Thanks to all who posted. In past homes, we've had Meile ovens/dishwasher and SZ/Wolf fridge, cooktop and oven, but in our temporary rental place, I've made some great meals using new basic Maytag models. So, I'm thinking that saving a bit of money will still give me lots to play with in the kitchen. I'm looking at either all Thermador, all KA, or a combination of the two, thinking that it's a compromise among functionality, looks and durability. The 36" freezer-bottom Thermador fridge is appealing, but would a KA store my food just as well? It's a toss-up between the 36" Thermador induction or gas cooktop, as I really like to cook--I've always cooked using gas before. The wall oven would be the same brand as the cooktop as it is going underneath. As for the dishwasher, Thermador has the promotion on, giving me a free dishwasher and hood fan if I go with everything. I just can't decide. The promotions are a bit like shopping for a mattress: comparisons are almost impossible. My question is for those who have responded: which models did you end up purchasing and how have they worked so far?

Thanks, tarheel - no worries. I got my little rant in, for which I should be grateful to you. Helped me to sort out my questions. As they say in the reference librarian biz - no one ever asks their real question up-front. So ... this enzyme dirty-dish business still has me confused about two issues: (1) if you pre-rinse your dishes and use enzyme soap, won't it be eating away your dishes? (2) how will the enzymes "eat up the food in the trap after a day or two"? Does some residue remain that continues to eat up the food? Speaking of which ... (3) what's it mean to be an "enzyme" in this context anyway? My understanding of what an enzyme is, is that it's a protein that binds to some foreign material that in so doing facilitates the foreign material to be metabolized more quickly. It's part of a living system. What's it mean in this context? That is, how could an enzyme work on food residue in "1 or 2 days"? The enzyme's point is to speed up a chemical reaction. But the "reaction" that happens in a DW is mechanical - food gets ground up and washed down the drain, right? It might eventually get swept to a public works facility that puts microbes in the water to chew up your food waste - I could see an enzyme being helpful there. But in this context I'm just confused.... Anyway, thanks for coming back tarheel.

To second what laat said, there was a discussion of cracked cast-iron last summer with a recommendation of ramping-up induction when pre-heating cast iron grills, griddles and pans. Link is below. Same thing might also be said, btw, for putting cold cast iron pots over gas burners and in fireplaces, too. OTOH, I've never heard or seen anything about having to ramp-up high heat with other cookware on induction stoves. I've never had any problem going to max heat with stainless stockpot full of liquid. For other kinds of cooking, I don't feel the need to run max-heat and then turn down as some people like to do. I've pretty much always picked my intended heat setting and just used that with induction. For me, it is a practical matter rather than a "thou shalt not" kind of thing. For me, the pans seem to heat up plenty fast enough on induction without my needing to mash the throttle to the floor and burn the tires in a launch from a standing start. mmhmmgood Your question about whether your situation was freakishly bad luck and unlikely to repeat or if getting another KA would be endlessly repeating the thing known to fail? No, it was not freakish bad luck but odds are pretty good that you won't get another cooktop that suffers from infant mortality. You are playing the odds rather than, as Einstein put it, insanely repeating actions known to be useless failures. I say your experiencing the defect and endlessly delayed and poor warranty service was not freakish. First, there are frequent reports and irate complaints about outsourced warranty being absurdly slow and lacking competence. It is a pervasive problem these days for pretty much all brands of appliances. The chances of that happening again are, unfortunately, significant. I can only suggest trying to research service providers in your area and seeing if you can get a different (and better rated) company if something else happens. Second, what happend to you was not freakish because KA has had a higher defect rate that many other brands of electrical stoves and cooktops. According to what I recall from the recent annual surveys of members of Consumer Reports, KitchenAid electric stoves running something like a 15% defect rate, That is about double the rates for GE and, strangely enough, Whirlpool branded electric stoves. (I say "strangely" because Whirlpool owns KA and a lot of the appliances come out of the same productions lines). Some of the high defect rate for KA was undoubtedly from the problems with KA's self-cleaning ovens frying over-temp breakers and circuit boards. IIRC, the KA cooktops ran a lower rate of defects, around 8%, which is only marginally higher than for other major brands (which ran about 6% or 7%). If the rate for induction cooktops is the same as for other KA electric cooktops, then roughly 1 in 12 owners have serious problems but the other 92% do not. Chances are pretty good that a new KA cooktop will be fine for you for the next few years. Of course, statistics like this are of no comfort when you are the one who gets whacked with a double whammy. But,, what do really have to lose --- that you would not be losing anyway --- if you are unlucky enough to get a second frail unit? Since, you were happy with the KA unit when it worked, and really want another induction unit without shelling out for an upgrade to a new unit, I say the odds are in your favor. Get the replacement and let us know things work out. Here is a link that might be useful: crackedcast iron griddle on induction This post was edited by JWVideo on Sat, Sep 14, 13 at 14:44

I wanted to post an update now that we've run more loads through our new Kitchenaid DW. Normally six weeks might not be much of an update, but posts scroll off so fast (or just get lost these days by the server, LOL) that I thought it would be good to do this before it disappears forever. We are still running the KA a lot more often than our (mediocre) old Kenmore/GE. The fact that it cleans the cookware, which our old DW did not do well at all, means that a lot more big items are put in, which requires running it more often. We still have the issue with the soap dispenser not opening on rare occasions. Again, this very seldom happens, so I've been unable to figure out the "why?" The DW runs such hot water, however, with that stainless tub holding in the heat so much better than the old DW's plastic tub, that the loads have come out almost completely clean even without soap! Egg yolk residue and mashed potatoes are a bit difficult for the DW, although it's a total champ on grease and baked-on casserole crusts. I now soak the plates that have the egg yolk or potato residue with a little water, for a few minutes (while I'm putting glasses and silverware into the DW, for example). Then I load them into the DW - no scrubbing necessary, just a little hydration. The loads have all been on Regular or Pro Scrub cycles. I used the Heavy Duty cycle once but didn't find it was any more effective than the Pro Scrub. Virtually everything that has needed a little extra washing "ooomph" has fit into the two rows on the lower rack where the Pro Scrub cycle is aimed. On those rare occasions when an item is just too big for the Pro Scrub racks, then the Heavy Duty cycle is useful, while placing the item full-face-down on the lower rack. I still do miss the height of my old DW - there's one or two things that simply will not fit into the KA unless I lay it face down which takes up an entire rack. But in all other respects, the KA works like a champ and has made a huge difference in less time and effort spent on daily clean-up. With our old DW, I seldom ran it more than two or three times a week. There was so much it couldn't clean well, or that were too awkwardly shaped to fit. I really appreciate the flexible loading of the KA racks. We have so many odd or large items that are easy to fit into this DW. With the KA, I can run it twice a day because I know it will clean just about everything. Drying: I only have to wait 2 hrs 15 min after I push the Start button, to open up the DW and almost everything is dry (and hot to the touch!). If I wait 4 hours then the condensation drying makes everything completely dry. The one exception is the curved rims on plastic tupperware-type containers. This is because I load the plastic containers upside-down; if I loaded them on their sides the rims would drain, but conversely make it harder for the interior to drain well. I usually unload everything else first, then take the containers out and shake the water from the rims into the sink. They air-dry completely in an hour or so, and then get put away. My nephews Bosch has so far performed very well for them (its only 1 yr old, though) but they are a little unhappy with the smaller interior and long cycle times. We spent close to the same amount of money, but the KA has been a good fit for us. Were very satisfied with it, and hope it lasts, for at least a few years. And yes, we did opt for an extended warranty, just in case.