Best Induction Burner? Here’s What We Found Testing 6 Top Sellers

How can you know if you're actually buying the best induction burner for your needs? Countertop induction burners promise fast boiling, precise temperature control, and restaurant-level performance… but when you plug one in at home, how many of those promises actually hold up? 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been putting several of the most popular single-burner induction cooktops through a battery of real-world tests—boil speed, temperature accuracy, heat distribution, noise levels, and more—to find out which ones actually perform… and which ones just look good on the box.

What are the best induction cooktops?

Today we are comparing 5 different portable induction cooktop models, with a bonus aspirational option that costs about 10x the price of the others. Let's introduce the contenders:

We'll be the first to admit that even including the Breville induction cooktop in this roundup is obviously unfair. With the stark contrast in price, we could have left it out entirely. But even though you might never be in the market to actually purchase a Rolls-Royce, it can still be fun to see what high end models are capable of. So we've kept it in as a fun aspirational contestant, but Breville will only be auditing this class, so it doesn't skew the curve.

Disclaimer

By the way, for full transparency, we purchased most of these induction cooktops for testing ourselves, except for the Hamilton Beach and The Breville Control Freak, which were provided to us by the manufacturers. No brand is paying us to make this article, so if that type of content is for you, let's dive in.

Intro to Induction Technology

Real quick, if you're not familiar with induction cooking, it's quite different than what you can expect from electric or gas stoves. Induction cooking uses electromagnetic energy to heat the pan, not the air around it. Because of that, these types of cooktops require pots and pans that are magnetic to function. These days, it's fairly easy to find induction compatible cookware, but you'll know for sure if you can stick a magnet to the bottom of it.

Barbecue Lab Tested: Boiled Water

We decided to begin with a simple boiling water test. Here's the setup: We used a 3qt Hexclad pot and filled it with 2 quarts of tap water.

Now, we know that water boils at 212°F, but adjusting for sea level and barometric pressure that day, we're looking for 210°. 

The test started by inserting a Thermoworks food probe into the water and tracking temperature on the Signals. Since we're calculating the boil with a thermometer, we're leaving the lid off, so of course it's going to take longer to reach a boil than if it were covered.

Between each test we put the snow outside to work helping the pot reach the same approximate starting temperature. 

Results

The Nuwave Gold took the longest to reach 210°, with a final time of 13 minutes and 9 seconds. Hamilton Beach hit the boil at 10 minutes and 50 seconds, followed by the Duxtop at 10 minutes and 44 seconds, and Amazon Basics at 10 minutes 24 seconds. The Nuwave Pro Chef was the quickest, reaching the boiling point at 9 minutes and 22 seconds.

And I'm sure it's no surprise to any of us that the Breville outperformed them all, reaching uncovered boiling water at just 8 minutes and 40 seconds.

Barbecue Lab Tested: Recovery

Once each induction cooktop found the boiling point, I dropped in a 1/2 pint of packed snow to shock the water and see how long it took to return to a boil. 

Results

The Nuwave Gold took 2:39. The Duxtop took 2:13. Hamilton Beach and Amazon Basics both tied, taking 2:11 and the Nuwave Pro Chef was the fastest, taking 1:31. The Breville was only a little bit faster, returning to a boil in just 1:19.

Barbecue Lab Tested: Time To 350

Next, we decided to see how long each induction cooktop took to quickly heat a cast iron skillet to 350°. We're using the Smithey 12" skillet that we reviewed a couple of weeks ago, and we placed the Thermoworks Pro Surface Thermapen in the center. Each burner was set to 350° (or in some cases, 360 if 350 wasn't an option) and the stopwatch began. 

Results

The Nuwave Gold took the longest at 3:32. The Nuwave Pro Chef took 1:56, the Hamilton Beach took 1:31, The Duxtop took 1:40, and Amazon Basics only took 1:04. Surprisingly, the Breville induction cooktop found itself in the middle of the pack this go around, taking 1:52.

Barbecue Lab Tested: Accuracy

Next, we really wanted to know how accurate the temperature was and how stable or consistent it holds. So we set out to test this in a couple different ways.

First, we filled a HexClad 2 Quart Pot with 1 Quart of water, and set the induction cooktop to 200 degrees. Again, we inserted a Thermoworks thermometer, tracking the temperature on our Signals for 30 minutes. We were curious if, like a sous vide, the burners were able to hold the water at a consistent 200°, once that temperature was reached.

Results

The Duxtop induction cooktop climbed in temperature for about 8 minutes and then leveled out, averaging 21° under the target.

The Amazon Basics burner took about 6 or 7 minutes to reach 200° and then held pretty steady but averaged 9° over the target the whole time.

The Nuwave Pro Chef took 13 minutes to reach 200°, and once it was there it averaged 7 degrees over the target.

The Hamilton Beach induction cooktop hit 200° in six minutes and then zig-zagged in temperature, swinging plus or minus 10° throughout the test, but averaged 4° under target.

The Nuwave Gold took about 15 minutes to climb up to 200°, but once it got there, it stayed within an average of 1.8 degrees under the target.

The Breville reached 200° in 4 minutes and was able to maintain an average of 0.89 degrees under the target for the remainder of the test. Breville had a super power in this test, though, because it includes its own thermometer that helps inform the induction cooktop how things are going inside the pot, helping it maintain an incredibly accurate temperature.

Barbecue Lab Tested: Temperature stability

We were curious how temperature would be affected in a dry pan, without food or liquid acting as an insulator. So for this next test we used a Hexclad skillet and placed our Thermoworks weighted griddle probe in the center, reporting temperature readings to the ThermaQ every minute for 15 minutes. With the induction cooktop set to 350, these are the results.

Results

In nearly every case we saw the temperature climb past 350, then drop back down to overcorrect, and eventually they all leveled out. So we're going to report the difference between the highest temperature spike and the lowest temperature drop. 

The Amazon Basics saw a 254° swing in temperature, from the highest reading to the lowest. 

Duxtop saw a 220° difference in temperature. 

The Nuwave Pro Chef saw a swing of 193°. 

The Hamilton Beach experienced a 158° difference. 

And the Nuwave Gold appeared to be the most stable, with a swing of 135° from highest to lowest readings.

And, for what it's worth, the Breville "Control Freak" lived up to its name keeping things pretty well under control with only 32° swing in temperature over 15 minutes.

Why do people use induction cooktops?

In just a second we're going to be looking at more of the user experience aspects of these cooktops, but first I want to pass a question off to you.

We're using induction cooktops here at the Lab because they're easy to move around for video production purposes, but also, we don't have a stove here in our new location.

I'm curious in what context you would use an induction burner. Are you taking it camping? Is your home kitchen in the middle of a remodel and you need to still be able to cook for your family? Help us understand how and where you're using your induction burners so we can better serve you with future content.

Barbecue Lab Tested: dB readings

Countertop appliances like this can sometimes be surprisingly loud, so we used our handy decibel reading app to measure each cooktop during the heat-up phase.

The loudest of the group was the Duxtop with a max reading of 79.1 dB. Amazon Basics reached 67.3 dB. Nuwave Gold reached 62.1 dB, Hamilton Beach maxed out at 59 dB, and the Nuwave Pro Chef was the quietest with a max reading of 54.8 dB. The Breville Control Freak fell in the middle of the pack with a max volume of 62.4 dB

Our User Experience

When it comes to evaluating each of these induction cooktops, an important factor is the user experience. What's it like working with each of these? And unlike all the previous categories, this one is going to be a little more subjective and based on David's and my own opinions, so take it for what it's worth. Let's go through them one at a time to see how user friendly they are. 

We found the best induction cooktop

We've reached the end of our testing, so now it's time to tabulate scores and declare a winner. As promised, we're excluding the Breville from our ranking because we're not here to compare apples to Wagyu Ribeyes. But it was a little entertaining to see how well it works.

With an average position of 4.3, The Duxtop burner came in last place.

In 4th place we have the Amazon Basics with an average score of 3.8.

The Nuwave Gold fell in the middle of the pack with an average ranking of 3.6.

In second place, we have Hamilton Beach with an average score of 3.2.

And in first place, the Nuwave Pro Chef ended our tests with an average score of 2.3.

When you use our links to make a purchase, you support the channel, and we can keep making tests that bypass the hype and identify the Best Gear.

Watch our Best Induction Burner video to see them all in action!