I watched the "hybrid" video and am not sure what to make of the noise level. It seemed very pronounced when PB (power boost) was dialed in. It seemed to almost disappear when the presented dialed the setting down below 7.5. I found the humming-buzz really annoying. But, as a professional videographer, I also had to wonder how much of the noise level was an artifact of holding an inexpensive consumer video camera close to the pots with no way to disable the audio auto gain controls (AGC). What puzzles me is that the buzzing seemed to be partially drowned out by the sound of the water boiling. The sound of the water boiling seemed seemed much louder to me than the sound of boiling water that I hear in my own kitchen. Audio AGC ramps up the recording volume when things are really quiet and dials it down as the noise level goes up. It can seriously exaggerate relative sound levels. The presenter did mention that he heard the noise and said (as others have in commenting on the KA induction units) that you don't hear it when the range fan is on. That suggests to me that the induction modules on that Frigidaire cooktop are indeed noisy though perhaps not a noisy as it might have seemed from the video. I've got a portable countertop induction unit (Max Burton 6200) which produces a bit of a ringing-humm when set to high with smaller pans. It is at a frequency that I personally find annoying, but it goes away as the pan heats up and it is nowhere near as loud as the level seemed in that video. I'll be interested to hear what angiebangie reports.

To Nanj: I literally took my "favorite-sized" pots to the store and put them on the cooktop to make sure I could easily fit, say ... three of them at one time and it was not a problem. There's a good amount of space bet. each burner and I DO use bigger pots, but seldom more than 2 at a time I'd say. Three would not be a prob. at all for me + a fourth little one, if nec. I COULDN'T have the 36" size unless I was willing to modify my existing granite counter. But, even if I could, the 30" was more than adequate for my needs and I've always used a 30" so I knew it should be fine. I've never had the need to use 5 burners at one time, but if I did: I have three add'l single burners in my pantry: a butane gas one that is fabulous, an old elec. coil one and an induction burner that I bought as a trial. 59Dodge: I so agree - the only time I would use the boost is to boil a large pot of water and can't imagine having to do that in three diff. pots. As stated, you CAN use the boost for two diff. pots at the same time. NO ONE would ever be just "cooking" on the boost level - it's on steroids! 3400 Watts is waaaaay more than anyone could possibly need or want. And it's so fast - it's ridiculous. To me, 3700 Watts is totally superfluous and redundant. 12 crumbles: read my response just above to Dodge RE: 3700 watts - I'm promising you, it's just not necessary. I would think the time difference might be LESS than 15-20 seconds. Re: the timers for the burners - I'm very attentive when I'm cooking and could easily visualize that I wouldn't use them. I don't want the burners going off without my realizing it and it would always be a guessing game as to the proper time to set it for. If I'm frying, I'm right there watching and turning, if I'm simmering a big pot of sauce, chili, whatever - on the induction it's not going to ever burn. Only for baking in an oven does one need a timer, IMO. And, FYI - this cooktop DOES have a minute timer that is easily set, just to let you know when "X" amount of minutes have expired. Also lets you know, after a pot has been removed, that that burner is still hot/warm to the touch as a reminder, until it cools down.

I forgot to mention that, according to the inductionsite.com, Viking's VISC induction ranges have continuously variable power settings. However, the $8k+ price may be a budgetary absurdity. I'm with plllog on why having only ten settings is unacceptable, and you can find more examples (from pllog, myself and others) in the threads that were linked above. Also, the number of settings is not a matter of having some low or medium or whatever settings. With just about any induction appliance, you can get a very low and a simmer-kind of setting, for example. But will it be the right setting for what you want to do or how you want to do it? My experience, like pllog's and others, is that I find myself wanting a setting between say, power setting 1 and power setting 2 and I do not like trying to replicate it by constant fiddling --- turning up one for a minute or so, then turning down one for for bit, turning back up one for a bit, etc.. There are folks with contrary views who think ten is fine for them and no need to fiddle. To each his or her own. A poster in the linked thread on the kitchenaid range even responded to our points by saying she could not imagine anybody needing more than the ten settings on her new kitchenaid induction slide-in. She was not "wrong" --- she just cooks differently than I do. So, to figure out what might or might not be right for your own cooking, you might try finding a retailer with an induction unit hooked up for demo. For that, you might have better luck with finding a demo of a premium priced brand like Wolf. A cooktop will do (you are just testing burners, after all). Alternatively, you could try out some cooking with one of the sub-$100 single-burner portable induction cooktops (PICs) that run on standard 120v outlets. Maybe have a look at this ten-setting $60 Duxtop model reviewed here by Sweethome/Wirecutter. For around $70, there is a better Duxtop model with fifteen settings thoroughly reviewed at Centurylife.org. When done testing, you will still have an extra burner for use during holiday marathons or when you might want to cook and/or heat food outdoors alongside a bbq or grill.

@r, I thought I would chime in here to just say that I don’t think you are “obsessing“ at all regarding the use of knobs in this case. One of the most crucial variables in any kind of industrial design is the way we interface or interact with whatever the product is. Most of us utilize capacitive touch controls or infrared type touch controls on a constant basis with everything from iPads, smart phones, as well as any number of house appliances. But I would suggest that your instinct regarding cooktop or rangetop controls makes a lot of sense. Consider the difference in using a wall oven versus a cooktop. Most cooks in the kitchen can get the opportunity to wipe their hands in order to use touch capacitive controls on a wall oven. Of course, the case could be made that turning a simple dial, can be more intuitive, then going through a series of menus to get to where you want to go, since in the end, the mission of the wall oven has not really changed very much since our grandparents time which is essentially to bake the cake or roast the chicken. The reason I suspect that cook tops and range tops, as well as ranges are a particularly good candidate for knobs is due to the fact that the controls are often placed on a horizontal plane. Many people, especially those who are new to induction appliances for example, have learned a hard lesson as the very sensitive touch controls do not always take kindly to steam, water, droplets, and oil or gravy splatters. It is not hard to imagine why this is problematic because if you put any of these liquids on top of your smart phone screen, you would discover that the touch controls that works so beautifully such as the ones I’m using right now on my iPhone to create this post do not take kindly to having these substances on top of them. There are lots of examples of folks who have touch capacitive controls on these horizontal locations where the entire appliance is either shut down or thrown off its game. Of course, the majority of modern products that have knobs do not use the analog/mechanical controls of knobs of the past, but are in fact, “knobs“ that interface with micro control boards behind them. Still, there is an entire field of design that studies user interaction, and I do think that, at least, in some instances, such as with cooktops, knobs actually, do make a lot of sense. One can certainly debate where the best location for those knobs would be to avoid getting splatters on them since Cleaning knobs is not exactly, a fun time for most folks. Some people would assume that installing Touch Sensitive controls in all sorts of consumer products that once used knobs, levers, and buttons, is simply a design trend, and I’m sure there is truth to that. But a little voice inside also suggests to me, that one of the reasons they have moved away from knobs and especially the electromechanical kinds used in the past, is due to the cost of manufacturing. I do not have a data set to support this theory, but if you consider the labour and the bewildering amount of copper wiring that went into something such as a 1950 electric stove, some of which had lots of extra features, you can begin to imagine the cost savings of having a micro “motherboard“ taking the place of all that complex analogue electrical structure. I truly enjoy all of the benefits and possibilities that I have with my smart phone, laptop, iPads, etc. But I do think your instincts for knobs are not without merit, because sometimes, appliance designers attempt to answer questions that no one ever asked. My two. Cents 🤔.