I have a Miele, and here is what my manual says

Metal utensils stored in a drawer under the cooktop can become hot if the appliance is used intensively for a long time. Do not store any metal items or utensils in a drawer under the cooktop.

I can tell you that yes, the drawer can get quite warm if on for a period of time. I store skillets directly underneath and my utensils are stored in the drawer adjacent to the cooktop.

The installation manual should give you the proper instructions. You can find it on the maker's website in PDF form.

All require an air chamber to give exchange air to the cooling fans. Some demand open cabinet space. Others require a 3" vertical channel behind the drawers. These are probably interchangeable so long as you have some air. Some people put air vents and even small cabinet fans in the woodwork, or even the back wall, to cheat a bit on the volume.

Then there's the heat itself. If you use the cooktop, there will be some waste heat from the inductors, and even more from the rest of the electronics (that's what the fans are cooling). Anything underneath can get warm because of the warm air. That's not a big thing. We're worried about hot. Many, especially European, cooktops (from where they have lots of teeny tiny kitchens) while requiring the back air channel, allow you to put a heat shield between the cooktop space and the drawer, and only require 3"-5" from the surface.

I have the heat shield and channel and it works fine unless I'm making stock or spaghetti sauce. Then it gets too warm in there and the cooktop shuts off. My cooktop is high powered but only 24" wide and there's only so much the fans can do over an hour's time. So I open the drawers. That does the trick. It's just needing the air for cooling, so give it cool air and it's happy.

I have lots of metal in my drawer right under the heat shield (just a thin plywood) and it's just fine.

Sherri1058, that is interesting. My salesperson said his was a Miele. I purchased a GE, and it doesn't state this in my manual.

Pillog, our installation included a baffle, which I think might have something to do with ventilation. The induction is replacing a previous cooktop, and the kitchen was previously renovated in 2004, so I am sure there is enough ventilation there. I was curious because of what the salesperson said, yet no mention of it in my manual about removing metal utensils. I can certainly understand if I am cooking for a long period - like stock or stew - that it would warm up a bit. Thanks for your input.

GE, last I looked, said you had to have 12" between the cooktop and storage. Again, I encourage you to look at the installation manual. The "baffle" may be a newer answer to a heat shield which will protect your storage. If it's a sheet of material between the cooktop and drawer, that's likely it. If so, you wouldn't have to worry about the utensils and they wouldn't necessarily be mentioned in the user's manual.

There's no reason to think that there's ventilation in the cabinet under the cooktop based on the renovation date. It's unusual and only done by a few to maximize storage in tight kitchens.

You don't have to be cooking for an extended time for your utensils to get warm. When speaking of stock, I was talking about it getting hot enough to make the cooktop shut itself off.

Good luck with it.

I think the issue is magnetic distance, not ventilation. Induction cooktops are really just strong electromagnets. Anything iron, stainless or similar within about 20" in any direction may heat up a bit. The closer to the magnetic coil the more it will heat up. Something 20" away will only be mildly noticeable but something 12" away could get warm enough to burn a wood or laminate drawer. I'd assume there is potential for fire as well though I've never heard of one.

Magnetic flux cannot be shielded as it will travel through any material so an induction cooktop mfr cannot shield stuff below or to the side from the magnetic field. It can somewhat be controlled though so they do that as best they can. This radiating EMF and potential health impacts is why many people will not buy induction.

It is not magnetic distance. the magnetic field produced remains inside the metal casing, as far as the bottom is concerned.

The 'baffle' I've seen has to do with air circulation underneath the unit, trying to prevent the exhaust air from making it back to the inlets.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's waste heat, a by product of creating the field, rather than the field itself. Even where the field is supposed to be, it only extends about a quarter inch above the cooktop, according to everything I've read, and the case is shielded. Things that get hot farther away do from the hot air blown out.

The "potential" health impacts are mostly scaremongering. There's far more and well proven health impact from combustion (flames). The Swiss gov't, many years ago, published a warning for one kind of pacemaker that isn't much used anymore, if at all, that could potentially have a problem if it were too near the induction field, as in the user was laying across the pan. There are EMFs everywhere. I'm not suggesting you live under the transformers for a city power grid, but that's a whole different ball of wax. If it really worries you, you should back off the device, since that has an EMF too...

We have a utensil drawer directly under our Bosch unit. I have never noticed things getting hot in there. There is a fair amount of air space remaining. I would not stuff towels in that drawer, but utensils have been fine. We also store a big flat cast iron round griddle there and have never had a problem with the unit overheating and shutting off.

Induction cooktops require a lot of airflow underneath them to keep all the electronics cool. They put off a good amount of heat and have huge heat sinks to help dissipate the heat, If you block airflow it will affect the operation of the cooktop.