How induction cooking works

Induction cooktops do something no other cooktop does: they make the pan itself the heating element. A coil beneath the glass generates a rapidly alternating magnetic field, which induces circulating currents inside a ferromagnetic pan base, and the pan’s own electrical resistance turns those currents into heat. The glass generates no heat at all — it only warms by contact with the hot pan sitting on it.

That single difference explains almost everything people notice about induction. Water boils in roughly half the time of radiant electric because no energy is wasted heating an element, the glass and the air in between. Power changes register instantly because there is no hot element acting as a thermal buffer. The surface around the pan stays cool because it was never the thing generating heat. And running costs are lower because around 85–90% of the energy reaches the food, against roughly 70–75% for radiant electric and about 40% for gas.

The trade-off is cookware: the field can only couple into magnetic metal, so aluminium, copper, glass and non-magnetic stainless will not heat at all. The guides below cover the mechanism, the running costs, the safety picture and how induction compares with what you have now.