I had the non-stainless version of the Bosch 36" installed about a month ago. It looks pretty cool; except for the lines that delineate the hobs, the cooktop appears almost completely black. Those tiny lines that appear to be grey filling the background aren't as light as they look on their web site.

For performance, boost is the bomb; boiling water for pasta takes only 3.5 minutes now! The number of settings (.5-10 in half stops) is great and response is good (going from high directly to low or vice versa). The two flex zones work well. Some have complained that they come up in 'combined' setting by default, but I like that. The only reason why you wouldn't want that is if you regularly put something on the front and back of the same side with different settings. Since I almost always only have two things going on the entire cooktop, that isn't an issue. What it means is that I can slap my 2nd pan anywhere I want on the side and I'm good to go (and move it around too). At xmas I had 4 things going at different settings and I didn't have any problems.

My most used pans are a dutch oven with a 12" base (my pasta pot) and a 12" omelet pan. When I got the cooktop installed, I was concerned when I found that those 12" bases overlap the side burners. It has turned out to not be a problem.

I like having timers that turn off the hobs. I've used that a lot.

You can set the cooktop to default to child lock when you turn it off. That's a godsend for someone who has a cat that walks around on the cooktop when its off. (Ahh...for anyone who has that situation...not me...just sayin').

Previously I had a 36" gas on glass 5-burner cooktop. I greatly prefer this cooktop over my old one. A lot of that may be using nice stainless cookware with that I can put in the dishwasher (with watch-it-cook lids!) instead of non-stick. Luckily I learned how to use the stainless properly before getting the cooktop. I think it would have been a mighty frustrating experience had I not.

What don't I like? When you want to do something fast, it may not happen so much. To change the temp on a burner, you touch the burner's icon, then touch the setting. After it acknowledges which the burner, acknowledging the setting is fast; what is slow is acknowledging the burner. I don't know if it doesn't respond fast on purpose, if I'm not pressing in exactly the right place, or what. Those burner icons are the only ones I have an issue with responsiveness. That's why I think it may be a personal problem. I would probably prefer a cooktop that has separate power controls for each hob (like the Wolf). Those controls are tinier though, so I might not. You know darned well what you've chosen with this one since the scale is so long (what, 1/2 the length of the cooktop?) and each setting is the size of your finger. You also have to touch the hob icon to see the time left on the timer for that hob. That's annoying. I'd rather have to do that than not have the timer at all or have the timer not shut off the hob.

Thanks for this great input! I have read several reviews discussing issues with the elements turning off for no reason and unexpectedly. Have you experienced this?

We've had our 30" Bosch Flexduction in use since Thanksgiving, on and off (we're constantly removing and re-installing as our countertop guys try to remedy our stone situation -- with several days in between visits, we want to be able to cook!). I experienced what I recall were two incidents when the unit simply shut off (within a span of a couple of days) -- used a skillet in the FlexZone, decreased the heat to 3/3.5, and the unit shut off within a couple of minutes of decreasing the heat. It hasn't happened since then, so I'm keeping my eye on it. I should call Bosch customer service and just have them note it in my file, in case anything comes of it. Although I purchased our Bosch appliances in April 2015 and didn't install until mid-November, the one-year warranty still expires one year from purchase/delivery.

The placement of the Speed Boost icon/button in such close proximity to the Level 4 heat setting is unfortunate. I use the 4 setting a lot, I've discovered, and a number of times, I've inadvertently set my pot/pan zipping up to Speed Boost when I meant to hit 4. (We've found that the cooktop is more responsive to heat level switches when we press the area just above the number, rather than on the number itself.) The gap between #4 and Speed Boost is only 3/8", so I've just learned to be more careful.

I would be very leary about buying a Thermador CIT36XKB induction cook top. Thermador has not done well since being acquired by Bosch in the late 1990's. Their induction cooktops are internally the same as the Gaggenau and Bosch units but Thermador's service partners and Thermador themselves aren't up to speed on this technology and thus are a nightmare to service. I bought my CIT36XKB cooktop in 2014. 3 units were installed before one could be installed that worked from the start. They've replaced the third one when it failed after a short time. Now they want to replace my fourth unit due to their warranty provider's inability to diagnose or fix its problems. I have friends who own induction cook tops and they love them. None of them own a Thermador. My Thermador has been down since early December (it's now mid January) and Thermador refuses to give me my money back under California's Lemon law. BTW, we have friends in Germany who have a Bosch cook top and they love it. You would think you'd get the same quality since Bosch owns Thermador but obviously the two divisions don't talk.