Westinghouse WHIC01K
VerifiedMPNs: 715793 and WHIC01K10 reviews
We are long standing portable induction cooktop users. We had to replace a cheap, no name model after a decade. We used the Choice reviews in 2024 to select this model. It does have good features of good relatively low temperature control. It has good increments of power/ heating, and a timer that allows increments of a minute. It has… Read more
frustratingly little capacity to allow one to take off a pot/saucepan to stir without alerting one to having removed the metal from the cooktop.... I'm talking 1 second! But, the thing that makes this a return for reimbursement, is that it overheats too easily. We've had 2. I replaced the first one after 6 months believing it was faulty. But within a few cooks of the repl, the same thing occurs. I'm talking overheating at 800w! It is not possible to cook with this coooktop, without turning it off and on again. Sorry Westinghouse, this is a fail.
Recommended buy – July 3, 2024 - since writing my initial review I have seen newer units showing 'H' on the digital display to indicate a hot surface when cooking is complete. On a less favourable note, after initially testing this cooker with smaller sized saucepans, I have used it a few times with less convincing results. The effective heating area is the inner… Read more
ring or about 12cm dia. The large ring deceived me until I read the manual again. With larger pans, I was lifting the lid and stirring often to distribute heat and prevent burning. While I managed to complete the cook each time, it is a noteworthy warning to prospective buyers. I heard induction cooktops required a different cooking technique to gas and standard electric but when I looked online for tips, I found a vacuum. The manual for this product was similarly devoid of cooking tips as was the Westinghouse site. So, it has been an exciting experience of trial and error as we test our new induction hotplate. Am I pleased with the purchase – yes. Were there a few hiccups along the way – also affirmative, but nothing serious. A few things to note here. The cooktop is made for purpose. With a footprint of 37L x 29D x 4H cm, it takes up some bench space while in use and, if you intend storing it, there needs to be sufficient cupboard space. Another important matter is that it cannot be used on a metal surface. This is particularly important for campers who have stainless steel bench-tops. I noted some online complaints about fan noise. There is the whispering sound of a fan, but it does not stifle conversation and is inaudible over TV and radio. My product does not have a noise issue. While the cooktop has power and temperature controls, we found you can only choose to control the one or the other. By choosing one control, the offset reverts to the factory default. In our product this is 120C and 800W. I have no intention of providing cooking tips, but we found the power setting the one to vary for general purpose use. While it is true that induction does not create heat in the same manner as other cooktops, heat from the pot/pan will warm the surface, which remains for some time after it is removed. These items have been recommended for caravans on some sites. I preface the next paragraph with a note that I have made assumptions from observations and these should be investigated before purchasing for camping purposes.......... While the advertise power settings is as low as 200W, I believe this is the average use over an hour. It seems that the cooktop will draw 2000W bursts of power. A power setting of 800W will have more frequent bursts of power than 400W. With this in mind, a caravan may need an inverter or generator that can output at least 2000W to run this efficiently. At max power, water boils very quickly and we finish cooking on a much lower setting. There is a larger appliance with 2 hotplates, but maximum power is lower.
Could be good but isn't – We had an induction cooktop with temperature function many years ago and I was glad to have found one that had this again. To my disappointment the temperature control doesn't work. I wanted to cook pasta so I boiled some water, then set it to keep at 100C but it cooled down and was not brought to the boil again. I had to set it at 140C to keep the water boiling but that was too much. Useless function. The rest works OK. Show details
Didn't last long – As the other reviewer stated, doesn't work on small/medium pots. After a few weeks, it tripped my circuit breaker and was dead after that. I wasn't even using it at the time. Only found out the next day it was dead and the reason why my circuit breaker tripped. Show details
Absolute heap of crap – I won one of these in a club promo it never worked from the first time I used it the cooktop kept displaying an EO error obviously a faulty unit I cant get it replaced as I do not have the receipt (who gets a receipt when it has been won) club doesn't have one either and cant tell me where they purchased it so in the bin it goes no more Westinghouse rubbish for me Show details
Very Happy – Purchased the cooktop for daily use in our caravan. Heats up quickly & with variable heat settings doesn't use much battery which is handy when camping off grid. Very happy with overall performance, easy to use & keep clean. Slimline design, easy to store. Would recommend to others. Purchased from Appliances online quick & easy delivery. Show details
Great ‘Induction’ Portable Cooktop – I bought the twin cooktop about 18 months ago - works perfectly. Not noisy - every ‘Scanpan Induction Saucepan & Fry Pan’ works perfectly. I had a Ceramic Cooktop before - the Induction is incredible cooks so fast !! Show details
disappointed – - Works well with a fry pan. - Doesn't work at all on small/medium induction rated pots. - With a fry pan: can boil 1 litre of water in 4min 30 seconds on 2000W setting. - Noisy - Would not recommend Does not work on small/medium pots (the same induction pots work fine on my kitchen induction cooktop). Error comes up "E0" - pot too small. Only… Read more
works on large fry pans. The induction noise and internal cooling fan are loud. I bought this to run off my cars lithium/inverter setup while camping and it works well (with a fry pan only). I do like the feature of controlling the unit via power (watts), as opposed to temperature. This makes it easy to calculate the demand on the battery system. But as it doesn't work on a small pots to boil water etc an old school electric fry pan would be more functional as its cooking surface is larger and it's only 1 item to carry as opposed to 2. The induction cooker and a fry pan.
Burnt out after second use - Inadequate cooling fan – Initially has alot of cooking power but gets weaker after only 10 minutes of cooking. There is a fan inside the unit but the ventilation holes are nowhere near the fan so the circuit board cools poorly. Cooktop then complains that its become too hot and shuts down. After the second use, the cooktop overheated, tripped my circuit breaker and was… Read more
dead after that.
Took it back to Harvey Norrman and demanded a full refund. Don't waste your time on this model.
This one works properly! – As you would expect from Westinghouse a good quality product. that does the job. Large top which is longer than most so heat from large pots doesn't affect the display panel. Simple intuitive controls which let you set power ,temp and cooking time independently, and the temp control actually works reasonably accurately, unlike a most of the… Read more
others.
FWIW cookware with a bare metal uncoated bottom seems to give the most accurate temperatures.
Works with one of my 200mm top/ 130mm bottom frying pans but not the other,,works perfectly with a 200mm pot -. instructions are silent on this!
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