There was a great thread in January about installing a working a drawer just under a Thermador induction cooktop. I searched and it is gone. I saved it on my computer and have copied it here. Unfortunately the pictures would not copy. RE: Thermador induction cooktop questions Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 16:26 I installed the cooktop on a standard 3 drawer base cabinet. It has a normal shallow drawer on top with two large drawers below for pots and pans. I skirted the issue of the "heat shield" mounted on the bottom of the cooktop, by mounting the heatshield in the shallow drawer pointing up. In that way it comes within 1/16 inch from the bottom of the cooktop. I also put a piece of weather strip on the bottom of the cooktop, that the heatshield rests against when the drawer is closed. By doing this, I was able to have a fully usable drawer and still provide the functionality of the heat shield. So far it has worked fine, and I believe that it was a good solution to this clearance problem. If I had mounted the heat shield on the cooktop, the shallow drawer on top would have been unusable. This was not an option. Good Luck  Posted by minu (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 16:52 Carguy60: Thanks for the detailed description: hopefully my installer will be able to do something similar. The Thermador website does not list the 12" burner in the specifications for the 30" cooktop, but the picture clearly shows a large burner. Could you please confirm that indeed one of the burners is 12". How do the burners perform with pots/pans that are smaller in diameter? Thanks again for all the replies: you all have been extremely helpful. Will probably go for the all-induction one. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 17:41 The large burner is 11" across. I do not know where the sensor is that detects that a pan is on the burner. I would suspect that it is near the center. We have not had any difficulty with pans smaller in diameter than the burners, but I doubt we have been much smaller. BTW. I personally believe that the weather strip that I mentioned in my previous post is overkill. If you get the shield within 1/8 inch, I think that it will do it's job OK. I put it on because I am an overkill kind of person. You will love the cooktop. It still amazes me how it will boil a teakettle full of water in less than three minutes. No more tea with microwaves running around in it. Good luck ________________________________________  Posted by tamjo44 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 1:39 minu-I have the Thermador 36" and we have been using it for 2 weeks now. We love it. It is a breeze to wipe off and the instant control is amazing. We definitely wanted the larger burner in the middle. I've found a variety of cookware that works well on it. I would recommend it. carguy60- can you please elaborate on your heat shield solution? We ended up cutting down the depth of the drawer directly under the cooktop. I can put a knife holder in there or flat items, but not the spatulas, ladles etc that I was planning. Kind of a disappointment. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 8:33 1. measure the distance from the bottom of the cooktop to the drawer. 2. cut a piece of wood,(I used cabinet filler wood) to a thickness, that when added to the height of the heat shield, will come within 1/8 to 1/16 of the distance measured in step 1. 3. Measure the distance from the front of the cabinet to the heat shield when mounted on the cooktop. 4. remove the heat shield from the cooktop. 5. fasten the heat shield, with wood strip attached to the inside of the drawer so that the heat shield is at the same distance from the front that it was when mounted to the cooktop. The heat shield will now move with the drawer, and the drawer becomes usable. Post your EMail addr, and I can send you a picture. Good Luck. removed the heat shield from the cooktop, and mountid ________________________________________  Posted by jgirl_2007 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 8:52 Carguy - Can you please post a picture. I'm in the same boat and would love to have a usable drawer under the cooktop. I'm meeting with the cabinet maker tomorrow so timing is perfect. Thanks. ________________________________________  Posted by minu (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 9:40 Carguy60: please do post a picture. I think I understand the steps you described, but it would help tremendously to have something to show to the installers as well. If you prefer email, please email me through the "My Page" link. Thanks for all your help. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 11:16 jgirl, minu I will take some pictures, and post them as soon as I get home from work. ________________________________________ ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 19:25 As you can see from the first and second pictures, the top drawer is outwardly unmarked, and usable inside. The third picture shows the heat shield mounted on a piece of cabinet filler with it's height set to just clear the underside of the cooktop. This does the job of the heatshield which is to isolate the air intake and exhaust ports on the bottom of the cooktop. I hope this is helpful. Good Luck ________________________________________  Posted by tamjo44 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 19:44 Thanks Carguy, the photos do say a thousand words. Now, if I can get my drawer back, I will be a very happy person. By the way, did you come up with this brilliant solution yourself? Do you think doing it this way will void any warranty? ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 20:04 It was my idea. When I realized how intrusive the standard heat shield was, I considered several options before settling on this one. It shouldn't void any warranty, since it is more effective than the standard mounting. It is also easy to remount for any needed warranty service. ________________________________________  Posted by minu (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 12:16 Carguy: Thanks so much for these pictures - they really help. I notice that you have quite a few plastic tools in that drawer. How warm does it get in there when the cooktop is operational? Thermador should include this installation option in their specs:-) ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 12:48 It does not get warm in the drawer. We do not cook on 4 burners simultaneously very often. (maybe never) But we do cook on 2 burners quite often, and 3 burners sometimes. We use power boost only at startup or to quickly boil something. We believe that we have heard the fan come on 1-2 times in 4 months. I am not worried about too much heat in the drawer. ________________________________________  Posted by rocksinhead (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 22:05 Carguy - What size is the cabinet beneath your cooktop? 33" or 36"? We are planning a 33", with framed cabinetry, and so I wonder if your heatshield trick will work. I am guessing the internal dimension of the drawer will be 28 - 29".

I have had a Miele gas cook top, among others, solid electric burners on a glass cook top, and now the induction and so far, the induction ROCKS! Boils a HUGE pot of water in just a few minutes, cooks evenly and goes up and down temperature wise flawlessly when I want to raise or lower it, and I don't worry about my grand babies getting burned by accidentally touching the top! Clean up is a BREEZE! A little wiping with a sponge and a little Spray Way glass cleaner and it's done. I just made Chicken and Dumplings tonight and wiping the grease off the top took about a minute!~ As far as replacing the down draft, my appliance guy just removed the old one and put new ducting in, went under the house, (we're on a raised foundation, and mounted the fan which was quite large under our deck. Not sure what your set up is, but it was not a difficult job, just took a little time. Induction cooking has been in Europe for over 20 years and it seems that we are just getting interested in it. A lot of great chefs LOVE induction!

maryil: " I am very interested in the Miele Convection Steam Oven, and having a 30" induction cook top. I would like to have a conventional oven as well, but not really a 30", a 27" would be fine." As you have discovered, there are great differences between both the actual vertical dimensions of various cooktops and ovens and -- just as importantly -- the clearances that specific models of cooktop require below, or that certain models of oven require above, the appliance. We have had an arrangement such as the one you desire, but not with the brands that you have been looking at, for almost 15 years now. From our (possibly obsolete) experience, the LG induction cooktop is the skinniest induction cooktop that you are likely to find. It is about the thickness of an Apple MacPookPro laptop of 2008 or so vintage. Part of its secret is that the exhaust for the air that the cooling fan blows over the electronics when the cooktop is in operation is at the rear of the cooktop above the surface (in the stainless trim). The exhaust slots are very skinny: about the thickness of a U.S. nickel, but they seem adequate to the task. Because the volume of the room is for all intents and purposes infinite for the purpose of accepting the cooling airflow, considerations of saturating the exhaust area as could happen for units that exhaust into the enclosed volume beneath the cooktop are moot. Among wall ovens, we found that the Bosch convection (not steam) ovens were a few inches shorter, top-to-bottom, than the other brands that we measured or checked the specs for. That would allow you to mount a Bosch lower (farther from the underside of the cooktop), but you then would be stooping lower to lift your Thanksgiving turkey out of the oven as your guests salivate. Because we had no problem with clearance below a cooktop, we used the compactness of the Bosch wall oven to mount it high, with a shallow drawer under the oven for hard to store items like cookie sheets and pizza stones.

rebunky: I've spent the past couple of days just silently circling my kitchen and pondering -- DH thinks this reno has sent me off the edge (why are these kitchen posts fraught with unavoidable puns?!). Have also polled a number of my friends out here, and they think it's super counterproductive (heh...counter...ok) to tear down H-CoW to open up space/light, only to put in a new 36-40" wide CoW (floor to ceiling!). I actually spent time yesterday climbing up and down a ladder, connected pieces of posterboard in tow, and mocked up a wall -- tried to see how much light would be blocked from my bank of windows: lots...far too much. Even with that little undercab window pulling light in, I felt like I introduced a mini-cave into my kitchen. Just can't do it. One of the main reasons I'd move the cooktop to perimeter would be to take advantage of the better ventilation (up and out). So, if I made the move, I wouldn't also keep the downdraft. (Envisioning people watching me cook, and I can't get the vision of Graham Kerr out of my head!) I did realize that my current oldie electric coil cooktop has its panel of controls/knobs to the right, so burners have always been ~ 8-9" from the island edge. I may take Pal's suggestion (TY!) of widening the island, but will add the 3" to the cooktop side/cabinet. This may squish that walkway just a bit, but will still leave us with a ~ 36" aisle. The cooktop edge will still be only 4" from the island edge, but the smallest burner of the cooktop is another 2" in from that. Frankly, we decided on this particular cooktop knowing we'd primarily use the large center burner, and the bridge to the left (closest to the downdraft for more effective venting, relatively speaking). We've never found our current 6" burners of much use, but when we have, pot handles are ALWAYS turned toward center. I'm now hoping that widening the cooktop cabinet to 36" may open up the possibility of a small drawer directly beneath the cooktop. With the vent hood housing being 30"w, perhaps this leaves enough space on either side for the drawer hardware to attach (don't know that drawer glides span 34", however). We shall see. Again, thanks to everyone for taking time to provide input!