NuwaveGold Precision Induction Cooktop, Portable, Powerful with Large 8” Heating Coil,100°F to 575°F, 3 Wattage Settings, 12” Heat-Resistant Cooking Surface, Premium10.5” Non-Stick Fry Pan Included

A friend I care for had a stroke a few years ago that affected her short term memory. Recently she moved to an apartment with a gas stove after having used an electric one her whole life. 1 smoke alarm scare later and I finally decided to try and find an alternative as she could never get a handle on regulating the temp on the gas stove.Fast forward to a month later, after much research, and I settled on this induction cooktop. My mother had already been singing the praises of induction, herself having switched from a very nice natural gas stove. And she was absolutely right, as usual.#1 And very important, unlike some other models this one has general low, medium, high, ect. buttons. This was a key dividing factor for this particular unit as I needed it to be as simple as possible. Thankfully they are easy to read and easy to press.#2 The ability to have you pan perfectly evenly heated and STAY at the temp you set it cannot be overestimated! Medium is truely medium, not like electric where it cycles on and off, and not like gas where you have hot, hotter, and inferno. The beautifully even sear you get on foods is mouth watering and your pancakes will always be perfect.#3 SAFETY! This shuts off after a certain amount of time, and because of the perfect heating you can get distracted and come back and not have burned your food. This helps her and I as she’s forgetful when she cooks, and I sometimes have to attend to something for her when I’m cooking. I can set it on medium and it’s a true medium, no over heating, so not oil popping, and lovely golden browning every single time.I cannot emphasize the even heating enough. With just a tad to much heat you go from golden to burnt very fast. With this unit you set it and forget it. No fiddling with the temp while cooking and you have a much longer window to flip before it ever starts to even think of burning (on the right temp of course).Also if you have an Amazon card you can stretch out the payments 6 months, no interest. Very helpful on a fixed income. ~$26 a month and no more trying to burn down your kitchen.

This review is for the NuWave Gold Precision Induction Cook-top (PIC).I received the unit in excellent condition; no visible damage to external packaging and it arrived on the scheduled date; excellent work NuWave/Amazon. I unpacked the NuWave and reviewed the instructions. Other than the slight odor from the first few uses, as is stated in manual, I have had no problems with the unit so far.I have to say the NuWave Gold PIC is by far so much easier to control the cooking process than the almost new Frigidaire gas range that came with my current home. While that range has control knobs that rotate from Off, Lite, Hi, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and Lo over 195 degrees of rotation; Hi to Lo only covers 115 degrees and only the last 15-20 degrees (2 to Lo) makes any change in the burner flame. My local gas supplier confirmed this is very common for consumer gas ranges. The NuWave is much more like using an electric range such as the GE model I had in my previous home; back when I enjoyed cooking. The last 20+ years, cooking has been more of a chore. Not anymore. I can hardly wait for the next chance to use the NuWave. Plus, given the recent news about home air quality and natural gas ranges potentially going away; I decided it was time to try induction. Since receiving the NuWave my existing gas range has literally become additional counter-space as I haven't used its cook-top at all.Although I saw a number of reviews indicating the keyboard cover deteriorates over time/use; the features and price put the NuWave Gold at top of my list. I'm hoping this problem doesn't show up for several years of use. It would be great if NuWave made the PIC with a better or user replaceable keyboard cover; but that's not offered at this time.I selected the NuWave Gold primarily because it offered the larger cooking surface (I frequently use 7” and larger cookware) compared to other induction units AND more importantly it had 10 degree temperature adjustments. Others I looked into typically had 20 or so settings for cooking and a lot of reviewers grumbled about that; NuWave Gold (and Flex) has around 50. Granted the NuWave Gold does have 6 predetermined temperature settings; but all can be adjusted via the +/- buttons. I have noticed that all but the low preset button will initially display an xx5 temperature value and the 5F part will be dropped once a +/- button is pressed. After that, the display will show temperature by 10's until a setting other than low is again selected. I was so pleased with cooking my first batch of bacon on the NuWave. I started on the Medium selection; but the sizzle was bit too fast. I lowered the temp by 20 degrees and had a wonderful cooking temp that made near perfect bacon.The built-in count-down timer is an excellent feature. It is so convenient to adjust the time so the NuWave will shut down after my preset cooking time is complete. However, I haven't quite figured out how to apply the programmable feature. I understand how to use it; but there's no way to tell if the food has come to a boil or reached a required cooking temp. Or when it's time to reduce the heat and simmer or stay warm. My best guess, since there's no temperature probe like with my microwave, is that you have to monitor a prior cooking process once or twice and record the time it takes. Hopefully your cookware selection and recipe volume doesn't vary by much so that the time you learn works out properly. Plus the program is deleted once power is removed from the NuWave. It would be great to have them remain; especially if could enter say up to ten different user programs.In anticipation of the NuWave, I also purchased new cookware set. A Tramontina HA aluminum, induction ready, ceramic coated set, with insulated handles. It's a beautiful cookware set; but when I started using them on the NuWave they didn't seem to heat up very quickly. Performance was similar to using my old Pampered Chef HA aluminum non-induction cookware on the gas range. Fast heating is supposed to be one of the key benefits of induction cooking. So I set up a comparison with my old stainless cookware that readily passed the magnet test. To compare each piece of cookware, I placed a one inch depth of fresh tap water in the pot/pan with a starting temp ~ 55-60F. I then used a Fluke 87 Mark V multimeter with a type K thermocouple for the temperature measurements. The thermocouple rested in the upper 1/4” of the water in the center of the pan. I used a Poniie PN1500 energy monitor for the wattage readings. All tests used the NuWave on it's maximum “Sear” setting. Time was measured using the countdown feature of the NuWave. The SS dia column refers to the stainless diameter on the bottom of the pot/pan in inches; a similar inch measurement was made for the overall bottom diameter. Obviously the volume of water in each pan varied; but notice the consistency in the heating times and how the wattage reduced according to SS dia. Test results are as follows:Vessel Manu SS dia Bottom diameter Wattage Mins to 180F Water Vol1.5qt sauce Tra 4-7/8 5-3/16 536-573 7+ 1.5c3qt sauce Tra 5-1/8 6-1/2 745-771 7+ 2.5c4.5qt saute' Tra 8-1/8 9/1/4 1200-1256 7+ 5.75c5qt dutch Tra 6-3/8 7-3/4 1065-1118 6+ 3.75c8” skillet Tra 5-1/8 6 705-748 8+ 2.75c10” skillet Tra 5-13/16 7 955-1014 7+ 4c1/2qt sauce Unk 3-3/4 NA 785-818 2+ 1c1qt sauce Unk 4-1/2 NA 964-972 2+ 1.5c2qt sauce Unk 6 NA 1225-1248 2+ 2.25c4qt pot Unk 7-1/2 NA 1417-1468 3+ 3.5c5qt dutch Unk 8-1/4 NA 1501-1530 4+ 4c8.75” skillet Unk 7-1/2 NA 1487-1505 3+ 3.75c11” sq griddle Green NA 10-1/2 1305-1345 4+ 3cMy old stainless set dated from 1980's and was simply marked “stainless Korea” on the bottom. They appeared to be made from 20 gauge material and are fairly light weight pots/pans. I also recently purchased a GreenPan griddle with it's Magneto induction coating and added it to the results. However it could not be filled with 1” layer of water – about 3/8” was all it would hold.Notice how much lower the wattage is and the longer heating times on the Tramontina cookware compared to a similar size SS diameter stainless item. Clearly the very thin “holey” SS bottom panel is not designed for optimum heat transfer on the Tramontina cookware. This was confirmed via discussion with a NuWave representative – thicker SS will work far better. My magnet test also confirmed the Tramontina cookware had a much weaker “pull” vs the old SS cookware. While the GreenPan griddle also had a somewhat weak magnetic “pull”, it's Magneto performance was clearly much better than the Tramontina cookware design. The data clearly shows how well the NuWave PIC is protecting itself with the smaller size cookware and their poorer induction power absorption by reducing output power. What struck me odd is, as the volumes of water varied with each piece, the heating times remained relatively constant within the same cookware sets.While the commonly used “induction compatible” or “induction ready” statements by manufacturers are true; they are clearly not always the most efficient design to use with induction cooking. I'd like to see a “induction optimized” marking for cookware that gets the most efficiency out of induction heating. This “induction optimized” cookware should work as well and heat as fast as good stainless performs on an induction cook-top (consumer testing labs are you reading this?) My takeaway from all this testing is that you should buy good heavy stainless cookware with a strong magnetic attraction for use with the NuWave. The NuWave will perform it's best with that type of cookware; and make you much happier using it.One other thing I'll mention. The NuWave Gold model is fairly large and uses a good bit of counter-space. So when it is not in use, I created a simple wooden stand to hold the unit vertically on it's back edge (see pics). Most wall cabinets are 16” above the counter-top and the Gold will fit nicely at the back of the counter when standing vertical. Please note; NuWave does not offer any stand like I'm describing. I used two 3-1/2 x 8 x 3/4” wood pieces for front and back of the stand. The NuWave Gold uses a 12-3/8” diameter for the 1” thick top section and a 12” diameter for the 1-5/8” thick main body down to the counter-top. I added an extra 1/16” to these two thicker measurements for a felt liner in my stand design. Both of these thick wood pieces were cut from a 3-1/2 x 3-1/2 x 8”. The larger diameter arc was centered 1/2” in from the bottom edge of the 1-1/16” piece. The smaller diameter arc was centered 11/16” in from the bottom edge of the 1-11/16” piece. Arcs were cut on a band saw. The three thinner pieces (two 3/4” pieces and the 1-1/16” piece) were then squared up as a complete assembly; thru holes marked/drilled into these, 3/4” in from ends and 3/4” up from the bottom . One of the 3/4” front/back pieces accepts 1-1/4” long wood screws securing it to the 1-11/16 piece. I used 2-1/2” long wood screws to secure the remaining 3/4” front/back piece thru the 1-1/16” piece and into the 1-11/16 from the opposite side. Felt pieces were cut to fit the stand interior sides and bottom (curved pieces). A spray adhesive was used to attach the felt to the inside of the stand. The stand is simple, stable, and secures the NuWave Gold very well. Hopefully my idea benefits your use of the NuWave and your counter-space.In summary, I would absolutely buy the NuWave Gold again. I'm currently mulling over if I covered my range top with a piece of counter top; then I could buy a second Gold unit, make another stand, have two cook surfaces, and even more usable counter-space! My enjoyment for cooking has returned!

I ordered one 2 years ago and really liked it. Used it instead of my stovetop gas burners for most things, as it was safer with no flame, boiled water quickly, and had much more precise and reliable temperature controls for simmering, as well as a logical and intuitive control layout that included a timer.A year later, I wanted to buy a second one, but they didnt seem to be available except for a model bundled with an intermediate-quality nonstick pan, which I didnt really need. So I got a Duxtop instead, based on consumer ratings from various websites. The Duxtop was much more cumbersome to use, had less precise temperature settings, a quirky, non-intuitive set of controls, and, worst of all, a timer that automatically reset the temperature back to baseline every time you used it. What? It was ok for boiling things, adequate for imprecise simmers, and pretty useless if you wanted to time anything. It was like a poor amateur imitation of the NuWave, adequate for simple tasks, but not really something you could cook with. After a while, we really got tired of it, bit the bullet, and bought another NuWave, with the included frying pan. The NuWave was great, just like our first one, and it was a real treat to have intuitive controls that really worked and seemed to make cooking effortless. Even the non-stick pan wasn't too bad, despite some of the negative reviews, and we're using it more and more. So far, it seems as good as our more expensive Scanpan CTX's, and is easier to clean. Time will tell, though. Overall, I am very satisfied with the NuWave, and wish I had gotten it right away instead of the Duxtop. The only advantage of having the Duxtop was to make me appreciate the NuWave that much more. With 2, we can move them to various locations if necessary, so 2 people can be cooking and not get in each other's way. We almost never use the gas stove burners now, and the kitchen is a safer, more efficient, more verasatile, and less messy place!

In the past 20 years, this is my 3rd one, only due to the other may be starting to fail a bit. It takes longer to boil water now, after using it for nearly 10 years, often on a daily basis. Since the price is quite high now in Canada, and the availability to purchase, is extremely limited, I decided not to wait, but buy a new one while I can, which always gives me a backup, should my 10 year old one bite the dust. So for now, this new one is a spare. I use mine so much, that I don't want to be without it at any time, thus made the purchase while I could. The heat distribution, timer, reliability are excellent on these. Hands down the best one to buy. L Scott, Ontario, Canada Oct 9-23

This is my first induction cooktop and I am overall extremely impressed and very pleased. Cooked a stir fry this evening after receiving it a few hours earlier and could not be happier. I was initially worried there might be a high pitched noise like many reviews of other makes mentioned, but I was delighted to find there was very little noise at all (and I cooked at 1500w on high) other than a slight fan hum. My wok worked just fine on the 12” area and I believe most of my other existing cookware will also work. Very easy to clean and store, but I have a feeling it won’t be stored very often as it was really fun to use. The only question I have is where is the ‘off switch’… or is there one? I get that once you remove the cookware the heating area then turns off, but I haven’t figured out how to turn off the entire unit without having to unplug it each time. All kinds of new possibilities with this amazing gizmo. Very cool!

I haven't used my stove since I got this little wonder,The degree of control on the temperature is extraordinary, cook to perfection.Great when making candies.

This unit looks realy nice and functions as advertised. I use it in my kitchen to heat my 10" cast iron skillet. No complaints' there. The power cord is a little thinner than I expected. It's connection point to the unit is also not perfessional although suffice for it's operation. The cord can handle the power without getting hot.