BrentwoodElectric Hotplate 1000-Watt, Silver

I ordered this for use on a recent business trip--to eat well on a budget. It performed like a champ. I chose it based on the positive reviews here that said it had good temperature control for one of "this type" that typically get bad reviews because they don't perform like a home or gas range. ;)Despite the good reviews, I was still pleasantly surprised. I agree that temperature control was excellent. What surprised me was how FAST it heated! Okay...it's not a 2 minute boil but it's not 15 either. Daily, I was boiling 6 cups of water with medicinal Chinese herbs in it. It surprised me that I could boil it down from 6 to the requisite 2 cups in less than an hour, once boiled, on medium or low, with a loose lid on. In fact, initially I expected it to take so long that I almost boiled it down to nothing!Not this hot plate but some others had bad reviews about the bottom getting too hot. I tested this one for that too. It passed with flying colors. The metal top gets very hot (don't even come close to touching it or you may brand yourself, be careful!) but the bottom has a good enough heat barrier that the plastic faux-granite countertop in my hotel room never got past medium warm to the touch, despite leaving the hot plate on high for an hour at times.Now here's the real kicker. This is a 1000-watt unit, is it not? At the same time as buying this one, I bought a used fancy German-made 1500-watt unit, so I could keep whichever one worked best and re-sell or gift whichever one came in second, or if they were both great, keep them both around for occasional food demos and other business trips.The fancy German 1500-watt one has been plugged in with the exact same 6-cup herbal concoction on it for over 20 minutes and has not yet come to a boil. The outside of the pot is hot but not burning and I can bring my finger within 1/4 inch of the actual burner without needing to pull it away from being too hot.If you are looking for a hot plate, get this Brentwood! It works extremely well, in fact, better even than some electric ranges I have had the, ahem, pleasure of using in various and sundry homes and apartments during college and over the years. Unless you are expecting the miracles you'd get from a gas-powered single burner (for which, alas, you cannot bring the fuel on a plane) you will not be disappointed.As I've been finishing the review, the pot has finally come to a boil, which took 25 minutes, and it is a softer, less vigorous boil than this lovely, 1000W Brentwood champ.Full disclosure here, I was in Las Vegas at 2200 feet for the Brentwood test and now am back home in the Appalachians at 3700 feet for the fancy German test. I still think this cute little Brentwood will work better. I'll test in a few days and update my review.

Worked well for a few months in a very small space to cook small portions for 1 to 2 people at a time. Item suddenly just quit working after 4½ months.Update: After taking the burner apart from the bottom, I was able to remove a small in-line component (tiny silver tube) that had visibly burned up. Snipped it out, then the wires were re-joined using a wire nut, and the cover fit back on - all done within a few minutes! The burner then continues working as it did before. Whatever the component was that failed, it seems to have no functional purpose, and there has been no problem using the item daily for weeks following the "adjustment".

I actually purchased this to use in conjunction with my weber grill as a smoker. My father-in-law suggested trying my hand at smoking meats and such. He said I could use a burner in my grill with a cast-iron skillet to hold a foil ball with smoking chips. Well... it worked! I smoked some cashews as a test and will be moving on to some smoked chicken. In all honesty, I had expected to get the heat within the grill a bit higher, but perhaps a higher wattage burner would be better suited. Still happy with the burner, regardless. I especially like the full range of temperature regulation available as opposed to just low, medium, and high.

We use this regularly to heat a double boiler on the table when we have Fondue. It can generate enough heat to bring a pot of water to boil and keep it there.I will caution that it gets warm if not hot underneath though. We always put a cutting board on the table underneath it so we don't scorch the tablecloth or table.

After looking around for a simple cheap single burner I took a chance with this one. I have used it twice and am very satisfied with the performance. It is not limited to low-medium-high settings but true variable settings. It didn't boil water as fast as my stove burner, but close. It kept a nice steady heat for a low simmer and a hard boil. The ONLY reason this didn't get a 5-star rating is there is no way to thoroughly clean under the burner. I hope keeps working.....

This worked well for me after my stove died. I used it for over a month while waiting on my new stove to be delivered. The only issue I had was the print on the temperature gauge did not seem to match what the actual temperature was. Once I figured out the correct settings, it worked great.

bought this for melting wax. It does take time for the temperature to come to a boil, but it is a stable heat source for me and I can use it in the garage and not smell up the house. Yhought the price was extremely fair for a cast iron plate.

Not on the vendor on the manufacturer - works great, except it's not level, the entire design seems off from the power input to four feet. Rocks back and forth towards one corner. Not worth sending back as I'm using it in the workshop so just added a sticky rubber foot to that corner.