On this page, you will find out how many watts an electric frying pan draws.
Cooking just gets easier and more convenient in my experience. You don’t even need multiple appliances and pans anymore. You can literally just plug in your electric skillet to make eggs or crisp up your bacon! That’s pretty handy, no need for a stove or a fire. It is particularly handy if you’re living off-grid or camping. The only thing you need to worry about is the power consumption and making sure you’re prepared with enough electricity.
Below we will discuss and test electric frying pan wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is an Electric Frying Pan?
The average electric frying pan uses between 1300 – 1700 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your electric frying pan but on the whole most of these appliances use a similar amount of power. Although, you will notice a difference between a small 6 inch and a larger 12+ inch version.
You should also note that the listed power rating of these skillets is the maximum power. Quite often it will use less than this once it reaches the correct temperature or you use a low heat setting.
How to Find Out Your Electric Frying Pan Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of an electric skillet.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the electric frying pan’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your electric skillet to get instant information.
I tested my electric frying pan on high heat which gave a live reading of 1402W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your electric frying pan you can use this to find the running watts. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Electric Skillet Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts an electric frying pan draws. Below is a collection of modern electric frying pans with their listed power ratings.
| Electric Frying Pan Model | Power Rating (Watts) |
| Cuisinart CSK-150 | 1500 |
| Presto 06858 Slimline | 1500 |
| AEWHALE | 1400 |
| Elite Gourmet Personal | 600 |
| Dash Family Size | 1400 |
| BELLA Electric Ceramic | 1200 |
| Ovente 13 Inch | 1400 |
| Nesco American Harvest | 1500 |
| COMFEE’ 12 Inch | 1300 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different electric skillets. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does an Electric Frying Pan Use?
Knowing the power consumption of your electric frying pan allows you to work out much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your appliance.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, an electric frying pan drawing 1500W would use 1500Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 1500W electric frying pan running for 1 hour uses 1.5kWh.
In reality, you use an electric frying pan for an average of 20 minutes a day. This means an electric frying pan uses around 500Wh or 0.5kWh electricity a day. That’s 15kWh a month and 182.5kWh a year.
That’s an estimated electricity cost of $0.07 a day or $27 a year to cook your food everyday in this way.
Using an Electric Skillet Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your electric frying pan in an off-grid situation, like camping, a power outage, boat, RV, or truck, the information above is useful. It allows you to pick the correct power equipment and work out how long it will run.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to produce electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your electric frying pan. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient. To fry your food in a large pan, you will need at least 2000W of power capacity. If you use a smaller 6 inch skillet this could be reduced to 1200W
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the electric frying pan for the required amount of time. As we already know, it will use upto 500Wh electricity for 20 minutes usage. This is the equivalent to 41.6Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does an Electric Frying Pan Use Summary
I hope you now know how many watts an electric frying pan uses.
They are incredibly convenient ways to cook food without the need for other large appliances. These pans are very popular with people away camping or traveling in a vehicle for long periods. You can plug them into an electricity source and fry your onions. As a mid powered appliance, you don’t need an extreme amount of power to get them running. Plus if you use it sparingly it will use far less energy than an electric stove.
