I just tried it on my Miele. I put 5 cups of cold tap water in a large pot. It took about 90 seconds for it to come to a rolling boil on Boost II (my cooktop's highest setting). I didn't put a lid on the pot.

You should be able to go to the Induction Site and compare watts to watts. I think I can boil a cup of water in a 6" pan in 90 sec with my 1800wt unit.

Induction site? I'll have to look for that.

here it is

Here is a link that might be useful: induction site

Boiling water is very quick. Much quicker than other techniques. The advantage is really in the control/response in cooking. If the cooktop has timers for each burner you can keep control and have the machine watch the clock.

I would love to test this on my GE Profile. But I'm out of town, traveling for work. So my experiment will have to wait until I get home later this week. This will be fun!

try_hard

Okay, try_hard, I hope you will post your results. I'm really hoping to get that GE Profile, and would love to know what it can really do! (:

weedmeister, thank you for the link! (:

The Electrolux Icon, on the smallest burner 6" brought 1 cup of water to a boil in a minute using a teflon coated pot.
I suspect if I used the large burner, which I think is round 11 inches (never have had a burner that big), I suspects I could do it in 30 seconds (1 cup) but one thing I can promise you, "You can do away with the old cliche'--a watched pot never boils (LOL)
As a practical matter we rarely turn the burners up more than half way, as it is still plenty fast,and I'm not really waiting on it. The other nice thing is the control You have, Like you turn it down, it goes down--right now.
Once you become familiar with it, you can set it , like at midrange and you get a pretty good boil that is consistent, doesnt keep getting hotter and hotter and boil over. Low temps--simmering is exceptional too--I suspects any of the induction cooktops are like this.
Wife sure luvs it and me too---since I get to clean it up after her "Cullinary Expertise Exercizes"

Gary

try hard: Could you also post how you find the hum on the GE Profile unit? I've heard the Miele and it is rather quiet but have been unable to find a working GE to listen to. I know this is subjective but perhaps you could just let me know what you think? Thanks.

Owls4me: Regarding the hum on the GE Profile, it comes and goes. What I mean is, sometimes it hums, sometimes it hums louder and with a bit of a pulsing rhythm, and once, there was a faint clicking noise. I have not identified a pattern that causes this, such as humming when I'm using the biggest and smallest burners. The sound hasn't bothered me but I have been curious to know why it occasionally hums louder.

Try_Hard

Honestly I think it varies from burner to burner and pot to pot. I have a DIVA with one burner that always hums on the highest setting. The others have a faint noise on high, otherwise basically quiet. Also, there is a slight clicking below 3 on all burners as the unit pulses on/off. I don't mind the clicking.

The hum does vary with pots (and contents of pots). Mine doesn't click, but it's an older model.

If one is sensitive to certain sounds (like if you just can't get a properly adjusted hearing aid), one might not like induction. Some people find the hum horrible, even when others barely hear it.

You know I had this same question when I was shopping. I did end up getting the GE Profile 30". I set it up and cooked some bacon. Yup 1st thing to cook on it. I mean anything can boil water, but how well does it cook something important like bacon. It was PERFECT. I have never been so happy and all the grease spatters. I could clean while cooking without burning my fingers.

But I had read on here where people wanted really fast times to boil water. So I wanted to impress the wife. I got our standard pasta pot. (nothing scientific here.) 5 quart stock pot. Filled er up with some cool tap water. Not warm just like we do when making ziti. Put it on the big burner. Put it on maximum and watched the fun. It took about 3 mins for bubbles to show up. Which on the old stove is when we would put the noodles in because boiling took forever. BUT in 5 minutes that water was jumping!
I was happy and the wife was impressed. Can not wait to permanently get this thing installed.

As for the hum, I thought I read somewhere that it has to do with the cookware itself, what it's metals/layers are made from....?

And THANKS for the report on the pasta pot timing! (:
Can't wait.