Thanks for the news! Always exciting to see a new induction product line.

Thank you so much for the info! My husband called our local showroom, and was told that they might be available in February. Definitely worth waiting for in our case, even if they are a month or two off. They told him that the burners will have 17 levels, plus a rotisserie option, but no guarantees on this info, lol.

So glad you posted this. We decided we want to go with a Wolf induction when our current stove dies (or we get to that item on our list of improvements to be made...).

Will the old models still be available? Asking because I see they changes the burner layout on the new model, I prefer the current burner layout with the largest burner in the front. But, will have to more comparing of the knobbed vs touchpad models. I'd prefer knobs, but when we test-drove it in the showroom the touchpad wasn't too bad to use (yes they let us cook our own food).

Oh interesting, mxk3. I much prefer the small burner up front, which is why I was excited about the new 30 inch model. (We may be moving to a new house within a year.) That's the set up on my current Wolf cooktop, & I like the close small burner for things that need to be constantly stirred & watched -- scalding milk, making puddings, custards, spoonbreads, polenta. I worried that having the big burner towards the rear would be a pain in the back, but it's not. Big skillets are easy to see into "back there," heavy pots of water aren't as tough to lift as I'd feared. And my overhead vent catches the large plumes better.

"I worried that having the big burner towards the rear would be a pain in the back, but it's not."

It's not me that's the problem, it's DH -- he's a fryin' fool, there's going to be grease everywhere over my beautiful tilework. With the burner in the front, much of the grease gets pulled up into the hood, and the remainder splatters over the back of the stove and down onto the knob panel. I'd rather clean the stove than the tile. Sigh... I did train him (HA!) to use a splatter screen, but still there is grease. I can't imagine what a mess things would be without a hood...and yes it DOES cover the entire depth of the stove -- I figure it's just him and the way he cooks.

Ha! Your husband too?! My husband (aka Burger King) sends frying splatter everywhere also, but thank goodness induction cleans easily with a warm soapy dish rag. I just wipe down the backsplash, counters, & vent too. I'd rather those easy to clean surfaces get greasy rather than wood cabinets below the cooktop & the floor.

Which reminds me. On vacation last summer our rental house had a gas stove with knobs. I remember thinking that I never wanted to bother with cleaning greasy knobs, panels, & stems again. So maybe I'm not a potential customer for the Wolf induction range with knobs after all.

"Ha! Your husband too?! My husband (aka Burger King) sends frying splatter everywhere also..."

Burger King LOL!! Good to know I'm not alone...

I'll have to ask the Wolf showroom rep if the current models will still be available; she'll know.

likely to be very popular? I dont see how, they brought the knobs back. it looks dated.

click to enlarge

This is a bit confusing relative to IMC section 308. Did they mean "[As shown] for island installation, otherwise 12" ...."? Installation guides will hopefully be unambiguous. Maybe units intended for wall installations have counterpart risers like the gas ranges do. If planning now for using one of these, and you hate risers, using steel studs in the wall should be considered, and no plastic/quartz back-splashes there. One would expect induction cooking to (most of the time) keep the wall cool enough to avoid pyrolysis of its interior structure, but there is always the oven heat to deal with.

"Maybe units intended for wall installations have counterpart risers like the gas ranges do."

Do you mean a back-guard? No, they don't -- I asked when I was at the showroom.

I can't imagine the induction generating enough heat to cause problems, like you said. With the oven -- I bet countless people (myself included) have the range shoved up as far back up against the wall as it can go and there isn't a problem. Why would it be any different with the Wolf? If I'm reading the specs correctly (and I may not be...) need 13" between wall and unit. That isn't realistic, and people aren't going to rip out and replace an entire wall just to get a new range. Admittedly I'm confused about all that...

If you do an search for the key word 'back-guard' and/or 'riser' on this site, or via an external search engine including the phrase 'site:gardenweb.com' you should find a lot of discussion on this topic. It usually starts by someone complaining that their quartz back-splash is burned and cracked.

I assume that the Wolf induction ranges have electric ovens (else the dual 50A wouldn't make sense). Self cleaning and/or high temperature cooking will send hot air up the back of many ovens. I have no information w.r.t. how the Wolf is designed, but my guess is that the stand-off distance asserted by Wolf comes from the IMC, section 308.

Normally, manufacturers determine the actual risk to combustibles as a function of distance and let UL approve whatever instructions pass analysis and testing. Right now, this test may not have been done so the worst case has been incorporated into the drawings.

Back-guards allow ranges to butt up to the wall because the ranges with back-guards meet IMC 308 due to their design, which provides an air-gapped volume with cooler air entering from below to moderate the rising heat from the oven.

Alternatively, you would only have to rip out the wall in the shaded area of the Wolf drawing and replace the studs. Normal sheetrock (gypsum) walboard is also considered combustible, so some other material would be used between your studs and the wall surface material, stone, tile, or metal. A picky code enforcement officer would also object to sheet rock or a hanging painting on the other side of the wall.

Most people are unaware of the code, and so are a lot of inspectors. Nothing happens for years until the studs have turned into barely bonded pyrolyzed wood and possibly ignite when there is enough heat.

I consider the risk to be a distant one, but there are so many variables that codes are established to reduce the risk from the worst cases. As an inspector once said to me, "the purpose of Code Enforcement is to take jobs from lawyers." He was referring to the lawyers working for insurance companies who assign all fire damage blame to failure to follow installation instructions.

Ref: https://www.subzero-wolf.com/store/installation/wolf/stainless-steel-risers/36x5-induction-range-riser

Thank you for the detailed explanation, and the link to the riser. Which is interesting, because the showroom rep said they don't make one. I am specifically looking at a 30" induction, I did find one on your website link but compatible model is the Legacy, which is not the model I'm looking at. I'll have to talk to her about it again when I go back in there to order the range and see what's what.

ETA: Here's the one I'm looking at, with the accessories list. No riser listed here. ??

Link: Wolf 30" Professional Induction Range (IR30450/S/P)

Your link links in-turn to the installation guide at https://www.subzero-wolf.com/-/media/files/united-states/product-downloads/sub-zero-wolf/installation-guides/wolf/induction_range_install.pdf. For this range, there is no wall standoff distance. The 13 inches is for limiting cabinet front-to-back size in the shaded zone. Farther apart cabinets could be 15 inches I suspect.

The 12-inch island wall stand-off in the footnote is still unclear. Islands may have a bump for the seating area being higher than the cooktop counter, but this wall space should not be more at risk than a regular full height wall. There must be something Wolf is trying to protect, but I don't know what it is. Perhaps the less constrained air flow under an island hood might cause a higher combustible risk horizontally.

Showroom reps are typically not retired appliance engineers. Wolf answers their phones. You could call and ask about this if you have an island installation in mind.

"For this range, there is no wall standoff distance. The 13 inches is for limiting cabinet front-to-back size in the shaded zone."

Thank you for clarifying that! I obviously didn't read the diagram correctly.... :0/

Still, I would like a riser to contain the mess DH is guaranteed to make -- I'll take the part # with me and ask if they can do it for this model.