I don't even know that you need a heat mat if you are starting seeds indoors in a heated space. Obviously if you were starting them in an unheated garage or basement or something, a heat mat would be helpful. When I first bought my heat mat about 10 or 15 years ago, I thought I'd use it all the time. However, I found most seeds started on the heat mat germinated only a few days earlier than seeds germinated without the heat mat, leading me to question if I needed it at all. This year, I germinated, so far, all my cool-season seedlings without the mat and didn't even use it for the tomatoes, peppers and warm-season herbs. You really don't need a heat mat...it it just something that is marginally useful when starting plants from seed in an already-warm room. Even when I start tropical stuff or real heat-lovers, I can just place the flat on top of my deep freeze or refrigerator overnight for the first day or two. Then, as soon as tiny green shoots appear, I move the flat to the light shelf if it is cold outdoors, or straight outside to the patio or greenhouse if the weather is warmish. For raising cuttings, a heat mat probably would be considered more helpful or more essential. I think 17 watts would be plenty indoors, and without a thermostat you can expect it to raise the soil temp in the flat 10-20 degrees indoors. I never bothered buying a thermostat since I don't use the heat mat much anyway. The longer I garden, the more I learn that we don't really "need" a lot of the stuff that gardening magazines and garden catalogs try to convince us we must have. These days, I am into doing whatever is the simplest and can be achieved with the least amount of fuss. Dawn

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.

Radiant uses heat 'ribbons' or elements under the glass. It works just like the old coil top ranges. Turn it on high and you'll see the glass turn cherry red. If anything spills, it will burn onto the glass. Induction heats the pan itself. The glass doesn't get as hot. Spills stay on the glass and can be wiped up. The only time anything can burn on is if you purposely pour sauce on the glass UNDER the pan and let it sit there and burn. But it will take a while.

@aspen75, I have that same griddle that I use on mine. I understand and experience what you are saying and it is a bit of a disappointment. However, it has never hindered my cooking abilities on it. I mainly use my griddle for fish, shrimp, or pancakes (DH sometimes uses it for squash and zucchini) and because the heat ends up dispersing throughout the griddle, I never have issues with the food I cook. Sometimes I might have to move my fish or shrimp around as it cooks, but it still cooks. I'm still very pleased with my Wolf and so glad I went with it over gas, which we had before and which definitely had far worse hotspots. I have not tried a cast iron griddle on mine because I like the ease of cleaning the one I do have. Plus, I have a Blackstone on my patio just off my kitchen and I use it a ton in the spring, summer, and fall when I truly need a griddle ;)