Seeing that nobody has responded yet, I'll chip in and see if a reply can get a conversation going for you.

I have no first hand experience with either of the two Kenmore induction ranges, but offer the following thoughts that may help you work out which range to choose.

Generally, porcelain-covered oven racks are a convenience when, unlike chromed racks, they can be left in the oven during a self-cleaning cycle. Not all porcelain racks do this, however. Check the manual for the 95073 to see if that is the case with its coated racks.

Warming drawers on ranges are another YMMV convenience. Some folks find them appealing and use them frequently. Others find themselves completely indifferent to this feature. I'm in the latter camp. My previous stove had one. I thought I'd use it a lot, but it turned out to be not convenient enough for me. It seemed to take a long time to heat up. Much of what I cooked (or cooked in) seemed too tall to fit. That said, there are any number of threads here in which others have been highly satisfied.

Of course, there is a trade off with oven size, too. The taller oven in the KE 95073 means the warming drawer is proportionally shallower. If you wound up using the drawer for storage, you could store a stack of sheet pans and the broiler pan but a large roasting pan might be too tall.

Burner sizes is, again, a YMMV thing and your particular take will reflect what you cook and what you cook it in.

I favor larger pans, and, as a result, I would find the two bigger burners on the 95073 important. Of course, as is oft repeated here, cookware manufacturers usually tell you the diameter across the tops of their pans, but the diameters of the bases are what matters for sizing pans to induction burners. The top diameters are a consideration when you are considering how your pans will fit together on the stove top. (Folks here have asked questions like "can I fit two 12" fry pans on the front burners?") Mostly, you can, but doing so may affect pan placement on the rear burners.

A general rule of thumb is that the base of pan for which you want even heat across the base on an induction burner --- say when searing in a fry pan --- can be up to roughly 1" larger in diameter than the burner rating -- over that, and there may be an other ring that isn't as hot as you might want. Considering that most 12" frying pans flare out from a base that is around 9 inches, you could easily use a 12" fry pan on the 8" diameter burner of both the 95103 and 95073. But, if you often use a pair of 12" fry pans, that would favor the 95073 for you.

Some Lodge cast iron fry pans, with more vertical sides, have bases that are more like 10" or so. No problems with 95073 with making perfectly evenly-cooked pancakes that cover out to the edges of the pan, but with the biggest burner on 95103, you might want to make the pancakes a little smaller if you want/need to have them perfectly even. The outer rim will still cook, but the cakes will be paler at the edges. (This is not peculiar to induction -- you can get similar effects on other kinds stoves when using pans larger than the burners.)

Another convenience scenario to consider, especially if two of your family are teenagers with 4-gallons-per-mile appetites: making a quick pasta sauce in a 12" fry pan and boiling pasta in a 10" (or larger) diameter stock pot. Put the stock pot on the 10" burner and the fry pan on the 8" burner of the 95073 and everything gets done very quickly. It will be a bit slower on the 95103. No problem putting the stockpot on a smaller burner -- with a pot of water, you really don't care if the heat is perfectly even across the entire base. It just takes longer to come to a boil with a smaller burner. Or, swapping the pots, putting the 12" fry pan on the 7" burner will cook the sauce but you will have to stir more to assure even cooking.

For many people, these differences will be matters of convenience not knock-your-socks-off dramatic.

That 4100 watt power-boosted 10" burner on the 95073 could be amazing if you do much canning. IIRC, the owner's manual for the 95703 permits canning. Don't know about the 95103.

Another pan size consideration --- induction burners have minimum pan size size requirements. Typically, minimum pan sizes will be 70% to 80% of the rated burner diameter. For the 95073, I'm guessing that the 10" burner will handle down to about 8" in diameter. (Check the manual to see what Sears says.) Below that, it probably won't detect the pan. (The smallest burner on both Kenmore models will, IIRC, handle those tiny stove-top 3.5" diameter moka/esspresso pots, if that is something that is important to you.) Anyway, if you mainly use pots with bases of 8" and less, you might forgo the 95073.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Tue, Nov 11, 14 at 12:14

Personally, I would avoid the Kenmore "brand" and buy the comparable Electrolux product - that way you'll get an Electrolux warranty. If you buy Kenmore you're locked into Sears for warranty service (often done by A&E). This is not your father's Sears anymore - do a search on this forum about Sears and A&E before making your decision.

Thanks to both JWVideo and weissman for your responses. I've been researching and thinking about your comments - they have pointed me in helpful directions.

I'm with weissman on this one. You're probably better off dealing with Electrolux directly. Especially as Electrolux ranges tend to have some reliability issues.

I'm not here to defend either Electrolux, or its Frigidaire subisdiary, or Sears. And, far be it for me to put in any kind of favorable word for A&E.

A&E, a repair services joint venture between Sears and Whirlpool has generated a lot of ire for bad and outright incompetent management of warranty support. I've linked to a thread below that went on for six years. You also might want to look at the consumeraffairs.com site for other tales of woe and horror.

Thing is, avoiding Sears does not necessarily avoid A&E. Lots of manufacturers (including GE) have signed up for service by A&E. Sometimes, whether you get A&E (or somebody with a similarly bad reputation may depend on when and from whom you buy your appliance.

Plus, there is real attraction to getting an induction range for $1150 where the only apparent differences between it (Kenmore 95103) and the more expensive Frigidaire verison (FFGIF306 (?) for $1600 is that the Frigidaire's large burner is a 10" burner instead of the 8" on the 95103.

I don't think we have any real data that tells us Kenmore/Electrolux induction stoves are significantly less reliable and durable than other brands. Consumer Reports annual membership surveys -- and for the vociferously anti-Consumer Reports folks here, please note that I am referring to the surveys of tens of thousands of actual owners, not to CR's lab testing and product recommendations that seems to inspire a lot of the ire --- show Kenmore and Frigidaire electric ranges as very slightly less reliable (in the first five years) than GE, and pretty much average middle of the pack, otherwise. Looks like about 1 owner in 10 will have a serious problem with an Frigidaire/Kenmore electric stove in the first five years of ownership.

That nine out of ten will be problem free will be of no comfort if you get one of the 10% of the ranges that turn out to have problems. There's the rub.

Anybody buying a range these days has to consider those odds and the vendors' and makers' reputations for support. Sometimes, it seems to be a bit of a crapshoot.

There certainly have been reports of some folks with E-lux induction ranges running into board failures that are very expensive to replace. There were some similar reports on some of the previous Kenmore induction models. Every manufactured product is apt to have some lemons in a production run. Is the problem widespread? Unfortunately, those reports don't (and, really, can't) tell us anything about how prevalent the problems actually are. If there are 20 reports of board failures, that gives one pause but it does noth really tell us how like a failure will be with Electrolux/Kenmore induction slide-n ranges and/or Frigidiare/Kenmore freestanding induction ranges.

Another thing to consider in a purchase decision is that the extended warranties sold by Sears tend to be a lot more expensive than elsewhere. (Personally, given A&E's reputation, I might be inclined to put the cost aside to be applied if and when I run into a problem -- for which I could (hopefully) hire somebody competent of my own choosing if I couldn't fix the thing myself. Or, if my area had power problems, I might look into an independent insurance product.

Who knew that buying a stove would require skills in risk management? :>(

Here is a link that might be useful: Experiences with A & E Factory Service?

This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, Nov 13, 14 at 13:47

I have a three Kenmore induction range that I love. It pretty much does everything a "high end" induction range does except maybe those timed burners?

My extended warranty just expired and I did not repurchase. I have only had it service one time to replace a rattling convection fan.

I love, love, love my stove. The burner configuration is perfect for me with the large burners in the front and the smaller (more useless) ones in the back.

The burners are fast and responsive and the oven bakes awesome cookies!

I admit to hardly using the warming drawer. I always forget it's there and it does take a long time to heat up.

I really appreciate the posts! We live in a small town and have an appliance repairman that we like a lot - and would like to use him for all repairs, if necessary, but he says that Sears won't make the necessary info available to him.

We have two appliance stores in town - Sears and Westco. Westco offers a Frigidaire induction stove - but also made by Electrolux so not many choices. We can buy on line - but then our poor little community doesn't earn the sales tax and businesses don't get the needed sales. However, the brick & mortar Sears store can't offer the same price as Sears on-line does. I find that rather odd and unfair to their store owners but our local guy says that's the policy.

I appreciate the suggestions to purchase an Electrolux and am looking into that as well.

The only extended warranty we've ever purchased was for a used car, and we never used it - so our tendency with extended warranties is to not purchase and take our chances. So far, we've been lucky.

JWVideo, I"m glad you pointed out that the larger oven size will cut into the storage/ warming drawer size. That's a really helpful storage area for me, so another point for the cheaper stove. And stir_fryi, doesn't sound like you used your's much - I might at Thanksgiving and Christmas but have managed so far without, but daily need the storage drawer.

Er, most state sales taxes are applicable on any out of state purchases over the internet. State tax offices can tell you how to remit same. For those who don't pay up, some day they may come looking for their money, or not.
A countrywide combined federal/state sales tax plus junking of the manufacturers fed tax (only paid by American makers) would be a big step forward.

Sears is "in transition" and "buy a big ticket item there if you can't find what you want anywhere else" is a sound policy.
Given the steep week after week discounts on the Kenmore ranges from Electrolux, it would not be a surprise to see the line discontinued soon. Still a good buy is a good buy.

Buy the extended warranty.
Install a whole house surge arrestor if you live where lightning storms are not uncommon and electricity is erratic.
Don't run the self clean for the maximum time suggested and use it as little as possible.

>We live in a small town and have an appliancerepairman that we like a lot - and would like to use him for all repairs, if necessary, but he says that Sears won't make the necessary info available to him.

And that is precisely why you should buy a Frigidaire or Electrolux instead of a Kenmore.

How does buying Kenmore instead of the manufacturer's brand benefit the consumer? It doesn't.

But does it benefit Sears? You bet it does. Tons. Now the customer is locked into using only Sears for repairs, in warranty and out.

Sears has had the appliance buying power for a long time to choose if they would leave warranty service to the brand fulfilling their huge appliance contracts or do their own warranty work in house no matter what brand name was on the appliance. This might change from time to time so nothing is written in stone, but doubt Sears would leave more than a few odd low volume appliance servicing crumbs to outsiders.

Bumping to see if any new advice since 2014. Right now Kenmore 95073 is $1399 and Kenmore 95103 is $1099, and I'm trying to decide if the 95073 is worth the additional $300. TIA!

Caligirl5...I am too, on the fence with the Kenmore ranges. I am leaning toward 95073. Which way did you go?

I ordered 95103, not getting installed until early April. I decided I wouldn't really use the extra features in 95073. We'll see!

Caligirl5 and Roxie Doxie, how are the ranges working for you?

It's OK. I feel like the induction doesn't heat up as fast as I expected, like I have to pre-heat the pan for a while. I have 3 different types of pans that I've used, so I don't think it's the pans. It's hard to compare though, just a subjective observation.

Thanks for the feedback :D