Magnetic induction cooktops

I'm going to be at my moms house this week and plan on doing a brew one night. She's got two magnetic induction burners, and they're unbelievable at boiling speghetti water, so I bet they'll be great for brewing too.

Just wondering if anyone else has experience w/ these burners?

Never used one of these- Sounds like they work off the same principle as a microwave. Just watch for boil over and make sure you aerate your wort good when you go to fermentation.

Let us know how well this works- maybe be another alternative for me to look into! (Apartment has old electric stove and was planning on doing heating elements, but this sounds interesting) Thanks and happy brewing!

We use them at work all the time. They're nothing like a microwave.
There is a magnet inside the base that spins very fast. This heats the metal in the pan (you can only use certain pots/pans) and therefore heats the things inside. I've not used them for brewing, but they are very efficient as far as speed is concerned, and fairly accurate in holding temperatures. (I don't know if they're all like this, but the ones that we use have a temperature setting, in 10* increments, that will hold a temp in the pan!)
They usually will only accomodate a certain size pot, ie, there will be a minimum and maximum size pot you can use with each individual burner.

I wonder if I can use a big pot and use two burners at a time? I picture these cooktops as having the heat control of gas w/ an electric burner.

I brew with them. Mashing only however. I tried to do a full boil (6.5 gal) but it only got to a nice simmer, not a rolling boil. They will boil 3 gal. of tomato sauce though. I don't have a pot big enough for two to fit under. I use one to direct "fire" my mash tun and I use a second to heat my hot liquor tank. For this they work fabulous. I do all of this in the basement and then do my boil outside on a propane burner. I really like using them! You do need to make sure your pots are magnetic.

I also love to cook with these. VERY quick heating and extremely even - no hot spots.

Well, 0 for 2. Two pots and neither is magnetic so no go on the induction experiment. However, my large pot does fit on the other 4 burners, so we'll see if that'll get 6.5 gallons to a rolling boil. If not, onto a friends house to steal his outdoor cooker.

I use dual 1600W induction elements for boiling wort in my 24 gallon brewpot. Cannot beat the efficiency. Yes 2 separate cooktops will work with a single pot providing the base is wide enough. It takes about 45 minutes for me to get a good 7 gallon boil on. I have yet to scale up to 12 and 18 gallon boils, but we will see. At the cost of propane lately, the 3.2KWH is cheap..figure I am at 7-8cents per KWH, so it costs me $0.50 in total to heat and then boil for the hour.

Clean up is quick, and better yet, no issues with using inside...no CO or CO2 emissions. Just be sure to run each burner from a separate 15A 110VAC breaker to keep from tripping. My cookers cost me $102 each delivered.

Hope this helps....
Mike "Mannawar Brews"