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Why does no induction cooktop have it all?

15 years ago

So I have finally been persuaded to give up my 48" Wolf rangetop for a 36" induction. And have loved reading about all of you who love your induction tops here at this site.

But I now need to actually order one, and I'm stuck. I want a frameless cooktop, that has a timer (as in, you can set the burner to turn off). But this simple combination doesn't seem to exist. I've poured over the posts here, the manufacturers spec sheets, theinductionsite.com, and no luck.

Anyone here have both? And if not both, which would you find harder to live without?

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Comments (5)

lovemcm
15 years ago
The Miele has the timer you're looking for. Although it has a frame, it is so minimal it is practically invisible. Be sure to click on the gallery under the large photo of the cooktop at the link below. I have seen this in person, and it really looks frameless.

Here is a link that might be useful: miele induction 36
rhome410
15 years ago
This is a little OT, hopefulnovice, but I gave up my induction dreams and ended up with a 48" Wolf rangetop! Just had to comment on the reverse coincidence. :-)

The Miele wasn't out yet when I was looking, but I'd heard about it and was disappointed it was released late...If it was available, I might have stuck with induction, since it has 3 good-sized burners that appear to be set so you can actually use them all at once without the pans crowding each other.

I love my Wolf rangetop in a lot of ways, but still have those twinges of regret about giving up induction.
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We have our first induction cooktop, a Wolf, after cooking exclusively on gas. the cooktop does not make the very annoying noise, but certain pans do. We have only Le Creuset and All Clad, both of which we were told were recommended for induction cooktops. No sound from the Le Creuset, but certain All Clad pans seem to be worse than others. In our experience the frying pans are the worst. Heavier pots and saucepans not as much. And, for whatever reason, one particular non stick pan was the worst of all, so we stopped using it because it was THAT ANNOYING.
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Actually, the induction circuits do produce heat. The efficiency of the wall power to coupled power into the pan is not 100 percent. The efficiency of coupling the fields into pans is probably less than 95% by itself, and the power supply efficiency is unlikely to be better than 90%. These are just estimates; real world numbers may be available from the manufacturers. With assumed 90% efficiency, we can note the following as an example: Let your unit actually draw 25A from 240 Vac at full power. If we turn on everything full power and pull 6000W, then 600W have to be removed from the circuitry. That is a fair amount of power to put into the cooling air. (Think six 100W light bulbs in a box.) In general, this isn't noticed because few cooks will run all hobs on full power at once, and usually for most cooking full power is only needed for several minutes. I use the entire cabinet space under my Kenmore (Electrolux Icon clone) unit for ventilation space. (The space is filled with wire racks and pans.) After a long time cooking I can just notice that the air temperature inside is slightly higher than outside. This is due to the actual power draw being much less than the around 9500W that the unit can potentially pull, and due to my unit having exhaust vents along the front edge. Warm air can be felt when a hob is on overdrive more than a minute and the fans turn on. kas
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Appreciate all the information...you folks are great. It may be that my old radiant which needs a $400 control module replacement actually is dying because of the heat being trapped around it in the metal box. Before I install the new induction I'm going to cut openings in the kickspace area at the bottom of the cabinet and openings in the upper cabinet side wall into the adjacent microwave cavity which is open to the kitchen. Figure this will allow at least some passive ventilation. The cabinet the induction will sit on holds a lot of air but we have three drawers in it although there is a 3" gap between the end of the drawers and the cabinet back wall which should allow my passive ventilation idea to work. It's in an island so I can also cut openings top and bottom into the cabinets on the other side and back which should allow considerable passive ventilation. Saw on another post that someone was recommending a small low voltage fan to draw warm air out of the cabinet...it would kick on if the air in the cabinet gets above a certain temp. Guess I can always go to that if I need to.
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I have just insisted that they put in the wiring (50 amp) in our rebuild for induction even though I can't afford a new range right now. I have my eye on a hugely expensive (for us anyway) and totally impractical Bertazzoni. What brand have you got? Are you happy with the oven as well as the induction top? We have an electric smooth top now and I can really sympathize with you funky. Our top stayed pretty nice for years thanks to my DH who seems to find relaxation in scrubbing the top after every meal, but even so, it is now starting to show scratches and rings. Good luck!
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User
15 years ago
Frameless inductions are a pretty rare breed in the first place. Stands to reason they won't have every feature.
louisa_smith03
15 years ago
I decided that the frameless was more important to me than the timed power, but it was a tough choice, and surely assisted by the fact that the frameless option was significantly less expensive (feels crass to bring up money on this blog sometimes, but have to say it is something that my wallet appreciates!)

I decided that when there are times that I really want the timing function, I'll take out my Mr. Induction "hot plate" and plug it into an outlet with a timing control on it-- like the ones used to light lamps at certain times when you go on vacation-- and use that control to turn off the burner. hope that helps!
oskiebabu
15 years ago
I understand that we all want what we want, but does your Wolf Rangetop have a timer that turns it off? Does it even have a timer with alarm? I bet not.

The GE Monogram is frameless and has a timer with an alarm. It will also turn off if you cook anything too long on the burner causing the pan temperature to rise---which is true of most induction burners and true of no gas burners that I know of, unless brand new models from Caldera or Gaggenau came out with it---just a guess.

So I am somewhat befuddled why a function like auto shutoff is so necessary on an induction burner but totally unimportant on a gas one. You leave a gas burner on and fall asleep and far worse things will happen than with any induction cooker, which will automatically shut-off--way before the pan or pot is ruined and there is a danger of fire and Carbon Monoxide poisoning.

Heck, I wonder how many electric cooktops have timers with auto shut-offs? Unless it is a brand new Gaggenau or Thermador electric and maybe a couple of others over $2K, the pickings are slim. Plus they aren't as powerful as inductions because they are far less efficient per watt.

Greg

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