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merryecho

my wolf induction experience

Susan Gress
10 years ago

Thought i posted this last week but can't find it, so excuse if it is a repeat.
FIrst, I love induction cooking- the burners go from 0 to fry in 15 seconds. I have had 2 serious problems though. After a year my cooktop had a meltdown- giant flash and big boom. Wolf was good about replacing it though.

MOre serious is problem with cooking on high. After cooking at high heat for a couple of minutes, the unit will turn itself off, even though the indicator light stays on high. So, you don't know that your scallops have gone from quick sauté to low boil until you see that they have stopped cooking. Ruined several dishes that way.
I emailed Wolf. They first responded that this shouldn't be happening, I should call a serviceman.
Then they emailed to say that this was in fact normal, there is an overheat protection circuit that switches the burner off at a certain temperature. This would be an OK feature if the indicator light went off at the same time, but it doesn't.
Before buying another induction cooktop I would check out other brands to see if they have the same issue.

Comments (5)

  • jadeite
    10 years ago

    I have a Thermador induction cooktop, and it certainly does not not shut itself down after "a couple of minutes". So far it has yet to shut itself down at all. I use power boost to bring big pots of water to a full boil which takes a few minutes and everything is fine. I've used the cooktop on high when preparing to sear foods. It only takes a minute to bring the pan and cooking oil to smoking point, and once my food is in the pan, I turn the power level down and continue cooking.

    It sounds like your cooktop overheat sensor is set incorrectly.

    Your earlier post was confusing due to your mention of cooking with halogen.

    Cheryl

  • a2gemini
    10 years ago

    Merry - my Wolf induction does not shut off on high but I have not tried "dry cooking" on super high
    I cooked my scallops on high but not boost - Boost is a whopper of a burner and it might hit an overall safety limit - but not sure.
    If I remove a pan from the burner for too long - it does shut off the burner and the indicator is off - it will still tell me the cooktop is hot so you don't touch the hot glass.
    I will be watching to see how you make out.

  • katrinavhh
    10 years ago

    I just ruined my Siemens induction cooktop because a full pot of water boiled completely dry (I forgot it obviously) and the extreme heat of the dry pan cracked the glass top in a major way. I know your problem is annoying, but gosh do I wish my unit had an overheat protection! I have looked back at my manual, and no mention of overheat/boil over sensor/etc. so I am out of luck. I hope yours doesn't cause too may problems, but you are lucky to avoid the problem I have now.

  • kaseki
    10 years ago

    At a minimum, one should be able to burn food before the burner shuts off due to overtemperature.

    Let me suggest an experiment. Obtain a silicone rubber pad such as are used on cookie sheets for easy separation of cookies. These will be about a sixteenth of an inch in thickness. Cut out three pieces with a diameter about a quarter of the the pan diameter. (They don't really have to be circular, but look nicer that way.) Set them in a triangular array on the hob area such that they are centered inside the edge of the pan. This will provide an airgap and reduce the heat the pan puts into the glass cooktop.

    If you heat up the pan enough to burn or melt the silicone rubber, you are cooking to hot for safe use of any oils being used in the pan.

    kas

  • jellytoast
    10 years ago

    When our appliances have to be programed to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves (such as turning down the heat when things get too hot) that rubs me the wrong way. In the past, appliance manufactures assumed that we were all actually monitoring our food as it cooked on the stove top. Why do they suddenly act like we can't be trusted to turn down the heat? I would be irritated, too, merryecho.

    This post was edited by jellytoast on Wed, May 1, 13 at 13:33