The cooktop itself only gets hot as a result of the hot cookware sitting on it. It cools quickly.

As for clearance, the electronics which drive the induction heat up and need sufficient circulation to keep them cool. 12" seems a bit much though. My Thermador, with heatshield, requires less than four inches.

By the way, your topic says 12 feet, funny typo.

Not really a typo.If you use a quotation mark in the title a software quirk will display it as an apostrophe. If you wish to have it come out "correctly" for inch use two apostrophes instead of the quotation mark key.

Okay, intresting glitch, it's still funny.

That's interesting, not intresting.....lol

This was the reason I steered away from the GE induction cooktop. That's a lot of space to lose! My GC was trying to figure out a workaround using metal sheeting. Might be worth a try, but you'd have to call GE to get the all-clear.

It sounds like somebody saw a spec of 12 cm and made it 12 inches. Wouldn't be the first time. I remember seeing a metric conversion on the Wolf site involving a Use and Care Manual that was amazingly stupid.

FWIW, I made my cabinet maker put a shallow drawer in for untensils right under my induction cooktop and nothing's melted yet.

I just started a new thread but I should have just continued this one. According to GE's installation instructions, it is indeed 12" (from the bottom of the cooktop which is 3.25" deep, so 15.25" total), PLUS, you can't put a shelf underneath that is more than 18" deep! They have a diagram showing this, with the narrow shelf coming out from the rear wall, only reaching a little over halfway to the front of the cab, and it makes no sense. This conflicts with another GE document I found on Lowe's website that indicates a much smaller clearance (maybe 8") and mentions nothing about the shelf thing. I am scratching my head, and now leaning toward the KithenAid or the Thermador (I don't really want to pay more than $3k).

Anyone who has drawers under their cooktop, please post what brand you have and how much clearance it has. I saw the GE site and was horrified at the amount of wasted space. There must be SOME cooktop that will work!