I have had the Thermador cook top a little over a year and I think I've had about 25% down time. When it works, this cook top is great but the combination of untrained service people and really bad service policies at Thermador work to make this unit unusable unless you hardly cook at all. The unit has 36 little Hobbs under the glass, a mother board and 4 other boards to make it all work. The 36 Hobbs are very stable and haven't caused any problems. So there's only 5 parts that can go down. Sounds simple, no? Think again. Thermador has not done anything to train their techs on this stove top. So when the computer on the unit puts out an error code a tech may not even recognize what the computer is trying to say. I've had to look over the shoulder of some of these dummies to point out the error code the unit puts out. When you finally figure out which of the 4 support boards needs replacing you find that the replacement parts are not available and have to be back ordered. This is a matter of weeks, not days. Lastly, the telephone support from Thermador is no picnic either. It's basically a call center staffed with people having only the ability to take messages and pass them to a non-responsive 2nd level. Presently, my unit has been down since early December 2015. It's now January 6. Thermador has decided to replace my unit. As mentioned in previous posts, getting your cook top replaced is a nightmare in itself. I had to do that in my 1st month of ownership. There's a mysterious 'AR department' that is accountable to no one that outsources the replacement activity to a 3rd party. That process can take months. In California there's a lemon law that applies to appliances as well as cars. I think that is my next step.

I no longer have an instant hot water dispenser but had one in my previous kitchen. It did not produce boiling water - it produced very hot water. I liked having it and would have one again. It's handy for many things other starting with hotter water to boil. I never used it for large quantity boiling - just a cup or two in a glass cup the microwave. Granted it's not a necessity but I used mine to make an individual cup of pour over coffee - heat to boiling in microwave in seconds vs. minutes, instant hot chocolate (no microwave heating required), quickly cleaning stuff off utensils and dishes, etc. In my case I much preferred being able to heat a quick glass cup of hot water vs. using a pan on the cook top. I think an instant hot water dispenser and an induction cook top serve two entirely different purposes. Whether or not you'd like to have an instant hot water dispenser depends on what you planned to do with it and how important that function is to you. If you were planning to use it to produce boiling water then I'd say skip it as they don't do that.

Cpartist, different people like cooking on different types of stoves. As I said before I was appreciative about cooking on electric when we moved into our present house since I had only used natural gas before. I guess I'm not a sloppy cook and rarely use a razor on my cooktop. And no special cleaner. I just wipe it off with soapy water when washing the pots. I love the residual heat from the burners. I use it for example to melt butter after draining noodles. For remaining food that is in a pan that if left till after dinner will be a PIA to clean such as frying bacon, etc. I put the pan back on the burner and add water from the pot filler and the residual heat loosens all the cooked on food. Yes, you do have to move the rice, but that usually isn't a problem for me with 5 burners. Sorry, but even a quick dinner is a minimum of 20 minutes to consume. We like to eat and chat, not wolf down our food. Plenty of time for the burners to be cold for wipe up.

Happy Friday! Let's BURN some time :) If I were the person who created this post, I'd be like... why on earth are these guys still arguing after 2 years? LOL. The logic is very simple: Not everyone has a gigantic backup generator. When the law prohibits gas, gas availability becomes a value-added feature of a house. 60% of US electricity is generated from coal (20%) and natural gas (40%) Woah wait... did I say natural gas is the top energy source of electricity?? Yes, that's the case for the US. So burning gas at 40% efficiency at the power plant to get electricity and then getting 90% efficiency at the induction doesn't seem to save anything. The math shows it's even less efficient than burning gas directly for heating (cooking). For me, I was stuck with electric for 20 years before switching back to gas, and I never regret about it. Everyone's cooking method is different. Carbon/stainless steel pans need to be preheated HOT and seasoned every time so they become nonstick. It's not the kind of seasoning that's done in the oven. BTW, some people just refuse to use nonstick pans coated with "forever chemicals" that flakes into the food and release toxic chemicals at high temperature. No one should install an under-sized ventilation system that doesn't match the stove, regardless of what stove to use. If the ventilation system can suck up the smoke, it can suck up the CO2 as well. For people with compromised respiration system, sure they should pay extra attention. But for the rest, we are just cooking food, not meth. Okay, I've said enough, and I should retire from this. I have better things to do. People who read this have my warnings. For people who disagree, enjoy your electric stove. Before I go, I highly recommend this for people who do stir fry or need to heat up a big pot of liquid. It can do both on the big burner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DRGUiVWsqs