I love this thread. I have been searching high and low for information on Thermador since the few I found on Facebook were primarily negative. I want to buy the Thermador Freedom 36 inch cooktop and reading at all the reviews is very positive, well except for the connectivity with the hood and long wait times. Also, i am assuming here that cooktop can be used without the hood as well? The last comment on this was a year ago. Any further comments/reviews/experiences would be highly appreciated. I am in NJ and everywhere I call I am told there will be a 5-7 month wait time (Designer Appliances, Reno's etc). Anyone know of any appliance stores where this would be in stock? Thanks again. Glad I found this thread.

We have our first induction cooktop, a Wolf, after cooking exclusively on gas. the cooktop does not make the very annoying noise, but certain pans do. We have only Le Creuset and All Clad, both of which we were told were recommended for induction cooktops. No sound from the Le Creuset, but certain All Clad pans seem to be worse than others. In our experience the frying pans are the worst. Heavier pots and saucepans not as much. And, for whatever reason, one particular non stick pan was the worst of all, so we stopped using it because it was THAT ANNOYING.

Buyers beware. I purchased the Thermador 30" induction cooktop in March 2010 for $2,299 plus tax. The cooktop had problems from day one. The problems ranged from being only able to use one burner at a time to none of the burners working at all, and various error messages appearing each time. The service from Thermador was deplorable. Even though the repairman said that the problem was there from the beginning, Thermador refused to cover the labor because we just passed the one year warranty. It did not matter to them that family circumstances prevented us from being able to repair the cooktop sooner. The repairman got the burners to work, but now there are strange vibrating noises. On top of that, it took more than a dozen calls just to get the repairman to show up. Thermador could care less about their reputation. The repairman said that the cooktop has so many potential spots for error, and that these tops are extremely complicated. I suspect I will be replacing my cooktop in less than a year (because it doesn�t work), and I will definitely not go with Bosch/Thermador.

My brother has an induction cooktop that I really hate. It's a 5+ year old Siemens/Bosch model. The touch interface is super annoying when cooking food that needs precise temperature control. I recently had the chance to try it extensively, and I always find myself furiously stabbing at the controls trying to make adjustments that inevitably take way too long. And while it has 17 or 18 power levels, that still doesn't feel sufficiently fine grained. Nonetheless, for his upcoming kitchen remodel, I am recommending he get another induction range. Overall, induction has a lot going for it and the lack of a good user interface isn't an intrinsic problem with the heating technology as such. There certainly are manufacturers that make ranges with knobs. In my brother's case, it's likely going to be a LaCanche, as that range overall is a great fit for him. There is one remaining issue though, that would keep me (but not my brother) from buying induction. I have now had the chance to use a wok on his current induction top. And despite trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, I have come to the conclusion that flat-bottom woks simply don't work. The heat distribution is all wrong, and the wok spetula can't follow the shape of the wok. While it certainly is nice that the induction top has plenty of power, I either burn food in the wok or sauté instead of stir fry; often I do both at the same time. A round-bottom wok handles very differently and has a much saner heat distribution with the hot spot in the center. As a result, I much prefer my Bluestar gas range for wok cooking. It's effortless with a good burner and a good wok. Supposedly, there now are special induction burners compatible with round-bottom woks. But I don't have any first-hand experience, yet. So, maybe, that would change my opinion. I am also a little concerned that some of these burners are only compatible with one manufacturer-provided wok. That could be rather limiting. Until these things have been sorted out, if you need wok cooking, stick with gas. For everything else, induction is a serious contender.