I like having all of the cooking activity in one area. Don't forget, that's all that was available till about 1960 or so. The one unfortunate part of my set-up is that the fan for the micro-hood (I have the Kenmore Advantium microwave/speedcook/convection unit above the cooktop) is not particulary effective, mostly because the fan openings are rather small and not situated where they will do the most good. It would also help if the thing was designed to better corral the steam & fumes toward the fan. Those over-the-range units are very convenient, but nobody seems to have made the fans very effective. Could be in part because customers don't complain enough.

THANK YOU! I really appreciate this! I have had to rethink the addition to my kitchen since the bids came in too high, so trying to fit everything into the smaller original footprint. This will help. Sadly now I have a 36" gaggenau induction cooktop and a 30" Wolf single wall oven (new, floor models) to resell before I can buy the Ge products. I thought I was so fortunate to snag those at the time, never dreaming how much it cost to add on.

I am looking to place my order for a single wall oven that will be installed under a Bosch 36" flex induction cooktop. I know they are very low.. Do you think it would be better to go with the side swing door in this type of installation? If I go with the side opening door I need to get the benchmark $$$ if I do the drop down door I can go with the 800 Series $$. What do you think. Cross Posted to the kitchen forum.

I'm not sure I followed the explanation you received from the GE rep. Or maybe the rep was giving you an engineer's explanation of "Pulse Width Modulation." PWM is a way of using power in bursts to effect energy transfer equivalent to turning a traditional electric or gas burner up or down. It is kind of like averaging. You cycle the power on and off slowly to simulate lower energy transfer. Cycle it faster and with longer pulses, you get more energy transfer and the effect of turning up the power or gas on a traditional hob. That's how most microwaves work, btw. What we're talking about is how much energy gets transmitted into the cooking vessel. The PWM is just a way of governing the amount of energy being applied to the pan. The net effect is the same as turning power or gas up and down. Maybe somebody else can better explain the theory of the what the rep suggested? On your question about cookware to buy, let me suggest try a new post with links to the cooking and cookware forums here where you can get more direct responses. Also, rather than have me give a cookware 101 lecture (pontificate?), I suggest you try a site like Serious Eats which already has a pretty good discussion of "essential cookware." (Click on the highlght to go to the article.) I think Cook's Illustrated also may have one if you have access to their site. My responses to your specific cookware questions are: 1. I certainly would and do mix pan from different brands and lines. Most folks here would advise you to do so. Nothing necessarily wrong with buying sets, of course, but you may do better by picking and choosing. 2. I have only two Demeyere pans, both labeled as "Demeyere 7 TripleInduc.." Bought them on clearance from the Zwilling website you noted above for the plancha. One of my pans is a ten-inch frying pan. The other is the 21"x13" big brother of the plancha/teppanyaki/griddle you linked above. 3. I have both a roasting pan and a dutch oven. Frankly, if I had neither one, I'd look at the recommendations on Cook's Illustrated and Serious eats for decent dutch ovens and then I would also get a good , sturdy half sheet pan (it is a baking sheet with a short raised rim around the outside.) I'd use the baking sheet to impersonate a roasting pan by plonking in a cooling rack and setting the food on that. Also, if you get that plancha/griddle/teppanyaki, it can do a bang-up job as a shallow roasting pan, too. These days, I use my big roasting pan mainly for very big and juicy birds. YMMV. 4. Re "straight-sided" versus slope-side skillets, there is no "must" for induction. Get the slope-sided pan that you think you will like using better.