I just got a GE PHB920 induction range and so far(a whole week) I am completely satisfied. I don't know how the 925 is different from the 920. In last year's ratings Consumer Reports gave the GE PHB925 a good score, and they rank GE at the top in reliability.

I looked at Samsung and their offerings are attractive. The local dealer did caution me that getting service can be a challenge. I live in southern Oregon and the nearest factory authorized service tech is in California. If the range is trouble free it doesn't matter where the tech is, but I like to plan for a dark cloud around my silver lining.

GE techs are everywhere, but I would check to make sure the service tech for Samsung is local before going that way.

Thank you JeBrooks for your response. That is a good idea to see if there are Samsung techs located here in my area.

I purchased the Samsung, but they are not scheduled to deliver until next week so I can still cancel it since it was a display model. The Samsung is a display model at BB, so I added the 5 yr geek squad protection.

The retailer (smaller local chain) with the GE PHB925 told me to let him know if I want theirs. I purchased most of my current appliance from them in the past.

I do have a question, during your use of the GE range, is it really finicky about pot sizes? I know you should closely match the size of pan to the hob.

The one thing that concerns me on the Samsung is that I have seen a few youtube videos where one pot will work on one hob, but not the other of the same size. The price difference is hard to ignore though :-).

Jebrooks, thanks for your recommendation. I looked online for authorized Samsung service/repair places here CLT, and only one was returned.

The PHB925 is just the predecessor to the 920. As far as I know they function the same, but the 920 has the updated look to match the rest of GE's new appliances.

With the increase in price for the GE, the advantages are that it's made in the USA and has more accessible service and parts. But, it appears that the Samsung has a more powerful cooktop. Will the Samsung be more or less reliable than the GE? Hard to say, I'd guess they'd be around the same reliability for induction ranges (not so sure in other appliance categories, though). Samsung has 3 fans in the convection oven and they claim that leads it to bake more evenly, but it sounds like a gimmick to me. Given that price difference, I think you made the right choice with the Samsung. It's probably what I would have went with in that situation.

Thank HVTech42 & jebrooks!

HVTech -
I like them both, but I may move forward and let BB deliver the Samsung (I may change my mind in the morning though LOL). They told me being Elite Plus with them I have a 45 day return period. I think I should know in a few weeks if I really like it.

The price difference is too large to be ignored. I went by the other store today to look at the GE PHB925 again, they have a price much higher on it then what they quoted me. At that higher price I don't think it will sell anytime soon. Its priced higher than the PHB920. When I asked why, they said is because they paid more for it.

So if I don't like the Samsung, that GE can be one to fall back on if its still available.

JeBrooks -
Thanks for the link. It was very helpful and answered my questions. BTW - I didn't think the GE had a bridge set of hobs. I saw your comments on Samsung which I appreciate someone else's thoughts on it.

I prelisted my current GE Profile radiant range on Craigslist, and someone already offered to buy it when my new one is delivered.

This post was edited by Ron_Ecars on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 20:53

I think you will be pleased with the Samsung especially getting it for $1105 with the extended warranty and the opportunity to return it if you do not like it.

When the dealer tells you that they have to price the GE higher because of what they paid for it --- that seems credible to me. When I had to go stove shopping a couple of years ago, I had been planning on replacing my existing range with an induction range and was seriously considering the PHB925. However, the week before my existing stove up and died, GE had jacked up the prices of the wholesale and suggested retail prices of the PHB925 by about $400. So, if that floor model has been around any length of time, the dealer probably does need to get what is being asked for the GE.

The concern with longevity, durability, and repairability is two-fold, at least the way I saw it when I went stove shopping back in 2012 and was comparing the GE PHB925 with the Samsung NE597NOPBSR.

First, we just don't know about longevity. The GE has been around for four or five years, the Samsung for about three in Canada and about 2 1/2 in the US. That really isn't long enough to establish much of a track record for these induction ranges. The data from the annual membership surveys by Consumer Reports show GE electric ranges as the most reliable, exhibiting a 5% problem rate within the first five years. Samsung has finally sold enough ranges to CR members for it to show up in CR's most recent reports. They are currently exhibiting a 9% problem rate for the first five years of ownershipof Samsung electric ranges. According to CR's fine print, a 4 point difference is on the edge of statistically meaningful. (Some other brands are significantly worse, btw). That being said, we don't know how these overall electric-stove numbers relate to the induction ranges. The induction ranges might be more reliable that their radiant siblings or they might be less so. We just don't know,

Second, there may be more GE servicers out there, and that it might or might not make a lot of difference to you. If you check ConsumerAffairs.com, you will see a lot of complaints about Samsung service being unresponsive and slow. If you need service in the warranty period, GE is likely to be more responsive and give faster service. But, with the GE, you might get stuck with the likes of A&E, the Sears-Whirlpool joint venture that signed a contract with GE a couple of years ago. Search here for "A&E" and you'll find some long running threads on tales of woe and horror about what can go wrong with out-sourced warranty service. If the local dealer with the GE range actually handles warranty service and has a good reputation, that's a benefit well worth considering.

Now, If the two stoves were closer in price, I might be inclined to favor the GE, but, for a $700 savings, the Samsung looks much more tempting. Especially with the BB 45 day return policy.

Beyond the warranty period, my concern would be that both ranges make heavy use of circuit-boards which are the parts most likely to fail if something is going to fail. From the user reports I've seen, the failure of one board can cascade to others. The last time I checked, the boards were expensive and replacing several boards --- and paying somebody to fix things if you don't have the tools and skills to do it for yourself --- starts getting expensive enough that you might wind up considering a new stove whether you have a GE or a Samsung.

Speaking of that BB return policy, I'd want to look at the fine print to be sure that there aren't restocking fees and such.

I have had the GE for one year now and really like it. Water boils incredibly fast.

Pot sizes are not a problem. I can go up or down a couple of inches on any hob and the magnet still reads it and cooks just fine.

I like both the warming drawer and the warming zone on the surface.

Both DH and I are serious cooks, and do everything from delicate sauces to homemade breads to lots of ethnic cooking variety.

Plus, it IS an AMERICAN product!!!

Thanks Jwvideo and kitykay for your feedback!

The manager at BB who I have dealt with for years told me the GM gave them instructions to price display and open box appliances to move Memorial Day weekend. So the price before taxes and 5 yr warranty for the Samsung was $789.99. I just happened to walk in at the right time and place.

If BB didn't have that low price on the Samsung, I would have bought the GE PHB925 for $1800 (includes taxes, install and 5 yr warr) without hesitation.

I did ask about the PHB920, and he priced that at $1980.00. He said that the cost on the newer GE model was less than the discontinued one, so you are probably correct about timing of the price increase. There is also more stainless steel on the older model which would actually match my current GE profile OTR microwave.

Service:
I called both GE and Samsung (as Jebrooks suggested) to find out about service in my area. Samsung provided me the name of a local service company and A&E. GE told me that there is a GE service center in my area and they also use A&E.

The manager at BB assured me of no restocking fee, especially since it was not special ordered by me (I had them note that on my receipt) and 45 day no question asked return if needed.

The manager, where the GE range is located, said he can understand my decision, and if I decide to return the Samsung he would honor the price he gave me for the GE if it's still available.

Beyond the warranty period is a mystery for most of us, hopefully they are trouble free. I think about power surges that can cause damage, may need to look into a house surge protector.

Tuesday is delivery day, and a couple wants to pick up my current GE profile range immediately following the delivery. Funny, when I listed it on Craigslist I did not think it would sell so quickly.

One last bonus, since I bought the Samsung range Memorial Day weekend, BB was having a promotion of 10x reward points for using standard 30 day BB credit card. So I have ~$100 in BB reward dollars pending :-). I can put that toward a few pots and pans.

This was my first post out here, so thanks for all the support.

Don't make this your last post,. :>)

Please give us a report after the stove arrives and you've used it for a bit. There are a couple of long threads about the GE and its predecessor models as well as some posts about the FTQ predecessor of the Samsung NE597, but next to nothing on actually using the NE597.

Thanks JWVideo, I will report back after I used it a bit. I hope my report is good.

I'm late but...

I have the GE PHB925ST1SS and I love it! Love the induction part of the stove. I never knew about induction till my husband made me aware of it and now I am so thankful we got it.

The only issue I have had with the stove in total is that the oven temperature doesn't read right. I think its a sensor and we have heard that using the self clean function can make it read incorrectly. In other words, I can set it for 350 and it will get there but then heat another 25 degrees or so. I haven't had DH replace the sensor, which isn't a big deal to do, so far I just adjust the setting 25 degrees and all is well.

Now, about Samsung. At the same time we bought our stove, we bought a Samsung fridge. Just after a year, we started having issues with the ice maker. I won't go into full details but Samsung gave us a run around about it (you can google my username and find it). This all went on over many months and in the long run, I made them follow through with their promises but it took patience and gave me more white hair than I had. And from what I have read, its not uncommon in their approach.

So, I hope you got as much warranty coverage as you can get. BTW, with any new appliance, register it with the company and you get an addition 3 months. It was during this time we started having problems.

And if you ever need to call for service - with any company - make sure to keep accurate records of what they commit to doing - take the persons name, date it, get transaction number, and ask for an email to be sent to you to document it - if they refuse to do so, note that as well. Lastly, when the service center sends someone out to "look at your appliance, " get a paper that tells what they are going to do and part numbers to be ordered. I ran into issues as one company wouldn't leave anything till they came back to put the part in. The time lapse between ordering and installing became an issue because of the warranty timeframe.

I don't mean to sound pushy - just want to help someone not have to go through what I did.

Enjoy your induction stove - they are marvelous!

Hello mboston -

Thank you for the response. My new Samsung Induction range was installed this past tuesday (6/10). The install occurred without any issues. They made sure it was leveled and powered on. In regards to the warranty, I did purchase the extended 5 years warranty.

Sorry you had issues with your Samsung Fridge. We have a Samsung French Door Fridge about two years now, and so far no issues. We opted for the ice maker in the freezer and water dispenser inside the door vs externally. I did get the extended warranty on that as well. I will definitely follow your advice in case I need to call for a repair on any of my Samsung appliances (includes washer and dryer too).

JWVideo and others -

So far the stove has been great. All of my induction ready pots/pans have worked on each hob. I actually picked up a couple of All-Clads 10 - 12" fry pans from HomeGoods that were on clearance. I am still getting use to the all touchpad controls vs the knobs controls.

Cooking has consisted of searing steaks, making shrimp scampi and normal breakfast foods. All, thus far went extremely well. The water for pasta boils extremely fast.

The oven seems to pre-heat faster than my old GE profile radiant range. I can not tell you about even oven temp, but I have used it to make chicken pot pie without issues. It does seem to bake well, and all three oven fans come on in convection mode.

Funny, how this range seems to make cooking easier and more enjoyable lol.

Avoid the Samsung. Cooks great, bakes great. Horrible Reliability.
Here is the sad story. Trying to get warranty replacement or refund from Samsung, which has been utterly unresponsive to service calls. Retailer only somewhat better.
It is utterly unacceptable that a range purchased for $1,8000 on 8/31/13 and not installed until Nov. 25, 2013 because of kitchen renovation delays -- and then only lightly used in two-person household -- blows up with a bang that interrupts electrical service in the entire house on June 27 when my husband simply put on a teapot to heat and then, despite "repairs," has a continuing series of operating issues preventing its use after only 8 months of service.
It is also utterly unacceptable that Samsung, as manufacturer, was completely unable to schedule repair services within less than three weeks of the initial catastrophic failure of the range, despite many hours I spent on the phone, and on hold, with Samsung representatives. And despite the promise of one of them, ironically named Jesus, that he had placed an order for the retailer to deliver a comparable replacement range within a day or two (before the looming July 4 holiday). Alas, that was what is known as the Big Lie, clearly intended to simply get me off of the phone.
Getting zero satisfaction from Samsung, I turned to the retailer, PC Richard, where I have found somewhat responsive service -- although the service people who are scheduled to appear within a week or 10 days of most requests never arrive with the appropriate parts, which are only ordered then, requiring a second service call, and a wait of additional weeks before anything is "fixed." And if the job requires two service people, a many-weeks-long wait, for special scheduling.
The problems: After that loud bang and whole-house electrical disruption on June 27, nothing in or on the range top or oven worked, despite multiple attempts to reset it. The E-84 error code indicated simply that service was required (duh). Happily, at least, the circuit and surge protectors we have in the house to protect my extensive home office equipment, TVs, stereos, etc. did their jobs and after some panicked resetting of circuits, it turned out everything else could be reset.
But the unit itself was useless for next FOUR WEEKS, until PC Richards finally got what was described to me as a new CPU for it, PLUS the two repairmen required to install it. They worked most of the afternoon of July 28 replacing a large circuit board underneath the burner area and declared the range fixed.
While cooking two days later, I began noticing that the left side burners were behaving erratically. Especially the front one was turning itself off unexpectedly.
But I had a lot of houseguests coming for next few weeks and decided just to keep an eye on it.
What I determined, after the mayhem of hosting 14 visitors to my "beach house" subsided and I was left with only two guests, was that the left front burner would not recognize pots smaller than 12" in diameter, even though it is supposed to work with 6" (minimum) pots, and that the rear burner on the left only erratically accepted anything but huge pots. Called PC Richard on Aug. 11 and added range top complaint to a previously scheduled service call for my Samsung over-the-range microwave/convection oven (another Samsung lemon).
Then, a few days later, my sister decided to bake thank-you cookies for her brother in law in my oven late at night. Before one batch was out of the oven, the unit had started to make very loud, and very much abnormal, fan sounds. Next morning, called PC Richard again, and added oven problem to the service call previously scheduled for today, Wednesday, Aug. 20.
The PC Richard service man arrived this afternoon and quickly discovered the replacement part he'd thought he had ordered for the microwave wasn't the one he'd brought. Then he turned his attention to range. After calling Samsung and waiting -- on hold -- in my kitchen for more than half an hour to talk to a Samsung rep, the serviceman confirmed both problems (surprise) and said he's ordering parts for a fan located behind the range top control panel and some kind of induction controllers for the burners that he says were not part of the CPU he replaced three weeks ago.
It is obvious, at least to me, that the range I bought is a lemon and an electronic nightmare. It is a good-enough convection oven and induction cooktop -- when it works -- but simply not constructed to withstand the "rigors" of actually being used to cook or bake in even a small household. And I know what I’m talking about. While this is my first induction cooktop, I previously owned a GE convection range in another house for more than a decade without experiencing any comparable issues. In fact, the only range that has ever given me these sorts of problems was a Thermador purchased (and quickly replaced under warranty) in 1979!
It can't take the heat; I want it out of my kitchen.
This lemon of a range came with a one-year warranty when I purchased it last Labor Day weekend. Now, I have asked Samsung to replace the unit with a comparable -- working -- model ASAP, or better yet, arrange a full refund for me with PC Richard, so that I can replace this piece of Samsung junk with a functioning appliance of my choosing.
At this point I have lived with a propane camp stove instead of a functioning range nearly all summer, and have neither the time nor the patience to put up with endless service calls my Samsung NE597NOPBSR/AA quite evidently requires.

I know I am posting this a little late, but I wanted to share my experience as well.

I will have to agree with the previous poster.

I own currently the Samsung NE599 model which is the same as the NE597 but has the FlexDuo oven feature.

I am posting in order to have this info for future buyers.

Samsung was amazing while it worked and we bought it, because the price was right and the features far exceeded the competition and we also have a matching fridge.

The troubles started 3 weeks after the 1 year Manufacturers Warranty ended. We though we were ok since we bought extended warranty from Lowe's at the time of purchase.

Even though they sent Samsung "authorized" repair tech, he was completely clueless as to how to go about repairing it. The repair center contacted Samsung who did no get back to the or was very forthcoming with information to repair it.

So they ordered a part to fix and were forthcoming with the information that they are not confident that will resolve our issues.

After 3 weeks of waiting for the part and tech it finally arrived and was installed and lo and behold the stove was not fixed.

So they proceeded to order another part. 5 weeks after the first part was installed it finally arrived and was the wrong part that was ordered.

At this point we petitioned to get our money back.

And now we are going with the GE brand and hope that it will serve us better.

I would search for any Samsung induction stove review and see what most people are saying. Most "authorized" techs seems to be just stabbing in the dark so even if you have extended warranty be prepared to be without a stove a minimum of about a month if the initial part fixes your issue and more if it does not.

That was my personal experience and I hope it helps with someones buying decision.

Thanks Kate and Adam for your feedback and experiences.

So far the Samsung Range has worked without issues. I did get the 3yr extended warranty with Best Buy (geek squad). Hopefully, if something does go wrong it will happen during the warranty period.

The Best Buy that I buy all my stuff from did tell me if I am unhappy, they will credit my purchase toward another range. That gives me a little more peace of mind.

Let us know how you like the GE induction range Adam.

I have the GE model PHB925ST1SS and really like it. I've checked the oven temp and so far it has been right on the money; as someone else said, it definitely preheats faster than the GE Profile wall ovens that I had in my former house.

I love the convection feature for baking (first time with this) because now I can bake multiple pans of cookies without having to play Musical Pans during the cooking time, LOL

At first I forgot how fast this thing brings water to a boil (Note to Newbies: Do NOT go into the other room to check email while 'waiting for the pasta water to boil'... only to find out that after reading the first email half your water has already boiled away, lol) but now I'm spoiled, er, I mean, used to it. ;-)

The only VERY MINOR quibble that I have is that IMHO the glass top is not nearly as responsive to my preferred glasstop cleaner (Weiman) as my former cooktop. That one was a Wolf which had a Schott Ceran top and no 'clear black' areas (see link below for an example). Also the hob areas on the GE, being solid black instead of having a pattern, show EVERYTHING...dust, microscopic scratches, whatever... just like a shiny black car, LOL. After the first week or so of use, I got into the habit of putting a paper towel on the stovetop during every use; I buy the cheapie supermarket brand for this purpose.

Out of sheer habit I usually match the pot to the hob space on the induction, even though I 'know' that I don't need to as long as the pot is the same size or smaller. It still seems weird to be able to put a tiny butter melting pan on the biggest hob space if I want to, LOL.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have the GE PHB930 range and have the same cleanliness situation. I'm only polish the top every so often, and I usually cook on top of a sheet of news paper, for the larger spatter-catching area.

I used a silicone mat for a while to protect the glass but it got pretty well cooked and I gave up on it. If I need to use a power setting that will burn the news paper I just try to be real careful not to scratch the glass. So far that works.

My only issue with the GE range (purchased in July), is that the oven light did not turn on last night. I haven't checked the bulb yet. I hope it's just a burned-out bulb, although I would expect a longer life.