Hotpoint CIC642C

Quite recently my wife decided that she was bored of the old kitchen, which to be honest is a fair few years old and has been cleaned than many times the ‘sheen’ has been taken off everything.
So, in her mind of pure wisdom, (Ha ha), she decided that we could afford a new kitchen despite the economical downturn and the fact that no job is safe these days.
Anyway, after many many discussions, with every outcome going in her favour, she, or should I say we, decided that a re vamp of the kitchen was the way to go, so we searched around for the best deals we could find in the style that my wife had chosen.
One of the many items we chose to replace was the Hob, together with a myriad of other items as everything had to match, according to my lovely wife, who seems to live in a lovely little world where money grows on trees.

So, in our search for a Hob we came across many on the market, both gas and electric, some being both, but as we like to use electric for cooking we chose a certain four ‘ring’ hob with a brand name that we knew and trusted, this particular one being called the Hotpoint CIC642C

** SPECS…

• 590mm wide by 520mm deep by 51mm thick
• Electric induction
• 4 heating areas
• 9 power levels
• Display
• Touch controls

PLEASE NOTE…
This device does needs a qualified electrician to connect to the mains

** MY OPINION…

My first reaction when I walked in after this had been connected up was that it looks a little on the ‘plain’ side, being 99% black with a touch of silver in the shape of rings and touch dials. Ow, and there’s the Hotpoint logo dead centre.

The control panels are simple and straight forward, being positioned on the front of the hob in front of the four rings, lay flush with the entire unit.
When the hob is on over each ‘position’ a number digital digitally, with a little red light showing at the side to show that that particular ’ring’ is on.
There is a ’booster’ option to the side of the larger ’rings’ to give that extra quick boost of power.
To increase/ decrease the heat there is a button with a + and a _ on it, so with the gentle press of your finger you take full control of your cooking.
As with most hobs this one too has a timer with a ‘bleep’ to let you know your food is cooked.

I did have to read the manual a little bit, especially as it took me a few times to actually turn it on, I was stupidly touching the power button and wondering why nothing was happening. Then, after a quick look at the destruction manual, I soon realised that I had to touch the button for a second or so and not just a brief tickle.
Then, more confusingly to begin with, but soon realising, that to turn up the heat you have to touch the ‘zone’ you want and then touch the + button, touching the - button to lower the heat.
Then there is the ‘boost’ button, which, as the name suggest, give a quick boost of heat to quicken the heating process, this feature last for a few minutes and I find comes in handy for certain dishes such as boiling water for rice or eggs.

Each ring can be set to a certain time, which is a cracking idea and saves any boil dry situation which we have all had at least once in our cooking life. Setting this timer consists of touching the little ‘clock’ symbol together with the ring you want on and the +/- buttons to set the duration…. All this, and more, is explained properly in the destruction manual.

** The safety features…

What I particularly like about this hob is the lovely way they have thought of safety, adding a lockable control which, as it states, locks the control so that they can’t be ‘accidentally’ turned on or off by, say a child.
Plus, when a ring is hot a capitol letter ‘H’ will appear where the heat setting number was, this capitol letter turning to a lower ‘h’ when the ring gets cooler, clearing completely when the ring is cool again.

Another safety feature I found to be quite confusing at first, soon realising that is in fact a brilliant way to stop any ‘accidents’, is the ‘Pan sensor’. This detects whether the pan you are using is compatible with, or the pan is too small for the hob.
Also, there is a buzzer safety warning if something is placed on or spilt on the actual control panel for too long.

As for cleaning, well, all you need to do is wipe the surface over with a damp cloth, and a dry towel, although do let the rings go cold first.
Just don’t use anything that may scratch the surface, and don’t use detergants as they are not needed.

I won’t go into the details of how this fits into the kitchen, basically as I didn’t fit it, it was fitted by a professional, so I can’t honestly tell you, although from the instructions that were on the side it seems straight forwards indeed, (honest… but as I mentioned earlier the final connection has to be made by a qualified electrician and signed off to prove it’s safe to use).

What more can be said about this Hob, well, it’s a Hob with more safety features than a F1 car and nearly packing as much heat.

As for the price, well we managed to get this at a bargain price, due to the fact that we bought it as a package, together with other kitchen items, so we paid around £320 for this, (excluding fitting of course as that cost is for the entire kitchen refit). But a quick search around I found that this is on sale for between £50 and £500, (why the massive price difference in these sort of item I’ll never know).