Anyone using induction?

[Bribie G]

My first son was born following an induction.

 

[takai]

The pots are about 32cm I think.

I use the maxxkon one, goes ok for a cheap unit. A bit noisy though.

If you pig the cake button which is the first button on the left the unit won't stop, some other buttons can stop mid boil.

Seems to be working relatively well holding power on the Stir Fry setting. Will be really useful for doing test batches.

 

[Tex083]

Looks good mate! Might have to fire up the home Brewery now I'm back

 

[Pommy Matt]

Bit of an old thread but this might be useful for someone.
Before moving back to the UK a couple of years ago I sold my 50l pot, mogolian burner and stand. I decided that, one way or another, I was going electric when I got brewing again as the cost, noise and general inconvenience (filling bottles) of gas were getting too much. I quite fancied induction since reading that byo article on it, and when I found the Brewtech SS pot was induction compatible and had the "right" shape (taller than it is wide), I took the plunge and got a Buffalo 3KW burner. It's been a total revelation and I would advise anyone to give it a try - I've had 33 litres on a rolling boil with 5c ambient temps (see pic below - can be tough brewing in the UK, but on the plus side chilling with 4C tap water is a treat - we had 30c at times in Qld). Plus points of induction are that it is (very) cheap to run, quiet, safe (you can touch any part of it whilst its running),every bit as controllable as gas (that's the big win over an element) and no need to butcher your pot for an element install. I'm a convert. Don't know if you can get these buffalo units down there, but here they often come up refurbed on ebay for £50 or so over here (although I got mine new for £100 - AU$200). I run without problems on a normal socket - shouldn't be an issue down there either. Downside I guess is that single batch (25l max post boil) is probably the limit, but that's not a problem for me.

 

[slipperyjonno]

Again, old thread, but I just picked up a $45 kmart homemaker portable induction stove top. 2000W, brought a 19l big w pot full of water to a good rolling boil in 40 minutes. Inside, no insulation around the pot, lid on until it got close to boiling.

No good on an stc controller (need to push the 'go' button once you have powered it up, but it does have 9 'levels' so will do the job for a 19l biab batch if you need something cheap and portable, or for a cheap sparge water heater.

If I had a bigger pot I would try some standoffs marginally higher than the unit itself (to take the load) and some insulation. I'm fairly confident of would hold a 30l boil in this configuration given that the robo brew will hold a boil at 1900 watts with no insulation (but a more favourable height to width ratio)

 

[wynnum1]

Do you use the induction for other cooking all our cookware seems to be non induction and do these units over heat there electronics as they probably not made to boil big pots for extended times.

 

[slipperyjonno]

This was the first time I used it and only boiled water for about twenty minutes.

I'll use this for my next brew rather than the gas stove and will repost the results.

It does have a (fairly noisy) fan to help cool the electronics.

 

[wynnum1]

Aldi have a induction cook top next week but does not look suitable for beer .

 

[Tex083]

I got a 2200w one from eBay and it's ****. Couldn't boil 23l of wort just a plain simmer, at the end of the boil there was a doughnut size circle of congealed wort on the bottom of the pot. Clearly the actual induction element is small. The pot I'm using is an induction ready robinox so the base is thick and suitable. Won't be using it again.
I brewed on my old man's BIAB over the weekend, it's a keg king stick element and it worked much better than the induction top. I hear they have issues but they do boil strongly.

 

[slipperyjonno]

I brewed a BigW 19L pot extract batch yesterday using this 2000W induction stove:

http://www.kmart.com.au/product/2000w-induction-cooker/627857?COLLCC=2333981366&

I had the pot full to within an inch of the top with 1.050 wort.

It took about 40 minutes to get to the boil (from ambient temp), I will insulate next time to speed this up (I was outside so there was a slight breeze). I had the lid on to bring it up to the boil but was watching like a hawk to avoid a boilover which I narrowly avoided.

Once It came to the boil, a setting of '6' out of 9 held a good rolling boil with no lid or insulation - I had assumed that any setting other than '9' would have just lazily cycled between full on and full off, but it appeared to actually have some sort of regulation, so the heat setting was actually useful - otherwise I would have boiled over a lot, as on 9 the boil was quite furious.

All up, I boiled for about 70 minutes, didn't skip a beat.

No burnt wort on the bottom of the pot, but there was a ring of 'congealed' wort / break on the bottom of the pot once I emptied it as mentioned by Tex above - this didn't concern me but might worry others.

For the price ($50) - I will be using this again and again with no real desire to buy a decent gas burner for outdoor brewing (until this unit dies, then I will reevaluate...)