Today’s gadget review is of a Duxtop 1800 watt portable induction cook top. How is this related to camping? Actually, it is and we tried it out on a recent trip where I went tent camping off the grid. Seriously.

Induction cooking

I am fascinated by induction cooking which is essentially using magnets to excite the molecules in the pan. You have to use induction cook tops with pans that are magnetic so you can test if any pans you own will work by simply applying a magnet to it.

In fact our favorite RV and camping cookware, the Magma Cookware, are induction-compatible which proved to be a bonus. We did have to buy a different tea pot to boil water for our Aeropress Coffee Maker, though.

My fascination stems from the fact that induction cooking literally is faster and cleaner than using propane or gas. When it’s off, it’s off. And it’s portable.

In fact, as we settle in to the house in New Mexico our vision is to have no traditional stove, but a few of these portable induction cooktops instead. Okay, this is really Tony’s vision and, yes, he’s weird. But that idea would mean more cooking surfaces when we need them and something that only serves one purpose, a stove that cooks food, not taking up a big space in the kitchen.

If you’re keeping score that means more counter space when I don’t have it littered with induction cook tops.

Further, as modern appliances become more expensive and far, far less reliable a series of small, relatively inexpensive cook tops replacing a pricey range really appeals to me.

But we’re talking camping.

Camping with induction

I happened to be going on an all-girls weekend getaway and, since we totaled our RV, it was going to be one in tents weekend. So how do you use an electric appliance in a tent?

Jackery to the rescue. Not only did we buy this induction cook top but we also broke out our Magma nesting pots as well. All of this packed up into a small box which made it even better.

The Jackery’s ability to power up to 15 amps, or 1800 watts, from one of its 120 volt power outlets was the perfect match to this cook top. In theory you have about an hour’s use from the Jackery with this cook top but I don’t know anybody who cranks the cook top up to full blast for an hour. You’d have some scorched grub.

I did use the cook top to make coffee with our Aeropress and an ancient camp coffee pot used to boil the water. In that circumstance the Jackery and the Duxtop were both pushed to their limits and performed fine.

Advantages

One of the advantages of this type of cooking is that it heats up whatever you’re cooking very, very quickly. Boiling water with an induction cook top is quite quick as there is far less heat being lost to just heating your surroundings. Instead, the heat is actually going to increase the temp of whatever’s in the pot. Think of how warm your kitchen gets if you have a gas stove - that’s all heat that’s being wasted.

Another thing that’s good about this is that there are no fumes. There’s no reason to vent your tent if you’re using an induction cook top to avoid carbon dioxide. The cook top just heats the pan through the power of magnets.

Further, you have very precise control over the heat. The Duxtop allows you to choose either heat-based settings or settings that are just numerical - 1-10. There is also a temperature control that starts at 140°F and goes up to 460°F. One of the benefits of induction cooking is the precise temperature control; however, just because the Duxtop thinks you’re cooking at a specific temperature doesn’t make it true.

There are a ton of variables but the pot itself is one of the largest ones. Some are thicker, thinner, wider, more narrow etc. If precise control is your thing, you probably already have a thermometer and that’s a good thing.

Lastly, there’s a timer that will allow up to 170 minutes of cooking. That’s almost three hours continuous which might sound like a lot, but I had hoped to use the precise temperature controls of this thing to turn a pot into something of a crock pot. That’s not happening.

Oh well, I always still have a crock pot but I really like when I can combine functionality of things so I have to bring along fewer things. I suppose I could just reset the timer but then the whole point of a crock pot is to set it and forget it.

One more. No flame. I can’t see how it would be possible to burn down a tent or an RV with one of these. When the pot is removed, the thing shuts off after beeping to remind you that there’s no pan on top of it.

So if Fido or a little kid pulls the cook top off the counter and onto the floor you don’t have an open flame that’s suddenly out of control.

In summary

This was one of those gadgets that I’ve been lusting after for a while.

Since buying this thing we’ve made pots of food, fried eggs and Spam, boiled water and more. I have cooked a scramble that had a bunch of peppers and onions and flipped the mixture with the pan by taking it off the Duxtop and flipping it.

When you do remove a pan from it, the Duxtop beeps in complaint that there’s no pan and the delay is long enough that you can flip something and put the pan back on. Once it has been reunited with the pan it’s happy once again. This was another of my questions.

There is a tremendous amount of stored energy in liquid fuel which is why propane still is a great way to cook, particularly when you have to carry that energy around with you. In an RV propane cooking makes a lot of sense.

But as batteries and solar become better and better, such as in the case of the Jackery or some of the solar and battery systems some of you are putting in your own RV, I’m liking induction cooking even more.

While our travel trailer still will have a propane cook top we’re also looking to potentially do a custom pickup camper in the near future and, of course, the Duxtop will be part of that build. That is, when we can pry it away from the kitchen in the house. That stove won’t be there much longer.