The LoCooker breaks through boundary layers.
All solid surfaces, when submerged in a liquid, will have a layer of fluid that sticks to the surface. This is known as a boundary layer and occurs as the fluid viscosity causes a resistance at the solid surface.
This layer forming on the food becomes a barrier of cooled water, which in turn slows down the heat transfer from the rest of the free water.
The Locooker’s unique cooking technology significantly reduces boundary layers allowing the heat to be transferred continuously and directly into to the food and enabling the fastest and most efficient cooking time possible for a given temperature.
Boiling water requires a huge amount of energy.
Keeping water boiling requires over 200 times more energy than keeping water at a temperature just below boiling. This is why using steam to cook food is a very inefficient method of cooking.
Furthermore, as all foods contain water, all foods have an optimum cooking temperature below 100⁰C. Cooking at temperatures at 100⁰C or above not only destroys vitamins, it also evaporates the retained water and dries out the food.
The LoCooker activity prevents the temperature of the water from exceeding 95⁰C so that the water does not boil.
The LoCooker removes temperature gradients.
In any cooking method, the heat source is in a fixed position. Therefore, unless the water is agitated (e.g. boiled or stirred) there is always a temperature gradient in cooking, with the hottest point being at the heat source.
The energy used to heat up water is energy lost.
Water requires more energy to heat up than almost any other substance in the world. Since we only want heated food, the energy used to heat up the water is wasted energy.
When cooking on the hob or using a water bath, the volume ratio of the water to food is greater than 1:1. Therefore, more than 50% of the energy is lost before any other losses are taken into account.
The LoCooker has been designed to cook a large amount of food using very little water, saving a significant amount of both water and energy.
Most of the energy lost in cooking is the heat lost to the surroundings.
The LoCooker has been carefully designed to minimise this loss. The glass door has a double glazed window, whilst the walls are filled with a very effective insulation material.
This means the surfaces are cool to touch, even when the temperature inside the chamber is a simmering 95⁰C.