Ztove Induction Hob 80cm Review

Introduction

It’s rare to see something completely different, but the Ztove Induction Hob 80cm really is a different kind of induction hob to those that I’ve reviewed in the past, down to its clever integration with Ztove’s smart cookware.

Each of Ztove’s pans has a temperature sensor, letting you adjust the cooking temperature by the degree for precision results. Whether you want a perfect fried egg or to sous vide your food, there really is nothing else like it.

Design and features

• Works with and without Ztove cookware
• App provides detailed cooking instructions
• Fine control

I’ve got the Ztove Induction Hob 80cm on review, though there’s also a standard 60cm version of the product along with an 80cm variant with integrated downdraft. I have to say that I’m a big fan of 80cm hobs: you get a bit more cooking space, and it makes it easy to move pans around.

Externally, there’s not a lot to tell the Ztove Induction Hob 80cm apart from its competition, with four equal cooking zones that can draw up to 3000W each, although the total load is capped at 7.4kW.

There are no flex zones here, so you can’t join two zones in to a larger one for use with bigger pans or griddles.

In fact, the Ztove Induction Hob 80cm is a standard induction hob that will work with any cookware that you have. In this mode, I found the hob easy to use.

Just put your cookware down, tap the icon to select which burner you want to use, and then there’s a touch control to select the power. Standard modes range from one to nine, with the ‘P’ power boost setting for when you want to quickly boil a pan of water.

I found the control responsive and liked that I could either slide my finger to increase or decrease the setting, or just tap on the line to get to a power mode immediately.

The Ztove Induction Hob 80cm neatly handles power modes between the burners, letting me set all four burners to P. There must be some power limiting going on, but that’s all internal and not restrictive.

A lot of hobs will limit a burner to a lower level, say 5, when another burner is at P, which can make them confusing to use.

Each hob has an individual timer, which can be set by hours, minutes and seconds: a level of precision most other induction hobs don’t offer.

The Ztove Induction Hob 80cm’s real power comes when it’s used with Ztove’s smart cookware. These include 1.5L, 3L and 5L saucepans, plus 24cm and 28cm non-stick pans, and a 28cm stainless steel pan.

I had the 28cm non-stick pan and a saucepan, both of which are solidly built, and easy to clean: the non-stick coating washed up brilliantly time and time again.

Each pan has a CR2032 battery in it, so that it can communicate with the hob, transmitting the actual temperature of the pan via the integrated temperature sensor.

This allows for precision cooking, setting a target temperature that’s maintained, rather than cooking with power modes. And, as the temperature sensor is in the pan, the readings are more accurate than hobs that have integrated temperature sensors, such as the Neff N90 T66YYY4C0.

Working with the Ztove cookware at first can be a bit confusing at first, because the burner has to be set to a power mode, and then the target temperature has to be set.

The power mode is the maximum that can be used by the burner, but the Ztove Induction Hob 80cm adjusts power to maintain a temperature. For that reason, the company recommends setting a burner to 9 or P for maximum heat-up times for most foods; for delicate items, use a slightly lower setting.

Handily, you can set a warning, so the hob will tell you if you’ve set the power mode too low.

Then, you can use the slider control to adjust temperature in 5°C increments between 0°C and 250°C, plus the touch controls via the LCD to adjust by +/-1°C. The maximum 250°C temperature is pre-selected because this protects the non-stick coating from damage.

For convenience, the menu system gives you quick access to common heating modes including boil, fry, melt, deep fry, keep warm and quick thawing. The screen then shows the set temperature and the exact temperature.

Precision cooking like this should mean better cooking results, as you’re cooking at stable temperatures. That’s as true when frying an egg as it is when using sous vide to cook food, such as meat or fish, in a sealed bag submerged in water at the target temperature.

For example, steak cooked using sous vide is the exact temperature throughout, and just needs a quick sear for colour.

Getting used to cooking this way is helped by the app. At its most basic it gives you the same controls as on the front. However, it also offers a growing library of recipes, which give the ideal cooking time and temperature.

Some of these recipes are automated, with the settings sent to the cookware. For example, the fried egg recipe sets the pan to 98°C, and the app pings when it’s time to add the egg.

Others just have instructions, such as the recipe for pan-fried skin-on salmon. Either way, they’re all brilliant ways to get started, and new recipes are added all the time.

As I was writing this, Ztove released a video to show how to perfectly pan-fry a chicken breast in butter. The company tested with 50 chicken breasts, working out the best combination of cooking time and temperature so that the chicken breast was fully cooked, moist and the butter didn’t burn. That’s something you simply can’t do on a normal hob.

Performance

• Fast heat-up times
• Incredible results

I test all hobs for heat-up times, and the Ztove Induction Hob 80cm is generally very quick. With a pan with 1.5-litres of water in it, I found that the hob took 3m 7s to heat the water from 20°C to 90°C. That’s very quick and only the Miele KM7201FR is faster due to its double power boost setting.

With 1-litre of water in a smaller pan, the heat up time to 90°C was a quick 2m 44s. Finally, a small pan with 500ml of water went to 90°C in 1m 41s.

Given the nature of this hob, it’s the precision cooking that’s important. I heated a pan of water to 95°C, and measured the water temperature at a constant 93°C with a thermometer. This temperature stayed stable for an hour before I turned the hob off.

I then tried the melting setting, adding a knob of butter to the pan. It melted slowly, but didn’t burn. Even 20 minutes later, the butter was still melted without any signs of burning.

Before After

I then used the egg-frying option to fry an egg. As warned, the egg took quite a bit longer to fry than I’m used to, but it was perfect and the best fried egg that I’ve ever cooked. There was no burning or crispiness to it, with just perfect, white egg and a nice runny yolk. I’ve never been able to get something that good with a regular hob.

I also followed Ztove’s recipe for cooking a chicken breast in butter, first melting the butter at 140°C, and then raising the temperature to 160°C and cooking the chicken for six minutes per side.

Again, the results were better than I’ve ever got from a regular frying pan: the butter caramelised around the chicken, forming a perfect sear without burning; the chicken cooked for long enough that it was cooked through but retained moisture.

Following the pan-fried salmon recipe, I got the skin nice and crispy, the top well done, and the fillet nice and tender throughout.

Really, that’s what this induction hob is about: precision cooking, delivering the kinds of results you’d expect from a pro kitchen.

Should you buy it?

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