What you should know about electric cookers

One evening, a crowd of customers caught my eye at a cooker shop in New Market, Dhaka. Shah Newaz had come from Bosila, Dhaka, to buy a cooker on his way home from work.

After bargaining, he bought an induction cooker from a local brand. He said, “There is no scheduled time when gas will be available at home. So, to escape the worry of whether we will have gas or not, I bought this induction cooker today.”

Asaduzzaman Mamun, sales manager at MK Enterprise on the ground floor of Biswas Building in New Market, said, “Demand for cookers has risen so sharply because of the gas shortage that we used to sell two or three cookers a day, but now we sell 10 to 15.”

These figures give an idea of how many electric cookers all the other shops in the market might be selling collectively.

Induction cookers allow people to cook without an open flame by using a special electromagnetic process. Rabiul Islam, deputy director of the Best Buy showroom in Farmgate, explained that these cookers do not distribute heat across their entire surface.

Instead, they transfer heat only to the part of the cooking pot or pan that comes into contact with the cooker. There is no need to worry if you accidentally touch the remaining surface.

Even if you accidentally switch on the cooker, it will not generate heat unless you place a suitable cooking vessel on it. The cooker starts generating heat only when you put a pot or pan on its surface. Once you finish cooking and remove the vessel, the cooker switches off automatically.

The touchscreen controls also allow users to adjust the power level, while a timer lets them set the cooking duration.

Induction cookers do not generate heat directly on the cooking vessel's surface in the same way as conventional stoves. Instead, they use electromagnetic induction to heat compatible cookware.

As a result, you cannot use every type of pot or pan on an induction cooker. Only cookware that responds to a magnet is suitable, such as certain stainless-steel and iron vessels.

To get the best performance from an induction cooker, you can choose cookware specifically designed for induction cooking.

The market offers special cookware sets suitable for induction cookers, including a saucepan, a wok, a frying pan and a flat griddle for making roti. These sets cost between Tk 3,500 and Tk 4,500.

In the market, Vision induction cookers cost between Tk 3,750 and Tk 4,590. Vigo induction cookers range from Tk 3,750 to Tk 4,450, while Walton models cost between Tk 4,390 and Tk 5,790. Kiam induction cookers are available for Tk 3,690 to Tk 7,100, and Miyako models cost between Tk 5,484 and Tk 10,417.

For infrared cookers, Vigo models cost Tk 4,590. Vision infrared cookers range from Tk 3,400 to Tk 4,950, while Walton models cost between Tk 3,890 and Tk 5,590.

Walton's double-burner infrared cooker costs Tk 8,490, while Vision's double-burner model costs Tk 9,000. Kiam infrared cookers are priced between Tk 4,000 and Tk 7,000, while Miyako models cost between Tk 4,000 and Tk 5,300.

Asaduzzaman Mamun, sales manager at MK Enterprise, said that customers could also find electric cookers from various brands, including Prestige, Disney, Hawkins and Nova, priced between Tk 3,500 and Tk 7,500. Most brands offer warranties ranging from six months to one year.

The energy efficiency of an electric cooker depends primarily on its thermal efficiency. In simple terms, actual energy savings depend on how much of the electricity the cooker consumes goes directly towards heating the cooking vessel and how much heat escapes into the surrounding air.

Conventional gas stoves lose around 40–60 per cent of their heat to the surrounding air.

By contrast, induction cookers use an electromagnetic field to heat the base of the cooking vessel directly, allowing them to use 85–90 per cent of the energy as heat for cooking. This can reduce cooking time by more than half.

For example, boiling one litre of water takes around seven to eight minutes on a conventional gas stove, compared with just two and a half to three minutes on an induction cooker. Less operating time generally means lower electricity consumption.

Infrared cookers also transfer around 70–75 per cent of their heat directly to the cooking vessel and take approximately four to five minutes to boil one litre of water.

In addition, features such as “auto-cut off”, which switches off the cooker when the user removes the cooking vessel, and “inverter technology”, which adjusts power consumption according to the required temperature, can further reduce electricity consumption by 15–20 per cent.