Tefal Express Induction Cooktop IH720860

DISAPPOINTING INDUCTION COOKTOP – Not sure why there is a circle to show where to put your pot, this is totally misleading as this heats only in the very centre of unit. You have to continually move food around to cook it through and stop your food burning in the centre. Heat range - not enough control Gymicky modes (fry, boil, hotpot, soup, steam) - whats the difference? made… Read more

to look more useful than it really is . Positive - slim/ looks classy Would NOT recommend this product.

Great cooktop once you learn how to use it – First off, your cookware MUST be induction compatible. Check your cookware with a fridge magnet. If it sticks to the base, it will work and it really should be heavy base or your pans will warp. Cookware specifically designed for induction will work much better. I have a set of Swiss Diamond induction saucepans and a couple of induction fry pans.… Read more

Some stainless steel cookware definitely will not work, so please be sure to check yours as you may need to invest in new cookware.

This is a different method of cooking than gas, electric, microwave or BBQ so it is important to understand that to get great results. The user manual could REALLY use a cooking guide to help people get started on basic cooking settings. I think this is an excellent cooktop for preparing meals for one or two people or for preparing sides as part of a family meal. The heating zone is small, only about 10cm in diameter, so small pans and saucepans work best. Larger pans will have a big temperature difference from the centre out to the sides which means you'll need to constantly move food around in the pan to get an even cook. I started with very basic cooking such as boiling potatoes, scrambled eggs, pasta and rice, blanching beans and snow peas etc. Now that I know how the Tefal Cooktop behaves, I've used it to prepare single pan dishes with great results and prepare side dishes while cooking a main dish on my electric range.

The only settings where you can control the temperature is the Fry function. Stir-fry and Hotpot functions are adjustable in power settings rather than temperature. All other modes are pre-defined and cannot be changed, apart from the time it remains active. I've not needed to use the Boost function and cook mainly on the 80 or 120 degree settings in Fry mode or P1 to P3 in Stir-fry or Hotpot modes. Any more than that everything gets too hot too quickly. I do use 180 or 200 degrees to quickly seer meat and then drop back to 80 or 120 to finish off.

It heats very fast indeed so you must have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go because you will not get time to slice and dice during a cook. I did a quick test - Boil 1 cup water in a saucepan on Boil mode. See how quick it boils! Add 1 cup cold water and see how quickly it recovers. Then hit Pause and see how quickly the heat comes off. Once you grasp that concept, you're off and cooking in no time.

Once you get the hang of it, are aware of the humming and buzzing sounds it makes as it cooks, and the speed at which it heats up and recovers when adding cold ingredients during a cook, you will love it as much as I do. I'm now seriously considering changing my main stove to induction cooktop as well.

Has some good points but misses on a few too – This appliance has some good points but misses on a few.The good points are a sensible boost function that gives you slightly higher power than the highest setting p10 for a few minutes. It has a very flat surface including controls surface making it super easy to clean. It has a higher than most power and a lower than most low setting however… Read more

it achieves the low setting by duty cycle so it's not a steady low heat. In fact all settings from p5 downwards achieve their different heat settings by duty cycle moreso than the lowering of the heat although P1 for example is a lower power when cycling on than say p5. Now for the missed points.

It has three settings on the left boil steam and soup that are unable to be changed and agree simply too high.

Boil and steam are the same heat as p10 with soup the same as P9. That's way too high especially when they default to 10, 45, and 2 minutes respectively.

A better setting if it is fixed would have been P2 for soup and syeam, P3 for boil.

Why are these settings so high, it makes them useless. Why fix them...just have different defaults but at least let us alter the power.

Anyway the unit has rounded edges which is sensible and it is lightweight and very portable

Price is good too however a set of power levels closer together and not rely so much on duty cycle for lower heats would be a better design. People would gladly compromise on full power if the lower settings were more even and more smaller steps to increase by.

This is perfect – I am very satisfied with my induction hob. I just wish these new appliances had longer cords on them as it is very difficult to place them where it is handy to use.

Really disappointed with this cooktop – It is not possible to set this cooktop to the temperature you need as the preset options do not cover all cooking temperature needs. I tried to cook pikelets, 80 was so low it would not cook them, 120 the next setting up was so hot it would burn the bottom of the pikelet before the top was cooked enough to turn them over. 120 is also so hot it… Read more

burns the oil or butter used to grease the frypan for cooking. The instructions are so limited, says you can control timer, wattage and temperate with the one controller but then doesn't tell you how to do it. It has - and + but what is that changing, the temp, the wattage or the timer?

Brilliant! Super easy to use – I bought this to use while we waited for our cooktop to be repaired and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it works. We now use it outdoors throughout the week when cooking meat or fish to keep the smell outside. Great product!

One of the best in class – I've been using bench top induction cook tops for over fifteen years, the cheapest lasted long enough to pass the warrantee date and some better ones have lasted years and for use this Tefal induction cook top is the best so far. I have only just bought it so I have no idea how long it will last. In general I love induction cooktops for their… Read more ·  2

lower environmental footprint due to their efficiency, speed and control, and they are easy to clean. I have solar and battery so having better cooking speeds and control than gas without the pollution and is better for everyone. Some simple design features of this Tefal cooktop that make a big difference:- The rounding of the corners prevents chips when the class surface is knocked with pots and pans - when comparing models for price avoid square corners. While this cooktop has preset functions, I am able to over-ride the temperature settings and my choice stays set until I adjust it. So many other brands will reverted back to the preset power level after a few minutes which resulted in burnt food. I have a coffee pot which only just has enough iron/steel for it to work on the other induction cooktops. With previous brand models, I needed to start the induction with a high steel content pot then slide my coffee pot over and 'trick' the sensors into staying on to brew my morning coffee. The Tefal cooktop handles this coffee pot straight away so clearly the sensors and coils are superior to all other cooktops I've tried. The fan is a bit on the noisey side and it runs for a long time after my cooking is finished. I can forgive this assuming that it will keep all the electronic 'brainy' bits cooler and lasting longer. I have found that removing hot pots from the cook top once cooking is finished shortens the time the fan runs by a bit.

Almost unusable – I have had this hob for nearly a week and have packed it up to return it to the place of purchase. It has many functions, none of which are clearly explained in the instruction booklet. The boil, soup and steam functions turn the heat up to a high setting and have no simmer capability which means the pot must be constantly checked to ensure it… Read more

doesn’t boil dry. I ended up using the fry setting where I had some control over the temperature setting. If I set it on 120c it was too hot and the next setting down was 80c which was too cool. I managed it by switching between temps but this is a very inconvenient way to cook. Some of the settings are controlled by selecting a wattage but no explanation of what wattage suits which food is being cooked. Overly complicated and not useful at all!