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Head-to-head · Best Compact Induction Cooktops

Breville Control Freak CMC850 Induction Cooktop vs Duxtop 9100MC Portable Induction Cooktop

Which is the better buy? Side-by-side on rating, price, strengths, and watch-outs — with the published ratings we averaged to get there.

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The short answer

Breville Control Freak CMC850 Induction Cooktop comes out ahead by a narrow margin (4.6 vs 4.4). The gap is mostly about Pastry cooks, confectioners and anyone whose failures come from temperature drift rather than lack of power — custards, curds, tempered chocolate, caramel, long low-temperature holds. Also a defensible buy for a small professional kitchen. It is the wrong appliance for a dorm room, an RV, or a counter where it would have to be put away between uses. — read the strengths below before deciding.

Breville Control Freak CMC850 Induction Cooktop
Higher ratedRanked #1 in Best Compact Induction Cooktops
Breville Control Freak CMC850 Induction Cooktop
4 sources3 derived$1,499.95

The Control Freak is the outlier in this category and the reason is measurable. Serious Eats found that on ordinary portable induction burners a temperature setting can be hundreds of degrees away from what is happening in the pan; this one held cookware within 15 to 20 degrees of target and came with a probe to tighten that further. It is also 21 pounds, has no quick-boil, and costs more than ten times the price of the burners it beats. That is a specialist's trade, not a general one.

Strengths
  • — The only cooktop in Serious Eats' 17-model test whose temperature settings tracked reality, holding cookware within 15 to 20 degrees of the target
  • — Ships with a probe that attaches to the cooktop for closed-loop temperature regulation rather than open-loop guessing
  • — Breville specifies a 77°F to 482°F range and Serious Eats counted 397 discrete temperature settings within it — resolution no other portable burner in that test approached
Watch-outs
  • — Costs more than ten times what most of the other recommended portable induction cooktops cost
  • — 21 pounds and 13.7 by 18.5 inches — Wirecutter says it "takes up about as much counter space as a 1980s microwave"
  • — No quick-boil setting; without one it took 19 minutes to boil a gallon of water, slower than the Duxtop 9100MC's 16
$1,499.95 · Buy at webstaurantstore.comFull review →
Duxtop 9100MC Portable Induction Cooktop
Ranked #2 in Best Compact Induction Cooktops
Duxtop 9100MC Portable Induction Cooktop
3 sourcesall derived$84.99

The 9100MC is the plainest cooktop in Duxtop's own lineup and, in the most thorough test available, the best one. Serious Eats ran 17 portable induction burners through boiling, frying, searing and simmering and this model won outright: it boiled a gallon of water fastest at 16 minutes and drifted less than five degrees across an hour of simmering. Its advantage is restraint — physical buttons, no presets to fight, no auto-timers that cut the heat early. The ceiling shows up in deep-frying, where it could hold 375°F oil only by running flat out.

Strengths
  • — Fastest boil of the 17 cooktops Serious Eats tested — a full gallon of room-temperature water in a 4.5-quart Dutch oven reached a boil in 16 minutes
  • — Held an hour-long simmer with less than five degrees of fluctuation, the steadiest low-heat behavior in that test group
  • — Physical push-buttons instead of a touch panel, so you can wipe up oil splatter mid-cook without changing a setting
Watch-outs
  • — Ran out of headroom deep-frying: Serious Eats had to hold it at maximum power for the entire onion-ring test just to keep the oil at 375°F, and it would not push past that
  • — No boil or keep-warm shortcut buttons, so routine heat changes take more presses than on cooktops that have them
  • — The control icons are printed onto the buttons rather than moulded, and Serious Eats flagged that they could wear off over time
$84.99 · Check Price on AmazonFull review →

Derived means the reviewer published no score, so one was inferred from their written verdict. Everything else is a number the publisher printed. How we rank.

How they stack up

Breville Control Freak CMC850 Induction Cooktop

Every other cooktop here has temperature settings you have to re-learn for each pot; the Control Freak is the one where the number on the display means something. It does not win on speed — the Duxtop 9100MC boiled a gallon in 16 minutes to the Breville's 19 — and it is not portable in the sense the Duxtop 9600LS, IKEA TILLREDA or Nuwave PIC Gold are, at 21 pounds against their five to six. The Hamilton Beach 34104 is the cheap way to get frying headroom; this is the expensive way to get precision.

Duxtop 9100MC Portable Induction Cooktop

The 9100MC and the Duxtop 9600LS split the two best tests in this category: Serious Eats made the 9100MC its overall winner, while Wirecutter made the 9600LS its top pick and demoted the 9100MC to budget pick. The 9100MC is the faster boiler and roughly two-thirds the price; the 9600LS has 20 settings to its 15 and a 10-hour timer. The Hamilton Beach 34104 beats both at heating frying oil, the IKEA TILLREDA is simpler but caps out at a 7.9-inch pan, the Nuwave PIC Gold is down on wattage, and only the Breville Control Freak CMC850 Induction Cooktop has temperature settings you can take at face value.

Specs side-by-side

SpecBreville Control Freak CMC850 Induction CooktopDuxtop 9100MC Portable Induction Cooktop
TypePortable countertop induction (commercial)Portable countertop
ModelCMC850 (SKU CMC850BSSUSA)9100MC / BT-M20B
Burners / Zones11
Total Power1800W1800W
Temperature Range77–482°F (25–250°C); 397 settings140–460°F (15 settings)
Temperature SensingThrough-glass sensor, 20 readings/sec; Probe Control probe included—
Power Levels3 intensity settings (slow / medium / fast)15 settings (200–1800W)
Burner Diameter10 in8 in
Recommended Pan Diameter5.5 in minimum5 in minimum
TimerUp to 72 hrs, 4 end optionsUp to 170 min; 2-hr idle auto-off
Surface Weight Limit13 lb—
Cord Length36 in55 in
Dimensions13.7 × 18.5 × 4.3 in14 × 11.3 × 2.8 in
Weight21 lb6 lb
IncludedProbe, pot clip, USB stick, accessory box, padded carry case—
Controls—Physical push-buttons
Voltage—120V / 60Hz, standard 15A outlet
Lock Function—No
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