am concerned about the automatic shut-off when a pot is left undisturbed

Before you make the decision to not get the Bosch, I would check - I thought all induction cooktops turn off after some number of hours of undisturbed cooking. (I may be wrong, it's just something I thought I remembered)

I believe all have a safety shut-off when excessive heat is detected or there is a fluid spill. Bosch takes that up a notch. They have a length of time the element can be used before they decide you forgot to turn it off.

I called Bosch today and their customer service rep was excellent. She checked the details on the auto shut off, and it is less of an issue since the shut off times are longer than expected. Shut-off time for each power:

Power. Time

1 10 hours

2-3 5 hours

4-5 3 hours

5-6 2 hours

7-9 3 hours

The only other quirk with the Bosch is the way it handles power boost ; it does not share power with the other element in its zone, it actually won't allow the other burner to be on at all. No one told Bosch that "sharing is caring". Now, on the surface this seemed awful, but I'm not really sure how often I would actually use the boost function.

As such, I believe the Bosch 800 is back in the running. Many of my very favorite high quality pots measure just under 10" for the contact area though - I need to make sure they will function on the Bosch 11" burner. I may be arriving at Yale with a couple pots in tow! I do like that I could upgrade to a 12" diameter pot and still get good conduction which I would not get on the other tops that have a 10" as the largest burner.

Electrolux and Frigidaire share power when they boosts, and although they lack individual burner timers, they otherwise meets my requirements. I just have such nagging reliability worries with the Elux and with the Frigidaire I wonder if the repeated tapping to +/- the temp will feel cumbersome. The trim options on the Frigidaire (none or sides only) are puzzling too. Side trim as opposed to front/back seems odd in terms of protection as I would expect most issues would come from sliding a pot on/off the front. I like the look of no trim but do worry about chipping.

Nothing is easy.

I use pots and pans both larger and smaller than the elements on my Bosch induction cooktop and have not had any issues. (As for power boost, I don't remember if mine shares or prevents you from using the other hob in the pair, but boost only stays on for a max 10 minutes anyway, so it's never been an issue for me. I use boost whenever I'm bringing something to a boil, no matter how much, and no matter what size pot)

sjhockeyfan325, I don't know what year/size your Bosch cooktop is, but in the current models when you use Boost it shuts off the adjacent burner; at least according to the manuals and customer service. Perhaps you have adapted your cooking style to not have something else going on in the same hob pair when you use Boost? Certainly doable, but it is something to consider with the Bosch.

In terms of pot size I was told by Bosch customer service that your pot should not be more than +/- 1" to the hob size. The large hob is 11" and many of my pans measure a bit under 10" of flat surface...they are likely specced as 10" diameter pans, but that is not how they measure when taking into consideration curvature; the customer service rep made it clear that it needed to be flat surface completely in contact with the hob. Perhaps this is just what they recommend, but that the field performance differs!

At least on the Electrolux induction range you can just push and hold your finger to quickly scroll through the power levels, no tapping needed. I just checked Frigdaire website and yes you can just push and hold to scroll quickly, 15 power levels on Frgidaire, still plenty fine. On my range when you power on and select a burner, it also displays Hi+, Med, and Lo-, you can go directly to one of those 3 power levels with a single touch. Power Boost is only activated upon first powering on and only if you tap Hi+ initially, a single touch of Lo- shuts off PB, as will touching Med. It has 23 power levels counting PB, with fine control at the lower end. Buy the longest warranty you can. I have not found the 10" max burner a problem, the reverse actually, as even my 13" AllClad french skillet has a bottom contact area of only maybe 10 1/8" or 10 1/4". With a good thick conducting pot, aluminum or copper sandwich construction, you should not have a problem with a 12 inch on a 10 hob in my experience.On the large hobs if your pot is too small the outer induction ring may not power on so you end up with slow heating.

venmar, yes, the Electrolux has a wheel swipe for power and plenty of features for me; just significantly concerned about reliability. I have an Elux dishwasher which is a replacement (extended warranty) for the first Elux dishwasher. This week my new dishwasher, which is only a few months old, is now strobing the control panel lights - very frustrating. I have only been able to dig up a few Electrolux induction reviews and there are several reports, in just the 15 or so reviews that I found, that are indicating control board issues.

If you can press and hold the +/- on the power for the Frigidaire that would improve the functionality. I read the owners manual and it does say to adjust the power by "pressing or tapping".

One thing I did just find in the Bosch owners manual is you can customize several settings, one of which is sounds; that is a huge check in the Bosch box. For those of us with dogs + invisible fences, certain beeping tones can be problematic. If the tone is spot on, I have one that would likely ignore it, and one that would most certainly fly upstairs and hide.

Yes, the Frigidaire does step through the power levels when constantly pressing. The step rate is close to, but perhaps slightly slower than one can manage by repetitive tapping.

In my view, if you take the cost of an E'lux or one of its Frigidaire/Kenmore siblings, plus the cost of a warranty extension to five years, and divide by 5, you will have the worst case "lease" cost per year, since the soonest it can fail on your nickel is after five years. The "lease" will be in the ballpark of a dollar a day. Is this worth it? Only you can answer.

The problem with making a decision for or against E'lux is that we don't have much knowledge of the lifetimes and repair costs of E'lux's competitors to make a "lease" comparison. My 2007 Kenmore lasted around seven years. Replacing two boards would have cost just about the price of a new Frigidaire unit, which had slightly better specs, so I bought the Frigidaire.

kas

Although the financial piece is important, my concern regarding Elux is more about the potential to be out of commition for an extended period of time. The second time my dishwasher died under the warranty, and they finally ended up replacing it, I was without a working dishwasher for a month+ ; doable with a dishwasher, but a cooktop would really put a damper on things.

Given the scarcity of Elux induction reviews, I was trying to drum some up to determine if Elux has done a better job with the control board in their induction cooktop. I expect, but perhaps wrongly so, that the numerous positive reviews for Frigidaire and Bosch mean people are not often sitting with a non-functioning unit in their kitchen.

Lisa, I just checked how the paired hobs work on my Bosch with one on Boost - I set one to boost, and then turned on the other one - automatically, the one on Boost was reduced to "9" (the top power level without Boost).

sjhockeyfan325, right, I explained that improperly in my earlier post - it doesn't automatically shut the other hob off, it just doesn't allow you to put one on Boost. If you want to use Boost on the one hob, the other one in the pair needs to be off.

.... while the E'lux and its kin will allow boost if the other of the pair of hobs is at a low enough setting (I don't recall what setting that is at the moment). I may have time later today to provide a review, although I have a lot of comments scattered through these threads. For example: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2246536/36-induction-cooktop-with-bridge?n=96.

Aside from the spacing of the hobs on the Bosch (doesn't use the whole top), I didn't like the idea that you had to keep pressing the +/- to turn off the hob or turn the whole cooktop off I guess. I think it also only has settings 1-9 where the E'lux has more granular settings especially at the lower levels. Those were the main things I didn't like about the Bosch, all of which I learned by reading the posts here. I actually rather like the +/- for setting the level of heat - many levels on the E'lux and very precise. Pressing the buttons to set the level of heat makes sense. Pressing them multiple times to turn the burner off does not. Either way though it's a minor issue and personal preference as to what's a nuisance and what's not.

I finally just decided to take my chances with the Electrolux knowing that there is no brand that gets 100% positive reviews and it was relatively inexpensive if it fails early on (after my five year warranty period). Since I've never in my life had an appliance down for days/weeks/months I'm not thinking that's a high risk especially since I live in a major metro area and bought through a major appliance dealer in the area who will provide any needed service (not a big box store).

I don't think I'd base cooking appliance decision on the performance of an E'lux dishwasher. It just doesn't seem like many people buy E'lux dishwashers and maybe there's a reason for that. I chose a Bosch DW. I got a lot of general feedback that E'lux is reasonably good for cooking appliances.

I don't have the Bosch 800 induction cooktop yet but in my condo had the Bosch 800 electric cooktop. The reason I'm going to go with the Bosch induction in my new build is because I much prefer pushing a button with the exact number than scrolling to get to where I need to be. Especially when I want to quickly lower a temp or raise it. But it's a personal decision. For an electric cooktop, I was very happy with my Bosch. However having said that, I will never willingly buy an electric cooktop again. Definitely induction!

Aside from the spacing of the hobs on the Bosch (doesn't use the whole top), I didn't like the idea that you had to keep pressing the +/- to turn off the hob or turn the whole cooktop off I guess. I think it also only has settings 1-9 where the E'lux has more granular settings especially at the lower levels.

Are we talking about the same cooktop? You press the 0 and it turns off. As for the settings the Bosch has 1/2 settings so you have 1.5, 2, 2.5, etc for a total of I believe 17 settings not including boost. It has the numbers 1-9 with the ability to press the half number too.

Ditto what cpartist said. Also, mine has direct select - no +/- (although I think they do make models that do not have direct select). I also like the timers on the individual hobs - I can set oatmeal for 20 minutes and leave.

Ditto what Cpartist and sjhockeyfan325 said

I'm talking about the range. Sorry for the confusion. There have been posts re: range and cooktop.

On the E'lux units I'm familiar with, one turns on a hob by pushing on an icon at the hob control group. At that point the hob is ready to take direction, and one either pushes the up arrow or down arrow. If up, one gets Power Boost (unless its hob pair is already above the threshold of allowing Power Boost, in which case one gets the highest allowable number). If down, one gets level 1 minimum hob output. It takes only a few seconds going down from P or up from 1 to get to the desired setting.

For most cooking, one would tend to set the level high to start, if only to overcome the thermal mass of the pan, and then turn it down progressively as it heats up. The time to setting compared with that for designs that require one to select a hob for a single setting control to accept the power setting is not likely to be much different. In the particular case of incipient boil-overs, which are easy to have occur with induction, individual hob controls are in my view more intuitive to react to in order to lower the power quickly.

kas

I'm talking about the range. Sorry for the confusion. There have been posts re: range and cooktop.

I just looked up the range and see the difference. However in this case the OP was asking about a cooktop and not a range so while your comments are correct regarding a range, they don't relate at all to any of the Bosch induction cooktops.

In the particular case of incipient boil-overs, which are easy to have occur with induction, individual hob controls are in my view more intuitive to react to in order to lower the power quickly.

Actually, once you get used to how the Bosch works, it's very intuitive and quick to make the adjustment.

kaseki, the functioning you describe sounds like the Frigidaire? The Electrolux (EW30IC60LS) has a wheel/swipe function for the power to each hob.

It seems an awful lot of people are happy with the Bosch induction. No one is complaining about Boost requiring the other hob in the pair to be off, so it must be a non-issue in practice?

In comparison to the Elux, I do prefer the Bosch 800 look, and the individual timers, as well as the ability to alter basic settings (child lock, audible signals, etc.). It also requires much less space under the cooktop to be set aside. Added plus, it continues the Bosch from the chosen wall swing arm oven and the price point is very similar. . The only thing I particularly prefer about the Electrolux is the Boost sharing. I may actually make a decision...until I question it again!

The "E'lux units I'm familiar with" are 36-inch 2007 Kenmore and 2015 Frigidaire cooktops, as described in the table I included in the topic I linked to farther up this page. Sorry if I didn't make that obvious here. Frankly, I hadn't noticed that E'lux had changed the controls in their flagship brand. Their controls were like those of the Kenmore back when I bought the Kenmore.

I love my Bosch induction, but I went from the harvest gold (painted beige) GE electric to my Bosch. :)

Lisa, if you're also getting the oven, and you get a 3rd bosch appliance they give you a 10% discount right now.

cpartist, If I hadn't bought the darn extended warranty on my replacement Electrolux dishwasher I would be call it a day and get the Bosch - it is less than a year old and being serviced next week for the strobing control board. Bosch also has another promo where if you buy a wall oven (I am) and a cook top you get $200 back, and if the cooktop is induction you get another $100. An extra $300 off makes the Bosch looking pretty sweet.

When I bought my Bosch induction cooktop I got a$300 rebate. I didn't buy it because of that, but it sure was sweet to get that check (actually gift card)!