I've been cooking on my Diva 36 inch for 5 months and really like it. I've had great results. It's very powerful and I have to remember to keep the heat on lower settings in order not to burn my food. It delivers more heat than I had expected. I only put it on full power if I need to quickly bring something to a boil. Then, I turn it down to actually cook what I intend to cook. It brings water to a boil quickly. I'm so happy I don't have to clean grill grates...did that for years and hated it. I'm very pleased with the Diva so far. I bought a large set of Al clad pans at Macy's for $420. I think the best set of pans that I found were at William Sonoma. They were the brushed nickel pans made for induction. However, they were around $800 for the set. I also picked up a few no name brands pots from TJ Max and Home Goods. They seems to work just as well as the all clad for boiling pasta etc. I definitely think it's worth the investment to buy a really good non-stick frying pan. Macy's also has a set of pans made specifically for induction that were priced less than $300.

The installation instructions show that the cutout is 19 11/16" front to back and the instructions say: "Remember to maintain a minimum distance of 2 inches between the rear wall and the right or left side." For ventilation it says to leave 4 1/2" open below the cooktop. The part that is confusing to me is it also shows a 32" cutout at the rear wall of the cabinet directly below the cooktop for ventilation. My KD is very experienced and I know she went over the installation instructions of all my appliances very carefully. Here is a link that might be useful: Installation instructions

There aren't many knob induction cooktops. Viking, Bluestar, Bertazzoni and Gaggenau (front control 400 series only) have knobs, but that's it. I like the gaggenau (it's pricey though), but not the viking and the bluestar is just too new to the market IMHO. Bosch/Thermador are great value and have lots of options for configuration. The newest thermador has 5 configurable zones for griddles, long pans and other odd shapes and sizes. Wolf & Miele are nice as well, but not as many options in terms of layout.

@r, I thought I would chime in here to just say that I don’t think you are “obsessing“ at all regarding the use of knobs in this case. One of the most crucial variables in any kind of industrial design is the way we interface or interact with whatever the product is. Most of us utilize capacitive touch controls or infrared type touch controls on a constant basis with everything from iPads, smart phones, as well as any number of house appliances. But I would suggest that your instinct regarding cooktop or rangetop controls makes a lot of sense. Consider the difference in using a wall oven versus a cooktop. Most cooks in the kitchen can get the opportunity to wipe their hands in order to use touch capacitive controls on a wall oven. Of course, the case could be made that turning a simple dial, can be more intuitive, then going through a series of menus to get to where you want to go, since in the end, the mission of the wall oven has not really changed very much since our grandparents time which is essentially to bake the cake or roast the chicken. The reason I suspect that cook tops and range tops, as well as ranges are a particularly good candidate for knobs is due to the fact that the controls are often placed on a horizontal plane. Many people, especially those who are new to induction appliances for example, have learned a hard lesson as the very sensitive touch controls do not always take kindly to steam, water, droplets, and oil or gravy splatters. It is not hard to imagine why this is problematic because if you put any of these liquids on top of your smart phone screen, you would discover that the touch controls that works so beautifully such as the ones I’m using right now on my iPhone to create this post do not take kindly to having these substances on top of them. There are lots of examples of folks who have touch capacitive controls on these horizontal locations where the entire appliance is either shut down or thrown off its game. Of course, the majority of modern products that have knobs do not use the analog/mechanical controls of knobs of the past, but are in fact, “knobs“ that interface with micro control boards behind them. Still, there is an entire field of design that studies user interaction, and I do think that, at least, in some instances, such as with cooktops, knobs actually, do make a lot of sense. One can certainly debate where the best location for those knobs would be to avoid getting splatters on them since Cleaning knobs is not exactly, a fun time for most folks. Some people would assume that installing Touch Sensitive controls in all sorts of consumer products that once used knobs, levers, and buttons, is simply a design trend, and I’m sure there is truth to that. But a little voice inside also suggests to me, that one of the reasons they have moved away from knobs and especially the electromechanical kinds used in the past, is due to the cost of manufacturing. I do not have a data set to support this theory, but if you consider the labour and the bewildering amount of copper wiring that went into something such as a 1950 electric stove, some of which had lots of extra features, you can begin to imagine the cost savings of having a micro “motherboard“ taking the place of all that complex analogue electrical structure. I truly enjoy all of the benefits and possibilities that I have with my smart phone, laptop, iPads, etc. But I do think your instincts for knobs are not without merit, because sometimes, appliance designers attempt to answer questions that no one ever asked. My two. Cents 🤔.