I remember that thread about the Miele Induction unit. I really wish that the OP had come back and let us know if it was ever resolved. Her unit was behaving very oddly, and I really think Miele had the responsibility to fix it. If mine behaved like that, I'd hate it, too. I felt so badly for her. That said, I did have a learning curve on the Miele touch controls, they kind of annoyed me in a minor way for a few weeks until I got the hang of it. The problem was that I was pushing the controls instead of just resting my finger on them. The kids, the husband--they all had no troubles at all, so I knew it was ME and not the cooktop. :-) At this point, it responds just fine to my touch and I have no issues with it. If I rest something over the controls for a few seconds, like a hand, a towel, or a pan lid, the cooktop beeps at me and turns off. If I brush my sleeve across it, or quickly wipe a towel across it to clean up up a spill, it does not shut down. I don't recall ever having it shut down due to a grain of rice or small piece of food--it would have to land just right, I'd think--and a large enough piece could affect it. Just last night a family member had a large boil over on pasta, and we picked up the pot, quickly wiped off the mess, put the pan back and it just continued on without shutting down at all. This cooktop gets very heavy use, as I cook everything from scratch, daily. I love being able to set a separate timer for each burner and use that function all the time. Most people who get induction seem to like their units, no matter which one they get. I chose the Miele because I liked the hob layout and I liked the feature set, and there was absolutely nowhere on the cooktop for crud to get caught and hide. (this was a a problem on my old stove, which was the bane of my existence!) Good luck with your decision!

I don't have a Miele but a Diva 36" on the short end of the "L" run. The short end edge to wall is 9 1/2'. I would vote for the 36" - I rarely use all five burners but having the extra room between burners is great. The Diva has a large burner in the middle which allows good working room between the zones. I wouldn't get hung up on the pot size - I'm always under a bit. In fact, I sometimes span two burners on the same zone, (not across zones), to make gravy. Also the burners not in use can easily be used as counter space even when you are cooking as the surrounding surface stays cool. The one thing you do need to consider is the size of the hood. Conventional hood speak advises you to over hang the hood a bit - so a 30" cooktop would take a 36" hood, a 36" cooktop would take a 42" hood. This presented a problem for me as I wanted a minimal look in a wall hood. The hood appearance I wanted was available in a Miele 36" or 48" NOT a 42". I ended up with the 36" Miele hood over my 36" Diva. The 42" would have been perfect but I just did not have the space for the 48" as I have shelves on either side of the hood. This works for me as I don't do a lot of frying. I will say the hood is quite loud. It is the one thing that I purchased solely for the form and not its function. In otherwords, looks ovr performance.

Just a note about my experiences re power sharing on induction cooking. On a 36" wide, there are 3 power sharing zones. On a 30" wide, there are 2 power sharing zones. Power sharing only comes into play when using the Boost feature. Boost is the extra heat above levels 1 through 9. You use boost to attain a boil but not to maintain a boil. Once the pot has the bubbles you want, turn the heat down to 7.5 or 8 or 8.5, whatever you like to keep the bubbles at the ferocity you want. It will boil over if you do not lower the heat. On my Bosch, 'boost' automatically will shut down after ten minutes but as a practical matter, I shut the boost off after it gets up to boil, to prevent a boil-over. You can have all five or four hobs at full power-at any heat level, except boost and not power share. I have been using my Bosch for 3.5 years now. Power sharing is something I read about but simply doesn't come into play. By the time I get the next pot ready to boil, putting water and food in, it's time to shut off the boost to prevent boil overs. To summarize, you can blaze every one of your hobs at the same time as long as boost is not engaged. Power sharing only applies to the boost feature. Use boost to attain a boil but not to maintain a boil. fini

I have the Wolf 36 for 2 years - works great. There is only one timer for the entire unit - Miele has a timer for each burner. Both have their advantages but I am timered out anyway with so many timers in the kitchen already... Now which timer is beeping - but if you are forgetful, the individual timers turn off the burner. If you have visual problems - the burner rings are hard to see (I wanted them to be discreet and am happy with them but some might have trouble centering the pan) It took me two years to figure out the buzzing noises are more of an interaction with the LED can lights - I have to get sparky back to help figure out why. Otherwise, it cooks great, simmers, melts, high heat, low heat, etc - one thing to understand - the settings are different on different burners - ask to get the print out of the actual wattages.