My de dietrich 309x has them on all 5 hobs. It is one of my favorite features. You definitely want it whichever brand you go with.

I would strike the Bosch from your list. I have the Bosch 36" induction cooktop and the timer is only a timer. It definitely does not turn off the hob. That being said, it is a nice cooktop.

Miele has a true timer and not a bad price, either. Ordered a 36" one myself - waiting for my kitchen reno to be over. I also looked at the Wolf, which does NOT have a true timer.

I would love to be clued in to why timers are important.

I have the Miele 5 burner with timers at my summer house and the Diva DPP-5 without the timers at my regular domicile. I have used the timers one time in 6 months with the Miele--and that was just to see how they worked.

To my view, timers might be important for those that walk away for extended periods of time to do something and simply forget that they are cooking, have Alzheimers, or for those who drink heavily and may pass out. Come to think of it, maybe there is a good reason: you can be making a large stock pot of broth or maybe stew and then have the convenience of leaving the house. But knowing myself, I would be far too anxious leaving anything cooking in my kitchen while being AWOL. I might trust it with a crock pot.

Compared with the general cooking operation of the induction unit and its ease of use, it is way down my list of must have items for me.

Afterall, when I used to have my gas rangetop I never recall thinking--"Gee--I would really love this cooktop if only it had timers" :-)

Greg

**seriously, if someone has a good reason for the timers I would love to be clued in. Maybe I'm missing something. If there is a good reason I can always move the Miele to my year-round house and put the Diva in my summer home.

Thanks for the help. Timed hobs seem like they'd be quite useful. I too liked the Wolf, and thought I saw a post about it having a true timer, but it didn't appear so after reading the manual.

The Miele is available only with trim, right? I'm considering installing my cooktop to be perfectly flush with my granite, but am a little afraid of it not being a perfect fit, and also worry about the fabricators "notching" the granite incorrectly.

Potatoes starting boiling set to 2.5 and timer 8 or 9 minutes. Shutoff

Rice starts boiling reduce and set for 30 mins depending on the rice.

Carrots.....

You get the idea and if you want a separate timer you can have a regular timer with the Miele. I like to have all the balls in the air and know when they will fall.

We have the DeDietrich 308 which is only 30", but it has a timer on each burner. We LOVE the timers (and the cooktop). Last night I made a dirty rice mix and steamed some vegetables. I set the rice at low power and set 25 minutes on the timer. At that time it turned off and I let it stand for about 5 minutes without opening to finish off. When I saw the rice timer showed about 5 minutes remaining I turned on the steamed vegetables on another burner to high power for 30 seconds to bring the water to a boil and then set it to medium power with a 9 minute timer. It also turned off by itself, with a beeper to remind you it was turning off. We had perfect rice and perfect vegetables. We use the timers regularly. They are not required, but for the way we cook, they have proven to be very nice to have.

Of that list I'd recommend the Miele really. They are at a very good price point considering the name which is nice. Gaggenau's recent price increase put them at totally ridiculous levels.

Thanks so much for all your advice.

I think I'll LOVE the timers, especially with my pressure cookers. Miele looks like they have a fixed price of $2749 with some local dealers selling at $2699. Waiting for EXPO to discount more than 10% in the next few weeks as their liquidation progresses, then it's mine!

Now to rationalize $5000 for double ovens...

$2699 is the price you should pay. period

oskiebabu,

Timers don't do much to make us better cooks, but they do help us manage our time better. I'm sure I'm not the only one who rarely has the luxury of uninterrupted time to cook. And even on those special occasions when I intend to do nothing but cook, it's rare that I don't get interrupted. A timed hob is great for long-simmering dishes, freeing me up to do other things, but I also use it for fast-cooking things that shouldn't be overcooked. For example, poaching eggs so the yolks are still runny even if I don't get back exactly on time.

Every other major appliance that I can think of uses timers, and many even have sensors and additional features (for example, Wrinkle-Guard) to maintain quaility if we aren't right there when the batch is done. So why do most stove burners require human intervention to turn them off?

There are so many