What is the Difference Between Hotplate and Induction Cooker

The key difference between hotplate and induction cooker is that the hotplate uses heat produced by either electricity or gas for cooking, whereas the induction cooker uses radiation to cook.

Hotplate and induction cooker are two types of cooking appliances that are important for cooking the best food of your choice.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Hotplate
3. What is an Induction Cooker
4. Hotplate vs Induction Cooker in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Hotplate vs Induction Cooker

What is a Hotplate?

A hotplate is a small cooktop that uses one or more electric heating elements or gas burners. It is a portable and self-contained tabletop. It is useful as a stand-alone appliance that is often important as a substitute for a burner from an oven range or kitchen stove. Hotplates are useful for food preparation in locations where we cannot use a full kitchen stove practically. Typically, a hotplate has a flat surface or a round surface. We can use this appliance when traveling or in areas having no electricity.

Hotplate and Induction Cooker - Side by Side Comparison

Figure 01: A Hotplate with a Table Top

This cooking appliance is usually powered by electricity. But there are gas-fired hot plates, mainly used in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. These are still available in some markets in the world. In a laboratory, a hotplate is generally important in heating glassware or the content inside glassware. Sometimes, a hotplate consists of a magnetic stirrer. This allows the heated liquid to get stirred automatically. When there are students in the laboratory, we need to take good care when heating glassware using a hotplate. There are alternative methods to perform this. One is to suspend glassware slightly above the surface of the plate without any direct contact. This can reduce the temperature of the glass and slow down the rate of heat exchange, and it also encourages even heating. Besides, we can use a teepee setup that looks like a tipi that is suspended in glassware above a plate and surrounds the flask through a skirt of tinfoil.

What is an Induction Cooker?

An induction cooker is a kitchen appliance that can be used to cook food using radiation. Induction cookers work by electromagnets that heat the actual pot rather than creating any heat against the pot for heat to transfer into it. This is what we call induction. Therefore, the pot gets heated up, but not the stove surface. This method is comparatively faster than most other cooking techniques. In other words, we can cook our food faster using this type of cooker.

Hotplate vs Induction Cooker in Tabular Form

Figure 02: Induction Cooker

What works behind an induction cooker is an electromagnetic field. However, we need an induction-rated pot on the top of the cooker to heat up. Therefore, if the surface of the induction cooker gets hot, that means the reverse of the heat transfer has taken place from the cooking pot back to the surface of the cooker. Although induction cookers heat up fast, the heat is concentrated at the bottom of the cookware. Therefore, food may get burnt easily. Moreover, only iron or stainless steel cookware can be used for this cooker. This cooker is comparatively safe but less durable. It is also easy to clean.

What is the Difference Between Hotplate and Induction Cooker?

Hotplates and induction cookers are very useful cooking appliances that are operated using electricity. The key difference between hotplate and induction cooker is that the hotplate uses heat produced by either electricity or gas for the cooking, whereas the induction cooker uses radiation to cook. When considering their energy efficiency, induction cookers perform better than hotplates. However, induction cookers can be only used with certain types of cookware, unlike hotplates.

The below infographic presents the differences between hotplate and induction cooker in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Hotplate vs Induction Cooker

A hotplate is useful in both laboratory and household. However, induction cookers are mainly used as kitchen appliances. The key difference between hotplate and induction cooker is that the hotplate uses heat produced by either electricity or gas for the cooking, whereas induction cooker uses radiation to cook.