If the induction cooktop vents underneath the counter as the Cooktek does, and the GE above appears to do, but the Electrolux and Kenmore don't, then more space is needed to allow air to circulate without getting too hot and potentially harming the electronics or causing the electronics to self protect by cutting power. The other issue is chassis construction and what UL might demand for spacing from combustibles. My guess (while awaiting word from the GE engineer response noted above) is that there may be a fear that electronics failures of certain types could cause hot spots or melt-throughs in the bottom cover, or sparks from the vent slots. An arc current below the 50A breaker limit might cause some serious metal erosion before it burned out. My choice was to use wire pull-out drawers and store pots and pans in that space. kas

I can't speak to the particular brands but I would "slow cook" all the time in my wall oven and continue to do so in my range oven. Just throw whatever meat (pork shoulder, brisket, etc) in a pot with some liquid (stock, beer, wine, apple juice, whatever) and set the oven to 225, 250, whatever you want. Has always worked like a champ for me. I've left my oven on unattended tons of time. Yep, I've used a fork to extract toast from the toaster, too. Even been known to ride a motorcycle! :) -Stooxie

The best way to avoid getting food on the stainless trim is to never walk away from or be distracted from the cooktop until you have enough experience with it. It is capable of heating liquids much faster than conventional coil, radiant, or gas burners (some pro gas burners possibly excepted). It is necessary to gain experience to know what setting to leave the cooktop in for simmering, and how much time it takes at setting 9 or P before a quiescent pot is a splattering pot. These times vary with pot size, liquid fill level, hob size, whether the pot is covered or not, and the makeup of the liquid. It is not that these variables are different than for conventional cooktops, but that the onset of vigorous boiling is more rapid and thus easier to catch one off guard. kas

""What is the history of NXR? Why do folks seem not to favor them?" =============================== not much "history" at all to speak of because they have only been around for about 4-5 years or so. Far as I can tell the ONLY people that seem to not favor them are those that do not own them. They are "Assembled in China" which to most naysayers is all they need to hear and thus proceed to bad mouth them from there without ever even using one. 98% of people that own them love them, the only actual problem I have seen where an actual owner has complained is I have seen 2 people say that the blue enamel interior flaked off on theirs. That is really the only 2 actual complaints I have personally seen about the stove. Much better BTW than any other stove I have looked at which usually have hundreds of complaints. Prior to buying ours I saw one other complaint but that one was clearly because of shipping, the stove was never even usable because it was damaged in shipping from the place they bought it from, that is hardly the fault of the stove though. All I know for absolute certain is we have had ours for 9 months, it looks great, cooks fantastic, has the burners that I want, has very solid heavy grates and oven racks. Very solid door and hinges that even after the oven being at 450 for over an hour the door is just barely warm. Has a nice infrared broiler. It is easy to clean. The burner configuration is exactly what I want, 4- 15K BTU double stack burners same as the Wolf which all 4 are also super low simmer and they are spaced far enough apart so that I can use a 12" pan and 10" pot on the same side, also my 14" Wok and 10" pot on the same side We use it 2-3X a day 6-7 days a week and have zero complaints. What more could I possibly ask for from an $1800 stove?, and that's the price shipped to the door tax free. Well worth the price we paid for it, and in its price range NOTHING else comes close. So we are happy and that is all that really matters in the long run, I am just glad that I happened on this site about a year or so ago when I researching stoves because otherwise I would have never heard of the NXR and would have ended up with some $1600 Kenmore and I guarantee would not have been happy with it. At that time there were numerous threads about NXR stoves raving about how nice they were for the price from owners that bought them and were using them. My wifes best friend bought the higher price model ($1900)of the Kenmore we were looking at, she got it the same week we bought the NXR, and when ever we go over there I always think to myself oh wow, THAT cost $100+ tax plus delivery more than our NXR? Jeebus. It is like comparing an old electric coil stove to a $6000 Capital Culinarian, her $1900+ Kenmore to our NXR. It has light cheap grates, only one burner that is like 18K btu and the rest are like 10K 9K and some worthless little simmer burner, the oven racks are light duty, the whole stove I think weighs about 130# less than the NXR, does not have an infrared broiler, even the "Stainless" version which is what she has is still mostly black enamel.