If Thermal Track is made by a couple of companies, that explains it. The brochure I have shows an aluminum face and their recommended installation for tile is cement backer board over the Thermal Track, then an iso membrane on that and tiling on the membrane. Warmboard itself does "allow" you to thinset Ditra directly to the Warmboard, but Schluter won't warranty an installation like that. Schluter recommends a transition material between the Warmboard and the Ditra. Warmboard used to have a bit of double-speak on their website and in their literature. Not sure if they are still that way. They first tell you to install in accordance with TCNA guidelines, etc, or IAW the manufacturer's instructions, etc, but then they give you shortcuts around those guidelines and say "they've never heard of a failed installation" when taking those shortcuts. For those not familiar, the big difference between Warmboard and Thermal Track is that Warmboard in an of itself is a structural subfloor and radiant track combined into one material. Thermal track is installed over an existing subfloor. I installed Warmboard when it first came out. Nice product, but not worth the $$$ or added steps required during installation or in protecting it after the installation. At least not in my book. Mongo

Cavimum: a 26 year-old mw above the stove is unlikely to fail because of oven self cleaning. If that kind of heat were a problem, simply cooking on the stove top would much be more likely to cause the failure. Your MW is much more likely to have simply worn out. For the last couple of decades, microwaves have been built and priced as commodity products. That means that some units wear out or break pretty quickly and some chug reliably along for a decade and more. Mboston: I'm old enough to remember the prevalence of problems with cooking-surface-control pads for induction stoves sold in the previous induction go-round back in the 70s and 80s. I worry less about oven heat from below, and mainly about the effect of cooking spills. With the GE induction stoves (which I also am considering), the control surfaces are away from the actual cooktop and much less vulnerable to spills. GE seems to have done a pretty good job with ventilation of the electronics. As for heat and oven self-cleaning cycles, I've been running self-cleaning three to five times a year for the ten years that I have had had my current GE stove. It has a touchpad on the backsplash. My oven gets used heavily for roasting, broiling and baking. I do large dinners every Sunday and run 8 large events a year. I do a lot of baking and roasting. My oven gets cruddy. My baking includes high heat baking, although I mostly do hearth-style breads rather than pizzas. I have never had a problem with the touchpads or anything else on the stove. Stoves are meant to be used. If there were a prevalent, recurrent problem with oven heat and control touchpads, by now, GE would be putting warnings in the manuals and have warranty exclusions and other ways of avoiding the cost of fixing problems. That said, it is a sure bet that SOME stoves will have problems. Some of every brand and model may overheat components and some circuit boards may otherwise fail. It is inevitable that some stoves in any product line will be defective when they come out of the factory. Some will breakdown prematurely. When you make and sell as many stoves as the major makers do, like GE, even a tiny percentage of defects can make for a pretty large number of angry consumers. When you are one of the people inflicted with a lemon stove, there is no comfort in knowing that your broken stove is a statistical minority. What you want is reasonable, prompt warranty service. That is where I see the biggest risk these days because so many companies have outsourced service to poorly managed, low-bid warranty service operations. So, I personally would not worry about self-cleaning and high-oven heat cycles but I would check on who does the warranty service for GE in your area. Find out who the bad companies are and look into what you can do to avoid using them if you need warranty service.

A regular ceramic cooking surface.

I have lived with hydronic radiant heating under oak T&G over a concrete slab. It is a wonderful heating method. However it is not a quick response system so I question whether raising the temp of the boiler will result in an increase in room heat over the next few days, or in enough time to cover the next few days of frigid weather. (I am much north of you in the upper Hudson Valley so I'm having the cold snap as you, only colder.) If you have a tile floor over the radiant heat it may not hurt to try turning it up (though your fuel costs may be significant). But if you have wood over the radiant heat, I'd be leery of raising too much, too quickly or at all. Wood does work over radiant, but it isn't the easiest and best top surface. You could see some separation between the boards promoted by the higher temps and lower humidity. I'd try warm slippers and a sweater for the next few days and just consider it one of the small, occcasional, prices of having an otherwise extremely efficient highly livable heating system. HTH L.