I have been reading posts on this forum for about a month now and have been very impressed by the intelligent comments. It's been very helpful to me in choosing appliances so thank you.

This is the first time I'm posting, in the hope that someone can tell me whether my cooktop is working as it should. My question refers to the burner flames on the cooktop I just had installed last week - a Thermador sgsx365fs 36" 5 burner gas cooktop with the star-shaped sealed burners. (It replaced a 14 year old Dacor 36" 4-burner cooktop. Although the Dacor was working fine we had to replace our failing Subzero 550 fridge and Asko dishwasher and didn't want to end up with a mix of stainless (new) appliances and (old) white ones. Since we decided to replace the Subzero with a Kitchenaid counter depth french door fridge (this was not an easy decision!), we decided the money we "saved" by not buying another Subzero allowed us to change out all of the appliances even if the oven and cooktop were still functioning fine. Plus I have to admit that I get a kick out of new gadgets and since I'm the one and only cook in our family of four, I lobbied hard for the change.)

Getting back to why I posted: The flames are not like the Dacor I replaced and don't seem right to me. For one, the flames are mostly blue but orange-colored flames shoot out regularly from varying spots on each burner. This happens with all of the burners and on all settings, although you can't see it as well on lower settings because the flames are smaller. I've used a couple of the burners for at least an hour already so I don't think it has to do with some settling in period. The second difference between the new cooktop and the old Dacor is that the flames are not as well-defined or stable-looking. They almost look like there's a draft in the kitchen, although it doesn't blow in any particular direction consistently. They look wobbly, almost like the Dacor did (but not as bad) when the sealed burner cap wasn't on straight. I don't believe that air flow in my kitchen hasn't changed since we switched appliances. I've observed this even when there are no windows open and the downdraft is off and closed.

To Thermador's credit, I called their support center, described what seems wrong to me, and the rep immediately scheduled an appointment for the factory technician to come out next Monday. I will post the result of that visit.

But I'm wondering if anyone has experienced flames like I've described and if this is normal for this cooktop.

Thank you,

family_cook