I have had this range since December in my new country house. I have gas in my primary residence, where I have a Blue Star. I really wanted to get another Blue Star but it was easier to replace the old electric range with an induction range rather than putting in a propane tank. So I keep comparing this range to my BS. On the positive side, it is a really nice-looking range and the oven is great, with lots of good features, plus a warming oven. The top is easy to clean and the induction is really fast. On the negative side, the cooktop has all touch controls and no knobs. I hate having to push the pad and listen to the beeps. And with my aging eyes, it is not always easy to see the controls. I am getting used to it, but I wish I had a gas range with knobs to turn.

We bought the Electrolux induction range about 4 1/2 years ago and loved it ....until it died on us around Christmas time. Just after using the burners (but everything had been turned off) we heard a loud pop, then a big BANG. Afterwards, no burners worked and an error message displayed. After some investigation, we found it would cost about $800 CAD just for the part, and our 3 year extended warranty had run out the year before. We replaced it with a kenmore induction slide in range and bought the biggest extended warranty we could. Hope Sears stays in business:) I love induction, but this stove is definitely not as nice as my Electrolux...the fans are VERY loud, the air blown comes out the front right at waist level and is irritatingly cold, (even the oven fans are loud) and to turn on a burner you either have to choose Low and click up, or choose Power Boost (high) and click down. But after having spent $3000 CAD on the Electrolux, we just couldn't shell out another $3000 plus. I still wanted induction, but we went with a budget model to get it. Whichever stove you get, my advice is to make sure you get as big a warranty as you can. And make sure the company has a good reputation for honouring it. One appliance salesman told me that the life expectancy of today's appliances is 7 - 12 years.

Question about Induction and Chocolate: Well, interestingly enough, I've also been pursuing this same question recently. So, far the answer I've found on tempering has been a resounding maybe. FWIW, I have had no trouble tempering without a double boiler on my current induction cooktop and I've also run across on-line videos that show tempering as well as melting being done with residential induction cooktops. Also, both of the Bosch ranges and the Miele have a power setting that is below the setting their manuals recommend for melting chocolate. (The Bosch manuals recommend 1.5 for melting chocolate and the Miele manual recommends "1 - 2" as the setting.) What I have not been able to find out yet is whether setting 1 on the Bosch ranges or setting "h" ("keep warm") on the Miele will hold a pan at the tempering temperature of around 90° F (+/- 2°). Touch pads versus knobs: I did not see anything offensive in what you said, but I would add that one might prefer a rotary digital interface (knobs) over touch-pads for reasons other than simple "familiarity." As you might guess from my screen-name, I work in digital media production. I have been using touch-pad and touch-screen devices for decades. I'm fine with touchpads and touch screens. However, while cooking on the stovetop, I just find it more ergonomic to grab a knob when my hands are wet or messy, as they all too often are. (What can I say? I am a messy cook and play with food.) I've also found front-mounted knobs are less subject to interruptions from spills from pans on induction stove tops. Finally, I like the tactile feedback from a knob when adjusting burners while cooking. Of course, those are just personal preferences and there are trade-offs to my preferences, including less ease of cleaning with knobs versus touchpads. That all just goes into the mix of things to weigh and balance in choosing between stoves which all represent different mixes of design and engineering trade-offs.

Since folks occasionally come across this thread, perhaps it's time for a 2023 update. Bosch Bosch has released a new "Pro" model in their 800 series line. The 800 Series Induction freestanding range (model number HIS8055U has front control knobs, but a rather small oven at 3.9 CuFt. While it does check my boxes for individual burner controls, preferably knobs, there's a few things to note: Oven size is rather small No bridge burner While Bosch themselves don't list out the wattage of each burner, it is a 40A circuit, so it may be a little less power than the Miele, Wolf or Fulgor Milano And this is a rumor and something I heard on a few appliance review videos, but unable to confirm: This product is the Smeg cooktop. If so, the burner power would be two burners at 3,000 W and two at 1,400 W. Which is indeed quite a bit less than the other top choices I had listed in the original post So overall it may look great, has front control knobs for each individual burner, but it may not have the power and/or reliability of the Bosch Benchmark slide-in induction range. Thermador They have been known for their "Freedom Induction Cooktop", especially in the 36" version. There are no truly dedicated burners, but a large "flex zone" on both the left and right side that are each powered by two separate inductors. You can use each zone as two individual burners or as one large cooking zone. You can slide pots and pans around over the entire zone and with several different programming options, it will remember your setting and transfer it to wherever you move the pan. Or you can set it to be in incrementally lower power settings front to back. So it can be on 9 at the front, 7 in the middle, 5 further back, etc.... Sear and just slide it back to lower the power setting. Extremely high tech and super impressive. So now Thermador has released this in a 30" induction range. The Thermador Liberty® Induction Professional Range 30'' Pro Harmony® (that's a mouthful) with model number PRI30LBHU is a sleek looking cooking range, with an impressively capable induction cooktop. What stood out to me: The Liberty or Freedom cooktop is phenomenally flexible, powerful and high tech. A little overwhelmingly high-tech even However, in a 30" range, it seems a little small. While the entire glass cooktop is 22 1/2" deep, a large section in the front is taken up by the controls. Based on some initial measurements, that means the flex zone cooking surface is only about 15 1/2" to 16" deep. I have to find one in person to confirm that, but based on images and scale, that's it came out to. Sounds awfully small to me And, for me, the biggest sticking point is the lack of individual burner control. On the 36" version there is a very sleek looking control panel that is very intuitive with a slider control. On the 30" version, it looks very much like the Bosch controls and hence not my personal favorite. But it may work for you All that being said, it's probably been the most exciting release in the 30" induction range world for the last year. The images attached are the size of the Thermador cooktop and the comparison the controls of the 30" Liberty range vs the 36" Freedom cooktop Other updates Dacor Has completely abandoned and discontinued the 30" induction range Fisher & Paykel Someone did point out that DCS sold the household appliance brand F&P to Haier. Which is a Chinese conglomerate that owns GE Appliances, Hoover, Hotpoint, Sanyo and a few other brands. I have not necessarily heard anything bad about F&P and know several folks have purchased F&P 9 series Classic models since they come in different colors to match your desired interior Fulgor Milano They seem to be more prevalent now than they were when I wrote the original article. And many people are quite impressed and happy with the quality. One re-occurring comment I see is that the oven seems to indicate that the preheat is complete, while the temperature is not fully distributed throughout the oven cavity yet. Especially in simple bake mode. The workaround seems to be to preheat with a convection mode to ensure the entire oven cavity is heated through and then switch back to the preferred baking mode. A bit of a workaround, but it that's the only complaint, I think it remains a strong top contender GE Cafe and Profile No major updates Miele Likewise no significant updates. The induction range is still on version 3 and remains equally impressive as it was when I posted the original article. Wolf Only has released a style update with a different oven door handle. Wait times seem to have gone down, but no feature or other technical updates As far as I know those are the updates I was able to find, so I hope this helps those continuing to shop around