Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Update: 11/28/2018 Well the cooktop lasted only five years before both of the motherboards had to be replaced at a cost of over $1500.00 That is NOT acceptable for a cooktop that costs this much, no matter how cool the pot chaser burners are. So i'm deducting three stars from this thing, and unfortunately can no longer recommend purchase. Truly a pity. This a is a $5000 cooktop, not a thing to be taken lightly, so this will be a lengthy review. (The cooktop was not purchased through Amazon, since I had an inside track at a local wholesaler to get one of the first out, but I am putting the review here since - let's face it - everyone comes to Amazon for reviews.) If you can afford it, and you love to cook, give serious consideration to springing for one of these things. I first saw the Thermador Freedom Induction Cooktop advertised on one of the techno-geek sites that I frequent, before they were even in production, and the idea that a cooktop would heat up ONLY under a pan, NO MATTER WHAT SHAPE the pan was, and that the heating element would actually MOVE around if you moved the pan to another location, was intriguing enough that I decided that I had to be one of the first people to test it. (not always the best idea.) I've had it installed for a couple of months now - and ladies and gentlemen - this thing delivers. So these are a few things that this induction cooktop can (and can't) do: 1. It will automatically fit the shape of the heating elements under the pot, pan or dutch oven to the exact shape of the pan you are using, from square to circular to oval; the display will show either a large round, small round, large oval, or double element heating element. (Anything from 3 inches to 13 inches in diameter according to the Usage guide.) Square griddles heat up in a square shape - although the little display picture can't show the square - it will show a circle. (I did test it with a square griddle. Any place the metal touches heats up just fine - no cold spots where the squared off corners hang off of a burner.) 2. By fitting the shape of the pot exactly, heat is applied in a very energy-saving way. Actually, the cooktop doesn't heat up at all, the pot does - by vibrating magnetically. That means that boil overs and spills do not immediately char into the cooktop. Clean-up is a breeze on this cooktop. (More on that later.) The only heat on the cooktop is reflected heat from the pot. (That can get pretty warm though, so you don't want to put your hand down on it right after you take a pot off.) 3. Just a note: It is a very powerful cooktop, and it has the potential to draw a lot of amps. We had to change out our 20 amp breakers for 30 amp breakers, (which is recommended for the cooktop), but that fact doesn't usually get listed anywhere useful for people thinking about buying one. So that's something to check before you buy. (We had a lot of stuff on the same circuit.) 4. This cooktop has a built in power-Booster setting, that heats up REALLY fast. Faster than the halogen element that I had on my old glass cooktop, and that had been the fastest thing I'd seen (including gas). You want to turn that down after your water comes to a boil - the Boost is meant to be used for short spurts to hurry things along. 5. Turning off the power on this unit stops the heating. Instantly. (Only the residual heat in the pot remains.) 6. The cooktop can do extremely low settings as well. For warming. Without burning. Melting chocolate. Very nice. 7. The entire flat cooktop with the exception of the display screen is the useable cooktop, and you can move pots and pans around and the elements just follow the pan around. (It's so cool!) That's great if you shift the pan around a bit while turning the handle to get it out of the way, or if you need to pour something out of the pan and set it back down in a slightly different place. (You can set the amount of time for the "Lift and Hold" function from 10 to 90 seconds, depending on how long it normally takes you to empty the pot, and set it back down. Mine is set for 30 seconds. The heat settings will just follow the pot to wherever you place it, and resume once the pot is back on the cooktop. Lifting the pot automatically pauses the element until it is set back down.) If you move the pot clear to the other side of the cooktop, it will remember and transfer your settings to the new spot. The unit detects the new postition, and it shows up on the display in the new spot. Touching that new circle once transfers all of the settings to the new spot, and you don't have to go through resetting them again. 8. The cooktop has a touch-screen display, you touch a button next to the display to turn the power on, and set a suitable pot down anywhere on the cooktop area. After a couple of seconds, the display will show a little blue "burner" representation where the pot is. You touch and hold on that circle or oval on the display, and the circle turns orange, indicating that it is activated, and a sliding scale pops out. Slide your finger to the left to increase the temperature under the pot. Sliding the scale all the way to the left gives you the Boost option. Sliding your finger to the right lowers the temperature. Lift your finger when the desired temperature is framed in the brackets, to start the element. 9. You can program the unit to heat a pot for a certain amount of time before turning itself off. After you touch the little blue circle that represents that pot, and select the temperature, a button appears on the display in the lower right that says "Cook Time". Touching that button gives you another little sliding scale that lets you set the amount of time that the burner will be heating. You can set the cook time after setting the temperature, then press the "Enter" button that pops up next to the time scale, or just leave the "Cook Time" button alone, and the unit will keep cooking until you turn it off or take the pot off of the cooktop. If you do use the "Cook Time" button, the unit beeps when it is done, so that you can either turn it off or set some more time if needed. 10. There is a separate "Timer" on the display that works just like the other functions. Touch the "Timer" button, a sliding scale pops out, slide it to set the time. (Note: For the timer displays, if you want to set the "Minutes" time, you first touch and hold the "Minutes" slider for a second, the slider pops up, then slide the slider. For hours, you first touch the "Hours" slider for a second, it pops up, then you slide it. You have to give the unit a second to sense your finger before it gives you your options.) The timer sounds until you turn it off. 11. Not an issue for me, but the panel has a "Panel Lock" setting that can be used to lock the display so that children cannot change the settings on the cooktop. 12. There is also a "Clean Lock" option, so that when you have that boil over, and you need to clean it up before you finish cooking, you can lock the display and swipe across it to clean without messing up your settings on all the burners. 13. If you need to know the time of day - there is a Clock. (Set it under "Settings"). You only see it when the cooktop is turned on. 14. The program is really very easy to use, and if you do something wrong (you will at first) the unit tells you very clearly in the display what to do to get it right. It might tell you to move the hot pot away from the touch display panel, and wait for the display to cool down before continuing to use the cooktop. (As opposed to just flashing Error #276 at you.) And at any time, you can press the "Information" button on the display and it walks you through what to do, step by step. For instance: Turn the unit on and press "i" for information - The display says "To begin cooking, place cookware on the cooking surface" Press "back" Put a pan on the cooktop. Press "i" again and the display says "Touch the cookware position symbol to set the power" Touch "back" and touch the cookware position symbol. Press "i" again and the display says "To set the power level, touch the numbers and slide your finger left or right....etc." Someone really put a lot of thought into their instructions. You can literally step through anything by alternately pressing the "i" button for information and the "back" button to exit the information area. 15. Okay....clean up. Excellent! This unit has no knobs, which on my last glass cooktop could not be removed for cleaning, and tended to collect grease and spills, which then smeared all over the glass. (Hated that with a passion.) This unit is totally flat glass, with brushed stainless steel trim around the outside edges, and no place really for grease to collect. Spills and boil-overs do not cook onto the surface, since the surface itself does not actually heat up. No scraping burnt sugar up with razor blades so far. The only thing that I have needed to use to clean the surface is a cute little travel spray bottle filled with a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water. I just leave it right next to the cooktop and give a quick spritz and wipe with a paper towel after particularly messy dishes. (The spattering kind.) The vinegar cuts the grease nicely. If you want to add a drop of Dawn to the bottle you can. What not to use - any kind of abrasive cleaner is going to scratch the glass. You want to wipe up salt and sugar spills promptly, so they don't get ground into the glass by a heavy pot, or burned on underneath a heating pot. No scrubby pads or abrasive sponges - if you have to scrape something off that got burned on, use a razor blade in a scraper, after the unit cools. Plastic will melt if you set it on a hot zone that you just took a pot off of. And you must never set a hot pot down on the display control panel - it can damage the display. (It beeps warnings at you if you do.) The Negatives: 1. It's a glass cooktop with a Touch Screen - you will leave fingerprints all over the Touch Screen display. These are easily cleaned up with the vinegar spray, but they tend to irritate me as much as the ones all over my touch tablets do. Not really a biggie, I guess. 2. This is an induction cooktop - unless you have a large collection of ferromagnetic cookware, you are going to need to buy a couple of additional pots and skillets. Cast iron works, enameled cast iron, and induction ready cookware. I have written reviews for a couple of skillets/pots that I found that work extremely well, but they are mid-range to high priced cookware. (Demeyere Proline and Sitram Profisserie). If you don't want to spend that much money on your cookware, especially after dropping a bundle on the cooktop, head to Target with a strong magnet in your pocket. Stick the magnet on each pan - if it sticks, it will work on this cooktop. Surprisingly, one of the non-stick "Giada DeLaurentis for Target" skillets works very well (very inexpensive) and the Farberware Millenium also makes a good one. (You do have to check with that magnet though, not all of them do.) 3. Heavy duty cookware like Le Creuset works like a dream, and weighs a ton, especially when filled. Which is a downside. Most of the stuff that you do use to cook on this thing weighs rather a lot compared to non-stick aluminum and copper options. Needless to say - you do not want to set heavy pots down on a glass cooktop carelessly. 4. The stainless steel trim around the outside of the cooktop is fairly soft - I've already managed to scratch it with something. Be careful with rough bottomed pots and things. They will probably also scratch the glass if you drag them around on it. 5. I don't know that this is actually a negative, but I'll mention it - if you set a pot or pan down on the cooktop while it is turned on and the pan is made of aluminum, the unit will register it, and give you a burner option. It will not heat it though - if you try to turn the burner on, it gives you an error message and tells you to use the right kind of pot. Not really an issue, since the unit won't heat, but I've got a bad habit of setting the bread tray from the oven down on the cooktop when getting dinner ready. (I think I'm confusing the poor thing! Chuckle!) 6. Last thing - don't heat thin-bottomed empty pots on the cooktop - they can melt before the Safety-Shut-Off can register the pot. (That's from the User Manual - I haven't done it. Make sure the pot is filled with something.) 7. Okay that wasn't the last thing - this is......Some folks have posted reviews complaining about the noise that can occur on induction cooktops. I haven't noticed any noise at all when cooking on this cooktop, EXCEPT when using the Boost function. That really vibrates the pan at high speed, and what I hear is a very low hum, like electricity running through a transformer or a distant wasp. I really have to be listening for it - it tends to disappear in the other humming noises all over the kitchen from various devices. Most of the pans that I have are thick-bottomed though. It might be worse on thinner pans. It's not hard to live with at all, especially since the Boost function is used for such a short period. Okay - that's probably enough. (I wonder if they've got limits on these reviews?) Since I've only had this for a couple of months, and I'm still in the honeymoon stage, I'll try to update this if anything goes bad wrong down the road. But for now - I'm REALLY lovin' it! Update: I recently discovered that you cannot set a large pot squarely in the center of the unit above the display. You have to think of the cooking area as divided into two halves, with a zone for cooking on the left, and another zone for cooking on the right. While you can place a pot anywhere in either of those zones, if you straddle the two zones with a large pot, the unit just makes a loud clicking noise as it shifts from trying to heat the left side of the pot to trying to heat the right side. It just clicks back and forth, and doesn't heat. So you have to shift the large pot one way or the other so that the unit knows which side to turn on. Just something to be aware of - I couldn't figure out why it wasn't getting hot. Moved the pot a few inches to the left and it heated up in a flat hurry.