Those are an entirely new platform. Unfortunately, there simply isn't enough data on it to speak to reliability especially due to it being an outsourced product (GE assembles it, but the induction tech is made elsewhere)

The older GE induction top was ok. I saw a few issues with it over the years with not sensing pots and pans. Was fixable but frustrating because some days it would register a pan and work...other days it wouldn't!

Since nobody else has responded, maybe I can help get a discussion going with these comments. (Sometimes it helps to get a few responses to keep your post from scrolling away.)

I have to say that I do not have one of these and only saw one in a store a couple of weeks ago when helping a friend shop for appliances.

Reliability data? Haven't seen anything on there being many out-of-the-box failures. With these two 36" cooktop models being new to the market, there will not be any info on long term reliability, yet. Generally speaking, the GE induction products have been very reliable judging from the postings here. The data from the annual membership surveys at Consumer Reports shows GE electric stoves and cooktops are the least likely to have problems in the first five years of ownership. However, it is not clear how that data for all electric cooking products translates to induction products, specifically.

On the point Joe Henderson mentioned about some GE owners having problems with a burner not sensing pots after several years, I've seen reports of that here for virtually every brand. With some brands (apparently including GE), this can be fixed when it occurs. Others brands (notably Samsung induction ranges) --- maybe not fixable according to some of the posts I've seen here.

I, too, prefer swipe style controls to +/- touchpads. I think GE calls them "glide touch."

The supposed "pot size sensor" is mostly meaningless marketing hoopla. Induction burners just induce heat in the pot you put on the burner. It is the nature of induction. Put a small pot on the burner? It is the only pan in the induction field so it is the only thing that can get heated. Now, there is a threshold for minimum recognizable magnetic mass, of course. That keeps us from inadvertently heating small objects such as spoons, measuring cups, wrist watches, etc.

As with other electric burners, if you put an oversize pan on the burner --- say, a 14" diameter canning kettle on an 11" diameter induction burner --- the burner does not expand the induction field. It produces the same field as always and the heat will be induced only in the area directly above the burner. Much as with any other electric burner, you depend on the material of the base to conduct/spread the heat beyond the burner diameter. Pan materials vary in how well or poorly they do this.

As best I can tell, the left hand burners are not actually bridging the
space between them. Instead, you just link their controls. Those who have visions of massive pancake production may find the pancakes above the "in-between" areas will take longer to cook.

That said, doesn't the Cafe induction cooktop come with a GE designed griddle with a thick alumimum slug (encased in steel) to help spread heat more evenly when straddling the "sync" burners? In theory, the aluminum could provide a more even spread of heat and avoid the "hotter circles over the burners" that seems to happen with plain carbon steel and cast iron griddles. If anybody has tried this out, I'm sure others would be interested in hearing how it worked for you.

This model also has individual hob timers, too, I believe.

I thought that this model was supposed to come with or be usable with the GE Bluetooth-enabled in-pot temperature probe controller. There is a GE spinoff company called Paragon which developed this technology with a funding from a Kickstarter campaign. Paragon was going to package the device with a portable induction cooker and GE was going to build the function into the current Cafe and Monongram induction cooktops. The probe, IIRC, is called the "Sous Vide Accessory." It was supposed to start shipping last fall. Except for a a recent post here about this function being available on the newest GE induction ranges, I have not seen anything else on it recently. Does the user guide for the 36" cafe mention this?

Thank you for these responses. When I searched the boards for information on these models it seems a few people over the past few months have mentioned being interested but nobody reported back a purchase. If GE doesn't manufacture the induction technology, do you know who does Joe Henderson?

Jwvideo, I don't know about this sous vide accessory but the next time I meet with the sales rep I will ask. I am planning on purchasing from a local appliance dealer with a good warranty, so hopefully if any issues pop up they will be repaired promptly.

Not sure who manufactures the componentry. I can inquire.

The Café definitely has the sous vide accessory, although I am unsure if its available yet.

This is from the Café Specs:

Optional Precision Cooking Kit

Achieve restaurant quality results with a probe that wirelessly

controls the temperature of your food. Ideal for Sous Vide,

Slow Cooking, making candy, etc., or for any other cooking that

requires precise control of temperature over time. Order part

number JXSOUSV1 from your GE Appliances Dealer.

Thanks so much for your response! I'm glad to hear the griddle works well even though it is not a true bridge, my family does pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc all the time. The appliance store near me has one hooked up so I have had an opportunity to play with the controls.

Interesting about the Bosch appliances, I'm pretty sure I am going with the Bosch dishwasher and have been debating between Bosch and GE wall ovens (leaning towards GE).

Ca poppy and seb225, did either of you consider the bosch induction?

Grace, I strongly considered the Bosch Benchmark Flexinduction since I went with Benchmark elsewhere in the kitchen. No local dealer had either the Bosch or the GE on the floor to see, so I watched videos and read as much as I could. The Bosch was an impressive, feature rich unit but for my taste it seemed a bit overengineered. I like the simpler controls of the GE. I like the fact that the burners each have their own controls. My mom and grandmother often cook with me and I thought the control design is more intuitive to someone like them accustomed to using a cooktop with knobs. The burners' power, size, and layout were comparable, so for me it came down to ease of use, design/color, and as a very minor concern, the cost. Lowes sold the GE for nearly $1400 less than Bosch wanted for the Benchmark. After all the frustration I have been going through with my Bosch products I'm thankful I made the decision I did.

I agree with the ease of use for the GE over the Bosch. I have several older family members who visit me often and I want them to be able to use the stove without pulling out a user manual. Plus, I don't find the Bosch cooktop to be visually pleasing, which shouldn't matter, but does. I basically want something that looks and interfaces like a regular electric cooktop, but with the benefits of induction.

Thanks for all the info those who commented....I am going back and forth between the GE Cafe, the GE Monogram, and the Thermador. I honestly cannot figure out the difference between the Monogram and Cafe except for the snazzy new champagne/gold/silver color. So, that brings me to the GE Cafe and the Thermador. We are buying a new home this week and remodeling the entire kitchen. If I could find anywhere any info as to how Thermador is significantly better or reliable or whatever above the Cafe enough to spend another $1700 I am willing to take the plunge, but there isn't a lot of info out there. Please help!! :)

I, too, am getting close to a move that will involve a kitchen remodel, and am building a file of good induction cooktops to pick from. Consumer Reports (and others here on Houzz) indicate that GE's reliability is a plus, and I like the simplicity of the controls on their Cafe and Monogram lines. I haven't been able to find a difference between those two lines aside from the aforementioned color differences -- in that case I'll go with the less expensive Cafe line.

Like Rebecca, I find the allure of the Thermador 36" Freedom unit very powerful! I like that the touchscreen controls are more sophisticated than what I've seen of Bosch and some other GE products, but am worried of how wet fingers will perform on it. I've seen some YouTube videos of appliance showroom salespeople having to swipe endlessly to get to the higher power settings. That seems a bit off-putting; I imagine it's a bit like trying to work with an in-car touchscreen nav system, and less like a modern smartphone.

I also love that the Thermador has an expansive cooking space that lets you put pots where ever you want (including moving them to new locations), but the limitation of only 4 pots is a bit of a negative (though how much, I haven't decided -- do I really need five pots?).

Regardless of which way we go, a bridge burner is a must -- pancakes are too valuable a commodity in my house to go without.

It seems to me that the Thermador's place-anywhere tech, touchscreen, and auto-off boilover sensors are the big pluses in its column. Anyone else? I'm not sure those are instant justifications for its $5,000 price tag.

mikecron wrote:

"I've seen some YouTube videos of appliance showroom salespeople having to swipe endlessly to get to the higher power settings. That seems a bit off-putting;"

If you have a showroom in your area with the Freedom available and hooked up I would encourage you to visit and try it out. The local Fuguson's had one and your description of "swiping endlessly" pretty much describes how I felt when I demoed it in person. It was a deal killer for me as much as the rest of the cooktop has lots to like, this feature of the U/I would drive me nuts.

Are you guys sure it's not a true bridge? The lack of a true bridge function (where additional induction heating elements are activated in the space between two regular elements to make a larger uniform heating surface) seems a deal breaker to me. Just syncing the controls of the two elements on the left while leaving an unheated gap to make people believe it's a true bridge seems like a very sleezy gimmick. The only way this would work is with their aluminum core griddle but what if I wanted to use a big pan to poach a fish, or a cast iron grill for some steaks?

Poaching a fish in a fish poaching pan would not be a problem -- the poaching liquid will spread the low heat.

For searing steaks --- did you mean on a "grill" (an assembly of bars) or a "griddle" (a flat piece of solid metal)? I know it is possible to heat a grill because I once heated a steel cooling rack. (Don't ask.) However, an induction grill seems like it would be a very messy way to cook. Or were you thinking of a a cast iron griddle with a ridged face that can produce grill marks. (Lodge makes one of these "reversible" griddles.)

As for a griddle, yes we are sure that the current GE induction cooktops do not have bridging elements between the two left hand burners. I beiieve that there are some induction cooktops that do have bridging elements. Bosch Benchmark models are the ones that come to mind but there may be others

JWVIDEO, you got my concept right, I meant a cast iron griddle with a ridged face (not the horribly messy option!). I believe this type of griddle, or a larger induction-compatible pan, may not work in the absence of true bridging elements like in Bosch or Miele. I am only speculating regarding the Monogram cooktop but I thought induction only works well and provides even heat if the entire bottom is placed over induction coils so, for larger/rectangular pans and griddles, a true bridging would be needed. Any thoughts about the Monogram's ability to do a good job in those situations?

To heat areas outside a burner's induction field you have to depend on conduction of heat. The basic problem with cast iron (and carbon steel) is that they are
great at absorbing and retaining heat but do not do a very good job of
spreading that heat. We've had several prior threads discussing burner-spanning griddles for induction. Here's a link to one of them but I know there have been others here and at chowhound.

For whatever is worth, I called Monogram customer service and was told that the shape of the heating elements is circular and close together so they count on heat spreading through the cooking pan. I am sure this would be OK if low to medium heat is all that's required but may not be so good for other situations. As a comparison, the shape of Miele's heating elements is ovals adjacent to each other so by synchronizing them the effect is that a larger, almost rectangular cooking shape is achieved (i.e. a true bridge).

A much bigger concern to me was actually about installation: the Monogram cooktop can be installed flush using the JXFLUSH1 kit, This is a design feature I actually want. The identical Cafe unit cannot, and they told me both by phone and on web chat that doing so would void the warranty on the Cafe unit. There was no justification other than "it is not allowed". I personally found that marketing gimmick really a turn off because the units are exactly the same except for the color scheme (they even confirmed that over the phone). If I have to pay an extra $1000 just to get flush installation and keep my warranty for an identically spec'd unit, I would rather go somewhere else (like Miele, same price as Monogram) where they won't play those kinds of games. Sorry for the ranting but it just happened and I'm obviously very frustrated by that.

@housedoe - did you go with the Miele? If so, how do you like it?

I have had the Monogram for almost a year and I love it. I am happy with it except for a new issue where if I am using the small left burner - the large center burner control "shadows" the temp lights of the one in use. It intermittent and I am searching to see if anyone else has same experience. I will probably call GE Cust Serv if it happens again.

@housedoe. Having recently looked at both the monogram and cafe, The physical difference I see besides color, is the edge treatment of the glass. The cafe has about a 3/8" beveled edge while the monogram ends in an blunt rounded edge. I think the cafe would look funny flush mounted even if the warranty let you do it.

ca_poppy04,

Which cooktop did you end up going with? I've been eyeing the Café for a while and read it had decent reviews. I like that each burner has it's own control for ease of use. I'm curious to know what your decision was and how you're liking it. I'd like to buy something this next weekend, hoping Memorial Day sales will present some price reductions for us.

Thanks!

I got the cafe, mostly because I got it as a refurb for $900.

Impressions so far. I prefer the simpler look of the previous generation cafe unit that's plain black glass, but given the price I couldn't pass this one up. There are also 2 technical innovations on the newer unit that the old one doesn't have, the swipe controls and the sous vide controller.

This is my 2nd induction cooktop and I really wanted the swipe controls. Having to repeatedly press the up or down button to get to your desired cook temp felt like a step backwards from the intuitive analog control of gas. The swipe pads duplicate that well enough for my tastes.

The sous vide controller was easy to install and it really works. One caveat that disappointed me a bit was that the controllable temp maxes out at somewhere in the mid 200s Fahrenheit. 240 maybe? I'll have to check later. I was hoping I could also use it to maintain a steady temp for deep frying, but it currently doesn't go up high enough. I keep dreaming of a software update that will fix this.

Ganging up the 2 left hobs works pretty well. I have an old cast iron griddle, which considering that it has gate marks on it, is likely pre 1880s. Unlike newer griddles it sits flush rather than on a heat ring, and it works great with the two hobs ganged together, though I imagine it would scratch if I slid it around too much. Also of course the heating isn't completely even over the whole griddle surface, but I prefer being able to move stuff from hot zones to cooler ones, so I don't mind that at all.

As for the grey/silver color, as I said I would have preferred black, I think it blends in better, but I've made my peace with it.

I know this is an older thread, but I was wondering if there was any follow-up on these induction cooktops? The GE Café vs GE Monogram? Do you still like them? How are they holding up? Good layouts?

Haley, I did end up buying the GE Café Induction cooktop just last year when the only feedback I found was this very thread. Since there wasn’t much data then, I based my
decision on my last experience with GE and former cooktop. I LOVE THIS COOKTOP!

I didn’t care for the layout of most others nor the fact that many of them used shared controllers for all burners which I still don’t get - when I’m bustling around the kitchen, I don’t want to be fumbling though the controls to quickly tend to a burner. I find the layout to be most efficient and useful for my needs. I like each burner has its own control. The slide controls are pretty slick although, not gonna lie, with a wet finger, the slider doesn’t completely respond but luckily there are the manual up/down buttons that do work.

It brings water to a boil in about a minute.

It has the two bridging burners for my cast iron griddle purposes. I find I don’t use it as much since the middle section does not heat up (where it did on my last GE cooktop which was not induction). However, Rudi does make a good point – it’s nice to have cooler zones.) The cooktop does come with a stainless steel clad aluminum griddle which does work pretty well on the bridge.

The cooktop is easy to clean (I use a little Bon Ami or Bar Keepers to light scrub only when necessary) and looks beautiful. It doesn’t take much to make her sparkle! I have no scratches to speak of (outside of those caused by the tile samples a dear loved one set on top and shuffled around, which made me want to cry…)

It can be noisier than standard cooktops at times but if I recall from my research last year, that’s induction (period).

I do like the timer function. At first I thought it was such a silly feature when my oven timer was right there. Let me tell you I now use the built-in timer ALL. THE. TIME. We won’t discuss that I’m just now realizing it can be set for each burner! I’ll have to try that.

I’m still not sure what the variances between the Monogram and Café are worth the dollar difference. Sure, the color of the Monogram is cool but that alone is not worth the price difference in my opinion.

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen and this is definitely my favorite thing! It’s also one of the most expensive items in my kitchen but completely worth every penny to me.

Thank you both for the replies! I had started a thread about Best GE Appliances but so far no responses.

I was initially looking at Bosch or Wolf for induction, until someone pointed out that they were able to get discounts for certain appliances due to their employer. So I started looking and sure enough, I get a nice discount on GE Appliances excluding Monogram. Especially if it's during a seasonal sale, like 4th of July, because my discount stacks with the whatever % off. They have one item that I have been drooling over ever since I saw it, but knew I couldn't afford...until I saw the price with my discount and seasonal sale discount. It creates some hefty savings, so now I'm eyeing a whole lot of GE stuff -- I just don't know if some of their appliances are really worth it. I haven't heard anything all that great about GE dishwashers, washers/dryers, or refrigerators (recently discovered the Frigidaire All-Freezer/Refrigerator and leaning towards them because of price and capacity).

In reference to the layout, I should mention mine is the 36" five burner model if that makes a difference. I can't speak to the 30" model.

As far as brands go in the cooktop world, I can't say the reliability record, although not terrible for some but certainly not exceptional, is worth the difference in price! Seriously, I'm so pleased with the Cafe cooktop.

This is not to say I'm a huge fan of GE generally speaking. I can definitely say, without a doubt, along with swrite, buy a Bosch dishwasher! It's amazing and my dishes come out clean and dry. We had a new one for six years in the last house. We bought another for thishouse. Both 300 series. My parents have had theirs for 15 years.

Outside of the cooktops, I feel GE has only recently started to revamp their appliances. I'm not sure about their reliability just yet. We looked at the Frigidaires for fridges but they didn't offer anything bigger than 27 CU at the time. We have a Samsung french door and it's been good to us.

In the last house, we were quite happy with the Frigidaire Professional double ovens. This time around, I couldn't justify the price difference, so settled for the Gallery. While it came with a few upgrades, I'm not thrilled with it. I feel the temp is a little wonky. I'd probably look at the Frigidaire Professional version next time or Whirlpool.

I'm not sold on buying an entire suite of appliances from one manufacturer. I can't think of one that excels at making everything. They each have their own areas in which they excel. My kitchen looks dang good with four different manufacturers!

How exciting for you! Good luck with your research and your July 4th sales.

Revisiting this thread since my last visit about two years ago. We finished our kitchen remodel in our Acorn Deckhouse (came out great) and we really like the GE Cafe induction cooktop we placed in the island (36" model). The controls are very easy to work with, it has plenty of power (I enjoy demonstrating how quickly it brings a kettle of water to a boil for tea after dinner), and we've had no issues.

As someone else mentioned, your pots and pans will make a bit of noise depending on the power level you're using, but that's largely unavoidable with induction. Gas and radiant both have their own associated minuses.

It's also a piece of cake to clean, I largely only have to work with a scrubby sponge and soapy water; it pretty rarely requires glass ceramic cooktop cleaner.

We also paired our cooktop with a Best Cattura downdraft range hood which fits perfectly behind it and matches the aesthetic very well.

We are buying a GE Monogram Induction cooktop, 30 inch, but sadly the Champagne color has been discontinued. It is now available in silver instead. I’m so disappointed as it would have matched cabinet hardware and the rest. When I contacted GE, they said they had no way to know if any retailers still stocked it, and to “check the internet.” Grr. Just wondering if anyone on this thread wound up purchasing a GE Monogram in champagne? If so, would you mind sharing your retailer so I could see if they have any remaining inventory?

Carry Sloan Just saw a “36 monogram induction ”on display in Littleton Colorado last week . He referred to it as “a sandy color” Size May cause a space issue in your current design though. It looked to be a sandy taupe color but other places I looked at it was either referred to as stainless/ silver and the other black. Seems like older models may have had different colors available but I did see that one 36 in Colorado. Induction is popular in the mountains because of efficiency so you may want try some retailers located there. That is IF they carry inventory because of Covid most locations have no inventory or long lead times. ABT in Glenview Illinois does carry inventory but no idea if they have inventory on this item. Good luck! Colorado location is https://www.mountainhighappliance.com/

Has anyone with the monogram induction (or I suppose cafe is about the same) had trouble with the mirrored circles scratching? I noticed several scratches on the showroom model and it got me worried. Otherwise, love the interface, layout and controls. I was looking at the black. Thanks!