I’ve despised my electric cooktop, since I moved into my house. I started renting prior to purchase. My preference has always been gas, however I don’t have a gas line to the house and that would probably be cost prohibitive to have run to the kitchen due to the nature of construction (raised and swamp). So I’ve gone down the induction rabbit hole. The majority of my cookware is Ferris metal so that’s not an issue to be needing replacement.

Definitely want reliability as they are not inexpensive. I refuse to buy another Samsung appliance except TV as their customer service is horrible

What’s everyone’s thoughts on them and preferred brands. I’m considering Miele, Bosch, Wolfe, GE and sub brand Cafe, Viking and Thermador. I have a cut out of 29x20 For a 30” in a granite countertop so increasing for a 36 is non trivial

We built a house about 2.5 years ago and did JennAir appliances. We have a 36” induction cooktop that we are very pleased with. Cooks great and cleanup is a breeze. Cast iron works great and the other pots and pans we purchased haven’t been overly costly. We don’t slide cast iron around on it but other than that we don’t baby it. Temperature control is fantastic and I like it as it doesn’t generate any heat when you are over the cooktop.

Several chefs have said, a couple to me directly, that (much like IT) the internals of all the induction cooktops are built in the same factories no matter what label is on the outside.

Buying the absolute cheapest probably isn't the best quality, but a mid-range one should be fine, at the higher price points you're paying mostly for name and perhaps a few features.

When we built 11 years ago, we put in an induction cooktop. We went with Thermador, only because I got a smoking deal on it. It was on Ebay and had a cracked cooktop. I bought the unit for $400 and bought a replacement glass top for around $750. Ended up getting a $3600 cooktop for around $1200. I'm not sure if the prices have gone down. I know Thermador and Electrolux get (or did) good reviews. All in all, extremely happy with our decision.

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:
The majority of my cookware is Ferris metal ...

ITYM "ferrous": "Relating to or containing iron...", as opposed to "Ferris," which is a proper noun (i.e.: name). E.g.: "Ferris wheel", so named for its inventor, George Washington Gale Ferris

If you like a gas cooking stove, why not go propane?
We have a propane clothes dryer and the gas grill
is hooked up as well. The modest sized propane tank lasts a year.
We have a glass top electric stove.
When it croaks, I will plumb propane to the kitchen and get a nice gas stove.

We had the induction, it became a PIA to keep up.

Cleaning overflow can be difficult, requiring cleaning agents, razor blades, wife hated it after a week, so we went LP, had the gas company drop a new line to the stove cooktop wasn't too expensive.

Kenmore induction for 10+ years made by Electrolux. So much easier to clean than any electric because stuff does not easily get burned onto the cook top. The control and power of gas with the clean ability of a smoothtop plus additional safety of no open flame.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
We had the induction, it became a PIA to keep up.

Cleaning overflow can be difficult, requiring cleaning agents, razor blades, wife hated it after a week, so we went LP, had the gas company drop a new line to the stove cooktop wasn't too expensive.

No different than any glass cooktop. We bought our induction cooktop range in 2011. I prefer gas, but induction is the next best thing. In some ways even better than gas. Instant reaction to changes in settings, so more control over cookware temperature. Energy goes into heating the cookware instead of heating the house. The only things I don't like is the lack of visual reference I would get with a flame, and the fact that not all cookware works with induction.

We have a GE Induction stove. When cooking something that splatters, we put paper towels on the cooktop, catches any spatters. Since the cooktop doesn’t heat up it doesn’t affect the paper towels. We have even put it under the pan without a problem since induction heats the pan by magnetism.

If worried about having a paper towel under the pan, just leave the area under the pan clear. There is no heat transfer to anything non magnetic. There are pictures showing a pan cut in half with, if I remember correctly, pan cake batter poured into the pan thats runs out on the cooktop. It cooked in the half pan and remained runny on the cooktop.

Think in my “over analysis aspect”. I’m by no means OCD so I’ll not go there

I’ve narrowed it down to:

Miele

Bosch

What would be amazing, dream cooktop if I didn’t have a budget and if the reviews better.... though they not much worse than the Bosch (Bosch owns Thermador, they are using Siemans technology s after the Bosch family got pissed off and bought back half of the company)

Thermador

Miele is a better brand than Bosch

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Miele is a better brand than Bosch

I’m seriously leaning that way

Even with a slightly lesser appealing design. There’s nowhere I've read their Customer service didn’t go out if the way to help on any issues

Try this:

http://theinductionsite.com/

I discovered induction over twenty years ago and have installed it in multiple houses.

Safe, fast, controllable... just nothing like it!

Check out the site!

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
Try this:

http://theinductionsite.com/

I discovered induction over twenty years ago and have installed it in multiple houses.

Safe, fast, controllable... just nothing like it!

Check out the site!

Thank you. Very surprised I’d not found this site

Wish I’d found that site a couple weeks ago. Took me that long to put all this information together and then some

Makes a decision to Miele easier

Really want to spend the sine amount for a Viking or Wolf product. But they are on the lower end, performance wise

So to tag on, does anyone have a recommendation or first hand experience for a 30” freestanding stove/range combo unit? I’d been looking at the Kitchen Aid with the double ovens mostly because it was the only middle of the road unit I could find.

I wonder how well it would work with a cast iron frying pan.

Cast iron is obviously ferris, but has poor thermal conductivity. I’ve read that induction heats only a relatively small center area.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I wonder how well it would work with a cast iron frying pan.

Cast iron is obviously ferris, but has poor thermal conductivity. I’ve read that induction heats only a relatively small center area.

Ferrous. Cast iron works great on induction, and induction doesn't just heat a small center area.

I've sold some electric stoves and cook tops and a few glass top units.

that was over 12 years ago.

the chefs that we sold too, always preferred the coil as a second choice,
their reasons were :
glass tops can break , and they can pit , when
dripped on by certain stuff, ( I think it had something to do with canning preserves)
and
all pots and pans are not perfectly flat.

I am not anti glass top , but I'd be interested in knowing ,
If you crack one cooking area on a glass top
, do the other four or five still work?
or does one crack nix those whole unit?

or have they solved all the concerns mentioned above , maybe.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:

or have they solved all the concerns mentioned above , maybe.

Can’t answer some of those. I currently have 2 radiant electric Glass cooktops. I have 3 kitchens in the house. 1 in an efficiency apartment under the house, 2 upstairs in the main house (1 is the original kitchen area, now basically a walk in pantry etc, the other an open social kitchen that was a bedroom pre-katrina) that’s raised. Over the last 9 years of my use and 6 from the previous owner they’ve held up well. I’m converting 1 in the primary kitchen to induction.

Cooktop and hood being replaced



“New Kitchen”



Original kitchen now “Pantry”. Replacing the oven here