Induction cooktops

What are the reasons that all of the induction type cookers I've seen cycle on and off, rather than using a continuously variable heat control?

Edited because my reply was not accurate.

JSETDB said:

What are the reasons that all of the induction type cookers I've seen cycle on and off, rather than using a continuously variable heat control?

Click to expand...

hi,
If it uses the local mains frequency of 50/60Hz sinusoidal to generate the Eddy current heating in the iron cooking vessel, trying to control the heating rate using PWM would not be a feasible way.
The better option would be On/Off cycle heating control as it would maintain the required 50/60Hz eddy current heating of the pot.

E

JSETDB said:

What are the reasons that all of the induction type cookers I've seen cycle on and off, rather than using a continuously variable heat control?

Click to expand...

One question is how you know it is cycling on and off?
Second question is whether "all" is an exaggeration based on observation of a few?

Here's a description from GE: **broken link removed**
Although some people cringe at using Wikipedia, here is its description:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooking
Moreover, if you look at this description of an induction burner from HomeDepot, it seems to make state that the higher settings are not On/Off. Only the two lowest settings use that method: **broken link removed**

Now, on the other hand, my cooktop is not induction. It is just a sealed glass top, and it pulses on most settings. One can see the glowing heating element go on and off. Is there a chance that this discussion is about two quite different types of stove top heaters that look superficially the same?

John

Its also probably cheaper to have on/off control instead of digital pwm control.
Actually the on/off you notice is pwm, just really slow.