Monoprice Strata Home 1800W Portable Induction Cooktop Expired

Most people will be fine with this one as a starter. I'm definitely in the power user category and was just giving my impressions as you asked about Duxtop.

My first induction cooktop only had 6 settings and 1300 Watts, but still I liked it enough that I switched to primarily induction cooking 10 years ago and haven't looked back. It was kind of sad though on that original one when I would make a grilled cheese, I'd have to manually alternate between setting 2 and 3 every one minute or so to modulate the right amount of power because 2 was too low and 3 was too high.

This Monoprice one has power levels at 200, 500, 700, 900, 1100, 1300, 1600, 1800 watts. It's really between 500 - 1100 watts where most cooking is done, and where having more levels of control helps. Above that is mostly for bringing water to a boil faster. Searing a steak only requires about 1000-1100 watts using a 10 or 12" stainless steel skillet. At 1300 watts you'd be burning it. The Duxtop will have steps at 100W or even at 80W intervals in that range up to 1100W, so you can see how that helps when doing more precise cooking like carefully preparing a delicate sauce, caramelizing onions without burning, or candy making and trying to hit a precise temperature. But if you need something better, you can pull the trigger on a Duxtop at a later time.

P.S. On the Monoprice, 700W would likely be the best setting for making a grilled cheese, in case you're curious (also may slightly depend on your cookware)

people also use it for hotpot - its an asian broth dip thing.. sort of like melting pot.

I use a Duxtop for searing stuff outside after sous vide that I don't want to smoke up my entire house. My hood in my kitchen is worthless and I got tired of having to have somebody man the smoke alarm when I cooked. It also heats up pans faster so there's that.