Tefal Portable Induction Cooktop Review
We’ve been running a portable induction cooktop from Westinghouse for the better part of 2 years on our Lap of Australia, and absolutely loved it. However, when it started to smell really bad (like someone had let the electrical smoke out), and it began to make some weird and wonderful noises, I looked around and got a Tefal Portable Induction Cooktop to replace it.
We could have waited for the Westinghouse unit to completely fail, but I was worried it might damage our electrical system, or cause a fire, so I threw it in the bin. The idea of being without an induction cooktop with our outdoor kitchen in the Lifestyle Reconn R2 is a pretty grim thought, so we swapped it out before that happened.
We’ve become quite attached to cooking with induction, as it has so many advantages over our humble gas burner!
We paid for this
We normally start our reviews off by explaining where the product came from, and what it cost. We paid full retail price for this from Harvey Norman in Moss Vale, and got it on special for $100, down from $120 or $150 that they normally sell it for. Ironically, it seems like other electrical shops sell it for cheaper all the time, but you make of that what you will.
All you really need to know is this is not a sponsored review, and we used our own money for it.
Why the Tefal Portable Induction?
Honestly, I couldn’t fault the Westinghouse unit. It was flawless, easy to use, worked well and did its job, and I could have gotten a direct replacement from Harvey Norman for the same price, but wanted to try something different.
I did a fair bit of reading, and had heard about the Tefal being noisier, and having a silly menu option, but thought we’d give it a whirl anyway. After all, Tefal are supposed to be a decent brand, no?
How much current does it draw?
One of my primary concerns was the amount of power that the induction cooktop would use (as a minimum), and the Tefal does use marginally more, even on its lowest setting. We’re looking at somewhere around the 110A on its lowest setting, and it just pulses on and off the lower you go. This is very annoying to some people, and others don’t really care.
In reality, you’re basically relying on the pot to dissipate the heat more evenly, so you don’t get huge hot, cold, hot cold sequences going on.
To clarify, this is its instantaneous consumption. The overall power consumption is basically going to be the same, as virtually all of the power goes to heat.
However, for reference, the Westinghouse drew 88 amps up to 1200W, and then it was 108 amps and more as you went up. Ultimately then, you could run the Westinghouse unit off a smaller inverter and battery system than you can the Tefal one. You can read more about this here – Portable Induction Cooktop power draw.
What’s it like to use?
I quite like this induction cooker. It’s absolutely noisier than our Westinghouse, and makes a bit more of a chatter noise when its on. It is slightly more powerful though, pulling up to 1.8kW (even though its advertised as 2.2kW?) which makes boiling water a bit faster.
The menu system on the front is absolutely stupid, and whoever designed it got it very wrong. There’s a myriad of different choices, all of which basically do the same thing.
The Westinghouse option is smart; you can choose from 200W all the way up to 2000W, in 200W increments, or temperature. The Tefal option has P1 through to P10, but they’re not equal increments, and its quite confusing to learn.
It does have temperature as well, but we basically use the hot spot function, and pick a P setting we are happy with, or we use the boil function (which is just P10!).
It’s quick to run, has a different inlet and outlet for air flow than the Westinghouse, and the fan runs for an awfully long time when you’re finished using it.
I like the feet better on this unit as they’re integrated, and you can’t lose little rubber feet like you do on the Westinghouse.
Would we get another one?
Yep, I quite like this unit. I don’t think I really like the Westinghouse or Tefal more; they both do the job just fine and I’d happily have either. Just know that the noise of the Tefal is greater, its got a rubbish menu system and it draws a bit extra current, but it’s a really great unit.
We’ll see if it lasts nearly 2 years full time, like our Westinghouse one did!
