The Best Portable Induction Cooktop

A portable induction burner can be a lifesaver during large family gatherings at home when you might need an extra stove to cook or if you need to keep the food warm.

It can also be useful during camping trips or for students to use in their dorm rooms when access to a gas or electric stovetop may not be feasible. Not to mention, portable cooktops save lots of space and can cook or heat up food just as well as any other stove can. 

This article will help you find the best portable induction cooktop that fits your needs and performs adequately enough for you to virtually no longer need your at-home stove.

How to spot the best portable induction cooktop?

Without a doubt, portable stovetops were made to make things easier. Hence all the best will offer you the convenience you seek; they’ll cater to different cooking needs, are easy to use and clean, and will all-in-all be safe to use. So, here are some features you should look for in a portable cooktop:

Variable Temperature Settings

A portable cooktop has to mimic gas stoves where with a gas stove you can turn up or turn down the flame according to what you’re cooking. With the best portable cooktops, however, you’ll be able to change the heat settings. Similar to a gas or electric stove, you’ll be able to fit your momentary needs whether they are to keep a low simmer or to reach a quick boil.

It’s also worth noting that you wouldn’t want a stove that spreads the heat unevenly throughout its surface in a way that’ll end you up with unevenly cooked food. The optimum situation here is to have a portable stove that heats up quickly, spreads heat evenly, and can alter its cooking temperature. This will allow you to cook in whatever technique you choose.

Safety 

Induction cooktops are made to transfer heat to cookware on its surface through induction – which is why you’ll need induction pots and pans in order for your induction stove to work. Many cooktops will automatically shut their heat off whenever they detect that you’ve removed the pan off of their surface. 

This is actually a very important safety measure to protect others from getting burned while the stove is temporarily out of use. However, this feature can be very inconvenient if you need to take your pan off the heat for a minute or two and then return to the same temperature to continue making a stir-fry, for example. 

So then, you might want to consider a stovetop with an auto-shut-off feature that has a longer timer. This way, if you need to return your pan to the stove right away, you won’t have to compromise on temperature while simultaneously keeping others and yourself safe if you happen to forget to turn your stove off after use.

Easy To Clean

Having a portable cooktop that forces a hassle in order to clean it can make you hesitate to use it the next time you want to cook something. Nobody likes a dirty stovetop too, so the best stovetops are now being designed with a fully flat and smooth surface off of which dirt and stains can be easily wiped off with a wet cloth and some soap. 

Stovetops with several crevices and ins and outs in their design are usually overlooked on the market – sometimes regardless of their functional quality – simply because they’re not convenient when it comes to cleaning.

Finding The Best Portable Cooktop For You

Now that you know what to look for in a portable induction cooktop, you should consider your own specific needs when it comes to the design and usage of your cooktop. 

How Big Do You Need It To Be?

The best thing about portable cooktops is their compactness. But if your portable stove is your main stove, I would recommend you get one with dual burners instead of the usual single burner. That’ll allow you to cook multiple things simultaneously. And while you’ll compromise just a little bit on size, you will have the benefit of a quicker and multifunctional stove.

How Simple Do You Want Your Cooking Experience To Be?

In addition to having a versatile system with a wide range of cooking options and temperatures, you’ll want to have a simple and easily understandable control panel. Some people would actually prefer simple one-push buttons that offer fewer control options but an easier-to-deal-with interface. Other people may not mind dealing with a more sophisticated interface that allows you to customize everything about your cooking like the NuWave stove we’ve included below.

Some stoves actually offer the best of both worlds and can allow you to customize controls such as temperature and heat perimeters without the need to deal with an overly complicated set of knobs and buttons. You can see this in the user-friendly Cosmo stove also mentioned below.

Comparison Table

Portable Induction Cooktop Reviews

Here, we’ve found and reviewed the best portable induction cooktops for every need.

Cosmo Portable Electric Induction Cooktop

Features:

• Lightweight and compact design 
• Multi-level power
• Convenient timer
• Safety lock and touch prevention

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The Cosmo cooktop is one of the fastest cooktops to transfer heat up to its surface and it can actually boil water in under a minute. The simple touch control panel allows you to change the temperature rapidly from 10 preset heating modes.

The cooktop is also exceptionally lightweight at only 6 lbs which makes it really simple to move and store. As for safety measures, in addition to having a child-lock feature, the control panel dismisses accidental touches that may result from carelessness. This means that commands will not take any effect unless you press the touch button for a whole second.

Pros

• Quick and efficient temperature changes
• Touch lock dismisses accidental touches
• User-friendly interface

Cons

• Might not recognize compatible pans

Duxtop Portable Induction Cooktop 

Features:

• 10 power levels
• Auto-shut-off
• Luxurious design and finish

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With its slick and simplistic design, the Duxtop has a luxurious design that features a smooth crevice-free surface that can be easily wiped down for cleaning. It has 10 different power levels that allow you to operate the stovetop at different watts to cater specifically to whatever you’re cooking, frying, or melting.

If you remove your pan from the stove, it won’t shut off right away. Instead, it will wait for a minute just in case you’d want to place the pan back at the same temperature. And then if you don’t place it back within the minute, the Duxtop will automatically shut off.

Pros

• Auto-shut-off after 1 minute
• The smooth top is easily cleaned
• Luxurious design and finish

Cons

• Doesn’t have overheat protection

Secura Portable Induction Cooktop

Features:

• Compact and light for easy handling
• Digital timer
• Simple button controls

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Being very versatile, the Secura comes with 15 different temperature settings and can be adjusted to fit your needs. It’s very light and can be stored and handled with ease due to its compactness and lightweight.

With this stovetop, you can adjust the cooking timer through the buttons on the control panel in increments of 1 minute at a time. This will allow you to cook your food to perfection without ever overheating or burning.

Pros

• The cooking timer is customizable down to the minute
• Simple and straight forward control buttons
• Overheat protection

Cons

• Takes time to heat up

NuWave Precision Induction Cooktop 

Features:

• 6 preset temperature modes
• Instant auto-shut-off feature
• Up to 100 hours of programmable stage cooking programs

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Going straight to the point with efficiency, the NuWave induction cooktop features 6 preset temperature modes. It also features the option to adjust your own temperature through the control panel with increments of 10 degrees at a time. The stove will instantly shut off once you remove your pan as a safety measure to keep everyone safe if it happens that you forget to turn the stove off after use.

One of the convenience features included in this model is that it allows you to pre-program and time cooking stages so that you can walk away and leave the stove to do the cooking for you. 

Pros

• Various adjustable temperatures
• Instant auto-shut-off feature
• Programmable stage cooking programs

Cons

• Resets when the pan is lifted accidentally due to the safety feature

NutriChef Double Induction Cooktop

Features:

• Dual top panel burner with independent controls
• Multiple cooking presets
• One-touch control panel 

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This stove from NutriChef has dual burners, each operating separately from the other and has independent controls so that you can enjoy cooking two different items at the same time. It’s also loaded with multiple cooking presets and has a feature that allows you to keep your food warm on the stove for later.

The surface is made out of ceramic glass and is very easy to clean since it’s non-stick and stain-resistant. The touch panel is very easy to understand and use and comes with a child lock to keep your whole family safe.

Pros

• Independent configurations for each burner
• Multiple cooking presets for hassle-free operation
• Consumes less electricity than other models

Cons

• Turning one burner’s heat up might affect the heat of the other burner

iSiLER Portable Induction Cooktop

Features:

• Large sensitive buttons for easy one-touch controls
• Evenly distributed heat
• Slick and thin design

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This ultra-thin and ultra-compact stovetop from iSiLER features a premium glass surface that distributes the heat evenly throughout. It also features overheat protection that will turn off the heat if it detects an unexpected temperature rise.

It also has a timer that can be adjusted up to 3 hours, a child lock feature, and a large control panel with sensitive buttons. This makes adjusting your stove’s temperature an easy task for anyone regardless of their familiarity with technology.

Pros

• Thin and compact design at only 2.3 inches thick
• Evenly distributes heat
• Large control buttons

Cons

• The temperature on the screen sometimes does not match the actual induction temperature

Wrap up

Just off of this list of the 6 best portable induction cooktops we found, I’d personally recommend the Duxtop. It simply matches the quality of any of the other cooktops on the list in addition to being so much easier to clean and maintain. It also has the most user-friendly interface. However, if you wouldn’t mind a more complicated control system, I’d definitely recommend the NuWave as it offers the most value for its price.