"Variable heat" electric range available anywhere?

[Joe Doe]

The very few experiences I have had with induction cook tops showed me
that they have an on/off duty cycle that controls the heat production.

Matthew

The Luxine units claim to cycle at variable power so even though they
pulse off and on have greater range of control.

This is illustrated by them in their "chocolate test" where they melt a
bar of chocolate on the lowest setting of their burner vs that of a
competitor. The competitors seized the chocolate because it was pulsing
at 3500 Watts while the Luxine did not because it was pulsing at 700 W.
I think Viking markets Luxine induction units so that might be a place
to research this.

The above is found buried in the text of this article:

http://www.appliancedesign.com/CDA/Archives/a9ed6a3235a38010VgnVCM100000f
932a8c0____

I do not know it this applies to all units or the specific model in the
article. The OP might want to call Viking.

Roland

 

[Some Dude at a Keyboard]

I grew up in a house built in the early 1970s that had a four burner
General Electric cooktop with a push button control mounted on the wall
behind it. Each burner had eight or so buttons to regulate its heat
output. When I visited last Thanksgiving, it was still in service.

 

[Tzortzakakis Dimitrios]

They used to have burners with multiple elements here in the USA, but I
think they disappeared by the mid 1970s. I have a catalog of home and
apartment repair parts that lists a few replacement burners that have two
elements in the burner. The listings for these say for GE through 1975.

Do you know why they disappeared?It might be just a different implement of
the same technology, I think(I mean-the general idea is the same, but
appliances differ across the pond).In USA you use 220 volts for the range,
don't you?Do you know that european washing machines are front loaded, with
a perpendicular drum, and heat the water for cotton white almost up to boil,
aka 95 deg.celsius?They used to have some special motor,induction and now
have (the better ones-)shunt DC motor.

 

[Matthew Beasley]

-snip-

Microwave ovens work the same way, although I have some vague
recollection that some fancy models have variable power.

I recently purchased a new microwave that has variable output power (labeled
as "inverter technology"). It was sub $100 US so I wouldn't call it
"fancy". It has 4 power ranges and uses duty cycle control between the
power ranges to regulate the 10 available power settings. It is FAR
superior at the lower power settings. When defrosting or cooking on low, my
old microwave would singe and pause repeatedly. Cycling 1/4 power more
often yields MUCH better results.

The new microwave also behaves much better on my small backup generator -
conventional microwaves have really poor power factor AND significant even
order harmonics, both not appreciated by generator voltage regulators. The
even order harmonics are from the voltage doubler magnetron circuit. On one
half of the line waveform, the diode charges the cap up. On the other half
cycle, it fires the magnetron with the cap in series with the line voltage.
Since the back EMF when charging the cap is not equal to the fire voltage of
the magnetron minus the cap charge, the waveform is highly asymmetrical.