Control Freak rolling boil?

Does your Control Freak bring water to a rolling boil? Mine doesn't seem to be able to.

This is the highest it gets (was here for 8 minutes) - the water was at 210° but definitely not the rolling boil that I'm used to.

Anyone else?

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montebello1964

I have no trouble boiling water in my 9 Qt Le Creuset (which looks like what you have there) using my CFH. If I stick the CFH probe in it, it maxes at 211°F and cycles up and down a degree or two, and this agrees with my Thermopen. The bottom of the pot maxes out at 230-233°F. This is consistent with the boiling point at my altitude, 211.6°F. Note, if you put salt in the water, it will raise the boiling point slightly. Also, the amount of water, size and type of pot will effect your results. A 9 Qt Le Creuset is larger than the 10 inch magnetic element, so there will be a ring of water around the edge that is not getting direct heat and will be a couple of degrees lower and not boiling. Also, boiling water in a pot is a balance between the energy entering the pot on the bottom and the amount leaving the top through evaporation and radiation. Since the CF sensor is in the middle of the pot, it is affected by the temp of the water there (and there is no magnetic ring in the center), not the temp of the water at the edges. It's possible you might be able to compensate for this by putting the CF probe at the edge of the pot and using that to control the heating, but I haven't tried that since the water boils sufficiently well as is.

BTW, as Kenji has noted, you can completely turn off the heat and the pasta will cook just as well. You don't need boiling water to cook pasta. Turning off the heat is actually better, since you have no risk of the starchy water boiling over.