Aroma PHP323 Electric Halogen Burner
by AROMA HOUSEWARES COMPANY
(Click here)
Product Summary
Manufacturer: AROMA HOUSEWARES COMPANYBrand: Aroma Housewares Co.
Model: PHP323
Product features:
- Revolutionary halogen technology Instant heating action with virtually no waiting time Stylish cont
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Aroma PHP323 Electric Halogen Burner
Customer Review: Great Burner That REALLY COOKS! But It Does BEEP!
Summary: 5 Stars
This burner is very well designed and ultra-functional, and offers lots of features you would be very hard pressed to find anywhere else, for any less than at least double what this unit costs (I know, as I researched this heavily).
This burner does heat up instantly, as well as offering instant heat reductions, so it's identical to cooking on a gas burner--that alone makes it a marvelous product and unique for an electrical burner. It also has a nice large 10" cooking surface that accommodates most pots and pans up to 12" (12" if flared, such as with skillets or French style frying pans that taper to 10" at their base). It's very stable, unlike the smaller hot-plates around, when using larger and heavier cookware.--no teetering or sliding as with the small coil type traditional hot plates.
It can also get the temperatures very high and very hot--great for stir-frying or rapid boiling of water in a large stock pot. This burner gets much hotter than traditional hot-plates, which are really more geared toward heating soup or for making gravy at the holidays when the family stove is full. This halogen burner is much more geared toward mimicking a full fledge (gas) burner and can do anything a stove top burner can do. For those of us in bachelor apartments with no stove, it's a God-send and has opened all new worlds of cooking for me.
The ceramic glass cook-top cleans well with many of the commercial available glass-top stove cleaners (Weiman Stovetop), or with Barkeepers Friend (does not scratch trust me--and for those harder stains it works like a dream). You shouldn't use anything harsher or you may scratch it. Also, as with regular glass top burners, if you spill something sugary or sweet, you should turn the unit off and clean up instantly as sugar type food substances will quickly scorch on such a hot surface and cause permanent damage or a razor blade to clean. The only problem with cleaning I have found is that the commercial type cream cleansers can get underneath the chrome lip on the edge of the burner and it's tricky to get their residue out--I have used Q-tips to clean in this crevice and they work fairly well.
As noted by another reviewer, the unit is not light colored silver as pictured, but is instead a medium machine gun gray--not a hint of silver (if you want a stainless look, see the Deni Halogen burner, the identical product in a stainless finish for around $20 more). Also the unit does have a fairly audible fan going while operating and the fan does continue to operate for some time after turning the unit off (to cool the electronics components I would guess). The fan does not really bother me (it sounds very close to the fans overhead on most stoves), and I have gotten used to it quickly. Some other reviewers have not cared for the stready drum of the fan at all, so be aware...
What does bother me is the beeping warning after you turn the unit off to remind you the glasstop is still warm--and it does stay rather warm after you turn it off for up to 30 minutes or more. The beep sounds every 12 seconds or so for a LONG time--45 minutes or so this guy will continue to BEEP. This is a big turn off for me, and what I have done to work around it (since I live in a studio type apartment) is to connect the burner to a plug-in type on/off switch and after 10 minutes or so (when I think it's cool enough to not bother the electronics) I just cut the power to the unit with the on/off switch, and viola--no more insistent beeping. If you dine some distance away from this unit, the beeping may not be a factor for you at all.
All in all for under $100 I think this unit is a great product and at a reasonable price. As you can read from another review--even professional chefs use this burner for catering type on the go events. It's that good--just like cooking with gas. If there are any durability problems, I will update this review, as I use the unit almost daily.
Description of Aroma PHP323 Electric Halogen Burner
Revolutionary halogen technology Instant heating action with virtually no waiting time Stylish contemporary design Designed for use with any cookware products 5-function temperature control with keep warm settingSmall Appliances
Kitchen and Housewares