Be it gas, electric or induction, ranges have held onto a vestigial limb — a finite, unmoveable set of areas to do the actual cooking. This new induction cooktop from Thermador, however, is smart enough to heat anywhere there’s a pot.
The new Freedom cooktop bills itself as the first induction appliance whose entire surface acts as a heating element. Its “natural-mapping” interface allows users to add, remove and shift pans around while they cook and should allow chefs a greater degree of flexibility in their meal preparation.
Induction cooking employs a copper wire running under the clear ceramic surface and a strong AC current to create a magnetic field. This then transfers an electric current to the cookware, heating it while keeping the range cool to the touch. It’s more efficient than both gas and traditional electric methods.
The Freedom also includes a 6.3-inch display that recognises the pot’s shape and size, as well as controls the unit’s power settings and cook time (begone, egg timer!). Its surface accommodates pans up to 53 x 33cm and will retail for $US5000 when it hits the market in July. [Appliancist - Wikipedia]
Should be interesting when someone boils over a pot of pasta or rice and that boiling water floods the display.
Probably not that interesting. Pan is limited to 53x33cm, so the induction area probably won't increase past that. Also because it is, as stated, an induction cook top it simply applies a rapidly changing strong magnetic field to the cookware (or whatever is on there). This would have little to no effect on water/most foodstuffs, unless it had an incredibly high iron content. Like a piece of iron.
I think he meant water leaking into the display. Not that it will be an issue anyway.
The Display is completely under transparent glass :-)
Now it just needs a wifi chip and an Ipad app!
I'm trying to think of a cool Arduino hack Idea for this, like slowly warming the backside of a robot car theif, or wiping library cards remotely via webserver.
I don't know why they didn't do this ages ago. Given that it can only heat where there is an appropriate metal object, wouldn't that technically make all induction devices "smart"? If a pot doesn't fill an area designated for heating on one of the older usits, the surrounding area of the pot doesn't get hot, so it's kind of already doing this.. this just gives you a little more freedom of placement.
They didn't do this ages ago because the coils were quite large and you could only fit a few under there. You have missed the point slightly. Yes, you can currently put a pot anywhere, as long as you don't want to cook properly. This fixes that.
No issues with it drawing excessive amounts of current? I'd be surprised if this could safely run of a normal power point in an old house. Great idea though.