Verdict
What the Indesit IB 88B60 NE lacks in speed and raw power, it makes up for in flexibility. You can cook using four pans, or thanks to two DualZone cooking areas, switch to using two larger vessels instead. Automatic cooking programs round out the offering, making this hob a great value all-rounder.
Pros
- Flexible
- Simple to use
- Clever Push&Go settings
Cons
- Not very fast
- Only two timers
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BurnersThis hob has four burners, although they’re set out as two DualZone areas, allowing you to link top and bottom areas of the hob -
PowerThis hob needs to be connected to a dedicated 32A circuit
Introduction
If it’s flexibility you’re after, then the 60cm Indesit IB 88B60 NE induction hob could be for you. With its two DualZone cooking areas, you can cook using larger pans on each side of the hob, or split the zones into two for four individual cooking areas.
The hob is easy to use and includes some nice automatic features – but it isn’t the speediest hob I’ve tested.
Design and Features
- Two DualZone areas
- Only two timers
- Push&Go automatic modes
This 60cm induction hob sports the traditional black glass finish. It’s best used with a 32A power supply, where it can draw up to 7.2kW of power. However, the power can be set to 2.5kW, 4kW and 6kW, too, if you only have a lower-power circuit available. Just be aware that dropping the power down will impact performance – you won’t be able to use all four burners at their maximum level at once.
Rather than having distinct zones, the Indesit IB 88B60 NE hob features two DualZone areas. By default, each is split into two areas, for a total of four zones. However, both left zones and right zones can be combined to offer a single large zone, which is great for use with larger grill plates and square dishes. This is great flexibility, allowing you to cook with a variety of sizes of pan without having to buy adapters.
Controls are conveniently located along the bottom edge of the induction hob. Plus and minus buttons cycle through the nine power modes, plus there are two dedicated buttons: one to turn off a zone, and a P boost button, which puts maximum power into a zone for five minutes to help boil water in pans. Power management means that all four zones can be in the P mode at the same time.
The Indesit IB 88B60 NE has two timer controls, one for the left side of the hob and another for the right. Once the timer reaches zero, the respective zones are turned off. It’s a shame that there aren’t individual timer controls for the four zones, since the setup isn’t that flexible if you have four pans on the go at once, with each requiring its own cooking time.
There’s also no independent timer control – say, for setting a reminder to get something out of an oven.
Push&Go modes are special features designed to make cooking easier. They consist of a Push&Boil option that brings water to the boil and then keeps it rolling (available on the bottom-left and top-right zone), and Push&Warm, which is used for keeping food warm or gently reducing liquid (top-left and bottom-right zones). Just remember to press the OK button, or the feature isn’t turned on.
Performance
To see how well the Indesit IB 88B60 NE performs, I put it through our standard tests. First, I use the P setting to test how long it took to bring 1.5 litres of water in a large saucepan to 90ºC. I measured the burner as drawing 1800W, which explains the reason all four burners can operate on maximum mode at the same time.
At this power level, it took 5mins 46secs to bring the water to 90ºC, which is a little sluggish. Many other hobs have a large zone capable of delivering 3000W of power or more. I also had to use the P setting twice, since it timed out at five minutes.
It was a similar story when using a mid-sized pan with 1 litre of water. The Indesit IB 88B60 NE took 3mins 55secs to heat the water to 90ºC. For my smallest pan, filled with 0.5 litres of water, the hob took 2mins 37secs to bring the water to 90ºC.
While all three results aren’t terrible, you’ll achieve faster boiling times with rival hobs. However, what you get here is flexibility and consistent results: at any point, you can push any zone to its maximum power without the hob having to reduce power to a different burner. That’s a big benefit. The Bosch Serie 4 PUE611BF1B, for example, is terrible at power management; with four zones running at the same time, it takes an age to boil water, taking 26 minutes in my tests.
Testing the automatic modes, I found that the Push&Boil option heated water up to 98ºC before the power dropped a little, then it kept the water at 99.5ºC constantly, all without any intervention.
Push&Warm kept the water at around 72ºC constantly, adjusting the power on-the-fly to keep it there. Again, it’s a useful mode, since you can set and forget about it, not having to worry about returning to a pan in which the contents are burnt on. This kind of temperature is ideal for keeping food warm without it losing moisture too quickly; for a water-based sauce, a reduction temperature of around 93ºC is best.
Using the thermal camera, you can see that the Indesit IB 88B60 NE’s cooking zones are round. Linking two zones together turns on both round zones at the same time, which results in a few cool spots. As such, you should stir food regularly to ensure it cooks evenly.
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Should you buy it?
If you want flexible cooking options, then the two DualZone areas and constant power output make this a great choice.
If you want faster cooking and heat-up times, then there are hobs that can deliver more power to each cooking zone.
Final Thoughts
The Indesit IB 88B60 NE isn’t the fastest hob around, taking more than twice as long to boil a large saucepan of water compared to the fastest competition. However, what this hob lacks in raw power it makes up for in terms of the flexibility and convenience it offers.
Thanks to two DualZone areas, you can cook with four pans at once or switch to two larger vessels or hot plates. In addition, the Push&Go features are genuinely useful. If you need more power then look elsewhere; but this hob is great value option and it’s super-flexible, too.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every induction hob we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main induction hob for the review period
We measure how long it takes to bring 500ml, 1-litre and 1.5-litres of water to 90C using different sized burners.
We test any special cooking programmes to see how they perform
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FAQs
This is a standard four-zone hob. It’s 59cm wide, so will replace any standard 60cm induction hob.
It works best with a 32A circuit.
Trusted Reviews test data
Sustainability
Trusted Reviews’ holds the fact that global warming is not a myth as a core value and will continuously endeavour to help protect our planet from harm in its business practices.
As part of this mission, whenever we review a product we send the company a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the device has on the environment.
We currently haven’t received answers to the questions on this product, but will update this page the moment we do. You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability info page.
