Total Chef TCIS11BNG Induction Cooktop with Bonus Pan and Glass Lid Black

I purchased one of these units in January 2014. As stated in other reviews, the accompanying pan is made of rather thin stainless steel, which does limit it's usefulness. On a low heat setting, I have successfully cooked curries, braised meats, etc. However, on a high heat setting everything burns and everything sticks. But I've since bought a fairly cheap set of nicely made and induction-friendly Cuisinart pans from Costco ($200 for an impressive 13 piece set) which work beautifully on this unit.However, the main reason I'm writing this review today is that from about 6 months after beginning to use this unit, the LED digital display has slowly deteriorated, bar by bar, until 10 looks like "1]", 8=9, 6=5, and the 2 looks something like "?". I only use the heat level settings, rarely specific temperature, but I think that would be even harder to decipher now.The rest of the unit works fine, but the manufacturer needs to find a better source for the display components. There's really no excuse for faulty LEDs. Eventually, I expect, the readout will be so bad that it will render the whole thing useless. I should have sent it back when it first started to go bad.

Our first impression of this cook top is that it is very well put together, small and relatively energy efficient compared to other forms of electric cooking. My wife had purchased this one because it included a 'bonus' pan to use with the induction cook top, but we quickly realized this pan is way too thin to be useful on this cook top. It's stainless steel, but its very thin, somewhere on the order of the thickness of card stock paper, maybe. This ultra thin pan is very easy to burn on even low settings, as we found out attempting to use it for the first time.Pros:Cook top is small, lightweight and relatively efficient for it's price point.Cook top operates in either preset heat modes (1 - 10) or by temperature in increments.Cook top will not operate with cookware that is not magnetic (glass, aluminum, etc.) and will not even stay on if attempting to use them.Cook top is not swipe sensitive, so it's not easy to change settings or turn it on accidentally, but provides concise controls when used appropriately (by touching)Cook top heats up quickly and provides consistent heating across the surface.Cons:Included 'bonus' pan is great for boiling water and cooking pasta, but not much else. Any small amount of material (butter, margarine, PAM for example) will burn even on the lowest setting within seconds.

The Total Chef induction unit works OK, but there are better units.The bonus pan is just too, too thin for induction cooking and should not be considered in your purchase. You could boil water in it, but the handles don't even make it practical for that.