Convection is something I use frequently and would recommend. From what I hear, the warming drawers at this price point are not worth the money/space. Regarding the center burner... If I had a choice, I would rather spend the money on 4 good burners (15k BTU+) than 4-5 mediocre burners, but in this price range, they all seem to be a similar setup (probably built by the same 2 companies). I have a hard time envisioning a decent size griddle getting evenly heated with any of these center burners. The Frigidaire has slightly higher burner output on average, but then there's that CNB to deal with.

All these ranges are great, and they all have their idiosyncrasies. Capital, as an example have the most available features, offering large wok burners on top and self cleaning ovens below with a rotisserie if you want it. Infrared grills too. And a company that is responsive to their customers. Their one weakness is also a strength- they have 19K BTU burners. These burners go low enough if adjusted, the problem is the large circle of flames is not so great with a small pot. A small pot set on medium or higher and the flames go to the outside of the pot. The solution would be to have at lease one smaller burner with a smaller flame circle. But if you want high heat, you have to have more flame holes and that usually means a larger diameter circle, stacked or not. It's that simple. This is what Wolf and DCS do on their sealed burner ranges- 2 different burner sizes. They may also have a dual stage or stacked burner for simmer, but they still have two different burner caps. Wolf offers an open burner(on their All Gas) that is cute because it has a small cap within a second larger circle. But some people find the black porcelain bowls harder to clean. American doesn't use 'stacked' (or dual stage) burners, but has 3 different burner sizes. Even the small circle gets pretty hot when set on high. Bluestar doesn't use stacked burners either. But they have 3 burner sizes per range-and they do two things differently- the flames are directed straight up, and their medium (15K) and large (22K) BTU burners have eight fingers of flames (double rows on each finger of the 22K) going out from a small circle-and like I said, the flames shoot straight up, not out- so when you turn the thing on high, the flames aren't going to the outside of the pan ...also only the smallest burner is in a circle, the others are a circle with 8 fingers. A great design, but they have their problems too on occasion- see all the threads on this forum. And you certainly can't get self-cleaning or dual fuel with that brand.

Here's my additional 2 cents worth from having looked pretty hard at both of the GE ranges last fall when I was stove shopping. First, on noise -- are you asking about cooktop noise or noise from the cooling fans for the electronics? If the latter, the reports here are that both the freestanding and slide-in stoves have cooling fans for the electronics but neither has been especially noticable. Some of the earlier Samsung FTQ induction ranges did have a problem with their fans being noisy and running for a long time. (That was supposedly fixed and I ahven't seen any such complaints about on the current NE59x models.) Also, I've seen complaints of noise in some KitchenAid slide-ins after KA/WP upgraded the electronics cooling fans to deal with the spate of board failures during or as a result of oven self-cleaning. Found nothing like that on the GE induction ranges. If, on the other hand, you mean cooktop noise as in buzzing, humming, ringing, etc. while pans heat up, the answer is that, so far, the answer is there is no difference between the slide-in and freestanding GE models. As for the question of whether the reliability of the slide-in will differ from that of the free-standing, it is too early to really know. The stoves haven't been on the market long enough. In theory, having the electronic controls at the front of the slide-in is a location that puts them where they might get more oven heat than the higher backsplash mounted boards in the feestanding version. Especially during high-heat oven self-cleaning. Also, you might be more likely to spill hot liquids etc. onto the front mounted electronic control panel. Back in the old days (three decades ago when the first round of induction stoves were being sold here in North America), spills on cooktop control surfaces could cause problems. Not sure how much of a problem it is with current touchpads style of controls. A lot of drop-in induction cooktops have them and I haven't seen a lot of reports about failures. so that might not be the problem it used to be. But what I've just said is concern about risk, however, not experienced based predictions. So, at this point, we just do not k now the answer to your question about long term reliability. Some other points. Oven vents: both the slide-in and the freestanding vent the oven in the back of the cooktop. The slide-in has a low "island trim" kind of vent, like the ones the GE Cafe ranges. I was told but was not able to verify) that the low and thin backguard for the Cafe stoves can be used with the induction slide-in if you want something to keep things from rolling off the stove stop behind the stove. Apparently it is possible for things on the stove top to fall into the low oven vent grate. There was a thread here last winter where that happened to somebody with one of these stoves. We explained about CMPFs (flexible projecting grabbers) which he got from the hardware store and retrieved whatever little thing had fallen in there. On the front of the slide-in is another vent which is the exhaust for the control board cooling fans. The parts diagrams can be confusing and make it seem like these might be for the oven. This issue came up last winter and was sorted out (with photos and parts diagrams) somewhere in that long thread that fauguy started on the GE slide in. As far as anybody here has been able to tell, there doesn't seem to be any apparent difference between the freestanding and slide-in as far as oven and stovetop performance go. There is a bit of a difference between them in the usable space on the cooktop with the slide-in being a few inches shallower than the freestanding. This seems counterintuitive, But here's what I figured out in my stove shopping expedition. The usable cooktop surface on the freestanding range is 29 7/8 wide and about 22" deep (from the front of the cooktop to the point on the back where a stockpot would butt up against the backsplash. (This is my recollection of the one I measured in a store about a year ago, so you might want to verify this because my memory may be faulty.) On the slide-in, the cooktop surface is 31,25 inches wide and 19-inches deep. (Got that figure from the GE website in the Q&A). Of course, you know that the slide-in's stove body is actually 29 7/8" wide but the cooktop is designed to overhang the counters to the sides and so is a little wider. The depth of the cooktop glass is 19 inches from the front edge of the oven vent at the back of the stove to the back edge of the control panel framing on the front of the stove. (Yes, I know that both stoves are deeper, but we're talking about the cooking surface, not the entire stove body.) Those front and rear frames limit how pots can overhang to the front or back and thus limit how many big pans you can put on at one time. If you get a 12" frying pan with flaring sides --- and by the way, you do know that the base of those kinds of pans is typically around 9 to 10 inches and that the 12"measurement is the diameter across the top of the pan? --- you might not have any problem with overhang ont he slide-in. The pans may be high enough and flared enough to that they don't hit those frames. But a larger pan with straight sides might not fit, particularly when you have two 12" fry pans on the front burners,. The freestanding gives you a bit more leeway. If you need/want the leeway. THis is the kind of small thing that some folks find important and that others could care less about. This post was edited by JWVideo on Tue, Jul 23, 13 at 21:39

I also have this induction range. Have had it about a year and a half (17 months). Love the cooktop, especially knowing that the "eyes" will go off when pots are removed. I was always worrying about leaving one on. The oven - loved it for baking until recently. My previous oven never baked at the temperature I set it for - very inconsistent. Once I got this new one, I started baking cookies, cakes, even cheescakes again. However, after using the self cleaning feature the first time, my next bundt cake burned on top. It was a cake that was to take an hour and 10 minutes to bake and after 30 minutes the top was way too dark. Yesterday, I needed to bake cookies for a funeral reception. I had just cleaned it again the day before,so I decided to use an oven thermometer to check the temperature before the first batch. It was to be set for 350 and it was closer to 400 degrees. I let the oven cool down and then set it for 325. The cookies turned out great but now I'm not so happy about the temperture issue. I did not get the extended warranty so will have to figure out if I will call for service or see if my hubs can adjust it - supposedly that may be a possibility. I don't know for sure if the issue had anything to do with using the self cleaning feature or not. Will say though, that it does do a great job of cleaning it in 3 hours. I did not need the 5 hour cycle and it had splatter from doing cornish hens the weekend before. I'm having issues with the fridge I bought at the same time so right now I can't face dealing with the oven issue. Will just use the thermometer before I bake and self adjust the temp.