Negative reviews Electrolux? Look at the post right here, then go back to the main appliance page, most the reviews you see for the Electrolux are positive. You will also see a post by a user that has the GE, and the oven will not self clean and one of the burners on the stove doesn't work properly. I can't "Personally Speak" about Electrolux gas products, but I can tell you that their Electric Convection oven, Their Speed Oven, Their Induction cooktop as well as their Wine Fridge have been great and trouble free for over 3 Years now. Apparently one of our posters missed who owns who regarding Electrolux---so----I will repeat it. Electrolux owns Frididare and markets that label (usually at the lower end). All of our Electrolux appliances are built solidly, the easy gilde slide out racks on the oven had no problem holding a 19 lb turkey, even when fully extended. Electrolux was (and still may be) the largest and one of the longest lived appliance manufacturers. The Remark that an Electrolux is a Suped up Fridigare really sucks!!!! Maybe that poster got too close to one of their vacuums and it "Sucked em Senseless"¿ "LG Makes good Electronics" I bought their DVD player/recorder, I also recommended to 3 other ppl to buy it as , at the time, it was one of the few that did "DIVX" Well 3 out of 4 of those have broken now, one trashed, and Mine soon will be. Read the reviews on the LG Fridges, they dont even know how to turn off light bulbs in their fridges. Anyway, think you are wise to rule out LG, but dont be too hasty about Electrolux---just cause a poster here can't discriminate between "Sucking and Cooking" Gary

You got an excellent bargain on the oven. Do call Gaggenau and see if they'll honor the warranty. Congrats! Mine was FedEx'd from England. I think it was $70 U.S. duty, plus $5 for FedEx to handle the paperwork. Since you'll be carrying yours as luggage, you should be paying (if it hasn't changed) according to the following equation, with the price in U.S. dollars of your cooktop being X: duty=.03(X-800) That should be a lot less than import duty. That is, assuming that there isn't special duty on hand carried electronics or some such. If there's VAT in Germany, ask the store if you can have it waived since you're taking it out of the country. I don't know if you've seen the caveats. For your self-imported cooktop, you should get a letter from your insurance company saying that they know it's European rather than UL approved and that that doesn't affect your policy (mine said so long as it was installed by a licensed electrician). Also, you should make sure your building codes don't specify UL. If they do, you'll need a waiver. The Euro certification is just as good as UL, but you want to make sure that you have all the bases covered so they can't use a technicality to weasel out of the help you'd be given if there's a fire or something (like from a lightning strike). I'm also in California but local codes and inspectors vary. Do check with the airlines about the measurements they allow as well. It should be fine. My cooktop would fit, with its original box, into my old large pullman suitcase. I'm not sure about the newer ones, but it's the three dimensions added together they go by, with a maximum diagonal, so I think that part will be fine. Actually, if you have an old large pullman case, you might consider taking it, with some old towels or rags, and bring home the cooktop in the case, with the cloth for padding, instead of having to get an outer box and peanuts. Worse comes to worst, you can always send it FedEx. :)

We've had our 36" 5-burner GE Profile induction cooktop for about 2 months now, and I LOVE it for all of the reasons mentioned above. Two things anyone might want to consider when deciding on which induction to buy: 1. SERVICE--DH didn't get around to installing the hood until AFTER the cooktop had been installed. He dropped his hammer on it from a height of 2' and cracked the glass. Yes, I was angry, especially since I knew he was tired and I'd tried to get him to stop before he made any mistakes! But he called GE, the repair guy called us immediately, and ordered any parts he thought might have been damaged (the control panel was right under the glass where the hammer hit). He had them FedEx/UPSed to us, and told us to call him when they arrived. We did, and he came the SAME day and did the repair. The control box had not been damaged, so he returned it. 2. SS RIM--If you've ever had something boil over, having the stainless steel rim instead of only the smooth black surface will keep most things from overflowing onto the counter or floor. I can't count the number of times I've cooked rice and had a considerable amount of water boil over--including yesterday. :o) I'd forgotten I'd put it on power boost (do NOT leave the cooktop while this is on), and walked to the other side of the kitchen to get something. Over it went out of the pot, but it stayed within the boundaries of the cooktop because of the SS rim, although the mess spread over three burners. Easy to fix. Turned it down so it stopped overflowing immediately, picked up the pans on the three burners and wiped them and the cooktop off, and was back in business in a couple of minutes with the rice simmering away at the perfect temperature. No matter what I've cooked, there's been a perfect simmer point. The placement of the different sized burners also works well for me. Soon the real test will come, when DH and DS both stir fry on the two front burners. There's room for the 14" stir fry pan, the 12" extra deep 6 qt saute pan, and the 13" French skillet in the back on Low to keep things warm. I LOVE this cooktop!!! I also love my new pots and pans. Up until we got the induction cooktop, I'd cooked for decades using a few not-so-good ones. While researching pans, I ran across explanations of what each kind of pan can be used for, which were helpful in making choices from the many AllClad options. I ended up getting the Kitchen Aid pans recommended by Consumers Report (partly because I like glass lids), and several larger AllClad pieces from Williams-Sonoma that were a lower price in their catalog as well as some that went on sale in their store after Christmas. I also got some from the AllClad outlet in PA via the internet. Several of the W-S prices were cheaper than the outlet! I'd looked over the pans in the reduced price collections of the various stores, but had determined that most of the ones I wanted were not included in those offers. Although the AllClad is expensive, I especially love cooking with their large pans. Anne

dsgulbas, are you arguing that Wolf is a commercial quality range??? I hope you understand that the Wolf commercial range company is NOT the one you are advocating. The Wolf brand name was purchased by a refrigeration company that has never produced a commercial range. The original Wolf stove company operates out of California and produces commercial stoves but has no relationship whatsoever to SubZero. Here is their website: http://www.wolfequipment.com/Wolf/Products/subcat.aspx?brand=Wolf&cid=1&scid=38 SubZero/Wolf gas stoves are not commercial quality and don't even have open burners, they are very good stoves but first and foremost are prime examples of kitchen jewelery. SubZero/Wolf ranges may be heavy but they are not long lasting. Try to get a Wolf gas range porcelain oven interior fixed after the warranty expires and you'll soon find out they are essentially disposable items. Been there done that. I will never defend Samsung as I've had bad experiences with them too but I don't see Wolf being any more (or even as) reliable than GE, Electrolux, Bosch and a few others that are sold in less exclusive stores.