Thank you, thanks to the Covid I was able to be onsite every day during the remodel. It was the most fun I have had in a long time and our contractor was amazing, I even DIY’d a central vacuum system since we brought the entire house down to the studs (taking pictures the entire way...which i would highly recommend to anyone as we were able to locate things, verify subs work, plus prove to inspector items were according to code that were now hidden). anyway, that’s off topic to your question. We gravitate toward peace and quiet and find the fan noise loud; part of the annoyance is the pitch is high so best way I can describe it would be: it’s similar to a leaf blower in pitch/tone with volume level slightly below lowest level of a range hood. And the hotter your oven cooking temperature the longer it remains running to cool down, I haven’t actually timed how long it stays on, but as an example if we bake something at 350 the fan runs for probably 15-20min after shutting down. It doesn’t help that our ovens face the dining room and with an open concept kitchen/living and just cased openings to the dining the sound echos a lot so we are considering options such as acoustic panels (https://www.acoustimac.com/acousticart). This is our first foray into high end appliances and had no idea the ovens had this “feature” so it was a bit disappointing when everything else is so nice...but our food comes out so much better and if you run the vent hood motor on medium or high setting it would totally drown out the oven fan, so there’s that solution i suppose, lol! Seriously, though, if we ever do another house I would seriously consider creating an oven alcove that helps reduce the noise and the direction it is thrown. another interesting discovery is there is a secondary fan that runs 24/7 (at least I assume as I have never not felt it running) that you can not hear and only barely feel a breeze when right up against the oven (comes out just between the upper oven and the control panel). It is cool air so it appears Thermador is vigilant about keeping the electronics from over heating even when off. finally, i forgot to mention how interesting the fridge/freezer column are in that you never hear the compressor kick on like a “run of the mill” fridge, just a fan kicks on very infrequently and only for about 30 seconds then quiet...oh and the ice cubes, love the pyramid shaped cubes and the fact they don’t stick/melt together (unless power goes out), but unfortunately almost an entire drawer is gobbled up by the bucket being centrally located and scoop off to one side for easy retrieval...but again we only have the 18” freezer column.

We got the newer model 36" Freedom. Absolutely love it. We are a family of 5 who entertains a lot (well used to pre pandemic) and so the flexibility to push things around and use different size vessels (while chatting with friends or yelling at kids!) without any adjustment is amazing. The controls are slightly fussy (scrolllll to pick temp), but the cooktop is so fast and easy otherwise I don't mind at all. Being able to just shove one pot out of the way when you want to add another pot is such a perk the rest fades away. The option for 6 pans/pots seemed important in theory but in practice we are rarely using more than 3. So I suspect we would have been equally happy with the older model. The only thing I notice that is a true downside is that there are "hot spots" in the pans at high temperatures. Perhaps this happens in all induction because of the magnets? It is not an issue for us (just stir a bit more), but if we were professional chefs (or wannabes) then I suspect gas would be better.

We just installed our Freedom last week. We love it. It holds consistent temps and it’s really nice not to have to worry about where the cookware is in the cooktop. I really like the myZone feature. It allows you to move the pot in the stove to change the heat. So closer to the front edge gives you 9 further back is 7 all the way to the back edge at 1. This is handy when I have more than one thing going for dinner at once, or something that may boil over. I can quickly change the heat without fussing with the touch screen.

@r, I thought I would chime in here to just say that I don’t think you are “obsessing“ at all regarding the use of knobs in this case. One of the most crucial variables in any kind of industrial design is the way we interface or interact with whatever the product is. Most of us utilize capacitive touch controls or infrared type touch controls on a constant basis with everything from iPads, smart phones, as well as any number of house appliances. But I would suggest that your instinct regarding cooktop or rangetop controls makes a lot of sense. Consider the difference in using a wall oven versus a cooktop. Most cooks in the kitchen can get the opportunity to wipe their hands in order to use touch capacitive controls on a wall oven. Of course, the case could be made that turning a simple dial, can be more intuitive, then going through a series of menus to get to where you want to go, since in the end, the mission of the wall oven has not really changed very much since our grandparents time which is essentially to bake the cake or roast the chicken. The reason I suspect that cook tops and range tops, as well as ranges are a particularly good candidate for knobs is due to the fact that the controls are often placed on a horizontal plane. Many people, especially those who are new to induction appliances for example, have learned a hard lesson as the very sensitive touch controls do not always take kindly to steam, water, droplets, and oil or gravy splatters. It is not hard to imagine why this is problematic because if you put any of these liquids on top of your smart phone screen, you would discover that the touch controls that works so beautifully such as the ones I’m using right now on my iPhone to create this post do not take kindly to having these substances on top of them. There are lots of examples of folks who have touch capacitive controls on these horizontal locations where the entire appliance is either shut down or thrown off its game. Of course, the majority of modern products that have knobs do not use the analog/mechanical controls of knobs of the past, but are in fact, “knobs“ that interface with micro control boards behind them. Still, there is an entire field of design that studies user interaction, and I do think that, at least, in some instances, such as with cooktops, knobs actually, do make a lot of sense. One can certainly debate where the best location for those knobs would be to avoid getting splatters on them since Cleaning knobs is not exactly, a fun time for most folks. Some people would assume that installing Touch Sensitive controls in all sorts of consumer products that once used knobs, levers, and buttons, is simply a design trend, and I’m sure there is truth to that. But a little voice inside also suggests to me, that one of the reasons they have moved away from knobs and especially the electromechanical kinds used in the past, is due to the cost of manufacturing. I do not have a data set to support this theory, but if you consider the labour and the bewildering amount of copper wiring that went into something such as a 1950 electric stove, some of which had lots of extra features, you can begin to imagine the cost savings of having a micro “motherboard“ taking the place of all that complex analogue electrical structure. I truly enjoy all of the benefits and possibilities that I have with my smart phone, laptop, iPads, etc. But I do think your instincts for knobs are not without merit, because sometimes, appliance designers attempt to answer questions that no one ever asked. My two. Cents 🤔.