Q. How do you Kasher an induction stove top? Can you during the year use the above stoves for milchik and fleishig? Thank you
A. In energy efficient induction cook tops the conventional burners are replaced with magnetic induction coils that do not transmit heat but rather magnetic waves. These waves do not affect materials that are not magnetic, so the glass top remains cold, as would any other non-magnetic materials such as aluminum pots and foil. Only stainless steel pots and pans will become rapidly heated as the magnetized molecules vibrate dynamically. The heated pot or pan transfers the heat energy to the food to be cooked and also to the top surface.
According to, Rabbi Tzvi Rosen (Star K Kashrus Administrator – Kashrus Kurrents) Any spill onto the ceramic cook top surface will be a result of an irui kli rishon spillage from a hot pot, not a heated cook top as you would have in conventional cooking. Hence, if one would want to kasher the cook top, it could be accomplished by a lesser means of kasherization,(such as) irui kli rishon
Rabbi Jonathan Blass in Yeshiva.Org writes; from the descriptions I have read of these cooktops, they themselves remain cool while inducing the pots that are placed on them to heat up. It is possible however that food from these pots may have boiled over and spilled onto the surface of the cooktop. Kashering a surface that has absorbed chametz from hot food spilling onto it, requires one to pour boiling water onto the surface directly from the pot in which the water was heated.
Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a questions the former assertion that this is only irui kli rishon, since the hot pot is directly on the glass-ceramic surface.
His opinion is that you can kasher the induction tops by substantially wetting the top and then placing a steel pot with water over it and letting it boil. The pot will heat up and transfer heat to the glass top too. You can also place a water-full pot and let it over boil and spill on the top. Then lift the pot so the water penetrates the space under it and let it boil. The rest of the surface should be covered with aluminum foil. He advises to cover the complete top after koshering with aluminum foil. (It seems unlikely that this will have a detrimental effect on this kind of top, you would also have to mark where the heating areas are).
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a
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