Review on 🍲 Aroma Stainless Steel Hot Pot (ASP-600) - Silver, 5 Quart: An Elegant and Efficient Cooking Companion by Brandon Wong

I was looking for a good shabu shabu hot pot and many of the physical attributes of this flavored product were exactly what I was looking for. A central bowl for soups, an outer ring for cooking together and a removable heating element for easy use at the table. I give the product high marks for all of these needs, but I have major concerns in other areas. Here are my findings and comments which I hope will help others with their purchasing decision: 1 - This is an induction heater so like an induction kettle it is LOUD when heated. Some have posted comments about major concerns about what's going on. but clicks and pops are not different from any induction cooker and are quite normal. Watch the attached video for a good example of heat noise. In general I will say that in terms of noise it is like an induction boiler times 4 in volume. The wide metal bowl and glass top seem to amplify the noise, and personally I find it too loud. It's hard to even talk about din.2 - When I first used the product, there was a smell of burnt rubber or plastic. We've read other reviews talking about this and when we first turned it on we were concerned enough to have a fire extinguisher handy just in case. I think there might just be some oil left over or something from the manufacturing process because the smell was gone the 2nd and 3rd time I tried to test the product. Seal. I want to show my other video (reviews limited to 1) with the boiler because you can see some vapor coming out of the vent, but most of the vapor escapes unpredictably around the edges of the jar lid. It's easy to get a steam burn when trying to remove the top. In addition, since boiling heats the glass surface, you will hear loud squeaks and crackles as if the glass were about to break. I think it's thermal expansion around the metal outer ring, but it's VERY important. It seems that the top part is about to collapse at any moment, as others are reporting that this actually happened. 4 - Finally, when the unit boils it really settles down as you would expect from an induction heater. The problem is that many hot foods require a gentle simmer or a very gentle simmer. Unfortunately, this is the biggest design flaw. Induction heating is either "off" or "100% on". So if you turn it on, say, medium to achieve a slow simmer, you really get a quick cycle from not quite simmering to fully simmering and then off until it stops simmering, etc. It is like having a car that can only coast or hit 100% throttle and try to hit 30 mph. but it only stops accelerating at 60 mph and then lets you back up to 29 mph. Of all the issues with this device, this is #4 that killed it for me and I will be back. TLDR; It's incredibly loud most of the time, smells like the device is on fire when you first use it (but goes away), sounds like the glass lid is about to break, and doesn't fit well enough to avoid vape burns and can't keep at low boiling point.