The ability to wipe down the cooktop immediately after cooking is mind blowing. As is putting paper down on top of the surface if you are frying.

Induction heats the entire pan bottom evenly, and the sides not at all (not directly, at least - heat does make its way there through conduction, but in cast iron in particular that is a slow process.) When cooking with gas I was so used to there being hot and cold spots that I wasn’t even aware of them - until I switched to induction and the spots disappeared.

The power curve is different, too - with gas a certain turn of the knob corresponds to a certain increase in flame and heat, more or less linearly. With induction, the relationship between control settings and heat is a little different. On our particular range (GE Profile) I find that the heat output depends on the control setting in a non-linear way - the difference between 5 and 6 is mich greater than between 3 and 4.

Also, our gas oven tended to dry food out more than the electric oven that os part of the induction range. When roasting vegetables now, I have to be mindful of the puff of steam that comes out when I open the door - that never happened with gas.

It's not a big deal other than making sure you don't turn it up and walk away while you "wait" for it to heat up. My husband did that early on and burned up the bottom of my Le Creuset dutch oven.

Induction heats up more rapidly and the heat stays consistant throughout the cooking

We used to have gas and now have induction. My DH does the walking away thing after starting to boil a large pot of water ... in seconds it looks like a boiling cauldron with water spitting everywhere! I made a comment the first time, but now just bite my tongue and I'm happy that it won't be hard to clean up afterwards!

Ditto everything everyone has already said. Double ditto on @Isaac note about roasting vegetables!! I nearly lost my eyebrows the first time I opened oven door when roasting a huge pan of veggies. I now roast at a slightly lower temp, a bit less time & I stand to the side when opening oven & always have the over range fan on high!

When you sauté something in a fry pan, if your husband likes to shake and flip the contents in the pan, be aware that the second the pan lifts off the cooktop, the heat stops. I find this annoying.

My comment is about safety - when you lift the pot up and turn off the heat the element is immediately cold to the touch. You can put plastic on top etc etc and it won't melt, your kids can put their hands on top and they won't burn their hands. BUT - if they go to a friends house who doesn't have induction and put their hands on top they may not know that a pot was taken off a few minutes ago and the element is still hot. They will burn their hands if they touch it.

We're putting induction in and our grandkids will continue to be taught that the stove is always hot and to never ever touch it.

I’ll disagree with the point that the element is immediately cold to the touch after removing heated pan & element powered off - or goes off as no magnetic pan on it anymore. I just heated my teapot to be sure. Water came to boil quickly, I removed it, powered off burner & I couldn’t leave my hand on it - too hot. It does cool off quickly but the glass inside the burner ring is significantly warmer than the glass immediately outside the ring. If the heated pan stays on the burner but is powered off, the burner light indicator stays red showing heat still there. When I lifted the pot off the burner red light didn’t stay on. So, while I don’t disagree about the safety point especially regarding children, I do disagree that the burner element is immediately cold to touch - it IS cooler than a gas element would be & probably a radiant too, but still enough heat to tell me to not leave my hand on it. My induction is GE Profile. Maybe functionality varies a bit between brands?

It transfers heat to the pan better than gas, so some people anticipate the "lag" time of waiting for things to come up to temperature. People who are used to electric will have their minds blown because of the lack of lag time to the response. Those are the folks that need to learn to start low and go up, rather than start high to turn down.

Do some break in experimenting, and boil an egg in the same amount of water in the same pan on all the eyes, on the same setting. That's your first high heat test. Then do pancakes in a skillet. That's a cheap and easy throwaway since the first pancake is never right anyway. Find a comfort zone for you medium heat. For low, the lowest temp on each one, with chocolate chips.

That should give you a pretty good start as to the comfort in translating numbers to dishes. You likely will still burn something from going too high rather than undercooking from too low. But give it a month, and you won't be digging out the can of soup as the reserve dinner.

My Wolf cooktop doesn't turn off if lifting a pan. It will remain on another 20 seconds or so. And the elements are quite hot after cooking on them That's why there is a "hot element" warning light on mine & I think all (?) induction cooktops.

Not coming from gas but a radiant where all 4 elements were equal size & power, it took a while to get a good feel for the induction elements. On the radiant, medium low, for example, was the same on all the elements. The induction, though has 3 different wattages on different elements, so medium low on the big power element is different than medium low on the middle size elements, & medium low on the small weakest element is something different altogether. No big problem, but you might be guessing at temp settings for awhile.

"Turn up the heat, turn down the heat, it's responsive... " Yes. It's the nuances: speed of response, control settings, different powers on different hobs. And breaking old habits: don't salt too vigorously to keep stray crystals from scratching the glass, let lids drip condensation back into the pot so water doesn't dribble over the controls, don't slide pans, have a quick exit plan for heavy cast iron & water bath canners -- you sure don't want to fumble & drop those.

Thank you all so much -- great info on this thread!

"When you sauté something in a fry pan, if your husband likes to shake and flip the contents in the pan, be aware that the second the pan lifts off the cooktop, the heat stops."

This is his #1 concern and why he's making something that requires this technique at the showroom -- if induction fails this test, it's out.

Normally, at least for my Frigidaire, the pan sensing circuitry will shut off induction coil power when the pan is sufficiently lifted, but immediately restore it once the pan is replaced within a reasonable time (I never tested the value).

The induction coil heats the pan and only slightly heats itself. Cooktop Ceran surface temperature rise is due to the pan conducting heat to the surface, or if one uses spacers, radiating heat to the surface. I checked my egg boiling (on spacers) just the other day and found that the center of the coil area was uncomfortably hot, but not skin slagging like a radiant cooktop would be immediately after use.

@porkchop_z5b_MI: "When you sauté something in a fry pan, if your husband likes to shake and flip the contents in the pan, be aware that the second the pan lifts off the cooktop, the heat stops."

Be careful how you interpret this. When you remove a pan from the induction element, cooking does stop because the pan is no longer on the cooktop. But the element's pan sensor does not turn off the element immediately. On my LG induction range, absent a pan, an induction element will remain on for about 20 seconds before it emits a tone and switches off.

Of course, you can see a gas flame to gauge its "power". Induction isn't visible but LG and some Samsung cooktops and ranges have visual indicators adjacent to the elements that clue you in to the power level.

Those Wolf products don't have the visual indicators, use digital controls rather than (IMO better) knobs, and jam the digital controls into the cooktop corner thereby obscuring the relationship between a control and its controlled induction element.

“This is his #1 concern and why he's making something that requires this technique at the showroom -- if induction fails this test, it's out. “

this isn’t a problem though - it just starts again as soon as pan is in contact again. At least with our miele it stays on for quite awhile.

agree biggest learning curve is learning to cook by number to specific burner (for ours 8 on medium burner is equivalent to 9 on big burner). once you know the numbers the 100% consistency is amazing. it’s just a bit trickier for people to come in and use it for first time. now i find it impossible to cook on other peoples cheap gas stoves though. 🤣

@blfenton that isn't the case on my inducation stovetop, so I don't think it's something you have to worry about the kids needing to learn. The burner is definitely still hot to the touch after the pan is removed, certainly hot enough that you wouldn't want to touch it.

I would say for me the learning curve was the following:

*it just seems different to push buttons for "levels" of heat versus turning a knob

*I had to adjust my recipe for hard cooked eggs. Putting them in cold water, bringing it to a boil, covering then turning off the burner didn't cook them enough because the water boiled so quickly. I now boil for two minutes before turning off the burner and covering.

*I used to start my pasta water first and then start whatever else I was making. But the pasta water boils so quickly that I don't have to do that. In general pans heat up faster and that has changed some of my routines.

I can boil water now in less than 90 seconds on speed boil. For the first several times when I made hard boiled eggs I couldn't understand why my eggs were a bit underdone. Took me realizing not to use the speed boil feature but to use a slightly lower setting, then using a very low simmer and now I have perfect eggs.

"Wolf controls jammed in the corner" -- just where I like them, out of the way & on the right so I can tap quickly & accurately. They do too have visual indicators: white lights show what power I'm on all during usage.

I originally wanted a cooktop with knobs, but now that I've had the Wolf for almost 3 years, I'm so over grease collecting knobs that eat into cooktop space. The digital controls are intuitive now, fast & easy.

Back from the showroom. All went well. The Wolf induction range passed DH's saute test with flying colors. It was surprisingly easy to figure out the controls, and I really like the burner configuration. I was most impressed could cook on top of paper towels - no lie! (this will be quite nice when DH -- aka the frying fool -- has at it --> just pick up the towels and poof! greasy mess is gone). And the oven. The oven!

Anyway, I wasn't the one who needed convincing, it was DH. He took to that thing like a duck to water, took all of about 30 seconds for him to get the settings right for what he wanted to do, and his flipping and frying with the pan off the burner wasn't a problem, it was only a second or two at a time, not long enough for the apparatus to shut off and not long enough to have any effect on the contents of the pan.

The verdict? I'm sold. He's not. You know why? Nothing to do with the functionality of it. It's the looks. At the end of the day, he much prefers the look of a gas stove with the grates and all that. It boils down to that.

You all know it's function over form...so.... The discussion in the car on the way home: Did it do what you wanted it to do? Yes. Are you SURE you'll be happy cooking on it? Yes. Then you know what, dear? I'm the one who wins because I'm the one that has to clean it. {mic drop}

We also looked at the SubZero fridges while we were there. Now THAT he is sold on LOL!

It's funny a couple of you mentioned hard-boiled eggs -- I boiled eggs this morning and was thinking the very same thing. I figured I'd have to adjust the cooking method if I get induction.

We have been debating the eggs in our house too, where we have some varying opinions on the "right" way to boil eggs (from cold water vs. from hot). Curious to see how induction shifts that! I am also holding out on replacing our electric kettle, which is at end of life, because we are upgrading to induction as soon as the IRA credits come online in our state (hopefully 2024) and I suspect we'll want to go back to boiling water on the stove at that point.

Glad to hear the test went well, though--out of curiosity, what kind of pan did your DH test? (I didn't realize live tests were a thing so need to investigate that in our area--we are heavy cast iron users and wondering how that plays with induction. Our local library has a trial induction program to encourage adoption, but we ended up getting a burner with a wok through that--neat to use but less than useful as a trial.)

"...out of curiosity, what kind of pan did your DH test?"

He used the pan supplied by the showroom, it was non-stick but I'm not sure which brand. He did bring a pan from home that we knew would work because we tested it with a magnet, but since the showroom had pans for use, he just used theirs.

"I didn't realize live tests were a thing..."

I went to an actual Wolf/SubZero/Cove showroom, not an appliance dealer. They don't sell anything, they are a brand support center (I don't know how else to describe this place). I called and made arrangements ahead of time on the suggestion of someone on this board, and they were more than happy to accommodate our request.

artemis, I love using cast iron on induction. The steady heat is wonderful. High, medium, or low, it's very consistent, & I don't have the problem of heat gain like I did on my old radiant top: pans would get too hot, so I'd turn down the heat, then back up again, etc. My collection is mostly Griswolds & 2 unmarked Wagner #12s, & some old gate marked pieces (griddles, 8 qt Dutch oven). And a 12 inch Tramontina enameled braiser.

Induction makes them more responsive than they were with radiant. My favorite scrambled egg pan is #8 Griswold from the 1920s. On my old radiant cooktop, I'd set the heat on medium high, let the pan heat, add butter & let it bubble & foam, then pour in 2 beaten eggs. Then wait about 15 seconds, scramble briefly, then turn off the heat. The dying heat would gently cook the eggs to the right consistency. Now, with induction, if I turn off the heat, the eggs don't finish cooking. I didn't expect that responsiveness from "sluggish" cast iron! So now I have to turn the heat down very low to finish cooking the eggs.

" I'm sold. He's not. You know why? Nothing to do with the functionality of it. It's the looks. At the end of the day, he much prefers the look of a gas stove with the grates and all that. It boils down to that."

How about an Electrolux induction range that looks nearly identical to its gas sibling (both also available in 30" versions)?

Electrolux ECFI3668AS

Electrolux ECFG3668AS

The reason the elements are hot when removing the pan is b/c while the elements themselves are not heating up, the pan is. The pan then transfers the heat to the surface of the cooktop/range element. Yes, if you've cooked more than a couple of minutes on an element, the element will be hot when you remove the pan. However, it does cool down faster than radiant elements b/c there's no hot element under the surface that also has to cool down. (Ours is a Café induction cooktop.)

@blfenton - smart idea to insist the grandkids learn not to touch the range!

With all the mentions of hard-boiling eggs, the way I've found that works exactly the same over gas and on induction is this:

● put eggs in a steamer basket,

● bring 1 inch of water to boil in saucepan

● place the steamer basket with eggs in pan over the boiling water,

● cover the pan and reduce heat to medium,

● steam large eggs for 13 minutes. (Longer for jumbo eggs and less for medium ones.)

● Immediately chill the eggs in very cold or ice-water and they'll mostly peel with no divots. Also, no green or chalky yolks.

Found this technique 7 or 8 years ago from a Cook's Illustrated article. The magazine article is paywalled but there's an openly available ATK-youtube video here which demonstrates the technique for anybody who wants to see it done.

Also, adding to wdccruise's suggestion of the Electrolux induction model with knob interfaces and "pro-style" looks, Bosch also has very similar looking models in its "industrial" line of ranges. Bosch subcontracts its "industrial" models from the Italian manufacturer, SMEG. SMEG branded ranges are now available in North America, as well. From a quick scan through the owner's guides for the Bosch and Elecroblux models, they seemed so similar as to make one wonder if SMEG is making Electrolux's "EFCI" models, as well as the Bosch Industrial ones? At least, there are some alternatives to the Wolf induction range for those who want a not-quite-so-sleek pro-style/industrial look.

Frigidaire (owned by Electrolux) also has a 36 inch "pro" induction range. The interior & element layout look SMEG-ish to me.

i think Steve at Yale Appliances has said in his videos that SMEG makes that Bosch pro-style line.

"I'm the one who wins because I'm the one that has to clean it. {mic drop}". That made me smile :) You'll love the ease of cleaning. Usually a dab of Dawn & a wet cloth will do, buff with a clean cloth or paper towel. I do keep Weiman's cooktop cleaner on hand because once in a while the cooktop will get shiny pot marks or stains that only Weiman's takes off. Weiman's is also good for starch or protein stains on stainless steel pots, & good for greasy oven door glass too. A little goes a long way.

I clean my cooktop with Windex and a paper towel. No need for Weimans.

Ammonia-free Windex, I hope. Cleaners containing ammonia, like original Windex, are not recommended, for Schott Ceran cooktops at least. Weiman's works very well and a bottle of it does last a long time.

Tangential, but I second the Cook’s Illustrated method of hard-steaming eggs. Faster and more consistent than boiling them, and no worries about them smacking into the side of the pot and cracking due to being tossed around in boiling water.

These are Bosch’s recommendations for cooktop cleaning:

9.1 Cleaning agents

Recommended cleaning agents
Glass ceramic cooktop cleaner
BonAmi®1
Soft Scrub®1 (without bleach)
White vinegar

Unsuitable cleaning agents
Glass cleaners which contain ammonia or chlorine
bleach. These cleaners may damage or permanently stain the cooktop.
Caustic cleaners such as Easy Off®1. These cleaners may stain the cooktop surface.
Abrasive cleaners.
Metal scouring pads and scrub sponges such as Scotch
Brite®1. These cleaners may scratch the cooktop surface and/or leave metal marks.
Soap-filled scouring pads such as SOS®1. These clean-ers may scratch the cooktop surface.
Powdery cleaners containing chlorine bleach. These cleaners may permanently stain the cooktop surface.
Flammable cleaners such as lighter fluid or WD-40.

The 36" Electrolux ECFI3668AS and Frigidaire PCFI3670AF are identical except for appearance. The SMEG SPR36UIMX is similar physically to the Electrolux/Frigidaire but its induction elements and oven heating elements are less powerful. The Bosch HIS8655U is different than the others and has a smaller oven. At current appliancesconnection.com prices the 36" Electrolux is the best deal at $5K ($3.9K for 30" model).

I'm not sure who you're posting for wdccruise -- but if it's me I'm not interested in a better "deal". The Wolf is a beauty of an appliance, will do what we want it to do, has a layout and features that I'm impressed with, and it's what I want.

You will love the induction. I renovated my kitchen 5 years ago and still love it everyday I walk into it. At that time I converted to induction and have never looked back. I have cooked with both electric and gas, and the induction is far superior to either of those. One side effect that noboy has mentioned or that I have read is the clean pans you will have. The exteriors stay so clean and I can't recall the last time I had to scrub the exterior of a pan to get it clean.

You and your husband have a happy love affair with induction, @mxk3 z5b_MI.

@porkchop_z5b_MI: "I'm not interested in a better "deal".

The folks at Wolf are happy to hear it!

^^ LOL! Yea, they probably are...

mxk3, that Wolf is a beautiful range. I'm sure you will get much happiness from it. I like my wifi oven. Nice to sit on our deck in summer with friends & keep an eye on oven time. Or to get preheat going without having to be in the kitchen. Hope you like it too.

If it helps, my mom switched from gas to induction about 5 years ago -- she was 83 at the time. She had no problems making the switch and still tells me today that she loves it and would never go back to gas!

We grew up with gas, so it's not like gas was a novelty to her. She "learned" how to use it very quickly!

As far as preferring the look of gas over induction, and the look of knobs over digital controls. I worried that I couldn't get used to the new more modern sleek look. I did, and it's fantastic!

I went through lots of eggs before I got the formulas for soft-boil and hard-boil perfect. I have the formulas for each taped to the inside wall-cabinet door next to the range.

I would never go back to gas.

@kaseki Your comment "I have a small RevereWare pot that I boil eggs in" caught my eye.

I, too, boil my eggs in a small vintage (from the '70s) RevereWare pot, on a gas stove. I am transitioning to induction, and in the process of buying new pots and pans. Are you able to use RevereWare on your induction stove?

@bayareanative, use a magnet to test your RevereWare. If it sticks it will work. I had to do that when i was looking for a tea kettle.

My particular small RevereWare pot reacts to a magnet, so I can boil eggs in it on an induction cooktop. The shiny cover is not magnet reacting. RevereWare pots of my [ancient] experience were drawn from stainless steel, but which steel determines suitability for use on induction. Typical nice and shiny 300 series stainless steel won't react to a magnet, and won't work on induction unless paired with a different steel. The less shiny and potentially stainable 400 series stainless steel is magnet reacting. As I recall, the 400 series steels are easier to form and lower in cost.

Anyway, the moral is that you will find the magnet-reacting pots among the lower grade RevereWare.

By comparison, I have a demeyere industrial tea kettle. On the bottom is written 18/10 which is a 300 series steel. The body of the kettle is shiny and not reactive to a magnet. However, there is a plate fused to the bottom that is magnetically reactive, and lo and behold, some staining is visible on it just as it is on the bottom of the RevereWare pot.

Thank you to @clt3 and @kaseki for responding. How lucky that your RevereWare pot is magnet reacting and that both of you found tea kettles to work on your new stoves. Thanks for reminding me to try the magnet test. Alas, the magnet did not stick to any of my Revere Ware. It did stick to one of my tea kettles and a small enameled pot. I will need to replace almost all my cookware except for those two items, a cast iron skillet and a couple dutch ovens. While shopping, I'm finding the new pans to be very HEAVY and pricey. I will miss my light weight RevereWare.

Nowadays I use a Cuisinart electric kettle to heat and hold water to the desired temperature (varies with tea type) and brew in a CorningWare teapot.

It's been about a month with the new Wolf induction, and I've adapted pretty well. I only burned two things -- one was popcorn on the medium burner, the popcorn was easy to figure out after that. The other burn episode was the crust when searing the corned beef on the large burner; fortunately I didn't have to chuck it, I was able to cut the burned parts off. That large burner is a BEAST-- I'm still having a bit of trouble adapting to it. High is just much too high even for pan searing, I did figure out I should only to crank it up to full power for boiling a large pot of water, I don't even need the boost on that burner it's that strong.

It's hard to tell how well DH has adapted, he's complained the large burner isn't browning evenly. The appliance is level, so I think it's his technique more than anything combined with the fact he thinks he knows everything and the more power the better. Yea, no not necessarily... He seems to be doing okay with everything but pan-frying, and of course he won't listen to me, so....

Uniformity of base heating will not be perfect. The induction coil is wound as a flat disk, but not all the way to zero radius. The toroidal field lines emitted by the coil (generally trapped by the pan base) will not extend all the way to a centered pan's center. The conductive layer of the pan base has to make up for this by diffusing heat into the central area.

"Uniformity of base heating will not be perfect."

I'm not having any trouble with even heating of the pans or even browning myself -- it's DH and IDK what he's doing that he's having trouble. He wants me to put in a service call, but I really don't want to do that, it's all working perfectly for me as-is and when they start tinkering with things that aren't broken, well...

But, in fairness, I'll keep an eye on things and if I start to notice problems then I'll call Wolf. But yea...I think it's him... LOL!