Hot Plate Vs Stove – Which one is Best?

With so many ways to prepare food these days, it can be confusing to pick the best option. Is it better to cook food on a hot plate compared to a stove? Or should you go for an induction cooker?

To help people with this dilemma, we have constructed an article that serves as a general guideline on when to use what.

Although we will primarily cover the hot plate vs stove comparison, we will also look at induction cookers and infrared hot plates.

Hot Plate Vs Stove – Which one is Best?

Stove

As we know, both gas stoves and electric stoves are used in many homes.

Although newer models of electric stoves are usually much better and efficient than their gas stove alternatives, they do have the problem of being unusable in power failure or blackouts. This is why gas stoves still see use often as an emergency backup option.

So, how good are stoves? One of the primary advantages of heating in a stove is the more even distribution of heat; this makes it valuable if you tend to make different types of food items.

Another advantage is that stoves tend to reach their desired cooking temperature much faster, so it ends up saving you gas or electricity.

However, Hot Plate Vs stoves get dirty a lot and require a good deal of maintenance. Another issue is that they are not portable. So, for cooking outdoors, they are out of the question.

Hot Plate

Hot plates are self-contained cooking surfaces that come in various sizes. They make use of electricity to heat up the cooking surface. Larger units can have greater heating capabilities, but even the largest of hot plates usually cannot match the power of stoves of similar size.

Due to the design of the cooking surfaces, the heat distribution suffers a bit. Hot plates often suffer from hot spots, where some regions are hotter than others.

These hot spots end up resulting in making certain food items more challenging to cook. Although recent models have improved this problem and hot spots are less prone to occur.

Primary uses of hot plates are for saving kitchen space or for using outdoors. They are very compact and do not need a gas supply to work, so dedicated kitchen spaces are not required to use them.

You can also carry them, so they are a great pick if you need to cook outside or during a trip. For home use, unless you lack space, a stove is often, if not always, better than a hot plate.

Induction Cooker

Moving away from conventional stoves or cooking surfaces, let’s look at the more recent state-of-the-art ones. One of the most popular types of stoves is the induction cooker.

If you’re not familiar, an induction cooker uses electromagnetic induction via a copper coil to heat food. Induction cookers are much more efficient since energy is not lost when heating the pot.

They also do not heat up the surrounding area as much as conventional stovetops, making them better for home use. Induction cookers do not require a gas supply and also start up faster.

As great as induction cookers sound, they do have one problem. Due to how the heating works, you can’t use them with ceramic or aluminum cook pots. Hence, it is important to see what cooking pots you use before deciding to use them.

Using the wrong pots can result in damage to the cookware or ineffective heating.

Infrared Hot Plate

Improving on conventional hot plates, infrared versions are much more efficient. They do not face the heat distribution issues regular hot plates suffer from. Due to using infrared radiation, this type of item has more in common with a microwave than a stove.

One of the best things about infrared cooktops is that they don’t overcook food. With their improved heat distribution, portable infrared plates offer similar levels of performance to stovetops.

However, they don’t work as well as induction cookers and aren’t as efficient. On the plus side, you can use many different types of pots with an infrared cooktop.

Suffice to say, if you need a hot plate, be it for outside use or saving kitchen space, it is almost always better to go with an infrared one than an electric one.

Which One Is the Best?

There’s really no straightforward answer. A lot of it comes down to how much kitchen space you can allocate and use. For home use, the best solution is always an induction cooker unless you can’t make room for it. In that case, or if you need a portable option, infrared cooktops should be considered.

A gas stove should only be considered if your particular area does not have a stable electricity supply. Otherwise, you shouldn’t try and get one as these stoves do possess risks.

Conclusion

Regarding the hot plate vs stove vs induction cooker vs infrared hot plate debate, as you can see, stoves are generally ahead most of the time unless you need portability. However, regardless of which one you pick, make sure you buy a good model of your desired cooktop type.