---
title: "Induction not seeing the pan"
description: "Wolf induction not seeing the pan — the zone lights up, the pan sits there, and nothing happens."
url: "https://wolfmiami.support/symptoms/cooktop-not-recognizing-pan/"
date_modified: "2026-08-20"
---


# Wolf induction not seeing the pan

### The fastest diagnosis is the code

Stick a fridge magnet to the base of the pan. If it does not hold firmly, induction cannot heat it — and there is nothing wrong with your cooktop.

### Two tests, no technician

Same pan on a different zone, different pan on the same zone. Between those two you have the answer, it costs nothing, and it takes a minute. We publish it because the alternative is somebody driving across town to explain a magnet, and neither of us wants that visit.

### Why it is not a defect

Induction heats by inducing a current in the cookware itself. If the base cannot carry that current — wrong metal, warped, too small — there is nothing for the appliance to heat, and it correctly does nothing rather than pretending. That is the technology working, not failing.

A base a magnet will not hold

Aluminum, copper and most stainless without a magnetic layer. Not a repair in any sense.

A base that has warped

The commonest version of "it used to work". Induction needs contact across the base, and a bowed pan loses it.

A pan too small for the zone

Below the minimum diameter the zone will not start. Published behavior rather than a defect.

The pan detection on that zone

If a known-good pan fails on one zone and works on the others, that zone is the answer — and only then is this a repair.

The magnet test

Ten seconds, and it answers most of these outright.

Same pan, different zone

If it fails everywhere, the pan is the answer.

Different pan, same zone

If a good pan also fails there, the zone is the answer.

Straight edge across the base

A pan that rocks on a flat surface has warped, and it will keep dropping out.

Nearly always the pan

What it usually means

One pan ignored, others fine

A pan that worked before and does not now

A zone that starts and stops immediately

The fastest diagnosis is the code

Stick a fridge magnet to the base of the pan. If it does not hold firmly, induction cannot heat it — and there is nothing wrong with your cooktop.

Two tests, no technician

Same pan on a different zone, different pan on the same zone. Between those two you have the answer, it costs nothing, and it takes a minute. We publish it because the alternative is somebody driving across town to explain a magnet, and neither of us wants that visit.

Why it is not a defect

Induction heats by inducing a current in the cookware itself. If the base cannot carry that current — wrong metal, warped, too small — there is nothing for the appliance to heat, and it correctly does nothing rather than pretending. That is the technology working, not failing.

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