On 8/22/2021 at 10:30 PM, horseflesh said:A few weeks ago my NXR gas range/cooktop bit the dust... gas leak! While I've been dealing with the warranty rodeo I have been doing all my cooking outside on a pretty junky induction cooktop. And I hate it, I absolutely hate it... primarily because the heating element is really small, so pots tend to get a hot spot in the middle. It's especially bad with cookware that doesn't have a good heat spreader, like carbon steel... or especially cast iron. It's almost unusable with either of those kinds of pans.
I've been eyeing the Control Freak for a couple of years but with my new recent induction experience I am increasingly gun shy simply because it is an induction cooktop. Those of you who have and love the Control Freak, I would love for you to tell me that there's nothing to worry about in this regard. Or if it IS a drawback, knowing that up front would be a big help too. It would be too bad if I could not use my nice Darto carbon steel pans on the Control Freak, but it might not be a deal killer.
in terms the burner's size and evenness of the field, the CF is acceptable.
however, even if i had several CFs, i personally would not want it as my main cooktop.
- for general cooking, i prefer controlling power output (open loop control). 0%-100% (100 settings) or actual power in watts would be ideal. instead, you only get three power output settings, and beyond that you must select a temperature setpoint (closed loop). turning the setpoint all the way up is not enough for good open loop control with only three output settings. you can't trick it to work around it.
- it is rather finicky with cookware compatibility/recognition. slightly warped stuff that should work (and DOES work on other induction cooktops) often won't work on CF.
for me, it is a specialty tool. i usually cook on my miele induction range which gives 12 power output settings.
love the build quality, though.
