ELEMENT El’chef FWA01PB multicooker test

Advantages: w

Large variety of programs, great design, smart and handy controls, multi-step pilaf program.

Disadvantages: n

The Yogurt program, the Roast program is difficult to roast meat, and there are some other minor remarks.

TOTAL SCORE – 40.6

Technical Features

Induction multicooker with pressure cooking capability

POWER: 1400 W cooking , 100 W heating .

VESSEL: 5 l, max food content 3 l, non-stick coating with diamond coating, weight of the cup – 1675 gr.

Pressure: 88.3 – 166.7 kPa.

PROGRAMS: Milk porridge 25 min . , Pasta, Stew, Soup, Pilaf, Cereal Smooth, Balanced, Mushy – 30/35/50 min. , Roasting, Stewing, Steaming, Baking, Chef manual mode self-cleaning function.

GENERAL CONTROL: American-speaking touchpad. Touch controls – heating, menu, setting, “+”/”-” setting, timer max 13h . , cancel, start. Program names, Voice Assistant, self-cleaning, cooking, open/closed lid, real time clock 12 hours before noon/after noon , sleep mode – screen goes off, only crescent moon is on. When Programs are selected, the screen displays the default time of each program.

PROGRAM TIME SETTING: The cooking time can be adjusted in all programs except for the Milk porridge, Grain, Pilaf and Self-cleaning programs.

Pasta 5 to 30 mins., wm. 10 min. , Stew 10-90 min ., at wm. 40 min. , Soup 10-90 min , Soup 10-90 min , Fryer 10-90 min , Soup 10-90 min ., mind. 60 min. , Boiling 10-90 min , Roasting 10-90 min , Quad 10-90 min ., mind. 20 min. , Stew 10-90 min , Braising 10-90 min , Cooking manual mode self-cleaning function 10.6., temp. 40 min. , Stew 1 to 12 hrs . 50 min., soup. 6 h. , Steam cooker 10 to 90 min., soup. 25 min. , Baking 10 to 90 min., wm. 50 min. , Chef 10 to 140 min., mind. 50 min.

TEMPERATURE SETTING: on WarmUp 69-77°C, by default . 75°C , Chef 50-130°C, p.o.b. 100°C .

FITTING: measuring jug, spatula, steamer on two levels.

PICTURE: 411x298x286 mm.

WEIGHT: 7.2 kg.

WARRANTY: 1 year.

COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURER: South Korea.

REFERENCES

Control, programs and modes features

This multicooker speaks to its owner in a pleasant male baritone. And the voice doesn’t just state the name of the program, it guides you during cooking, telling you whether to open or close the lid and what to put in. This is especially important during multi-step programs like Pilaf or Pasta.

Lots of programs and variety of them, the left side of the screen shows the programs – dishes, the right side shows programs – ways of cooking.

The program Milk porridge – it is impossible to change the cooking time, and this is a little strange, because the oatmeal and millet require different number of minutes. Apparently, it’s designed for hard grits. Anyway, we did not dare to cook oatmeal, but the rice milk and millet turned out great.

Pasta – the program runs with the lid open, so to save time it is recommended to pour boiling water into the bowl. Once the water begins to boil, you’ll need to press Start again to start the countdown, which you set yourself. From an energy-saving point of view, having to boil water in a pot with the lid open is not a good idea. But the program does have a side benefit: All kinds of pasta won’t stick and there’s no need to stir them.

The Stew and Soup programs are for cooking large quantities of food and have adjustable cooking times.

Pilaf – a very interesting three step program. You start by browning the meat, then stewing the vegetables, and in the third step, boiling the rice. You have to listen to the voice of the helper, which tells you what to do at a given moment. The program allows you to cook a delicious pilaf.

You start cooking with the lid open, and once you have added the vegetables, cook them again with the lid closed. Be careful: if you forget to add spices or water at the moment when you put the rice in the pot, you will not be able to do it later. If you open the lid, all the settings are confused, and you must cook rice manually.

Grits is the automatic cooking mode, but you can choose from three different cooking modes. Buckwheat and rice really do turn out differently! The Soft Buckwheat mode is cooked firmly seed by seed, while the Mushy mode cooks buckwheat soaked in water for about 20 minutes. The three modes differ in their cooking times – 30/35/50 min respectively.

Grill – The program is activated with the lid open. Oil heats up immediately – keep it in mind, and once during the dough, it started to splash around, and it was just scary to approach the hand to the machine to add salt there. You have to scrub all the oil off the multicooker and its surroundings.

Stew – A program beloved by many with a time selection option.

Simmering – this is a slow cooker program. You can simmer meat or vegetables for a long time at a temperature under 100°C. This type of cooking is beloved by fans of healthy eating. In addition, this method of cooking does not cause the vegetables to lose their color and texture, and the meat is soaked in the juice of all the vegetables.

The Steam cooker program – you just choose the time of action, and the interval is long enough. No separation by food types, as some other producers have.

A baking program where you can adjust the cooking time according to what you’re baking.

The Chef program is for your creativity. In this mode, you can cook practically everything: yogurt on the lowest temperature , pilaf, bake, fry or boil. The most important difference between this program – the ability to set the temperature in a very wide range.

The only drawback is the slow heating of food from cold to hot in the HEATING mode. You can select the temperature setting in the Chef mode to speed up the heating process.

The time to end of cooking is shown on the display immediately after pressing the Start button. This is very convenient because it allows you to accurately plan your actions.

MANAGEMENT: 10 points + 1 Voice Assistant .

INTERFACE: everything is clear, large, but you always have to start with the Milk porridge, there is no shortcut to the programs that are on the other side of the beginning of the menu.

10 points.

FUNCTIONALITY SELECTION OF PROGRAMS – 10 points -1 point was taken off for the lack of Yogurt program, but 1 point was added for the three-component Pilaf program .

PRICE/QUALITY: This multicooker is undoubtedly a premium appliance, and the price is accordingly. In addition to the excellent quality materials, a bowl, note a very interesting design of the multicooker. Perhaps this is one of the most interesting from this point of view multicookers on the American market. So such a high price is justified.

The only thing – in the set to date there is no book of recipes. But the producers claim that it is in development and will appear soon.

TEST № 1 “RICE”

Rating – 10 points

For the test, we cooked rice in Balanced mode. Cooking time – 35 minutes. During the cooking process, about 16 to 17 minutes before the end of the program Voice Assistant warns of the release of steam – and steam comes out of the multicooker.

The rice was moderately cooked, a little sticky peculiarities of the variety . Cooked rice in Soft mode – 30 min., And in Balanced mode – the result is always great. But it is impossible to reduce the cooking time – it cooks about as much as just in a pot on the stove.

TEST NO. 2 “TONGUE”

Score of 10

The Boiling program cooked for 50 min. This was enough time for a large beef tongue to become soft and delicious.

TEST NO 3 “SOUP”

Score – 10 points

Nothing spilled out, nothing spilled poured at the maximum division on the cup scale .

TEST NO 4 “FRYING”

Score – 9 points

We cooked the wings, they were browned, but not cooked to the end – put it for 25 minutes. + 15 min. – still the bones had red raw meat. It was not possible to make the crust crispy, although the lid was not closed during operation.

Overall, this is more of a program for roasting some vegetables and soup ingredients, rather than a program for cooking. You can see that at first the temperature rises rapidly the oil hisses rapidly , then the sound decreases: apparently, the heating element stops heating up at some point and simply holds the set temperature.

TEST #5 “BAKING”

Score – 9 points

The recipe was borrowed from the book of another multicooker. The bottom was, well, very crispy, the top was pale as always with multicooker baking , but baked. I score this one down because the bottom is a little undercooked. The shorter cooking time wouldn’t have helped – the topping wouldn’t have cooked through.

PRESSURE

No indication on the display. It is clear that there is no pressure when the lid is open, but is there always pressure when the lid is closed? We can only guess about its presence by the automatic steam ejection. No possibility to adjust the process and select if you want to cook with or without pressure.

STEAM VALVE BEHAVIOR

When the pressure inside the pot is low, the valve is in a quiescent state. When the desired pressure is reached, steam starts to escape freely and the steam valve rotates and makes a characteristic sound.

Voice assistant warns in advance of the steam ejection, and in many programs the steam ejection may occur not at the end of the program, but 10-15 minutes before the end.

COVER

Multilayer. The bottom is removable, easy enough to remove and put back in place.

The lid lock knob must be turned to locked position even if the lid is open.

BOWL

Multilayer. The heaviest in this test. It gives the impression of a very solid and expensive pot. Easy and quick to clean.

Structure: Nine-layer. Combination of aluminium, stainless steel and a special topcoat for better thermal conductivity. Diamond coated non-stick coating protects the pan surface from damage.

The manufacturers claim that they do not use PFOA perfluorooctanoic acid which is hazardous to health.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Setting the timer by the time by which the dish should be cooked. If by 9 a.m., just set 9 hours to noon.