NuWave induction cooker review

I do not go to 4×4 shows to buy kitchenware; not veggie peelers, not non-stick frying pans and certainly not cookware – no siree. I only go to 4×4 shows to look at and buy 4×4 and camping gear. Well, except for one time!

What’s the story?

While preparing for our upcoming trip around the countryside and given we’d just installed a REDARC lithium battery system, complete with a 2000-watt inverter, it seemed timely that we sauntered past a Nuwave induction cooker stand. Kinda like when you think, talk or search about a product, and hey presto, it appears on your phone as an advertisement!

Having never researched induction cookers; either pricing, power needs or output temperatures and settings, and faced with an exuberant salesman, this NuWave system seemed to be the bee’s knees or cooking via our REDARC lithium batteries and inverter. Given the salesman’s never-to-be-repeated offer of a two-for-one deal, we walked away with… a big one and a little one – a totally untechnical term for our purchasing of two NuWave induction cookers.

No, we didn’t need nor could use two induction cookers simultaneously with our setup, but hey, we had a spare to store away for another time or could even use it while plugged into mains power at home. It was a great deal – I’m sure!

NuWave settings, inputs and outputs

The NuWave features precise temperature control via five-degree increments, ranging from 40 to 250 degrees Celsius, allowing all cooking options from simmering to “Oh sh*t, I burnt the sangas”.

There are also six pre-set temperatures, with wattage settings for cooking at 900, 1500 and reaching the maximum of 2000 watts, which matches our inverter.

Not trying to emulate our salesman with all its features, but the induction cooker is much safer than cooking on gas with its naked flame. Plus, it is safe enough to touch with bare hands, given the heat goes directly to your pan/pot, not onto the cooker’s surface. Any spills are easily whipped off the smooth surface, compared to the mess of dribbling down into a gas ring – ask me how I know this!

The supplied heat is (almost) instant, so there is little waste of battery power, making it able to be switched on and off as needed with little to no warmup time or guessing how hot the heat source is.

Given that this induction cooker is portable, it can be used within or next to our van, or we could carry it to the camp kitchen for use on mains power, plus can also use it at home in the kitchen. That, to me, was a winning feature compared to a built-in system.

Did the NuWave work?

Hell yeah, not only did the NuWave induction cooker, combined with our REDARC battery and inverter system, work a treat, but it excelled in everything we, I mean Sharyn, cooked. It all worked so well that I’d never leave home without it all again. Regardless of conditions (wind, altitude, temperatures) or if using the cooker indoors or out, it supplied easy and instant heat for cooking anything from boiling water, searing T-bones, and pan-fried vegies to that spicy curry that saw me sheepishly wandering away from camp later that night… shovel in hand.