our ancestors used to do.
It’s not fair to say that no progress has been made in the cooking technology. In the last century, two brand new forms of cooking have been introduced: microwave oven cooking and induction cooking. A microwave oven produces high-energy radio waves to cook food in relatively less time than traditional pans and pots.
On the other hand, an induction cooktop is usually made of a ceramic or glass plate, including an electromagnetic coil inside it. It uses electromagnetism to turn an iron or stainless steel pan into cookers. Instead of firing it from outside, it creates heat energy inside the pan itself and cooks food more quickly and safely with less energy.
These days, almost everyone knows about microwaves, but a few of them understand how an induction cooker works. That’s why we’re here to talk about induction cookers: what they are and how they work. Read the entire article below to learn more about them.
What is Induction?
You need to know what induction is before understanding induction cooking. “Induction” is a shortened form of “electromagnetic induction,” and this means generating electricity using magnetism. In this process, a changing magnetic field produces an electric current across an electric loop or conductor.
What is Induction Cooktops?
An induction cooktop looks like a ceramic cooktop, consisting of a heat-resistant glass-ceramic plate where pots and pans are placed to be heated. There is an electromagnetic coil of metal right underneath the plate. It’s the main component for heating the cookware on the cooktop and electronically controls it.
When you notice inside an induction cooker, you see a cooling fan, a power supply, and a large copper coil that creates the magnetic field. You’ll also find a covered-in-white-thermal-grease temperature sensor right in the center of the coil.
How Does An Induction Cooktop Work?
When you turn on the power, you make a current flow through the coil. It produces a magnetic field all around the cooktop, especially above it. Now, a simple direct electric current produces a constant magnetic field, and a constantly changing electric current generates fluctuating magnetism.
So, you have to use an alternating current that keeps reversing direction to make a fluctuating magnetic field. By following these processes, an induction cooktop produces heat. And that’s all how induction cooktops actually work.
Benefits of Induction Cooktops
You may easily control gas burners rather than induction cookers, but gas-operated cooktops waste energy by heating the cooktops themselves, the food in the pans, and the surrounding air. They’re also more likely to cause a fire accident than electric cooktops. Besides, several good reasons for using an electric cooktop inspire you to pick an induction cooker in your home kitchen.
Efficient and Quick
A traditional cooker produces heat from some distance of the cookware, attempting to transfer much heat into the food. But, if you cook your food on a campfire, you’ll notice that a huge amount of energy is spread into the atmosphere and pollutes the surroundings.
Instead, an induction cooktop produces heat in the cookware, not the cooktop itself. You’ll be sure that almost all energy efficiently goes into your food. Besides, induction cooking takes less time to prepare the food. Expert chefs say that it’s almost 30 to 50 percent quicker than any other method.
Convenient and Safe
Cooking in an induction cooktop is easier than that of a traditional one. It’s also easy to clean due to its ceramic or glass design. You only need to wipe it with a clean cloth after each round of cooking. That’s why people find induction cooktops quite convenient.
On the other side, they provide you with the opportunity of safe cooking. The produced magnetic fields can make heat in the cookware almost instantly. Once you’ve completed cooking and taken the cookware away from the cooktop, the heat will disappear. This is the difference between induction cooktops and traditional cookers.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve already known what induction cooktops are and how they work. Using an induction cooktop will be a smart decision for you if you like its higher levels of safety, better cooking control, and quick heating feature. Keep in mind that you won’t feel any heat when you turn on the induction cooktop and place your hand on it.
It’s because your cooktop requires a pan to generate heat, through which a moving magnetic field can produce an electric current. However, using an induction cooktop is safe, and this is the main difference between traditional cooktops and induction cooktops.