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.

Hi mojavean and kaseki... Thank you very much for your replies. I appreciate your help. In my second post I mentioned that I was sufficiently swayed to do things correctly, and an electrician was ALREADY scheduled to come out. (No "magical thinking" involved or necessary.) So I had a 50 amp breaker installed. The wire is 6-2wG, so I'm not really sure if kaseki's post is something I need to look into or not. But I may have to look into alternatives. The experience with the electrician was pretty bad (costly), along with a price increase occurring on this range. :( Thank you again all the same. PS. to davidro1... My previous statement was NEITHER a rebuttal or literal. This was the SECOND time you've sent me off to the wiring forum (the first time was not intended helpfully/nicely) ALSO on a question regarding induction ranges (cjzimmer's thread, no less!). My statement was more speculation if "someone" (YOU, probably?) would send me back over here. And an ANECDOTAL answer CAN be helpful. I personally wouldn't risk it IF cjzimmer had told me a breaker popped even once during cooking, no matter what minimum specs say. Plus the electrician kept trying to talk me out of adding the breaker, so maybe her post explains why. Like I said, no magical thinking involved or necessary.

The Dacor range stove is $5299 at AJ Madison but US Appliance seems to be offering it for $4999. But I agree with Deeagaux that the Dacor seems like a so-so range performancewise and twice as expensive as anything else except Viking ($2k more) and the Ilve (about the same price). As Deeagaux notes, the Dacor induction has two 7.75" hobs (2.8kWh) and two 5.5" hos (2.3 kWh). Both small hobs are up front with touchpad burner controls along the front edge of the cooktop. Those kWh numbers are max settings, so only one burner per side can be run at full power (pretty much true of every induction range I've seen in the US market.) Layout seems a lot like the Whirlpool/Maytag induction units which are 1/3 the price, except that the Dacor has front mounted oven controls and is available in a color (black) besides stainless. Whirlpool induction products (including Maytag and Kitchenaid as weil as appliances for Ikea) have been the subject of complaints about operational noise and issues with long term unreliability. Haven't seen anything that says, one way or another, if Dacor has outsourced its induction appliances or components. DOn't know what to make of the similarity to the WP products. The Dacor has a thin blacksplash and is avalable as a slide-in. That means its cooktop has the room of a pro-style stove at a price about $2k less than VIking's induction range. (No knobs controls, though). SIgnificantly more cooktop room for multiple big pans than with the GE and Electrolux slide-in induction ranges. Same thing with the Samsung induction ranges. Whether that matters to you or not is a matter of your personal preferences Curiously, the Dacor user manual specifically forbids using pans smaller than the hob diameters (first time I've seen that.) Nothing in there about maximum pans sizes, but folks don't usually buy Dacor ranges when they plan on big canning projects so maybe Dacor just didn't publish a warning as some appliance makers do. (AFAIK, both the GE and Samsung are fine with canning kettles.) The manual also forbids spanning burners with a griddle. GE permits burning spanning on the left side and the Samsung freestanding NE597NOPBSR specifially enables you to link the two left side burners to a single control. A 7.75 diamter burner can handle most large pans. For instance, a 12" All-Clad skillet -- that's 12" measured across the flared rim --- has a base that, for induction purposes, is about 9" across. Others (Cuisinart, for example) have smaller bases, and so should fit just fine. A Lodge 12" diameter cast-iron skillet has a base that is about 9.5" across. I have a Sitram 12 quart stockpot with an induction disk base that is 7.5" across -- which, according the Dacor manual, means I should not use it on one of the big burners. Probably can use it as it is is only 1/4" smaller in diameter and most induction burners will allow down to 70% of burner diameter -- and sometimes even 60% of burner diameter -- before the pan-recognition sensors fail to recognize a pan. (There was a recent thread here on this topic, btw.) OTOH, some nominally larger pans may be too small for the large burners on the Dacor. For example, on my nominally 10" diameter Circulon non-stick fry pan, the induction base is only 6.5" across. If the Dacor manual is to be taken seriously, that pan would be confined to the 5.5" burners. Hob controls have a "low" setting (which probably means a low-end .5 step). ABove that, the heat settings go n whole number steps from 1 to 9 (no half steps) and a "H" setting. Interestingly, the H setting is like a boost setting but the manual does not note any time limits on using it. So, the H setting on the Dacor burners is less than the Boost/H setting on the GE and Samsung, but the continuous (non-power-shared) settings are probably about equal. In practical terms, this means you can boil large kettles of pasta water etc. faster on a GE and Samsung induction stove, and you have a bit finer control in the low and mid range settings with half-step settings. The blurb on the Dacor site says that the oven has a "green" steam-based, 30 minute light-duty self cleaning cycle in addition to the usual high-heat (pyrolitic) oven self-cleaning functions. (The Samsung does, too. GE was proposing that for the upcoming PHB915 model, but not sure if you can't do the same thing in the existing models.) Dacor specs a 50 Amp circuit where GE and Samsung spec a 40 Amp minimum. This may because the Dacor oven ostensibly has a 2.5 kWh (2550 watt) induction element around its induction fan. The oven in the Dacor also has a removable filter for the induction fan. I"ve seen it mentioned in some other Dacor threads but don't know if it is really useful or just a marketing gimmick. Hard to compare longevity and durability of induction ranges and warranty service from Dacor. Samsung warranty sevice seems highly variable with a sizable number of complaints . As Deeagaux says, there have been a fair number of reports here and elsewhere about Dacor electronics having somewhat short lives. Ten years on a Dacor seems like a generous estimate according to some posters here, though. I cannot say the Samsung would or would not be any better but it certainly would be a lot less expensive to replace. This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Jul 5, 13 at 23:39

It's a new model so there aren't any online reviews but it's a bargain at less than $1400. Frigidaire FGIH3047VFGallery Series 30 Inch Induction Electric Convection Freestanding Range Lots of reviews of the Frigidaire Gallery FGIF3036TF 30 in. 5.4 cu. ft. Induction Range with Self-Cleaning Oven in Smudge-Proof Stainless Steel