Here are some discussions from gardenweb.

Also some from Chowhound here.

Induction....and I did buy recently ...and i couldnt be happier !!!!

Induction. In my new house I thought I was going to get the gas I like but at the last minute I decided on induction. Love it. Never going back. So much faster and so easy to keep clean and looking great. No cooked on spills.

We removed a gas cooktop for induction and never regreted it. It cooks faster, less heat in the kitchen, easier to clean, keeps the handles cool. The right pans are important. We picked some multi-layer pans and they are a bit noisy at high settings. We have an enamel pan that I really like. Heats fastest and no noise.

It seems that induction is the way people are moving towards. The new kitchen was designed with a Lacanche Sully 1800 in mind. It has both an electric and gas oven. Because of the windows, I barely have room for the fridge much less wall ovens. How I wish the Lancanche with induction was available in the US!

Are there any manufacturers that make a double tangle with induction in a color other than stainless?

Gas/propane, I like to be able to cook during power outage.

Induction; safer, more efficient, cooler, easier to clean. If the power goes out, I'll order a pizza.

Well, here's my new thought. The Sully 1800 is really just 2 ovens plus that wonderful warming cupboard....and it looks so awesome.

But what if I got 2 Viking 30"Ranges and slide them in side by side? One Gas and one induction/electric?

I would give up the warming cupboard, but I could always get a warming drawer.

Fire good!

Flevy , i have the viking induction...see the racing red induction for pics of my range..let me know if you have any questions....

Here is a link that might be useful: racing red induction

Induction. Easier to clean. Cooler to cook on. Safe.

luv2putt---your post was what started all of this! It was the first induction range I've seen that looks good.

I've been to the appliance store and finally seen induction. It's amazing. The sales rep just came back from CA where he saw the Thermador Freedom Induction Cooktop. He said it was pretty awesome. He also said I would be able to bring 2 20qt stock pots to a boil on the cooktop. That was my main concern. So I think I'm changing directions....the Lancanche is beautiful, but if I'm honest about the way I live and cook, induction, less cleaning, and a speed oven make the most sense.

flevy - I have the Thermador CIS365GB cooktop. Boiling 2 20qt pots would be a snap. We considered the Freedom cooktop - this is the one that allows you to place pots anywhere on the surface - but you can only have a maximum of 4 pots at a time. The CIS365GB has 5 elements, including a 13" 3600W hob with power boost to 4600W. That is insanely powerful. I highly recommend it.

There is a Thermador CIT365 which has a mirror finish. DH would have loved this, it is very flashy. But we got the CIS at a great price so we bought it. There aren't many Thermador induction owners, at least when I posted questions I got very few answers. If you can find a showroom and get a demonstration, you may be impressed.

Cheryl

Hi jadeite

I saw a demo at the appliance showroom. I love it. With your cooktop, do you have to have the right size pot for the picture on the cooktop? I think I like the idea that I can use whatever pot/pan I have available (clean :)) and just put it on the cooktop. I'm having a hard time envisioning when I would ever need to have 5 pots going at the same time.

The hardest thing for me is to recognize that I work full time and have 2 small kids. While I love love love the beauty of the Lancanche, the reality is that the ability to boil water for pasta in a few minutes and roast a chicken in my speed over wins over beauty.

Well that Viking Induction stove is a beauty albeit with a price to match.

For convenience though, it's hard to beat a cooktop and a built in oven.

We have the Elux Speed oven and we use it more than our regular oven, We just don't find a lot that doesn't fit in it, since there are only 2 of us here, and Speed ovens are soooo versatile---they do everything a regular oven does, plus they microwave and they speed cook (Convection and microwaving at the same time) taters in 14 minutes instead of 1 hour, for example!

Gary

I guess I'm just old fashioned and prefer gas -- I like having the ability to see it and control the gas output, the feel of cooking with gas is intuitive to me as I have grown up with it in Europe, and to me, whatever I am cooking just tastes better! While I see many are in love with induction, it just doesn't do it for me...I still feel its' the next generation glorified electric cooktop.
I certainly do not wish to offend all who love it as I have never used induction -- just not attracted to the idea. I have put up with an electric cooktop for the past five years and am soo happy to now have gas again!

I have a friend who has an induction cooktop and either she doesn't know how to use it correctly or the unit is way too powerful, she makes messes on it all the time and has a hard time controlling it. Just MHO!

Induction is soooo much safer for little or big kids, or grownups. It's also great fun. I don't understand how ppl can weigh the ease of cleaning, gas v. induction, and get gas. A spray of windex, a wipe, it's done. Think about messing with grates, little holes, different heights on the cooker, the ups and downs and circles and squares. Oh, I got carried away!

It's easier to cook with the distraction of kids b/c you can set the timers on each hob to turn off. So then you can focus on the kids. Tap the hob location on the grid, tap the power, tap 'timer' twice, tap in the no. of minutes, and walk away.

The cooktop doesn't get real hot. No flames. Shmatties won't burn.

Noodles, a mother's best friend. Cooks fastest on induction. hands down.

And this amazing machine will sear perfectly, wok just fine, simmer for hours, melt chocolate w/out a double boiler--but it won't flambe or char a pepper. Use your broiler or gas grill or other thing for charring. That's the only trade-off for zippie do cleaning.

flevy - you don't have to have the exact size pot to fit the element. I don't know what the limits are, but I can use most of my standard pots with bases from about 6" to 14" diameter on the elements. The diameters of the elements are 6", 2 x 7", 9" and 13".

I've used a flat-bottomed carbon steel wok with 6" diameter base on the 9" element and it worked perfectly. I'd say there's a fair amount of leeway in the sensors. I seldom have 5 pots going at once, but I like knowing that I can! With induction you don't have to worry about heat from one element affecting a neighboring element, since there is so little residual heat.

The big power element has 3 diameters marked. The sensor will turn on the magnets for the size of pot you place over it, from 9" to 11" to 13". I don't know what happens if you are off center, like if you have your pot over half of the ring. I really need to read the manual!

We also used a rectangular cast iron griddle across two of the elements. This was a bit of an experiment since the bottom of the griddle is a grill, so absolutely not a flat bottom. The griddle heats up perfectly! This was a surprise to me, but I guess there's sufficient induced current to heat the griddle.

Can you tell how much I love this cooktop?!

Cheryl

Another Induction convert.
I dreamed of my new kitchen for 6 years, and all the while it was going to be a 6-burner range-top. Love the look and love working with gas...till I started reading about induction here. When we bought instead of built, the house had an electric cooktop. "DETEST" is not a strong enough word.
I will say that I had natural gas in WI and when we moved here to WA, the rental we had was propane gas. NO comparison, IMHO. My love for propane gas was better than electric, but still.....
I finally decided to get the induction and I would never look back. I was not a neat-freak, so cleaning grates, etc. was a once in a while, in the dishwasher thing for me.
Still, wipe and go on induction, never getting a burned smell if something drips over, the Bosch I have has timer units which has come in handy when I walk away and get distracted (joys of getting older I guess). I also was factoring having to have a propane line added which would have added on even more to the new propane tank we were getting for our fireplace.
And as for power outages, which we have not had yet, we have a gas grill outside.
Frankly, if we had a power outage and did not know when it would be returned, we would not open the fridge (to contain the cold!).
The only thing I was sad about was the $1000+ in all-clad cookware I had to give to my friend because I had purchased brushed aluminum. On the bright side, I am now using the $1000+ in Le Creuset I collected "just" for the colors :-)

clarygrace..."I have a friend who has an induction cooktop and either she doesn't know how to use it correctly or the unit is way too powerful, she makes messes on it all the time and has a hard time controlling it. Just MHO!"

I would say your friend does not know how to use it ..I would venture to say she is coming from an electric and trying to cook like she previously did .. And i would venture to say to she would have had the same issues with gas...Induction requires you operate like a high heat gas range...not your old school hurry up and wait electric...other than rapid hot heat , med to med hi is all thats required to cook hot on induction ...I guess it just boils downt practice practice practice !!!!!

Induction and have a gas grill. Pizza parlor didn't have power either during our recent derechos!!