TheAvidHomeChef
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Posts posted by TheAvidHomeChef
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On 7/8/2023 at 10:32 AM, Sad Dean said:
The noise is there no matter what. Maybe people who rewired the unit for European market did something wrong. Nobody wants to provide me with software updates. I texted sage(breville in Europe), but they assumed that my control freak is a coffee machine. They really do not do any service in Europe on these units.
Mine have high pitch sound as well but only when it's turned on and with 3ply cookwares. It's quite annoying to be honest. But I learned to get used to it. When the unit is off, I only hear cooling fans.
I don't know how it works for the European market. But do they have household warranty for it?
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On 6/18/2023 at 5:20 PM, afs said:
Well you've convinced me to pull this one off my list of cooktops to investigate, at least in its current iteration. An accurate measurement of the current temperature is something I use all the time on the Control Freak, and accuracy within a degree or two is pretty darn useful as well.
src: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cafe-5-7-cu-ft-slide-in-electric-induction-true-convection-range-with-steam-cleaning-and-in-oven-camera-customizable-stainless-steel/6360807.p?skuId=6360807
BTW, here's the photo from the reviewer on Best Buy's website who says that GE's cooktop temperature sensor isn't sealed well, and that it's a design issue rather than a faulty unit. It looks like this is more of a spring-loaded temperature probe than the kind of clean integrated solution I'm used to with the Control Freaks.I also noticed that the temperature sensor is on a small-to-medium coil, not on the larger coil. I am not sure if it's useful for 24-28cm pans (~9-11") pans, or more useful for 14-20cm (~6"-8") pans.
Maybe one of these otherwise-capable companies could do a deal with Breville and bring their tech (still under patent in the U.S. market for probably another decade) to a range unit. Or maybe other markets will see innovative large-format cooktops first, and then they can import them to us after we've salivated over them for a few years.
I hate to analyze appliances based on the reviews and photos of others and based on manuals which don't deep-dive into the kind of details that matter to me. One of the GE stoves has gotten pretty great reviews otherwise, so perhaps this is just an unfortunate chink in otherwise good armor, a feature that shipped too early.I have also read reviews of GE's cafe line. Many of their product looks like Breville's, such as the coffee machine. It seems like they try to do affordable version of Breville's products which is great but their design is no where near Breville's. Like this temperature sensor should have a rubber silicone seal between the gaps. Only Breville can do this level of attention to details.
Recently I came across a startup company that's doing a similar product as the Control Freak but for the households. It's called Kitchen Automatique. I had a few email exchange with the co-founders already. Their product sound pretty promising!
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3 minutes ago, yimyammer said:
sounds awesome, I'd buy
any idea why to was scrapped?
I wish they'd come up with a residential induction cooktop with 4+ burners, I'd replace my gas cooktop if that were an optionNo one knows why it was scrapped!
My guess is they don't know the position of the product. It seems like they were still trying to market it as a commercial kitchen product. But their screen and UI looks a lot more like it's for home cooks.
I'd consider buying one as well but need a bit more info.
It seems like everyone with Control Freaks also all have stovetops at home. Hmm...wonder why Breville hasn't thought about that.
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On 5/29/2023 at 11:03 AM, SantiagoDraco said:
Because 2 is better than 1!
I use 1 daily, the second is more for when I'm cooking something in big batches where I may need to brown a lot of meat (say Green Chili Pork Stew, or Beef Stew, etc), or cooking multi-part recipes in parallel. I cook a lot of omelets and sauces.
The second unit is also the one I take with me camping or for parties or events with friends.
Overkill quite likely
I'm curious what are you using to power it when you are camping? I'd love to take it out for picnic/BBQ in parks. But I don't have a RV or vehicle with outlet to plug in.
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Found this online. It's called "the Prodigy"( Breville knows how to name things). Heard it got cancelled...what a shame. Would you guys get one if it wasn't cancelled and which new functions do you think is very useful?
I'd definitely go with this recipe programming ability, much better than the current USB one which I never use.
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On 5/27/2023 at 4:41 PM, afs said:
Here are a few things I noticed in the manuals:
- The front left burner has a temperature sensor.
- When in precision cooking mode, one sets the target temperature for the burner. It looks like the oven may only show the target temperature for the pan, rather than the current temperature of the pan. It does have a preheating indication.
- In precision cooking mode, the cooktop wants to know if the pan is stainless steel or cast iron or "other".
- Hestan Cue pans can be used with any of the four burners, with a temperature sensor in the pan.
- Only one burner can be used in "precision" mode at the same time.
- They tend to talk about temperature in 5, 10 or usually 25 degree increments, Fahrenheit. So the temperature accuracy and precision is probably not in the same neighborhood as the Control Freak.
It looks like this might effectively be a budget version of the Control Freak concept. It's interesting, for sure. I think that "precision cooking" in the traditional sense might be a bit of a stretch of the term, but precision is a general concept so it's not necessarily inaccurate.
On the manual for the Cafe one, it says the temperature range for the precision burner is 100F to 425F. That does sound like it's not as precise as the Control Freak. But again, do you think there are recipes that need below 100F cooking temperature?
Something I also noticed that's different from the control freak is: the screen on this Cafe cooktop doesn't tell you the actual temperature. It only give you the number for the set temperature. This kind of defeats the purpose of the precise temperature. Knowing where I'm in the pre-heating is at is quite important. Here's a review that reveals something not so great about it:
It would be a better idea if the controls are displayed on the large screen above it. But I guess that's a separate product. It already got the recipe guidance. I don't why they can't put that up there.
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On 5/22/2023 at 8:10 PM, afs said:
I believe that the GE Profile cooktop has a regular induction burner (no temperature sensor), but that it has Bluetooth and Hestan Cue pan compatibility. In other words, it would use the built-in temperature sensors in the Hestan Cue pans to report the pan temperature. If you love the Hestan Cue pans, that might be a good match.
The main built-in cooktop I've seen with a pan temperature sensor is this one from Miele. It has an IR (non-contact) sensor on one hob. I'm not sure how one calibrates it, how well it works with pans that don't have clean bottoms, or how easy it is to clean. But it has me intrigued
No, this is a new one I believe. Yes, you still need the Hestan Cue app. You need an iPad or other mobile device for the recipe guidance.
The miele one definitely looks interesting. I can see more and more established manufacturers are going this way with the sensor on glass tops.
The Hestan Cue pans are not great, to be honest. It makes a lot of noise when cooking. And its Bluetooth is quite a hassle to use. Also, have to twist the cap to turn it on and off every time you cook.
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On 5/17/2023 at 1:37 PM, afs said:
Please don't let me be the one to keep you from buying a Vollrath unit. They make some nice stuff. It's a different kind of induction cooktop than the Control Freak, with different strengths and weaknesses. I like my Vollrath unit, mostly because it's 3800 watts and boils water incredibly fast--but also because the "pan still heats when it's lifted a little bit off the surface" feature is kind of cool.
One thing that I didn't realize I loved about my Control Freak--until I got my Vollrath unit--is the smooth glass top. I frequently rotate pans and slide them a little bit to one side or the other on the Control Freak. The Vollrath unit has more of a grippy top, so I need to lift a pan to move it. I assume that's an intentional design decision, and it may be useful for keeping pans from sliding off on uneven surfaces and perhaps has other benefits as well.
Regarding One Top, well, it's a roughly-$100 budget induction cooktop with a small induction coil and a smartphone app. So as long as one goes into it thinking about having an extra burner or is looking for a very budget solution then it could be a good choice. Its temperature control is along the same probe-in-food line of thought as well; I haven't been able to get pan temperature control to be accurate.
Regarding Hestan Cue, it feels like a higher-end cooktop than the One Top. It doesn't get much use here because it basically only works with the Hestan Cue pans. Those pans are reasonable middle-budget pans (not cheap, but not high-end), not too dissimilar from some of All-Clad's offerings. My first-world problem is that I have induction-compatible Falk copper pans (and also Demeyere Proline/Atlantis pans, etc.) in the kitchen, so I never find myself reaching for the Hestan Cue pans. I'm still glad that I have one, in case I ever see a Hestan Cue recipe I want to try out. For people learning how to cook, picking up a Hestan Cue cooktop and a Hestan Cue pan (or maybe even two) is not a bad idea.
Each of these cooktops has its place, its pros, and its cons. My daily workhorses are the Control Freaks and my water boiling monster is the Vollrath 3800W unit. But the others have their place too, and I'm glad that there are a lot of options out there.Do you have a built-in cooktop at home? I one time saw GE profile has a model that has precision temperature built-in. But only one burner comes with a glass top temp sensor. It also advertises that you can connect it with the Hestan Cue app via bluetooth for guided recipes. Wattage wise, it has one burner capable of 3700W. The rest are 2500W. I wonder how many people have bought this. Seems like precision cooking is the future. I don't currently own the house I live in. So a built-in one is out of question...
The Vollrath one...hmm I think another Control Freak would make more sense. But I'm still waiting and shopping around.
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On 5/15/2023 at 5:19 PM, afs said:
I have a Hestan Cue, a One Top, a Vollrath HPI4-3800 and a couple Control Freaks here. I'll share my experience. Your results may vary.
The Control Freak is a different class of device than the others. It has really tight temperature control and it measures the temperature of the pan with a contact sensor. It works really well for precision cooking, using small and medium-sized pans. Compared to anything else in the 1800W class, I haven't found anything else which compares. Breville got a patent on their design a decade or so ago, and I suspect it will be a while before we see anything which competes well against it. I just wish they'd make a high-wattage version with a large coil.
The Vollrath is a nice induction unit but, unlike the Control Freak, it does not have a pan-contact temperature sensor. If you ramp up the power ("temperature") slowly and you have quite a bit of thermal load in the pan, the under-glass temperature sensor might work for your application. And if you're cooking something with a temperature probe sticking into the pot, the Vollrath might also work for you.
Just be aware that the Vollrath units' temperature accuracy/precision claims are almost surely related to the temperature probe, not to the pan temperature control. The first time I tested my HPI-3800, I put an induction-compatible copper pan on it and set it to a medium temperature and it quickly shot up to temperatures that threatened to warp the pan (500F+, 260C+) but didn't realize the pan was above the set temperature. I think the product is designed for and marketed towards commercial kitchens, rather than precision-cooking chefs.Thanks for the reminder on the pan contact temperature sensor. Vollrath almost got me. Being under the glass is definitely going to make pan temperature sensing a lot less accurate. Also, I noticed the Vollrath only has the temperature setpoint and doesn't tell you the actual temperature.
I already have a Control Freak and wanted to buy another one. But was wondering if there're any alternatives out there. So far I haven't found anything close. However, Breville has it's own drawbacks too. Like the programming part is so outdated and rarely used. Ideally, I would like it to have some sort of recipe guidance like the ones on Hestan Cue and One top. I heard they planned a 2nd generation with WiFi but scrapped it according to a FCC record.
How was your experience with Hestan Cue and One Top? I had those too.
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I'm thinking about getting a second Control Freak. I heard some of you were able to get it for $800USD. How did you find the discounts? Or were they just used ones?
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Has anyone here used or bought Vollrath MPI4-1800S 4-Series Induction Range 120v ? It seems like a slightly cheaper alternative to Breville Control Freak. I have had One top by Cuisinart and Hestan Cue. The experience was not great. And wanted to try some of the higher end ones.
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On 4/29/2023 at 6:27 PM, dtremit said:
At some point these were rebranded as "Goodful by Cuisinart" — those appear to be discontinued but available a fair number of places
I bought one a while ago and returned it. Apparently, Tasty or Cuisinart no longer updates the One Top app. The app's latest update was in 2021/2020. There're only 40 or so recipes on it. Half of them suffer from crashing or not usable.
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6 minutes ago, gfweb said:
Its a real challenge maintaining exact temp with heating from below and no circulator.
Cooktops aren't well-suited to SV as far as I can see.
And an immersion circulator well-suited to the job can be had for <$200
Many of the sousvide sticks are under $200. But it would be an overkill to have two heating sources.
Maybe future portable cooktops should include a temperature probe that's has a small propellor in it.
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Has anyone been able to find new precision induction cooktops?
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Any news on the latest cooktop that's capable of doing sousvide? I'm hunting for a new portable cooktop/ burner.
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Hi! I'm a long time Breville Control Freak owner here.
Been owning it for a few years now. Just heard this forum and decided to join.
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Hi Everyone,
I love trying food from different cultures. I also love buying the latest kitchen tech and gadgets. Feel free to send me recommendations for relevant topics and threads. Excited to talk to you all!
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New Toy: Breville/Polyscience Control Freak!
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
This is exactly what I got with thinner cookware 5 ply or less. On the other hand, my Demerye 7 ply never makes any vibration noise.