After having such a horrible experience with the Kenmore electric range, I am afraid to try Kenmore again. Still have some extended warrranty left which will transfer to the Samsung. I have had great luck with my other Samsung appliances, so I hope I do with the range also. My husband laughed at me when I told him that the appearance of the Kenmore just left me cold, but when he saw it, he felt the same way. Blah. Can't put my finger on why. gscience chick, after baking I usually leave my oven door cracked open in the winter anyway for the heat boost to the kitchen. My son uses Circulon Infinite pans on his induction and really likes them. (Interesting to get cooking advice from my son!) In browsing the net, Circulon has a 25% off sale this month as well as deep discounts on the Infinite (looks like Symmetry will be replacing it). I found an 11 inch skillet for roughly $18 and a twin pack 10 and 12 skillet for $36 (Symmetry), etc. Then on the potsandpans.com website I was able to find the 3qt saucepan for a really good price. I have a few pots and pans that I can use from before (I hope). Two of them have 8 3/4" bases - hope I can use them . . . I love my Calphalon Contemporary saucepans and hate to lose them, but I see that they are coming out with a Contemporary IH line (induction friendly) - in Australia, but not here yet. Maybe soon . . .? Guess my life is kind of dull when I can get so excited about a new range! Any hints and suggestions will be appreciated!

I have cooked on standard and pro-style gas, electric coil, electric smooth top and now induction. This, over a 50-plus year span as an adult, and I'm a good cook. I personally feel that when cooking, one should generally pick up a pan, and not schlep it around on the range. To move food around in the pan, use a utensil, not scraping and shaking the pan on the cooking surface (TV cooks looking cool doing such, plus flipping food, etc. notwithstanding). With minimal care, your induction cooking surface will remain looking good! I clean up with Dawn on a cloth or sponge, rinse using same, and dry with a microfiber cloth. This takes care of food spills, water marks and grease splatters. Special cleaners not required... my experience.

Keith: Thanks for posting. Maybe you can get answers to some questions that have been asked here in previous threads on this range? Are there just ten burner heat settings (as marked on the knobs) or can you make interim power adjustments by adjusting the knobs between the marked steps? Reportedly, the Miele induction range offers this although the user's guide does not mention it. The Samsung's user guide does not mention interim steps either, but it might not have them. It could be a selling point if the function was available because the Samung is sold for less than half the price of the Miele. OTOH, Whirlpool products and numbers of premium priced induction ranges (such as Dacor and F&P) only offer ten settings. If there are only 10 settings, how are they arranged? That is, are they spaced evenly through the power band or are more of the steps concentrated at the lower end of the power scale where finer control is more desireable? By way of explanation, I'm thinking about tasks like using pressure cookers or making rice. My past experience with some ten-step induction cookers with relatively strictly linear set of power steps, is needing settings between 1 and 2 or between 2 and 3. I hardly ever need to use anything over 6 except for the very top end which is used when bringing a large pot to boil. Induction cookers from the likes of GE, Electrolux, Bosch, etc., with 17 (or greater) steps mitigate the linearity by providng provide interim settings (e.g., 1.5). A hypothetical alternative way of doing this could be having more finely graded steps at the lower end (as by having the first six steps on the Samsung correspond to what would be 1 through 3 or 4 on a GE or Elux). Induction ranges produce low heat by cycling the burners on and off --- sometimes referred to as pulse width modulations (PWM). In the past, several threads here have reported that some manufacturers (such as GE, Electrolux, Miele, Bosch, etc.) pulse the burners on and off many times per second. The pulsing is imperceptible to the cook. Other brands --- Whirlpool's brands come to mind (including Kitchenaid and Maytag) --- seem to use cruder PWM. The low settings on those ranges pulse and cycle with a few seconds of absolutely still, then ramp up to a full boil for a second or two, and then back to a few seconds of stillness. (This also is common complaint about many less expensive portable countertop induction cookers, as well). What did your reviewers observe about this in using this Samsung? Concern has been expressed about the location of the the oven vent. (It is in front, right below the left side of the control panel.) How much heat comes out the front oven vent when baking/roasting for an hour or more? Also, does that vent heat the burner knobs or oven control panel? How loud/intrusive are the cooling fans for the electronics?

IIRC, only Whirlpool has ever manufactured induction ranges with two separate ovens. Those were sold as Whirlpools. Maytags and KitchenAids. They had high-temp self cleaning functions instead of the much maligned AquaLift mode. IIRC, the Kitchenaid version, KFID500ESS, was also supposed to have had some kind of steam oven function My recollection is that Whirlpool discontinued them a year ago. Somewhere here I recently saw a posting that Home Depot still has some of the KitchenAid models available for special order. Those may be in the "big book" that Elraes Miller mentioned. Not sure if there was or will be much of a deal on them, though. Sears Outlet also may have some of them, as well. My recollection of postings is that the reviews were pretty mixed on both the Whirlpool-made double oven ranges and the Samsung divisible-oven slide-in induction range (NE58H9970WS???). Worth checking out the reviews to see what to watch out for. Also, a good idea to download and read the Owner's Guides before buying one of these ranges. Other than that, I have not seen or heard anything about anybody else venturing into this market. A possible alternative solution for KAREN though not for thereunionband --- maybe looking into getting a regular induction range with one of the better countertop convection ovens like the Breville Smart Oven (BOV800??) or the slightly smaller convection steam oven from Cuisinart (CSO300?). Both garnered some pretty favorable reports here, at eGullet and Chowhound over the last few years. As for "bridged" burner function that thereunionband is considering, those can be a mixed bag, as well. Often, the bridging function is not really bridging. Often what is called "bridging" is actually only a way to link the controls for two burners without putting any heating elements between the two burners. Many induction owners will use them with a cast-iron griddle. Cast iron is very much induction ready and the griddles are readily avaialble and not very expensive. Unfortunately, they will have full temperature circles directly over the burners and not-so-hot areas between and around them. (Cast iron is great at absorbing and retaining heat but not very good at spreading it evenly.) Getting one of the better and larger (and thicker) carbon-steel griddles (say, a Chef King) can mitigate this a bit but most of us still find that the areas between the burners will not be as hot and take longer to cook pancakes, burgers and the like. What would be ideal (but I do not know if anybody actually makes one) would be a rectangular carbon steel griddle wrapped around a large slug/layer of aluminum. Another potential disappointment with cast-iron griddles on induction --- that is, a disappointment for those who hope to have a perfectly evenly heated cooking surface --- is there will be something of a mismatch between burner sizes and griddle widths. My Lodge griddle is not quite 12 inches wide. Last time I checked, most of the ranges and cooktops seemed to be linking burners with six or seven inch induction fields. My recollection is that only the GE induction ranges (PHS920 and PHB920) have linked 8" burners. There are some induction cooktops with actual bridging functions --- where there are additional induction coils between the burners or an array of smaller coils. The ones that come to mind right now are from BSH, which owns the Bosch Benchmark and Thermador brands.