According to the
Serious Eats article:
"I've taken careful temperature readings using an IR thermometer of my wok through various methods of heating in the past. With a standard wok on a regular home burner, 650°F was about the highest I could get it, and once I added food, that temperature dropped rapidly to 400°F, before gradually making its way up to about 550°F.
On a grill, we can bump that starting value up by about 25°F, and the final cruising altitude by 100°F.
With the WokMon and its concentrated flame, on the other hand, I managed to get the bottom of my wok up well beyond the 700°F mark, in some cases almost above 800°F! Holy crap! While the highest maximum temperature I could achieve at the base of the wok was higher than temperatures I generally get stir-frying on the grill, the grill is much better at maintaining that cruising heat once you start adding food. With the WokMon, you still need to cook in batches."
My personal experience using a conventional stove with a flat bottomed cast iron wok confirms Kenji's data of an initial temperature of 650F (at the bottom of the wok) and dropping to 400-450F after putting food in the wok (using a cast iron wok). This has actually yielded some decent wok hei though obviously it could be better.
The overall heat transferred to the wok will of course be the same since it is limited by the output of the stove. Perhaps it is increased due to the change in air flow, but no one has made that claim and I doubt it's a game-changing amount. However, the more directed flame will make the base of the wok hotter to start and keep the temperature higher throughout the process. Using the conventional set-up, the sides coast around 300-400F throughout the cook. Not enough to seriously sear the food but still a good amount of heat. I suspect with the wokmon the temperature at the sides of the wok will drop and the temperature at the bottom of the wok will go up.
Given that it's not practical for me to buy a commercial grade stove or to fire up the grill every time I want to stir fry, I'm excited at the possibility that this product can improve my stir frying skills.