Buy it and enjoy it.

Some will tell you that 40 is less than 50.

Some will tell you that you might need all 50 amps one day when all your pots need high heat simultaneously. You will tell them that you will work around it, as you can bring one pot up to high heat first before the others.

They are all right and so are you.

The 40 versus 50 dilemma is only relevant when you want all burners on high with no compromise.

David

It has to do with power sharing.

A 40-amp unit can generate approximately 9600 watts at one time. A 50-amp unit can generate approximately 12000 watts at one time. Lets say that all 4 hobs are 3000 watts. In the first case you could not have all 4 on high at the same time. The unit will shift to power sharing mode and cut back power on the hobs so that only 9600 watts will be used.

In the second case you could have all 4 on at the same time.

Power sharing is an issue for some folks. I think it depends on your cooking style.

Thanks for the explanations. davidrol, I am certain you are right and I am sooo close to just buying it. But I still don't understand the difference between power sharing and boost. If the total wattage doesn't add up to 100%, but no burners are boosted, how is that different from power boost, where the chart says (on the induction website) that you have 100% of the wattage but not when you boost? And honestly, how many of you out there use all of your burners on high simultaneously? I could just buy it and enjoy it, but I have been bitten in the rear before by not completely understanding what I was getting when I made a purchase, and I am getting too old to tell myself I can get another one in 10 years. ;) I need to understand my decisions in order to feel like I am making good ones. I have never been very good at math or science, so I apologize if these seem like silly questions.

send an email to Fagor to ask them to explain, about boost.

Power boost is a feature whereby a given hob can be temporarily 'boosted' higher than its normal rating. This extra power used is applied against the maximum the unit can provide. If the boost takes the power above the maximum, then another hob gets cut back until the boost is completed. Usually the other hob is one of a pair. From the GE documentation, the pairs are the units on each side. The Fagor is probably the same.

I was looking at the specs for the Fagor on the induction site. What it says is that the maximum power of the whole unit is 9600 watts. The maximum power for all 5 hobs totals to 13600 watts. This means you cannot run all 5 at the same time on High. (depending on how it works) As soon as you hit the 9600 limit the unit will start turning down other hobs.

However, you could run all 5 hobs at 70% power.

Looking at the GE specs (PHP960?), what strikes me is that the power on all the hobs is much less than the power on the Fagor hobs. Setting a hob to the highest 'normal' setting will be about 2/3 the power of the Fagor. Boosting gets them closer to the same power (heat), but boosting is temporary on the GE.

You should know that the GE is rated for 208/240 volts and 9800 watts. That puts it slightly above 40 amps which I bet is why they specified a 50-amp service. The Fagor is not rated for 208 volts so you need to know what is available at your house.

Thank you, Weedmeister! This makes sense to me. I am building a house and can put in whatever I need to...so what is the difference really between 40 and 50 amp in terms of what I would notice? Anything at all? DH says the amperage is the flow rate of the power, and 40 is slightly less than 50...so would any given hob just get to full power slightly slower than a 50 amp service? And are we just talking seconds here, or something more perceptible? Should I put in a 50 amp service since I have the option? Would I need it somewhere down the road? Thanks for hanging in with me on the questions!

The wire thickness can be a pain to install, but yes do it. Put a wire that will take up to 50 amps.

For a number of small reasons that add up to be serious, don't install a device that can occasionally draw more than 40 amps on a 40 amp wire. Or on a 40 amp breaker.

Whether a 50 amp rated device that only needs 42 or 43 amps for real, will work when only 40 amps are available, is a good question for a high school science lab. Chances are high that it will work perfectly. BUT you cannot run it like that permanently in your house on a 40 amp breaker on a 40 amp wire.

David

Thank you so much for your helpful answers. I think I have decided to go with the Fagor and a 50 amp line. It was my first choice, but now I can make a well-informed decision and save myself all the second guessing. Thanks again!

The service to the device has to be greater or equal to the device. Since service of this size is usually in increments of 10 amps, a 50amp service is required.

that aside, it's not the amps that is that important, it's the watts. Both are directly related. More watts means more/faster heat.

If we believe what GE and Fagor says, then the GE has finer control at lower power levels. The Fagor will heat up faster and stay on high longer (no boost required). Both will power-share.

Amps and watts Both are directly related, so knowing one means you know the other without doing any complicated thinking.

More Amps = More watts = More/faster heat. Directly.

So I'd say to someone who says "it's not the amps that is that important, it's the..." , I'd say, um, noooh.... they are the same thing said differently, in a circuit where the voltage is designed to be a constant.... which is the case in every home in the world.

I also am not sure where in the above posts the GE was discussed as having "finer control at lower power levels."

Hope this helps, and I'll be glad to keep on discussing this!

DAvid

What I was getting at is that it is more important (to me, at least) to know that the 4 hobs have 3.2kwatts of power each available than 50 amps to the whole cooktop.

By finer control, I meant that the GE has 19 levels of control: 1-9 in half steps. The hobs are lower power.

The Fagor has 12 levels for each hob, each with higher power ratings.

OK, well now I am thinking that maybe I should consider the GE Profile. Especially since our construction budget keeps making that giant sucking sound. I'll go back to the Induction Website and check out the comparison of wattage to BTU's...I cannot imagine that I would use any cooktop at it's highest level for too long, since that would mean burning the food. I will have to rethink how i cook...Does anyone out there have the GE induction cooktop who would like to comment on it's performance? Thanks for the discussion.