Single burner stoves are a very useful invention. They can be easily moved: for example, taken out of the country house at the end of the season, cooked in the room while the kitchen is being renovated, or even taken to the garage. Such a tile can be put in the trunk and carried with you just in case, or stored at home as an additional burner to prepare for a big holiday.
Induction cookers are especially good: they have high efficiency, responsiveness to temperature changes. True, special dishes are required, but now many manufacturers make pots and pans with the right bottom.
Today we will test the Gemlux GL-IC220HP model to see how well it cooks food and whether it is convenient to operate.
Characteristics
| Manufacturer | Gemlux |
|---|---|
| Model | GL-IC220HP |
| Type | induction cooker |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Warranty | 1 year |
| Power | 2200 W |
| Control | electronic |
| Switches | sensory |
| Timer | there is |
| Work surface material | glass ceramics |
| Housing material | plastic |
| Number of burners | one |
| Safety shutdown | there is |
| Control panel lock | there is |
| The weight | 2.6 kg |
| Dimensions (W×H×D) | 30×41×2 cm |
| Network cable length | 1.4 m |
| Retail offers |
Equipment
The flat, glossy cardboard box is decorated in shades of turquoise and black, the traditional colors of Gemlux. On its wide sides, an induction hob is depicted and the main advantages of the device are given:
- 4 automatic modes;
- timer up to 24 hours;
- operating temperature 80-270;
- protection from children;
- in a beautiful round medal the power is indicated.
On one of the narrow sides, the power and voltage for which the tile is designed are indicated. The name of the company, the type of device and its model are on all sides, except for the lid and bottom. The lid has a plastic carrying handle.
Opening the box, inside we found:
- induction cooker;
- model passport;
- warranty card.
The tiles are securely packed in protective foam blocks across the width of the box.
At first sight
The induction cooker is quite large, especially if we compare its total area with the area of a single burner, and quite heavy.
The top of the device is larger than the bottom. It is made of mirror-black glass, on which the slightly raised border of the burner, the logo and company name on the burner, the warning that the surface is hot, and the On / Off zone indicator are applied in white paint. The rest of the control panel only appears when the stove is turned on.
Any dirt, dust particles and fingerprints are visible on the glass, so you will have to wash it often. On the other hand, even smooth glass without protruding elements (touch control) is cleaned quickly and easily.
The conventionally vertical sides of the plate are made of thick white plastic and are beveled towards a narrower bottom. They have ventilation holes on the sides and back, and the front wall is solid. The black power cord exits from the back.
The bottom of the tile is also made of white plastic with a light green embedded ring under the burner. There are also four silicone anti-slip feet on the bottom.
Instruction
The product data sheet is an A5 brochure printed on glossy white paper. It contains information about the safe use of the stove, preparing it for work, operation, choosing the right utensils, care and correcting the most basic malfunctions.
Only sections “Control panel” and “Choice of dishes” are provided with drawings. No recipes are attached to the tiles, and practical advice is limited to the choice of modes and dishes.
The rest of the instructions are written logically, consistently and in sufficient detail.
The kit also includes a warranty card.
Control
The model GL-IC220HP has a touch control panel, which is activated only when the stove is turned on.
After connecting the device to the network, press the On / Off indicator that lights up. The display will show On in the lower row in the center of the control panel, as well as all other buttons, and an audible signal will sound. After that, you need to put the dishes with the prepared dish on the burner and set the operating mode.
The rectangular control panel consists of nine touch buttons and a display that shows the current operating parameters.
The Lock button is located in the top row on the left. When pressed for 2-3 seconds, the entire control panel, except for On / Off, will be locked. Pressing again will unlock all buttons. When unlocked, the hob will give a long beep.
The “+” and “-” buttons in the upper row on the sides of the display change the power, cooking temperature and operating time, including for some preset modes.
Timer on the left in the bottom row regulates the time the tiles work. To do this, press the button, make sure that the indicator light is on, and use the “+” and “-” buttons to set the desired time. A short touch on these buttons changes the time by one minute, and a long touch changes it by ten. After setting the timer, the countdown starts automatically, as soon as it ends, the device will be turned off.
The mode buttons are located on the panel in no particular order, you need to look closely to find them. When you press the mode button, it is highlighted by flashing, and the display shows the preset settings, which in some cases can be changed.
“Hot Pot” (quenching) is located in the upper right corner of the control panel. When this button is pressed, the display shows the set power value – 2200 W (can be changed in the range from 200 to 2200 W). The longest running time of the program is 3 hours.
“Steam” (steaming) is the second button from the left in the bottom row. The set power value is 1600 W, it cannot be adjusted. Time – up to 24 hours.
Soup is the second button from the right in the bottom row. The set power value is 1600 W, it cannot be adjusted. Time – up to 24 hours.
“Stir Fry” is the first button from the right on the bottom row. In this mode, for some reason, it is not the power that is set by default, but the temperature is 270 degrees. It can be changed from 80 to 270. The longest operating time that can be selected is 3 hours.
The device can be turned off at any time by pressing On/Off. If, after turning off the tile, you need to completely disconnect it from the power supply, you must wait until the fan stops completely (it is easily determined by the sound) and only then can you unplug the cord from the outlet.
Exploitation
The preset automatic modes of operation of the induction cooker surprised us somewhat even at the stage of reading the instructions. The “Soup” (soup) and “Steam” (steam cooking) modes do not differ from each other in any way: the stove power is set to 1600 W and cannot be changed, the user can only control the cooking time. Intensive boiling in the steam mode is quite justified, but for the soup mode it would be much more useful to bring the dish to a boil with further slow heating at minimum power.
The “Hot Pot” (stewing) and “Stir Fry” (frying) modes are also not too different from each other: in the first of them, in addition to the timer, the user can set the power of the stove, and in the second, the cooking temperature. However, when carefully examining the surface of the stove, we did not find any signs of thermal sensors, and practical tests showed that the power consumption of the stove in these two modes is completely identical. We suspect that the only difference between the first mode and the second is the indication on the panel.
At a power below 1000 W, the stove starts to work in a pulsed mode, turning the burner on and off depending on the selected cooking temperature. This is especially noticeable at low-temperature quenching.
The minimum operating modes of the stove (200 W and 80 ° C, depending on the mode), in our opinion, are still too powerful: in some cases, we would like to reduce the heating of the dish even more to prevent strong boiling.
The fan that cools the burner coil is switched on continuously during operation, its noise is not too noticeable and does not irritate. At the end of cooking, the fan runs for exactly 60 seconds.
Care
You can only clean the stove that is disconnected from the mains and completely cooled down. Minor dirt can be removed from it with a soft cloth, grease and burnt spots – with a damp cloth with a small amount of mild detergent. The ventilation ducts on the side and rear must be cleaned regularly with a soft brush.
Do not wash the stove with water and apply abrasives and aggressive detergents to it.
During one of the practical tests, we made sure that keeping the stove clean is simple: the milk that escaped from the pan did not burn to the surface of the stove, emitting a disgusting smell, as it would happen on a classic electric stove, but only slightly dried up on its surface.
It turned out to be easy to remove the contamination: just one movement with a damp (not abrasive!) Sponge and one more with a dry paper towel.
Our measurements
The maximum power recorded by us, demonstrated by the tile in the maximum heating mode (2200 W), was 1920 watts. Depending on the selected mode, the power consumption of the tile changes as follows:
| Installed power, W | Power consumption, W |
|---|---|
| 2200 | 1920 |
| 1900 | 1766 |
| 1600 | 1628 |
| 1300 | 1484 |
| 1000 | 1182 |
When the power is set to less than 1000 W, the tile switches to a pulsed mode of operation. The power consumed at the same time varies cyclically from 1150 W with the burner on to 6.5 W between cycles.
One liter of water at a temperature of 20 ° C in a metal pan with a diameter of 19 cm boiled at maximum power in 4 minutes 12 seconds. At the same time, 0.139 kWh of electricity was spent.
In standby mode, the tile consumes 1.1 watts.
practice tests
During practical tests, we evaluated the applicability of the built-in hob modes for the simplest operations: cooking soup, cooking porridge, fast frying and slow simmering.
Soup
To test how well the Gemlux GL-IC220HP induction cooker can handle soup, we decided to make chicken broth. We put a large chicken breast with skin and bones in a saucepan, added a few medium-sized carrots and a bunch of greens, turned on the Soup mode, brought the future broth to a boil and began to observe the process.
The Soup mode implies automatic power control: according to the developer’s intention, the user only changes the cooking time of the soup by controlling the timer. In our case, the automatic soup mode was not enough: 1600 watts is excessive to maintain the slow boil necessary to prepare a clear broth, so the contents of the pot boiled very intensively and ran onto the stove even with the lid removed. So we turned off the stove, turned it on again and selected the Hot Pot mode, setting the minimum power (200 watts) and cooking time for an hour and a half, since we needed a strong broth.
After an hour and a half, the stove turned off, signaling the readiness of the soup with a sound signal. The broth turned out excellent: quite transparent, rich and very tasty.
Result: excellent , but not in automatic mode.
Rice porridge with milk
Milk porridge is a dish, in general, trivial, but hardly amenable to automation: it is very difficult to create it without human participation at all. When preparing it, you have to take into account a lot of parameters: the features of the selected cereals, dishes, heating appliances and much more. Having decided to cook milk rice porridge on an induction stove, we did not expect that it would be enough to press a button for this, but we tried to reduce interference in the process to a minimum.
For porridge, we chose round Japanese rice: its high starch content makes it ideal not only for sushi, but also for puddings and porridges. Washed rice was poured with cold milk, salt and sugar were added, the lid was closed and the stove was turned on.
For cooking porridge, we chose the Stir Fry mode, which allows you to flexibly control the temperature. At the maximum (270 °C) temperature, we brought the milk and rice to a boil, and then reduced it to a minimum (80 °C).
The set 80 ° C turned out to be too much for simmering porridge: several times the milk tried to escape from under the lid, and we had to mix the contents of the ladle. It would be nice to reduce the heat, but, unfortunately, nowhere.
Despite the too strong, in our opinion, heating, we managed to cook the perfect rice porridge. Added butter, walnuts, cinnamon – and breakfast is ready.
Result: excellent , although a wider adjustment would be desirable.
chicken curry
To prepare this Indian dish, we chose the Hot Pot mode and controlled the power during the cooking process, not the temperature.
At maximum (2200 W) power, we fried finely chopped onions in vegetable oil, then reduced to medium (1300 W), poured curry powder and fried it with oil and onions.
At the same power, we continued to cook the chicken: we added medium-sized chopped chicken fillet to the spicy mixture and fried it until the meat was white (about 5 minutes).
After waiting for the chicken to be ready, they added approximately 200 g of homemade yogurt to the dish. The photo shows that the power was reduced to 200 W: this is not necessary, and in our case, the power reduction is due solely to the desire to slowly document the process.
After stirring the dish, we set the heating power to 800 W and simmered until the sauce thickened.
Long-grain basmati rice is ideal as a side dish for curries, fragrant on its own and goes well with the main course.
Result: excellent.
findings
Testing of the Gemlux GL-IC220HP single burner induction cooker has shown that it is a very powerful and efficient kitchen appliance. The tile is convenient to move, use in the country or camping, where there is electricity. Food is prepared quickly on it, and washing it is easy and pleasant.
However, it is not always clear how to use the built-in modes correctly, especially when you consider that two of the four do not differ from each other in any way. However, the fact that you can change the power of the stove and the cooking time makes the cooking process flexible and practically unlimited. You just need to get used to the fact that even the minimum power of work may be too high for some particularly delicate dish.
pros
- light weight
- mobility
- energy efficiency
- easy cleaning
Minuses
- confusion with cooking modes
