I think if you set the oven to one temp and put your dish in and cook it you might not notice so much that it has a problem. If you turn up the temp from 350° to 400° it will read the temp as 400° immediately and the oven element will continue to oscillate (just as it does when finished preheating)and verrry slowly increase in temp over 20 minutes for the wall oven and it was initially 60 minutes for the range oven. The worst part was if you lost heat opening the door to bake cookies-multiple batches it would just continue to lose temp and no way for it to make up for the heat loss, so pretty soon you are trying to bake cookies at 250°. Dacor said that it was a recognized issue and they sent a new computer board, but it didnÂt fix it. I didnÂt realize at first that the range oven had the same problem because I tended to use it to bake or roast long term. Turning them off and on made no difference-that was my first thought. The only way I could get the oven to heat again was to turn the oven up to 550° and make the differential more than 200 degrees and watch the temp very carefully and turn it back to whatever temp I wanted it to be. The oscillation is meant to keep the temperature within very narrow parameters but it has no way to make up for increased heat loss of open doors or cold food load. The wall oven had the additional problem that the preheat would kick off long before it reached temp even though it would say it was preheated it was around 100 degrees too low and some functions the temp was way off. This may have been able to be fixed by calibration, but in all the service calls, Dacor did not choose to do this. It also baked unevenly. The door was on crooked and that could not be fixed. If you want to check your oven, you need an independent thermometer. I used an oven thermometer, but checked it with my range oven that did seem to be the right temp if preheated long enough. I also checked its lag time by placing the cold thermometer in a well heated 450° oven. It took 5 minutes to read 450°. This was the best I could do as far as trouble shooting myself and try to figure out why recipes I had made for years were not coming out right. Dacor offered me a third oven, to be delivered "the next week" but I never heard from them for the next month and no one would return my calls. I ended up going back to the original dealer and Dacor bought both appliances back. Believe me IÂve baked for along time and I did everything to try to get the ovens to work, tried every function and IÂm getting a headache just thinking about it! I have since come across 2 people with the high end Dacor oven and they have problems with food not getting done but the people did not know why. I also talked to an appliance person who had the same oven as I do and said she had no problems but didnÂt use it very much. When I read the Wolf manual about taking a very long time to increase heat, well IÂm kind of gun shy.

Thermador is extremeley reliable. I had a Thermador 36" electric coil cooktop for 18 years, 4 burners and griddle in the middle, not one problem, still works, but we did a big house reno including the kitchen, so went with new appliances. I now have the Thermador built in oven, very good unit, largest capacity out there too. It is pure convection, pure convention or combo of the two. The only small negative I have is the spacings of bars on the oven racks themselves are a bit wide, only time I notice it is if I do a large batch of banana loaves and instead of doing 2 large loaves, I make 6 mini loaves. Then you have to space the mini loaf pans exactly right so they dont keel a bit. I went with a Viking 6 burner induction cooktop. I had a Dacor built in oven previously, same type of model, either pure convection, pure convention or a combo, worked great, but had a few issues at the end, ie: sensor went (they dont have thermometers) and was fairly expensive to replace. Also, Dacor does not seem to keep parts in supply for as long. If I kept it much longer and would need parts, some would not be available. My friend has a Thermador star burner gas cooktop, she likes it a lot and has no problem with simmering. I would buy Thermador again in the blink of an eye, they are extremely reliable from my experience.

So, what did you decide? My Miele 36” induction cooktop bit the dust. I’m thinking of a gas rangetop, either Wolf or Thermador. It was a struggle finding a Miele repair person in my area, so I will be going with an appliance store that provides service for everything they sell. That means no Miele, no Bluestar. The sales person recommended the Thermador for ease of cleaning. It’s easy to wipe under the burner. I have maids once a week, so this isn’t a deal breaker. I didn’t like the fact that only one dedicated burner can simmer and it clicks on and off. The Wolf, with the high-low burners can simmer on any. Plus I like the Wolf has different BTUs on burners from 9,200 to 20,000 where the Thermador is all 18,000. I do have some smaller pans and I read that the wide star shape burner is just too wide of a flame for a smaller saucepan. I’m actually waiting on the quote to repair my Miele, but I am starting the search for a replacement.

Thank you for the article, that was a great read. I have been reading through all the various threads here on gas vs. induction and it seems like once people switch over to induction they really like it. I'm really interested in induction, but the only working induction cooktop for me to demo is the Thermador Freedom (which is awesome but I'm not dropping $5K on a cooktop). So, I'll basically be buying whatever induction cooktop I choose without testing it. I don't mind buying new cookware, I just want fast cooking and easy cleanup. The thought of having to pick up heavy cast iron grates to clean each time I cook off a gas rangetop makes me cringe. I currently have electric, and although its slow its at least super easy cleanup.