I have an entirely different reaction. I do not see why GE's response should be surprising. The manual for the induction ranges clearly says that minimum pan size for the six-inch burner is 4.75" and the minimum pan size for the two 8 inch burners is 5.75." If they put that in the manual, why should a customer service rep say something different in what will be a public posting on their web-site? And look at it from the perspective of the GE customer service reps. My4thGarden is looking at spending $2900 for a GE Profile slide-in induction range or $2600 for the freestanding one. A decent and serviceable smoothop electric range can be had for half of that from GE or, for that matter, from LG which is the subject of My4thGarden's other thread. No issues with using small pans on those stoves, although there certainly will be waste heat around the edges of the small pans. When someone says that they cannot afford to replace the present battery of small diameter cookware and doesn't want to, it makes a lot of sense to say to them: "why don't you consider a different stove that seems better suited to what and how you like to cook?" Plus, you may buy the induction stove and find that your particular small pans don't work. That leads to hassles with returns and refunds. If you work for a company, would you want to start that process? Now, it may very well be possible to use pans with slightly smaller diameters if they have enough ferrous mass in the base. Induction burners have sensors to identify pan size and ferrous mass -- too little of either and the burner will not activate. Trouble is, there is no way to find out how GE engineers programmed the sensors. All we know is that GE engineers have identified minimum pan sizes that can reasonably be expected to work. GE customer services reps are is not going to tell you, "don't pay any attention to the manual, you can do X____ instead." berner43's post shows that pans with diameters 10% less than minimum specified diameters work, at least on the mid and large burners and assuming that My4thGarden's pans have similar ferrous bases. Timdeb's post shows about the same for the 6-inch burner. If that relationship holds for the smallest diameter burner, as well, then even My4thGarden's 4.25" pans might work on the GE's smallest (6") burner. Or might not. Again, we do not know how GE programmed the sensors for the burner. Maybe the bases of My4thGarden's smallest pans won't have sufficient ferrous material in the base to be recognized. Also , bear in mind that a smaller pan is using smaller amounts of energy. If you cover, say, 70% of the burner, you will be only getting 70% of the power. (That is not exact but it will do for this dicussion.) Depending on what you are cooking in those little pans, that may or may no be considered optimum. If I'm manufacturing and selling stoves, and I'm training customer representatives, m I going to have them telling customers that they should use my stove for less than optimum conditions and then want to deal with warranty complaints from customers who may or may not understand what "less than optimum" means? What if the customer is using pans with "less than optimum" ferrous content and the pans don't work? Do I really want to have my engineers testing every possible line of cookware and then publish advice on less than optimum use? If I have to manage that kind of situation, I will be thinking I don't want that expense or headache. The unfortunate reality is that the only way to know is to run a test with the particular pans on an actual GE induction stove as berner43 and timdeb did. Can't find a GE to test your pans on? Then, it seems to me to make a good deal of sense for GE to recommend options other than induction for My4thGarden. "Buying and trying" is an option, of course, but only if you can buy from a vendor like Costco which has an absolute satisfaction guarantee: "I don't like it" is enough for Costco to take it back after a month or so. No restocking fee, either. Those kinds of guarantees are hard to find these days. The only induction range that Costco sells is the Maytag freestanding range and it only carries them in the online sales department. The Maytag is far less costly than the GE (about $1500, delivered). It has twin 6" burners in front with a 9" and an 11" burner in the back. Maytag/Whirlpool has not published minimum recommended pan sizes but apparently have marked them on the cooktop. My recollection from the one I saw last fall when I was stove shopping was that the six inch burners would take pans down to at least 4.75" and the nine-inch burner would handle a 7" pan. (But that was months ago and the memory is faulty on such details.) Virtually every brand of induction on the market will operate pans slightly smaller than the minimum recommended diameter. (Heck, I recall a post from a year ago where somebody here reported using a 5.5" diamter pan on the 11" burner of a Samsung induction range.) Anyway, the Maytag/Whirlpool burner arrangement, with twin 6" burners in front, seems well suited to My4thGarden's cooking preferences. Of course, there is the apparently lame "Aqualift" oven self-cleaning method which may be an issue. (This issue will not matter if you are somebody who avoids running self-cleaning cycles and, if you do, at least you don't need to worry about the self cleaning cycle toasting the control boards.) I noticed a Maytag on display recently when helping a friend shop for a stove. Might have been our local Lowe's or Home Depot that had one on display and mIght have been the identical Whirlpool model. I live in a very rural state, so maybe one of the big box stores in My4thGarden's area might have one, too. Worth looking at. This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, May 23, 13 at 16:06

coowaresnob1, lalitha and saltimbocca, how are you liking your pans now, half a year out? I'm not too familiar with nonstick, limited to shiny aluminum frypans, cheap but excellent heavy Tramontina stuff that holds up well, as long as I keep heat to medium. My current 3 year old pans still look and act new, no color change or major scratches. I've had no experience with nonstick saucepans, stainless steel nonstick, or any of the new ceramic coatings. I'm switching to induction next year and will need new cookware. I've been using Calphalon Tri-Ply steel for the last 12 years, and would like to go to lighter weight stuff. So I'm considering some nice heavy aluminum, but as you know, there's not a lot to choose from. I've looked at your lines, and am also interested in Mauviel M'stone, which has a non-PTFE ceramic coating similar to the Zwilling. Are they all buzz-free, or do some buzz at certain cooking levels? I'm told that my cast iron and carbon steel pans should be buzz-free, as will my one Demeyere piece, a very heavy Proline 11" skillet. I'm feeling pretty confident with frypans that I know what I need to fill in, but for saucepans I will be starting from scratch, and I'm really torn. As I said, I'd like to lighten up, and know that aluminum will be generally lighter than my old clad stuff, and should also provide nice quick but even heat, which is all good. I suspect it will perform better than clad stainless. But is that true? Will the Zwilling Spirit perform the same? I'll be needing a batterie of 2 saucepans, a saucier, a sauté pan and an 8 quart soup pot. I've no problem switching to soft spoons, whisks and such, and given the non-stick's easy cleaning, I'll happily switch to hand washing to preserve the finish. Finally, I'm very good about using cookware at the recommended heat setting. I've learned patience, and don't mind waiting for a pan to come to the right temperature. I'm not the only cook in the house (ok, I'm the only SERIOUS cook) and have no problem getting a couple of cheap skillets for my Dude and mother to abuse. They're used to certain pans being off-limits. :) So.... given all I've laid out, do you think I'd be happy for a long time with any of these cookware lines? I think so, but of course that's wishful thinking, based on not much fact. Your opinions and experiences are VERY welcome!

I do not have this unit and am not recalling seeing much about this 36" Viking model here in the last couple of years since this thread was active. You might have better luck attracting responses from current owners and users here if you started a thread of your own and put the model number in your thread title. As for using your large LC pans, I'm not sure I know what you are asking. Have you used induction before? If not, maybe you are not quite understanding how to ask the questions. Let me take a stab at what you might be asking. * Are you asking if the full size Viking induction cooktops like this one have the same problem recognizing LC pans that that the old Viking single-burner portable induction cooktop units (PICs) once had back in the previous decade? The answer to that is that the full size cooktops and the Viking induction ranges have never had that problem. The problem was limited to those old and long discontinued PIC models. * Or, are you asking if there will be a problem operating a burner with a pan larger than a particular induction hob space. Say, your LC pans have 12" diameter bases overtop the 9" square hob spaces of the Viking cooktop? The answer is that your LC pans will all work, but may intrude sufficiently into the adjoining hob spaces that the LC pans don't leave enough space for pans on the other three burners. For example, maybe you want to use a couple of 12" LC frypans --- one on the front right hob and another on the left front hob --- and then want to plant a large LC dutch oven on the middle hob in the back. So, how big are the pans you want to use at the same time on the other three burners? For that matter, how often do you figure you will be using all six burners at the same time and need to be running two or three 12" diameter (or larger) LC pans? Frankly, the best thing to do to find out how the cooktop will or will not work is to take your array of pans to a dealer and see if and how they all fit. If you can't find a showroom example, try using the dimensions shown on the installation instructions to draw a full scale layout with a sharpie or magic marker on a piece of newspaper. * Or, are you asking if a nine-inch square induction hob will evenly heat the entire base of a large LC pot or pan with, say, a 12" diameter (or larger) base. The answer is that you will have the same behavior with LC pans that you will have with any cast iron pan on any burner (gas, electric, or induction). IOW, no problem with braises, soups and stews, where you have liquid to even out the heat, but you will need lengthy pre-heating to get an even spread of heat across any cast-iron base when you want perfectly uniform heating as for searing or browning out to the edges of the base. This is a property of all cast iron, not just LC. If the VIking cooktop had some burners with larger diameter induction fields (large enough to encompass the entire base of your big LC pans) the cast iron would still heat unevenly. Preheating to evenness might take a bit less time with the larger burner, but it still will take quite a while. That's just the nature of cast iron cookware. FWIW, Cook's Illustrated has been recommending that you put cast iron pans in a hot oven for a half hour or longer to preheat CI skillets for stovetop searing like cooking steaks. Then you run the stovetop at lesser heat which is sufficient to maintian the searing temps for the cooking session. Again, the preheating and unevenness will be no big deal for tasks like braising, boiling water, deep fat frying, stocks, soups and stews with a lot of liquid. Probably not a problem, either, for making a very long simmered tomatoey ragu or long-cooking of beans. But where you will need workarounds will be for stir fries or browning where you need every square inch of base surface to be perfectly evenly heated for the meat or bacon or veggies or whatever that you want to brown. Again, you would need the same workarounds with any stove where the burners are not sized for large pans, whether gas or regular electric burners as well as induction.

I had a GE Gemini double oven in a vacation condo we had. For me it was a big improvement on having only one when we bought the condo (I was used to two ovens in our house). It let me get tow in a small space eight a si pole applicants upgrade vs remodel. We spent Thanksgiving and Chrismtas for 5 years or so there so I used the lower large oven for those dinners. It is noticeably lower than a regular range oven.p when you baste the turkey but it worked for me. I could see now that it might be harder as you get older (I was 35-40 when I had it). I almost always used the small upper oven and I loved that. Really easy to each into (just below the counter!) and fast to warm. The lower for roasting things or if I broiled in the upper and rede to make potatoes or frech fries in the lower. Stuff in the lower tends to not need too much tending (roasts). It wasn't as good as having double wall ovens for access but is great that you can get two ovens in a regular range spot,. And daily the little upper oven was really nice to use.