Bosch 800 gets good reviews here.

You are costing yourself a ton of money, and decreasing functionality, to have a cooking zone in your island. Cooking is only 10% of time spent in a kitchen. Prep is 70%. Redesign for a nice prep island, and decrease costs, and increase functionality.

I imagine if the budget is $2500 a redesign of the kitchen probably does not fall within that. A Bosch 800 slide-in induction range is also more than $2500 but I'm sure less than redesigning the kitchen.

Finding 30" on the perimeter for a range is hella cheaper than an induction range plus some type of island venting, that doesn't even work all that well. You can get a 1K Fridgidaire induction range that works extremely well, and would only need like a $600 wall vent for it.

It was there in the island when I bought the house, and we're not doing a complete remodel. We would have to totally gut the kitchen, rewire everything and take out a window to get a more efficient space, so we're just getting a new range. We have plenty of prep space, and as much as I'd like to shuffle things around, there really is not a better way to design it in the existing space, no extra 30 inches on the perimeter laying around to snatch up.

I'll look into the Bosch, see if the back will work in an island, maybe catch one on sale. Any other suggestions welcome!

Edited to add: I'm hesitant to get the lowest end Frigidaire again, as that what we had that already broke on us.

I think for an island you want a cooktop and a built in oven so that nothing projects above the countertop.

A slide in range will always have a vent at the back of the range.

The Frigidaire slide-in induction is recommended for choices at the lower price point. But models change and new options may be worth exploring. The new Frigidaire model Link. has moved the touch controls to the front. No more water or other liquids interfering with the settings.

I had an LG induction range put in my island, and it was great. It does have a heat vent that sticks up at the back that I barely noticed and didn't care about. YMMV. It's here in my reveal photos: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4751866/my-reveal  I really, really miss having my range in my island (I have since moved).

The LG LSIL6334FE ($1600) performed well in CR's tests. The vent at the rear does stick up but it's flat and only about 1/2" tall (the rear vent on my earlier LG LSE4617ST range sticks up 1-1/2").

(The Bosch 800 Series HIS8055U ($4400) did not perform well in CR's baking and broiling tests.)

The old Bosch 800 is made in the US by Bosch. It has been the induction range with the lowest service calls for Yale Appliance. The HIS8055U with knobs is made in Italy by Smeg for Bosch. Not much history.

The Bosch HIS8055U is the only 800-series model with knobs which is the OP's requirement.

Reliability may need to be a more important priority.

@Scally Wag,

Going back to your question about the GE model PHS700AYFS and whether it could be installed in a kitchen island, this was the first I'd heard of this model. Looks like GE has decided to compete with Frigidaire, LG and Samsung on budget priced induction models. The range seems interesting and might be a good choice given that it has a not-so-expensive price -- $1499, relatively inexpensive as induction ranges go --- and knob controls (rotary digital user interface) for the burners. For me, another attraction would be the absence of touchpads or displays on the ceran cooking surface. (No problems parking things from the oven and no worries about boil-overs goofing up settings.)

The model has only been available for a few weeks, so useful user information on it is indeed scarce. Of course, there's also no track record for long term durability. There is a reddit thread about this stove, but only one poster there had actually received the range and that post was yesterday. The 22 user reviews on the GE site all seem to be uninformative influenster blather.

Even so, there is no apparent reason not to put this new range in your island, notwithstanding the mystifying statement made by the GE responder in that Q&A response you found. He apparently didn't understand the question that was asked or misunderstood what he was told to say. What he said in the response was that GE does not recommend island installation where the unfinished back of the range is left exposed. But, the back won't be exposed if the range is placed in an island any more than the back would be exposed when the range placed between cabinets and butted up against a wall. All that will be exposed is the back of the low-rise oven vent (which is called "island trim" for a reason) and some gaps between the back and sides of the range and the island countertop around it.

Seems to me, you could take care of the gaps with an accessory trim kit.

GE even offers an acccessory trim kit for its other slide-in electric ranges. It might fit this model but it isn't listed that I could see. Perhaps because the range is so new, the GE parts site maybe hasn't got around to listing the PHS700AYFS as one of the compatible models? As an alternative source for trim, posters in past threads here have recommended checking with the after-market trim-kit maker, Micro-Trim (https://microtrim.com/range-trims/). It might be worth your while to check with them if you decide the PHS700AYFS is otherwise for you.

The GE PHS700AYFS does look like a good choice. I like that it has a 0-9 touchpad to set the oven temperature while the LG has up/down controls. The LG's large element is more powerful than the GE's in boost mode. The LG has an interesting Cookware Compatibility Indicator:

"How well your cookware heats on an induction element depends on several factors, such as the cookware's size, material, and shape of its base. Our cooktop is equipped with a built-in Cookware Compatibility Indicator, which rates cookware and element compatibility on a scale from 0 to 10, to help you optimize the power output and performance of each element and maximize energy efficiency."

@Scally Wag, If you haven't already found it, you can get a view of the back of the PHS700AYFS's vent by clicking through the photos of it on the GE product page or the photos on vendor pages such as Home Depot's. On the GE site, you have to click through 30-something other photos to get to the image of the back of the range. (On the HD site, I think it was only 10.) Anyway, click on the vent in the photo and the photo will enlarge that area to give a better view of the appearance of the vent from the back (i.e., the part that would be seen above an island countertop.)

@jwvideo Thank you! I somehow missed that, I think because I just skipped ahead to the 360 view, which was much harder to see.

@wdccruise Thank you for your insight. I've been having a hard time parsing the whole thing about fillers. Are they just to cover the hole that will be behind the stove that is up against a wall, and therefore they don't care if it covers any unfinished portion of the vent that might be showing? Or is it meant as a finishing piece? And even if it is just countertop behind the range, won't there still be a gap that needs covering?

If it still matters, the GE web site now shows that the standard JXFILLR1SS/BB trim kits are suitable for use with the new PHS700 model induction ranges. Its pieces bridge-over/cover the back and side gaps between the range's sides and back and surrounding countertops. The installation manual (link) illustrates how how to add them.

"A slide in range will always have a vent at the back of the range."

Nope. My Wolf vents out the front bottom.