Just wanted to post an update to this. I made a minor but very relevant mistake when looking at the specs on this OTR MW. I saw some schematic that you can have up to 16" cabinet. Well we mounted the MW last Friday and to my surprise the door wouldn't open all the way. I had assumed that with the 16" limit, the door must have been one of those zero-clearance hinges like on some high end refrigerators. Boy was I wrong. I went digging deeper and it turns out that the 16" I saw only referred to the right side of the MW. Somewhere, in another drawing, it showed a maximum cabinet depth of 13". Had I known, I would have had the cabinet maker cut the left end panel at least an inch shallower to accommodate a 90 degree opening. After talking it over with my contractor, he's going to extend the installation by putting up some 2x4s (which are really 1.5 x 3.5) on the back wall. Then the mounting bracket would be installed on top of that. Fortunately, it's not a show stopper. I'll try to post an updated picture later.

We have the same appliance stack, with the bottom of the Advantium at 48" I'm 5'11" and I wouldn't want the Advantium any higher. The open door/cooking floor is at my lower chest level, so I can see the top of food items easily, and reach my arms straight out to add or remove the sometimes hot items. The enameled metal speedcook trays get very hot, as does the insides of the Advantium. As for the rest of my stack, the oven location isn't bad at all, and the warming drawer is workable unless my back goes out again, hahaha. I'm most focused on the Advantium being at a comfortable level because I use it more than the oven or drawer, and I see using it even more in the future, as I get used to it. I know people that have over-the-range microwaves, but I doubt I'd be happy with a cooking appliance up around head level. At least with a microwave, it's usually only the food/container that gets hot. You can see in the picture that the Advantium sits at about the level of my mid to upper refrigerator shelves.

There was a great thread in January about installing a working a drawer just under a Thermador induction cooktop. I searched and it is gone. I saved it on my computer and have copied it here. Unfortunately the pictures would not copy. RE: Thermador induction cooktop questions Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 16:26 I installed the cooktop on a standard 3 drawer base cabinet. It has a normal shallow drawer on top with two large drawers below for pots and pans. I skirted the issue of the "heat shield" mounted on the bottom of the cooktop, by mounting the heatshield in the shallow drawer pointing up. In that way it comes within 1/16 inch from the bottom of the cooktop. I also put a piece of weather strip on the bottom of the cooktop, that the heatshield rests against when the drawer is closed. By doing this, I was able to have a fully usable drawer and still provide the functionality of the heat shield. So far it has worked fine, and I believe that it was a good solution to this clearance problem. If I had mounted the heat shield on the cooktop, the shallow drawer on top would have been unusable. This was not an option. Good Luck  Posted by minu (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 16:52 Carguy60: Thanks for the detailed description: hopefully my installer will be able to do something similar. The Thermador website does not list the 12" burner in the specifications for the 30" cooktop, but the picture clearly shows a large burner. Could you please confirm that indeed one of the burners is 12". How do the burners perform with pots/pans that are smaller in diameter? Thanks again for all the replies: you all have been extremely helpful. Will probably go for the all-induction one. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 17:41 The large burner is 11" across. I do not know where the sensor is that detects that a pan is on the burner. I would suspect that it is near the center. We have not had any difficulty with pans smaller in diameter than the burners, but I doubt we have been much smaller. BTW. I personally believe that the weather strip that I mentioned in my previous post is overkill. If you get the shield within 1/8 inch, I think that it will do it's job OK. I put it on because I am an overkill kind of person. You will love the cooktop. It still amazes me how it will boil a teakettle full of water in less than three minutes. No more tea with microwaves running around in it. Good luck ________________________________________  Posted by tamjo44 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 1:39 minu-I have the Thermador 36" and we have been using it for 2 weeks now. We love it. It is a breeze to wipe off and the instant control is amazing. We definitely wanted the larger burner in the middle. I've found a variety of cookware that works well on it. I would recommend it. carguy60- can you please elaborate on your heat shield solution? We ended up cutting down the depth of the drawer directly under the cooktop. I can put a knife holder in there or flat items, but not the spatulas, ladles etc that I was planning. Kind of a disappointment. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 8:33 1. measure the distance from the bottom of the cooktop to the drawer. 2. cut a piece of wood,(I used cabinet filler wood) to a thickness, that when added to the height of the heat shield, will come within 1/8 to 1/16 of the distance measured in step 1. 3. Measure the distance from the front of the cabinet to the heat shield when mounted on the cooktop. 4. remove the heat shield from the cooktop. 5. fasten the heat shield, with wood strip attached to the inside of the drawer so that the heat shield is at the same distance from the front that it was when mounted to the cooktop. The heat shield will now move with the drawer, and the drawer becomes usable. Post your EMail addr, and I can send you a picture. Good Luck. removed the heat shield from the cooktop, and mountid ________________________________________  Posted by jgirl_2007 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 8:52 Carguy - Can you please post a picture. I'm in the same boat and would love to have a usable drawer under the cooktop. I'm meeting with the cabinet maker tomorrow so timing is perfect. Thanks. ________________________________________  Posted by minu (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 9:40 Carguy60: please do post a picture. I think I understand the steps you described, but it would help tremendously to have something to show to the installers as well. If you prefer email, please email me through the "My Page" link. Thanks for all your help. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 11:16 jgirl, minu I will take some pictures, and post them as soon as I get home from work. ________________________________________ ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 19:25 As you can see from the first and second pictures, the top drawer is outwardly unmarked, and usable inside. The third picture shows the heat shield mounted on a piece of cabinet filler with it's height set to just clear the underside of the cooktop. This does the job of the heatshield which is to isolate the air intake and exhaust ports on the bottom of the cooktop. I hope this is helpful. Good Luck ________________________________________  Posted by tamjo44 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 19:44 Thanks Carguy, the photos do say a thousand words. Now, if I can get my drawer back, I will be a very happy person. By the way, did you come up with this brilliant solution yourself? Do you think doing it this way will void any warranty? ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 20:04 It was my idea. When I realized how intrusive the standard heat shield was, I considered several options before settling on this one. It shouldn't void any warranty, since it is more effective than the standard mounting. It is also easy to remount for any needed warranty service. ________________________________________  Posted by minu (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 12:16 Carguy: Thanks so much for these pictures - they really help. I notice that you have quite a few plastic tools in that drawer. How warm does it get in there when the cooktop is operational? Thermador should include this installation option in their specs:-) ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 12:48 It does not get warm in the drawer. We do not cook on 4 burners simultaneously very often. (maybe never) But we do cook on 2 burners quite often, and 3 burners sometimes. We use power boost only at startup or to quickly boil something. We believe that we have heard the fan come on 1-2 times in 4 months. I am not worried about too much heat in the drawer. ________________________________________  Posted by rocksinhead (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 22:05 Carguy - What size is the cabinet beneath your cooktop? 33" or 36"? We are planning a 33", with framed cabinetry, and so I wonder if your heatshield trick will work. I am guessing the internal dimension of the drawer will be 28 - 29".

Hi -- I have a plllog-recommended shallow sub-drawer. There was room even for a second drawer below my undercounter miele. My counters are 37" and toekicks 3.5" so there was a little more drawer space than some may have. This is an old picture from just post-installation (one drawer front is missing and there seems still to be newspaper around the pyrex): I agree having the drawer underneath means you can't so easily get into the drawer when the oven is open. However you learn quickly enough to work/plan around it. And I don't find I need the drawer's tray contents all that often. I tend to leave the glass tray in always and occasionally add the metal tray. But in that narrow drawer I also keep hot pads which I use all the time. As well as cookie sheets that fit the interior of the oven and the manual. It's nice to have it all very nearby and dedicated. And while you have to do some opening and closing and swapping around, you don't have to move to accomplish any of this so the tradeoff seems fine to me. Underneath the designated-narrow-speed-oven-drawer is a slightly deeper drawer that has lots of glass containers suitable for microwaving. I find I use this most often and again, it's nice having it all located right there.