I just bought an Aroma induction burner and I love it. It just has buttons from 1-6. From blazing fast to a low simmer.Temperatures wouldn't mean anything to me, any more than they would on gas or electric stoves.

I've got to disagree. I guess if your an experienced cook you know when oil is at 375. I don't. If I set the burner to a temp it will stay +/- 5degrees of setting. I like to poach eggs. Set it for 190 and that's what I get. I really think its handy.

I've got to disagree. I guess if your an experienced cook you know when oil is at 375. I don't. If I set the burner to a temp it will stay +/- 5degrees of setting. I like to poach eggs. Set it for 190 and that's what I get. I really think its handy.

To answer the OP's question, none of the induction ranges currently available in the North American market have the kind of separate temp settings that you get on the portable units. But they do have additional stepping points between the numbers that pretty much accomplish the same thing.

On to the other points.

Seems to me that those "temp" settings are just additional digital steps and moving from the numeric to the temp settings simply lets you pick heat levels that fall between the 1-9 integer number settings. Rather than actually being temperature controls, they actually are just additional "steps" that allow somewhat finer control than you might think you'd get with just the 6 or 9 numbered steps.

For example, if setting "2" is too low and the next step up, setting "3" is too high, switching over to the temp control and using the 250F or the 210F setting might be just right.

Most induction ranges (except the Whirlpool and Dacor induction ranges) have at least 19 step settings. So, you might find that, say, a setting of 2.5 is the ideal setting for poaching eggs with your particular pan.

I believe that the Electrolux induction ranges and cooktops have additional steps at the low end of the number scale, so you might wind up with 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, etc.

I've never seen a portable induction burner that, when set to 190F would actually give you 190F. (Although, I did use a Cooktek unit for awhile that could come pretty close with a sufficient quanity of water in a pot). It's just that a 190F temperature setting sounds a good deal less arbitrary that "1.75" and it may seem more intuitive to use 190F for poaching eggs. It may not actually be 190F bit it is close enough to work.

For example, on my current portable, a Max Burton, a setting of 150 will result in water temps cycling between between between roughly 140F and 160F, with the temperature varying across the pan. (Measured with a Thermapen.) That temperature might still leave you with what you regard as perfectly poached eggs, nonetheless. But, if you were trying to do precision sous vide poached eggs ala Modernist Cuisine . . . well, t'aint gonna happen.

I'm recalling a very detailed and very long discussion of this subject over on chowhound a year or so ago. The thread was started by a poster who was very disappointed that he couldn't use the MB for precision-temperature settings for sous-vide cooking he wanted to do. If anybody is interested, I'll see if I can find the discussion and post the link when I get some time.

Another example: when used with my pressure cooker, the "2" setting is not hot enough and the "3" setting is too hot to maintain steady pressure at the "second ring" but switching to the temp scale setting of 250F hits right in the middle. Once I know that correlation, it becomes a convenience just as finding that the 190F setting might turn out to perfectly poach the eggs you want. On a cooktop or range, I might be using a "2.3" or "2.5" setting.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Sun, Aug 3, 14 at 9:53

JW, your post makes a good point. I've never seen an induction range, I didn't realize they had that many settings. I guess I've been lucky with my burners they seem to do what I want at the temp that I want

I was disappointed that I couldn't set a specific temp on my induction cooktop. My portable had this feature. My DM had a similar feature on her very old GE coil top
have a wolf - once you figure out the settings - it works great. I have even used it as a "crock pot". I put a probe inside the pot and it held a very steady temperature.

I realize this post started and ended 4 years ago, but perhaps I can help future readers looking at the induction type cooktops or portable "burners."

The NuWave units all seem to have cooking temperature settings which supposedly correlate to the temperature of the pan when cooking. I believe there are 47 individual temperature settings bettween 100 degrees F and 575 degrees F. In order to achieve that type of control they would have to calibrate the units. It very well could be that these things are perfectly calibrated. There are a lot of people with the tools to determine the temperature of the pan/pot, so they should be providing something fairly honest. But if you want to check the temp settings yourself, you can do the calibration with a glass candy thermometer, pot, water, and oil. Set a pot or pan with a cup of water on the induction pad and set the temperature to 100 degrees F. Give it time to heat and set the thermometer into the water. Give the thermometer time to adjust to the temperature and write down the reading on the thermometer. Do that in 20 degree increments until the water is boiling. Write down both the setting on the NuWave and the reading on the thermometer. Above 212 degrees (at sea level), water will NOT get any hotter. Boiling is as hot as it gets. If you want to check temperatures higher than 212, you will have to use oil. But for temps from 100 to 212, you can do this with water. There is probably no way to adjust the settings to show you what the thermometer tells you, but if you know the pot "runs hot" then you can mentally adjust your cooking. Higher than boiling I might check every 30 degrees just to finish in a reasonable time. If there seems to be a discrepancy at a certain temperature, then check and recheck. Recheck the temperatures 10 degrees hotter and cooler. This is easy to do, so why not do it.

And if you think your sous vide heater is any better, do the same thing and calibrate it, too.

My CookTek has a temperature sensor under the glass. I don't use it that much because it isn't that exact, being that it isn't inside the pot. I think the Bosch achieves something along those lines in that it has an external sensor that reads the temperature of the outside of the (special) pan.