Buying an Induction-Cooking Unit
Getting the Best Prices
(You should already have read--as a minimum--the site page here on Selecting a Unit.)
If you live in the United States or Canada, we at this site can sell you almost every unit available today at what is, to our belief, the best price you can get anywhere. There are a very few lines we cannot sell (Gaggenau, for example, simply does not permit any sales whatever over the internet--only in person), a couple we choose not to sell (which we will not name here, but you can see the omissions in our listings), a few who impose restrictions restricting to where we can sell units (GE Monogram, Thermador, and Wolf are on that list), and a couple whose availability seems restricted to Canada (and even there seem scarce, they being AEG and Panasonic). Moreover, a few (chiefly those that we feel are marketing "snob appeal" as much as hardware), while they do allow internet sales, do not allow posting of prices: they require you to expressly inquire of us for a price (but for those we have set up inquiry pages that make the process simple and easy for you).
While, with a couple of exceptions, we will sell any brand that is available for us to sell, and the choice is wholly yours, we should make it plain that we believe that brands that have either territorial restrictions, flat bans on internet sales, or prohibitions about posting prices (or, in some cases, combinations of those things) are brands to beware of. The question one must inevitably ask about all such jiggery-pokery is Why? Why can't sellers tell customers the going price? Why can't a dealer in Kalamazoo compete openly with one in Peoria? The answer we sense is that the prices are so high relative to the goods and to the going prices offered by competing brands that the maker feels that only with the benefit of a chance to privately sweet-talk prospective customers can retailers stand much of a chance of moving the goods. The attitude they foster is "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it," an approach that plays on many people's "money envy", the fear of being thought inferior in economic status. Well, well, maybe that's just us; but it's how we feel about it. We now return to your regularly scheduled web page.
If you live outside the U.S. and Canada, finding the best prices can be a strain. For the U.K., we have located such sources, and are now affiliated with them, and will very soon now be offering all the units they carry, which--regrettably--is not all units available. (Some U.K. brands also have asinine distribution policies.) If this is you, pleae check back with us soon. We also hope, in the not-too-distant future, to add affiliations in the Australia and New Zealand regions, so again, if that's you keep an eye on this site.
Wherever you live, you can see which makers supply units to your region by checking the corresponding table on our Makers page (the link here will jump you right to that table). Note that many makers who supply nations outside Europe supply them with models slightly different from their European roster, at least based on posted model codes. We suspect those differences are trifling, but, as always, caveat emptor.
"Self-Importing" to North America
(Readers outside North America can jump over this section.)
(That term is silly on its face, as you would not be importing yourself into anywhere--but it's what is commonly used for what we mean, so we'll use it, too.)
Despite the large and growing range of induction-cooking equipment now available in North America, some consumers feel that they just have to have this or that European brand or model not available in the U.S. or Canada. Some such folk play with the idea of importing the wanted unit from overseas. Now very likely a great many retailers outside North America could and would ship to customers within North America. The issues, however, are not merely a willingness on the part of a retailer to ship, but the degree of that retailer's experience with and expertise in the not-so-simple business of trans-national shipping. The matters involved are suitable packing, knowing the appropriate carriers, establishing proper shipping-insurance coverage (extremely important), familiarity with any customs requirements, and probably more. There are at least a couple of overseas dealers who have been sending units to satisfied North American customers for a while now, so it can be done.
But let us be very sure that you understand the crucial points from the buyer's viewpoint. The shipping, insurance, and customs charges (Canada's are much higher than those for the U.S.) are not trivial, but neither are they mind-boggling. They do add to the cost of a unit bought overseas, but even with those added costs many fine European units are more than competitive with what's available at direct retail in the U.S. The real issues are three: warranty (plus its service considerations), parts and repair, and the legal implications (regarding both building codes and insurance).
Warranty Issues
A unit bought outside the country just does not have any warranty coverage. How important is that? Opinions vary. It is a general belief that any electronic device--and that's what induction cookers are at bottom--will usually either fail almost at once or else work satisfactorily for its expected lifetime--that is, that failures from defects occur at once ("DOA") or very quickly (typically with a few hours of use). But "usually" is not "always", and it is the odd case, not the everyday, that warranties are all about.
(One thing that puzzles us is why the retailers doing this sort of exporting cannot offer a service, for a modest cost if necessary, wherein they would, before shipping, open the factory-delivered package and run a short documented burn-in and test; that way, everyone could be 100% assured that the unit was fully functional when packed for shipping, so if it should come DOA the problem absolutely, positively will have occurred in transit. Even if the burn-in/testing nominally transforms the product into a "used" unit, so what? There's no warranty to begin with.)
Some overseas retailers who regularly ship units to North America state they they supply their own warranty on the unit, but if you think about it, that's not worth anything save what that particular dealer's reputation (which may be difficult to determine) may make it worth--it is difficult verging on impossible to imagine enforcing it in cases of dispute. And even if a given vendor has had an excellent reputation, businesses can and do change hands from time to time.
Service Issues
Warranty or not, if a unit fails, on Day One or in Year Sixteen, two things are needed if it is not to become an oversize doorstop: parts, and a serviceman who can install those parts. Both those things are likely to be absent for a unit not normally available in North America. While induction units are, to a fair extent, alike "under the hood", doubtless each has its quirks, and a service technician not used to that unit (or, likely, even that brand), and not equipped with a service manual, is not going to have an easy time of it.
Yes, service manuals, and even parts, can doubtless eventually be found overseas and imported, but that would take quite a bit of time, and who can be without the ability to cook for days or possibly weeks at a time? (And suppose the wrong part is sent, or the diagnosis wasn't right and it turns out a different part is needed?)
Legal Issues
This is, we think, the real deal-breaker. In North America, the law, in the form of Building Codes, requires that electrical equipment of any kind be approved by the appropriate monitoring group--UL in the U.S. or CSA in Canada--else it is illegal. There is no doubt that any unit saleable in Europe is perfectly fine to use in North America, but it remains so that such units must be submitted to and pass the approving agency's tests; that involves not only a great deal of time and paperwork, but a great deal of money, too, because the tests are not free. The very reason the subject units are not readily available in North America is that their makers did not, for whatever reasons, care to go to the trouble and expense of getting the approval, and the units remain literally illegal.
That is not a triviality not removing the "do not remove" tag from a mattress: it is a real problem. It can happen--we know for a fact of an instance--that the building or electrical inspector can "red-tag" (refuse to allow) any appliance that does not have that formal approval. Most major appliances of a permanent, "build-in" nature (unlike, say, a refrigerator) are normally installed as part of either new construction or a major kitchen upgrade, either of which will, almost everywhere, require a building permit, which entails periodic inspections for complaince with the applicable building codes.
It's hard to quantify the risk: individual inspectors may not get that detailed, and may simply assume that an obviously new major appliance is OK--a great many happy self-importers have gotten away with it. But if the inspector says "No", there is usually no recourse. A red-tagged unit instantly becomes a large, expensive doorstop. In rural areas, inspections are sometimes casual to the point of lax; but in most areas, the risk is substantial.
(One can, of course, install such a unit outside of a job requiring a building permit. One then has to either find a friendly electrician who will ignore the unit's status or do it oneself. There are fairly obvious problems with either approach.)
Another legal issue is insurance coverage: if something damages your home, and the kitchen area is part of the damage, the insurance adjuster might well notice that your cooktop is not approved (as a generality, the greater the loss, the more careful the inspection). Even if the cooktop was not the source of the loss, the insuror might well claim that the policy was invalidated by your knowing use of an unapproved major appliance. Is the chance remote? Not much remoter than the likelihood of major loss in the first place, and that chance is the very reason you have homeowner's insurance.
Non-Issues
So much for possible real problems; now for the non-problems. The bugaboos sometimes cited about the small differences between European mains power and North American mains power (most notably that the European line frequency is 50 Hertz, whereas the North American is 60 Hertz) are essentially meaningless. The power supplies for virtually everything electronic, including induction-cooking equipment, have no difficulty working just fine at either frequency. (The only things that might have problems are mechanical timers, like some electrical alarm clocks--but all induction units with timers have electronic timers whose internal "clocks" do not rely on the mains-power frequency for measurement.) All that matters is the voltage, and so long as that is in the general range of 220 to 240 volts (nominal)--as it is standard in Europe and standard for heavy appliances in North America--all is well.
(Do, though, beware the occasional very-high-power commercial induction unit that requires 400-volt, 3-phase mains power; if you are contemplating a unit in that power range, your application is surely commercial, and you can get your advice from your professionals.)
In sum, let us say that it is our firm opinion--especially with the wide and growing range of products now available in North America--that it is very unwise to self-import. You make your own call, but for ourselves, we would never do it.
Actually Buying
This site now offers many induction-cooking units at retail, at prices as good as you're going to find.
You can see a list of what we have available; or you can read our case for why you should consider buying from this site.
You can and should also read our generic information and advice on selecting a unit.
