The Best Portable Induction Cooktops, According to Our Tests

Our Favorite

We like the Duxtop Induction Cooktop 9600LS for its lightweight portability, ease of storage, and versatility of the temperature and power controls. The durability, control, and performance present an excellent value for the price.

The Tests

When we test products, we try to replicate the home user experience to give accurate impressions and measured results from practical scenarios. After unpacking the induction cooktops, we noted their physical attributes, like the width of the usable cooking surface, controls, and power cord length.

How well did the cooktops perform? To determine this, we started with the simple task of boiling some pasta. We started with six quarts of room temperature water, set the cooktops to their highest setting, and, using a stopwatch, timed how long each cooktop took to bring the water to boiling, as measured by a thermocouple. When the water reached a full boil, as a means of testing the cooktop’s features and functionality, we removed the pot of water from the burner to see if the cooktop went on standby when no pot was present and if we needed to reprogram it or if the cooktop automatically resumed when we returned the pot to the burner. We repeated these steps for those cooktops with a “boil” setting. We then added a pound of penne and cooked the pasta for precisely 11 minutes before draining it and sampling a piece of the cooked pasta to judge its texture and level of doneness.

For the next performance test, we looked at the accuracy of each cooktop’s controls. We set each cooktop to 250°F and placed a cast iron pan on them. Using a stopwatch to monitor the time, we used an infrared thermometer to measure the pan’s temperature when five minutes expired. For those pans that hadn’t reached the target temperature at the five-minute mark, we re-tested the temperature every 30 seconds until it had, noting the additional time required. From 250°F, we increased the temperature to 350°F and then 450°F, checking the pan’s temperature at five minutes and then every 30 seconds if it hadn’t reached the target, again noting the additional time required. 

Using the now-heated cast iron pan, we seared two burger patties for six minutes, turned them, and seared them for another five minutes, or until the patties’ internal temperature reached 160°F. We then removed them from the pan and judged the evenness of the browning and sear. Finally, as with all cooking tasks, we cleaned the cooktops per the manufacturer's instructions, rating the ease or difficulty of the task at the end.

With these tests completed, we scored the cooktops on a scale of one to five on the following criteria.

• Design: In evaluating the design, we looked at the cooktop’s control panel, its temperature control increments, and the accuracy of the control. Then, we looked at the safety features, including any standby modes and how long it took to reach them. We evaluated the portability of the cooktop by how easy it was to pick up and carry and if it had any extra features, like carrying handles or loops for hanging. Finally, we noted any sounds the cooktop made while in operation.
• Ease of Use: Ease of use evaluation consisted of rating the control panel, how intuitive the controls were to interact with, the controls' responsiveness, and the display's quality, wherein we judged the size and brightness of the display to determine if people with vision quality problems might have issues interacting with the cooktop.
• Performance: We compared the performance testing results, including the boiling and pasta cooking, against the same tests conducted on an electric and a gas stove. We also noted any hot or cold spots and unevenness in searing and any discrepancies between the control panel’s temperature and the actual temperature of the cast iron pans.
• Versatility: Based on each cooktop's minimum and maximum temperatures, the temperature increments, and the temperature accuracy, we judged each cooktop’s usefulness across potential cooking tasks.
• Durability: We judged each cooktop’s quality of construction and if that quality hinted at longevity. We also noted any functional issues during testing or if, based on its use, we foresaw the likelihood of problems arising long-term.
  

Factors to Consider

Power and Temperature

With most cooktops, you can adjust the power and temperature. You could use a combination of low power and low temperature to hold dishes at temperature or to replace a double boiler for making hollandaise. You could also set full power and high temperature to reach searing temperatures, but sometimes that might be too much heat and energy for the food.

Temperature control varies with models. Some have 40-degree increments, others have single-degree increments. The best choice for you depends on how much precise control you need over your cooking. An induction cooktop with exact controls, appropriately used, can take the place of an immersion circulator for sous vide cooking, but you may not need that. The price is a good indicator of the precision in most cases, so if you don’t need that level of drill down in your temperature, you might not want to spend the extra money for features you won’t utilize.

Size and Portability

Size is a reasonable consideration for a portable induction cooktop. Your best results will be with pots or pans the size of your cooktop. Portability varies for people, so consider what will be easy for you to move. If the size is awkward or the cooktop is too heavy to carry comfortably, it cuts down on the portability factor. You should probably also consider where you’ll store it and whether the cooktop fits in that drawer, cupboard, or shelf. 

Cookware Compatibility 

Cooking on an induction cooktop limits your choices in cookware. Because induction cooking depends on an electromagnetic bond, your cookware must work with magnets. Stainless steel, clad stainless, and cast iron are suitable pan materials, whereas glass, ceramic, aluminum, and copper are not. A consideration of using heavy pans, like cast iron, is the fragility of the glass cooktop, which could scratch or crack if you bang it with a heavy pan.

Control Panel

Look for an induction cooktop with an intuitive, easy-to-read control panel. Backlit displays are great for clarity of vision. Some cooktops have touchscreen controls, which we found suffer when splattered with grease or fingerprints or when you try to use them with wet hands. 

Features

Features vary by model, but one consistent feature we found is the ability to lock the controls. This feature is great if you have kids around to keep them safe, but locking the controls on a model with a sensitive control panel also helps ensure you don’t change your settings by accidentally bumping them or some such scenario.

We didn’t find "boil" features particularly useful, as there just wasn’t enough energy exchanged fast enough to heat the water at a rate higher than the water could dissipate the energy. The highest and most intense settings on most of the cooktops we tested got the pans too hot to sear without the meat curling up from rapid steam release, so keep that in mind.

Other Portable Induction Cooktops We Tested

Strong Contenders

iSiLER Portable Induction Cooktop (Amazon)
There wasn’t much to knock the iSiLER off the Top Picks list. It performed well in testing but was consistently 10-20 degrees hotter than its setting, and the controls were extremely sensitive and prone to accidental change if not locked.

Tramontina Guru 4 Piece Starter Set (Amazon)
The Tramontina Guru perhaps tries to be too many things. It’s an induction cooker with app integration, several modes for food preparation, and a scale. It’s a fine attempt, but the touchscreen controls are finicky in the face of fingerprints or grease, and the top temperature of 356°F is limiting.

NuWave PIC Double (Amazon)
The PIC’s controls weren’t as intuitive as most of our Top Picks, and the temperature ran extremely high in our searing tests.

NuWave Gold Precision Induction Burner (Amazon)
The NuWave Gold did an excellent job of searing, but it struggled to maintain a boil, and our pasta was undercooked when the cooking time expired.

Hamilton Beach Single Burner 10-Inch Black Induction Cooktop (Amazon)
The Hamilton Beach had temperature inconsistencies that didn’t render it unusable, but it overshot our heating test targets, burning some of the burgers while it underperformed in cooking pasta.

What Didn't Make the List

We tested 11 single-burner cooktops and five double-burners. Not all of that sample population could hit the mark for our recommendation. The Mueller RapidTherm Portable Induction Cooktop (Amazon) had a peculiar design feature that shut the burner off after 18 minutes using the “boil” feature. While that’s a good safety feature, it wasn’t enough time to bring the water to a boil. In our heating tests, it also suffered from sharp temperature spikes of almost 100 degrees. The Cuisinart Double Induction Cooktop (Amazon) lacked any granularity in the temperature settings. Instead, it had numbers from one to five. With those, we saw uneven heating across the burner, and it took 36 minutes to reach 208°F in our boiling test.

Surprisingly, the Hestan Cue Precision Temperature Probe System (HestanCue) underperformed because of its app dependence. Hestan typically ranks high in our product testing, so we were surprised to see that, using the built-in controls, water hadn’t reached 200°F in 20 minutes of cooking. The granularity of control is primarily built into the app, and gaining it via the controls was challenging. The Amazon Basics Portable Induction Cooktop Burner (Amazon) appeared and felt rather flimsy and had very poor temperature control.

Our Expertise

Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Tasting Table, Serious Eats, and other publications.