Why are there no electric frypan reviews on Choice?
Choice has reviewed electric frying pans some years ago - we bought a recommended one. But that was more than 10 years ago. I could probably find it in back issues.
It may be that electric frying pans have fallen out of favour, being replaced by air fryers, slow cookers, non-stick pans on hobs or ranges. Ours was a staple until we got a better stove top and never used since.
The local school donated all their Sunbeam frying pans to a Charity as they no longer used them in their cookery classes. They didn’t last long; the teflon flaked off, the metal became pitted and the heating element under the pan left hot/warm spots and the thermostat clicking on and off had too wide a temperature range. I don’t think they use electric frying pans anymore.
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I agree that electric frypans are probably not in demand these days. That’s certainly true in our house.
Our Sunbeam (20+ years old, stainless steel, never had any nonstick coating) is still in good condition, but I can’t recall the last time it was used. It just hasn’t been needed since we replaced the old coil-type electric cooktop with induction. It made a lot of pikelets / pancakes in its time, because its temperature regulation was far more reliable than the old cooktop’s.
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We used our 1980 classic sunbeam with SS lining last year for a week. Along side a portable indication plate - single hob while the kitchen had an update with a new oven, cooktop and range hood. Not a straight swap with a new circuit required to replace the gas oven with electric plus cabinets etc. I can’t recall seeing an electric frying pan in store for some time, although one could imagine they are still useful in certain circumstances. Our classic has a high lid for roasting, and a ceramic insert for slow cooking. Although for cooking steaks etc they do not have the heat output to reliably sear and sizzle more than a mouthful at a time, IMHO.
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I want to get rid of mine, and a couple of electric skillets… but I am bemused, Landfill? Recycling? So they just take up space here. I’m turning into a hoarder.
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In many councils anything with a power cord or battery goes to e-waste. Councils vary in where to take them but I am not aware of any that are happy for them to be in their recycling (or landfill) bins.
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Some charities will take electrical items, which might be re-used if in safe working condition.
Also, anything that’s mostly metal might be accepted by metal recycling companies.
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Sell them. It is a wast to throw them out or recycle them if they work perfectly. There are many looking for good ones, including those who caravan or live home alone, setting up a house etc.
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In many areas there are FB groups of members offering free things rather than sending them to the tip, recycled after some effort where and how, or having to pay to have them taken away. We have 4 groups of free things as well as a few offering things for sale. The former makes the latter more difficult.
Other issues are personal comfort with security and so on, but.
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Electric frypans in a wide range are available in electrical stores, Big W etc, so rumours of their demise are greatly exaggerated. A lot of people must still be buying them and it’s Choice’s job to review what is selling, not assume the market has moved on.As for air fryers, you need a very big kitchen to have one that is truly multi-purpose and can accommodate a family meal.
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I would also like to know if there is a decent electric frypan on the market (well, hubby would, he’s the cook in the house). Our investigations so far show that one major problem has yet to be overcome - the maintaining of temperature during cooking. Despite manufacture claims of consistency in this regard, when one reads the specs, the frypan will be either on or off (so the sizzle will be too). Would be interested to learn if induction hobs are better at maintaining temp? (Btw - maybe check state/territory laws before giving away or selling electrical goods)
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They certainly are. In my experience, induction is far better at maintaining temperature than were any electric frypans or cooktops I’ve ever used. This is one reason that we’ve barely touched our Sunbeam electric frypan since we got our first induction cooktop ~14 years ago.
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Mine are past it. Otherwise I would keep them. They are now trash and in any case I would not even give them away, with their deteriorating coatings of nonstick stuff.
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A full induction cooktop might do that but I have yet to find a portable one which does. I bought the Westinghouse model based on Choice testing and it has always cycled on and off. I plan to sell it on, because it works and its taking space I need and in the meantime I am about to revert to gas cooking because even though I cannot get the gas to a low enough temp when I need it, its still preferable to electric.
I would be grateful if anuone knows of a portable hob which is also an inverter?
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Ditto.
Ours is a Kmart Anko brand. We found the Choice review spot on in that the temperature regulation function does not work. One needs to use it in the same way as any other hob by changing the power setting.
How it regulates the power appears to use a basic (primitive) timed cycle of off verses on. You can hear the coil pitch and switch come on for a number of seconds and cycle off for a number. Hence heat appears to be applied in short busts at full power. Similar to the operation of the original style non inverter microwaves.
Our experience of built in induction cooktops is they do regulate linearly and reliably by temperature if that is what one needs. Technical details are scant - to suspect the some models may compromise on the way the induction coils are energised/controlled. Hence the distinct variation in the results for different brands and models covered in the Choice reviews of same. One category where definitely the price of a premium model is no assurance of a top performing model.
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No expert here, but have you had experience with the camping models such as this mains powered one?
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They all cycle as far as I know as does any electric hob whether the old style coils, solid plates, ceramic glass topped coils or induction.
Induction and the coils in the ceramic glass topped ones have thermostats near their centres and near the top close to the glass plates which keep the temp quite close to the “set” temperature. They also are used to avoid overheating of the coils and glass plate. In induction it is generally a number of Watts per setting that is supplied e.g, at 1 it might be 200 Watts and at 2 it might be 300 Watts and so on until maximum range. So if say heating water to boiling in a pot an induction cooktop will not cycle usually, unless the coil has become too hot and as a safety measure it will then cycle (not normal).
What may be heard when running induction cookers, is fan noise. Fan noise may be mistaken for cycling, the fans will ramp up and slow down as needed to keep the coils and electronics cool enough for efficient operation. In our portable induction cooker, this is the noise we notice… it is not the coils cycling generally. Our in-place cooktop is fairly silent in operation, though the “humming” can be heard at high settings and when cookware is first heating up, typically a very low level noise.
If we set our stove to 9 (our maximum setting) and put a pot of water on it, it will continue to heat without cycling. If I cook steak at a setting of 7 (any higher and it chars rather quickly unless we are stir frying and then we use 8 or 9), it will not cycle but at 6 it may once or twice depending on which frypan I am using. Our solid stainless steel induction cookware will not cause cycling at 6 but our cheaper and lighter non stick that has a plate inserted will cause occasional cycling at that same setting. At 7 for the lighter frypan it runs continuously and starts to buckle the base of the frypan so we always use 6 instead. Not really sure why it heats differently and causes the cycling, but as it does happen we have learned how to use it.
The other thing about Induction is that the heat generated is usually even across the vessel unless the iron is not evenly distributed across the bottom of the vessel. Cheaper cookware may have ferrous plates inserted and some of those may not be solid.
In our household, we are all glad to be away from the old style stoves and gas cooktops. That doesn’t mean it is for everyone, we all have preferences.
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Some charities will take them but only if you’ve had them electrically tested and tagged first.
I still have mine. I wish it had a domed lid. It would have made it wirth taking in our hybrid van since we’ve only got stove top cooking
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I would disagree with this. Few induction stoves offer functional temperature control, and as far as I know those that do require that you use special cookware designed for temperature control. isopeda might have one that does, but most inductions simply control the power, not temperature. It is possible that some do control temperature but only roughly, because of delays in sensing temperature and differences in pan characteristics. Ironically, I came to this topic because I am considering purchasing an electric fry pan because it does have the ability to control frying temperature, imperfect as it may be. My induction cook top will over-heat the oil to well past smoke point (which I don’t want) on any setting over 5, and I have to manually monitor and turn heat up and down to keep the temperature where I want it.
I dream of an induction cooktop that I can set to 180C and it goes there and stays there. It’s technically difficult because it’s very hard for the cooker to measure the temperature of your pan. If anyone knows of one that meets this need, please share.
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Some Induction cooktops come with slider adjustment of power such as some of the Fisher & Paykel and LG models to allow more precise temperature control than step settings. Examples only not recommendations
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