VonShef Single Induction Hob – 2000W Portable Induction Cooker w/LED Touch Display, 3 Hour Timer, 10 Heat Settings 60-240°C, Safety Lock - Black

Well bear in mind this is not a long-term review - only my immediate impressions on testing the hob when it arrived very nicely packed and I didn't need to read much of the user guide as it is as others have stated really intuitive if you've had Induction hobs before. I've had two main four burner induction hobs and the early ones were very expensive and needed special venting to avoid overheating. If the burners fail each pair of hobs costs around £300 to replace the high power drivers so having this one for me is a backup to use separately in another room whilst my kitchen is being completely refitted and therefore out of action. This hob is very good and takes several sizes of induction compatible pans. The controls are nicely out of the way of spillages. The fail-safe is well designed and controls dead simple. It heats up pans in very fast time and simmer isn't bad either. I really like the timer but won't need to use it much other than to prevent boiling over if I have to turn my back. All hobs wait until you turn around as you get bored with watching for it to boil over and then a little goblin inside goes "Right lads turbo mode he's not looking" and wham the sauce boils all over the ceramics. Cleaning methods I have always used washing up liquid on a plastic scourer for stubborn marks. Nothing burns on of course as the hob is only hot not red hot. After cleaning marks off I then use a spray glass cleaner and soft cloth to polish it up and it looks like new. Works as it says off a normal 13 amp plug. I think it's going to be quite excellent for the purpose I bought it and what value! Ok it's not a well known make but these days that isn't so important when the quality of stuff on sale at reasonable prices is very good thanks to open competitive marketing.

Great for use when camping, connected to a power bank

This has all the good points of induction cookers but has some annoyance. The positive points you can find elsewhere so here are the negatives. When doign stir frying, naturally you lift the pan away from the stove to toss and stir. The stove switches off. If you are quick enough, sensors will switch it back on but if you keep the pan away from it for too long, it won't automatically switch back on. Yes there is fan noise due to having to cool itself. If it doesn't than the surrounding plastic used in the fabrication of this stove could melt. Have not put my noise meter ner it yet but it is about as loud as a microwave oven's fan noise. Now, with all tools and equipment I like a switch which powers off the equipment when it is switched off. No so with this stove. This is not switched off until you switch off at the socket. When I place the unit in the kitchen the socket is behind the TV. A child of below counter height could stretch their hands to touch the electronic stiwch on the stove and switch it on or off unintentionally. This is the sort of human factor in HSE (Health Safety Environment) designers have not thought about in this design. At the moment, when I am done with cooking I switch it off (naturally). The cooling fan stays on for about a further 2 minutes. However, as mentioned above, the unit is not totally off. So I want to switch it totally off but which involves unplugging or switch off at the socket (if the socket is a switched type of socket). HOWEVER, if I switch off at the socket now, the fan cuts out straight away thus not able to cool the internals of the cooker. In time I would imagine turning off this way could do harm to the cooker (i.e. having the fan switch off prematurely and not providing cooling air). The only way around it is to remind yourself to come back to switch it off at the socket .... what a pain in the neck. I have forgotten a number of times (another human factor). In terms of safety it is a design oversight. I am sure it is technically it is possible to design a switch at the cooker to switch off leaving the cooling fan to run on for a few minutes then switch itself totally off .... (many internal combustion engine powered cars do that; switch off the engine at the end of a journey but the cooling fan at the radiator continues working a bit longer).

We're having an extension built to house a new kitchen and in the process are ripping out the existing kitchen. Unfortunately this means that we are going to be without a working cooker for a few weeks. We bought this hob so that, along with a combination microwave/oven, we can still cook rudimentary meals. I'd never used induction before (although we did buy an Andrew James induction hob from Amazon a while ago which was faulty, as was the replacement) and have been very pleasantly surprised. Just as well really given that we have ordered an induction hob for the new kitchen. Even though I've seen demos on youtube etc. of induction in action, using it myself has really brought home just how instant and controllable it is. Obviously you need to ensure that you have induction compatible pans. This particular hob is well built with good functionality. It works well with no dead spots (which was the issue with the Andrew James hob/s). It's easy to clean and the fan's not too noisy. Only downsides are the loud beeps when you change settings e.g. turn the power up or down, and the fact that the user guide was very basic indeed. That said, the hob is very easy to use. I guess the best recommendation I can give is that we are just about to buy another.

Very efficient hob..works extremely well

The seller’s page description says “FAST & FUSS-FREE FEASTING: A great alternative to gas hobs, your induction hob heats the whole pan rather than the surface for effective results.” This is very misleading, because the heated area is very small. This Induction Hob - only heats up a very small circular region in the centre of the pan, roughly 10cm-12.5cm diameter. The area of induction heat is very intense, so the pot / pan gets very hot in the centre. The heat transfers outwards very slowly and doesn’t spread quickly enough. As a result, the food gets burnt in the centre before the remainder of the food gets hot at all. The only way to cook a pan of food is to keep stirring it. The makes it impossible to leave anything to simmer. It is also near on impossible to cook omelettes, pancakes and such like without burning the underside if the food. Also, the food on the outside cools down, so the food is often served luke-warm, not piping hot all over. Foods get stuck to the central hot area and will burn if not stirred. Any protein, from milk, eggs, meat etc etc will stick to the pan. Even my non-stick pan had food stuck in the centre, often brown or burnt. The heat from the induction process is so intense, it’s likely to burn the food, even at the lower settings. I ended up returning the hob for a full refund. I’m writing this review to warn others that this hob (and most other portable induction hobs like it) are going to be problematic. There’s nothing wrong with induction heating, but the reason this is a problem on these portable home hobs is that the heating area is too small for the purpose. The heating area needs to be much bigger. Whatever setting you try, it fails. On high settings, the food burns. On low settings, the food is not hot enough. The sales blurb is misleading, beware.

Bought this hob nearly 3 years ago for under £50 and used it EVERY day since! Automatically reads what size of pan you have on top so don't need to use any extra keys . I've been using 4 inch - 11 inch pans. Simple to use and I always use the timer so I can leave food to cook. Switches off automatically when timer stops. Plenty of temperature settings but I only use the two lowest. From frying eggs to slow cooking big pots of stews and soups (some of these have been quite heavy when full but doesn't seem to be any weight problems). 30 secs to wipe clean. This picture was taken today so it has held up well over the years. And No, I'm not getting any financial rewards for this Review. It's all true.

We ordered this primarily for use in a temporary kitchen after our old kitchen was demolished as part of a house extension: we have induction rings on our main cooker but that is temporarily out of action. We had purchased an Andrew James model some while ago and were very pleased with that product (which is still working as new): this induction hob is almost identical, and as the Andrew James appears to be no longer available it may well be that they were taken over by VonShef. Anyway it works perfectly, and I am a great fan of these units: our two are stacked one on top of the other on a shelf when not in use (they cool down very quickly after use as it's only conduction through the bottom of the saucepan/frying pan that heats it), and one at least of these is ideal for those situations (like Christmas) when extra cooking facilities may be required. They are very powerful, easy to use, and easy to keep clean. Not all saucepans/frying pans work with induction hobs - they should be marked as suitable for induction hobs - but we had sufficient compatible cookware not to have to buy any new ones.