Induction Cooktop and Cast Iron

[John_S]

I was thinking of buying an induction cooktop and was wondering - whereas the heat from a circular gas burner encircles a round pan radiating outward and up the sides thereby heating the pan somewhat uniformly and evenly, an induction “burner” actually produces no heat at all, rather, it causes the pan itself to get hot, but only within the span of the induction eye footprint across the pan bottom - and the heating process within that area is significantly quicker than with gas. Accordingly, it would seem that the heating of a pan during the first three or four minutes on an induction burner eye would be extremely uneven - it would only be within the footprint of the induction burner eye - and might even cause the pan to warp or crack. And, maybe not. But, I’m in no hurry to find out the hard way. So, does anyone have any experience, information, further musings or additional thoughts about this?

[BarryL]

According to the Lodge website you can use CI on an induction stove top.

https://www.lodgemfg.com/cast-iron-myths

With that said I don't have a induction stove so I have never tried it.

[WallyF]

My daughter (and mostly my son-in-law) regularly use their #8 Smiley, #6 LBL and a large Le Cruset DO on their induction cooktop. They have had the Smiley for 2 years, the #6 for a year or so and the same (about a year) for the Le Cruset. Seems to work just fine.

[M Yaworski]

I sell large appliances for a living, including induction ranges. One day our LG rep was trying to convince me that cast iron didn't work well on induction. I politely nodded and said, "Uh huh."

We have an induction range that's live so the next day I brought in my small Dutch oven. I filled it with water, put it on the range, and turned the range on. The water came to a boil faster than it had in the special "induction" pans that we have on display. My coworkers said, "Hmmmm, imagine that. The LG rep was wrong."