Can you recommend an electric platta (blech)?

manyhats

Sat, Mar 15 2014, 11:44 pm

I have a relatively new platta that is no longer working well. Only parts of the surface reach a high heat
so I can only use about 1/2 of its surface.

I don't know the name of my current unit. It is brown, made in Israel, cost about $40, and I bought it in a Jewish book store.

Would you happen to have a good experience with your electric platta? If so, I would appreciate your advice.

Also, I noticed that Amazing Savings stocks their own unit. Anyone have any experience with that?

In general, I have not have much success with electric plattas. I replace them fairly regularly.

Chickpea

Sun, Mar 16 2014, 1:10 am

I have an Israheat electric plata that was bought in The Buzz a few years ago . I'm very happy with it.
!פורים שמח Cheers

Mrs Bissli

Sun, Mar 16 2014, 5:38 pm

I also have the brown Israeli plata, large enough to cover almost 4 hobs. Baruch Hashem, it's been going on for nearly 10 years. Maybe ours get long life because I don't leave it on for 25hours but have them plugged on a timer so it only goes on for dinner (sometimes not even this if I'm using the oven) and for lunch.

I forgot to say its heat is VERY strong, sometimes food can burn if left too long. Actually I cover the actual hotplate with a strong foil first and use a tin blech on top.

manyhats

Sun, Mar 16 2014, 11:11 pm

Thanks for your resposes.

Interesting that TB and r_m recall the name of their plattas :arrow: :arrow: Thumbs Up

MB, thanks for the tip.

Chickpea

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 12:04 am

manyhats wrote:

Thanks for your resposes.

Interesting that TB and r_m recall the name of their plattas :arrow: :arrow: Thumbs Up

MB, thanks for the tip.

I actually didn't recall the name of my platta; The brand name is written on the underside of the unit. I don't put food directly on top of the platta. I place an upside down aluminum cookie pan on top of the plata before Shabbos so that it won't resemble cooking. Food that needs to be heated goes on top of the cookie pan. You will have to experiment how long it will take for food to heat up. This particular unit gets VERY HOT.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 3:27 am

I have never had any luck with an electric blech. One nearly burned my house down, and the one I have now will dry out the food on the bottom, and the top of the food gets just warm enough to grow a nice layer of mold. Puke

There's a fine line between serving hot food for Shabbos, and giving your family botulism. Silent

I absolutely ADORE my water blech! It's the best thing, EVER. It's basically two heavy duty cookie sheets, with deep rims. The bottom one gets filled with boiling water before Shabbos, and then the top one covers it. Leave a couple of your small burners set to "low", and you'll have the perfect temperature all the time, with no hot spots or drying problems.

The best thing about a water blech, is that you can take food on and off, even if the food is wet, because the blech makes a kli sheini.

STMommy

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 11:36 am

I also love my "unBlech" - except for when Shabbos follows a two day yom tov; it's not so fun keeping a flame on for three days straight.

amother

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 12:01 pm

I've been rdg these posts and have been debating whether to write this:
Many poskim say that the water blech is not halachically permissible to use on Shabbos, can only be used on Yom Tov. I had one, liked it, but had to stop using it on Shabbos; That's when I switched to a hot plate. I (obviously) don't poskim, so please don't criticize me for posting this. I'm just trying to enlighten others about what is said to be halachically correct.

OOTBubby

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 12:10 pm

amother wrote:

Our poskim also do not allow the water blech.

manyhats

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 9:57 pm

FF, You are too funny. Was it the "almost fire" that turned you into Frantic Frummie?

Update; I could not bare the thought of one more Shabbos with my current plata so I purchased the new one at Amazing Savings.

Will try it in advance of Shabbos and return here to give a report.

manyhats

Mon, Mar 24 2014, 2:05 pm

Update:

I bought and returned the Amazing Saving unit. It is only meant for keeping warm- food that has already been heated up. Not to warm up cold food. It also has a too short cord.

So I settled! Went back to Isra Heat.

The owner of store where I bought my platta will be giving it to the distributor to fix.

We'll see!