Yes Soly, the red aura is the inner workings of the top when powerfully lit from above. I saw a little red on a Miele in a showroom, but the Kitchenaid I saw recently was alarmingly red. When my hood light is on I can look closely and my Gagg hobs are slightly burgundy, and if I peer down I can see a tiny bit of the workings in red. I don't know if the showroom lights were way more intense than a home hood, but the KA I saw really turned me off. You didn't have to be right above it to see it as you need to be with mine. There's no difference when it's operating...you know it doesn't glow red-hot like an electric smoothtop. Mine always appears black unless you're searching for the reddishness. The Thermador I saw in the showroom didn't seem to glow red either. And it looked really cool. But not as cool as the silver one! The Thermador was a top contendor...I just got a great deal on a fully warranty-ed discontinued Gagg for about what I'd pay for a GE...and I LOVE the knob! Maybe take a flashlight to a showroom and pretend to be a hood? Have you checked out the Bosch's? I think they now have the shut off timers, and Gagg, Therm, and Bosch are all made by the same crew. BTW, had a service check on my Gagg (5 year warranty!) and the dedicated Gagg/Therm/Bosch guy came out in his cool Bosch van. It was SO refreshing to have a tech actually know the product in and out. He says he responds to very few service calls on the induction units...just "is this what it's supposed to sound like" calls like mine. I'm sure it's the same with the Miele dudes. You'll love it no matter which you select!

You might get more model specific info on the Appliance Forum, but I just installed a Bosch (cheap sister to Thermador, I think) and oh, gosh, do we love it. Love it, love it, love it. I would grab that $800 deal and run. Why do appliance dealers not understand and promote these cooktops more aggressively?? Aren't we all supposed to be saving energy? For me, tho, it was the safety issue. Okay, off my induction soapbox. Good luck!

I have had the Thermador cook top a little over a year and I think I've had about 25% down time. When it works, this cook top is great but the combination of untrained service people and really bad service policies at Thermador work to make this unit unusable unless you hardly cook at all. The unit has 36 little Hobbs under the glass, a mother board and 4 other boards to make it all work. The 36 Hobbs are very stable and haven't caused any problems. So there's only 5 parts that can go down. Sounds simple, no? Think again. Thermador has not done anything to train their techs on this stove top. So when the computer on the unit puts out an error code a tech may not even recognize what the computer is trying to say. I've had to look over the shoulder of some of these dummies to point out the error code the unit puts out. When you finally figure out which of the 4 support boards needs replacing you find that the replacement parts are not available and have to be back ordered. This is a matter of weeks, not days. Lastly, the telephone support from Thermador is no picnic either. It's basically a call center staffed with people having only the ability to take messages and pass them to a non-responsive 2nd level. Presently, my unit has been down since early December 2015. It's now January 6. Thermador has decided to replace my unit. As mentioned in previous posts, getting your cook top replaced is a nightmare in itself. I had to do that in my 1st month of ownership. There's a mysterious 'AR department' that is accountable to no one that outsources the replacement activity to a 3rd party. That process can take months. In California there's a lemon law that applies to appliances as well as cars. I think that is my next step.

We just installed our Freedom last week. We love it. It holds consistent temps and it’s really nice not to have to worry about where the cookware is in the cooktop. I really like the myZone feature. It allows you to move the pot in the stove to change the heat. So closer to the front edge gives you 9 further back is 7 all the way to the back edge at 1. This is handy when I have more than one thing going for dinner at once, or something that may boil over. I can quickly change the heat without fussing with the touch screen.