The $50 Way To Make Small-Kitchen Cooking Cooler On Hot Summer Days

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When summer heat settles into a compact kitchen, making even a simple dinner can feel like cooking in a sauna. It's tempting to just eat a salad and avoid cooked meals altogether, but there's an alternative you may not have considered. It's a relatively inexpensive countertop appliance that lets you saute veggies, boil pasta, fry chicken, and lots more — without firing up your regular gas or ceramic burners at all. Known as a portable induction cooktop, it features a slim, plug-in burner that sits on your counter, letting you avoid excess cooking heat while keeping your small kitchen much cooler on hot summer days. 

Here's why induction heat is a better choice for summer kitchens. While a gas burner makes food hot, it also warms a lot more than the pan. According to ENERGY STAR, a conventional gas cooktop transfers only about 32% of its energy to the cookware, with the much larger share of the heat escaping into your kitchen and surrounding areas. Induction heat instead has coils underneath the glass that generate heat within compatible cookware, keeping as much as 85 percent of its heat in the pots and pans instead of letting it seep into the air. For those reasons and many more, induction stoves are definitely trending in 2026.  

That may all seem expensive, but it doesn't have to be. There's no need to replace your entire cooktop — just give it a summer break. You can find portable, standalone induction models with single burners for around $50 on Amazon, or higher if you want to get fancy. But based on customer ratings between four and five stars on Amazon, the basic, affordable versions work just fine.

The least expensive way to try out induction heating for the summer is with a portable single-burner model. Amazon listings frequently offer basic 1800-watt units in the $50 range, though prices and related coupons can change without warning. Currently, a VBGK Single Burner Induction Cooktop shows a price of about $50, featuring seven temperature levels up to 518 degrees Fahrenheit, plus seven pre-programmed settings for commonly cooked foods. 

Another option is the highly rated AMZCHEF Portable Induction Cooktop, which typically carries a price tag between $48 and $60, depending on coupon availability. It offers 20 power levels, 20 temperature settings, and four cooking presets. While a single burner costs less and takes up less space, double-burner versions do have some useful features to consider. The AMZCHEF Portable Double Induction Cooktop, for example, has two separate burners that are independently controlled, so you can cook different types of foods at the same time. But it comes at more than double the price of single-burner options, currently selling on Amazon for $120.

It's worth noting that induction cooktops, including these portable countertop ones, do require magnetic pots and pans in order to function properly. But many types of cookware fall into that category, including cast iron, enameled iron or steel, and certain types of stainless steel. To check whether yours fits the bill, try holding a refrigerator magnet against the bottom of a pan — if it attracts the magnet, you should be good to go. In addition to using an induction burner, check out these 15 ways to keep a small kitchen cooler during a heat wave. And if you're still not sure whether this option is right for you, consider these pros and cons of getting an induction stove.