Thanks for your feedback! Unfortunately, it looks like the Kenmore is out of the running - they just raised their price as I was getting ready to check out. :-( Most likely might hold off for now to see if any better pricing comes along.

The price of the 95073 fluctuates. I've seen it above $1570 at times and down around $1300. If past years are any indication, the price will likely be discounted for the Labor Day weekend sales. Start checking a week or so in advance.

BTW, you are aware that the Kenmore induction ranges come out of the same Electrolux factory that makes the Frigidaires?

Could you be a more specific about what you didn't like about the stove in your old house and what you hate about the stove in your current apartment? With that information, we might be able to give you some more specific advice or information.

jwvideo - thanks for the info on the pricing. I will most likely hold off until Labor Day and see what is going on the (we also have a microwave hood and washer/dryer to purchase as well).

For our current stove (we are in an apartment until we move out next month) it is a basic coil stove that doesn't really do anything well and takes forever to bring anything to a boil. Our last stove was a nice stove (glass touch screen, convection, temp probe, good number of features) and I got a great deal on it. However, after using it for a while I slowly noticed things that I didn't like:

1) When bringing anything to a boil, after I turned the heat down, I had to move that pot to a different burner, off the stove or put it partly on that burner. The burner took quite a while to cool which didn't allow the boiling water to settle down. Many times I would boil water on one burner and then move it to another to continue cooking.

Also, you could put in here that it took a while to bring things to a boil. So a two edged sword in a sense - took a long time to bring to a boil and took a long time for the surface to cool off.

2) Stovetop cleanup. I spill things and boil things over, so I know that I will have to deal with that. From everything that I have read/seen for induction it seems like you have less to deal with. Our older stove, anytime I would have anything boil over or spill out was a chore to clean up since the surface got so hot. I had to use Cerama Bryte every time I cleaned up and many times I had to use a straight edged blade to scrape off the glass top.

3) Fine tuning the temp for the stove top. I like the ability you have to really control the temperature of the cooktop. Like I mentioned with the boiling above, I couldn't really adjust the temp very easily. Once a burner got to it's boiling point, I couldn't quickly adjust it down - you would have to wait for the burner to cool down on it's own. Same with trying to cook something at a lower temp - it was just difficult to get close to the temp that I needed.

The stove/baking part worked well and I had no issues with this. Everything that I wished to fix all had to do with the surface cooking element. From what I have seen and read, an induction surface would help to eliminate all of these issues for me.

Hope that this helps with a little background. And again, thanks for your comments!

Ease of surface cleanup and quick temperature control are two of the strongest recommendations for induction. So you're going to be happy.

I was just going to say what dan said - you'll be amazed!

The Kenmore and Frigidaire both have (IIRC) something like 19 or 20 power settings for the stovetop burners. Those (and induction's responsiveness) should provide the fine-tuning you've missed with the coil burners and radiant electric stoves.

Combining purchasing of multiple appliances? That can give you some bargaining ability, too. See what Labor Day brings, then.

To go back to your concern about some online comments from reviewers who thought the Kenmore "could have been better at baking," consider a couple of points that might allay your concerns about that aspect of your choosing between the Frigidaire model and the Kenmore version with the larger oven.

The Reviewed.com write up on the Kenmore, IIRC, was the one which "thought it could have been better at baking." Their knock was that the oven temperature cycled up and down. I'm pretty sure that they were measuring temperatures right after the "preheat" indicator came on, which means the oven was still cycling and the oven walls were not fully preheated. You've probably seen the discussions here about most oven preheat indicators only measuring air temperatures. Fully preheating the walls (for radiant heating and even baking) takes double or more the preheat time. I would discount Reviewed.com's comment accordingly.

You also mentioned Consumer Reports. It's rating chart gives the Kenmore a half red-dot, rather than a full red dot, for baking performance. CR measures baking performance on multiple trays of sugar cookies which it runs under a scanner to detect what may be very fine differences on the exact degree of sameness of browning. It also is grading on a curve and measuring degrees of excellence. CR does not really explain how much "better" an "excellent" rating is over a "very good" and "good" rating. (For all we know, the differences might well be imperceptible to most of us.) Further, CR's tests of baking multiple sheets of sugar cookies are usually conducted without using any convection functions which often (though not always) even out the baking of such things. Also consider that the "half-dot" rating for the Kenmore is the same as for the Frigidiare and Electrolux freestanding ranges. Consider also that the relatively longstanding Electrolux EW301S slide-in got a "good rating" from CR for baking while the long threads here on that slide-in report what users have seen as generally excellent baking and roasting abilities.

So, I would say a "very good" rating for baking from CR does not mean the Kenmore is a subpar performer unless you suffer from what we used to
call the "yuppie disease" --- anything is a terrible product if it is
not universally rated as the absolute best-there-ever-was. :>)

Thank you everyone for your thoughts & comments! Went ahead an ordered the Kenmore Elite 95073 - too good of a price to pass up (the price dropped down even further, though I will keep an eye out for Labor Day deals). Looking forward to getting this into our new home and doing some cooking!!!!

A relief to get that part of the reno taken care of , eh? Please post back to let us know how it works out for you.

Thanks! Now after meeting a few painters at the house, I did a few more measurements and learned about what "cabinet depth" refrigerators are, and how the one we bought is not. lol.