I would recommend the larger hobs with your vessels. Also if you are planning a griddle- you will want something larger.
The heat spreads slowly as iron is not a very good conductor - so little heat past the edges of the hob.
Read my other posts on the wolf induction - recent one imbedded in matching appliances. There are cabinet limitations with then wolf. You will hear some buzzing.

Oops- it is under the sear post.

a2gemini: good point about griddle; we don't use it often, but would be a nice option. We're looking at the Wolf induction cooktops; I think you have one too? Would I be able to use a griddle between the 11" hob and the adjacent 8.75" hob and have it heat properly?

Thanks for the tip on the cabinet installation. We'll have an oven below it, so there won't be any storage below the cooktop.

repac: "We're debating between the Wolf 36" (with one 11" hob) and 30" (8.75" hob max) induction cooktops."

Our 30" LG LCE30845 induction cooktop has an 11" burner, and several other 30" cooktops have similarly sized burners. The difference between most 30" cooktops and most 36" cooktops is the number of burners, usually five on the 36" vs. four burners on the 30", not the size of the maximum ring.

". . . good point about griddle; we don't use it often, but would be a nice option."

The LG is unique, I think, in having a true bridging griddle option: a "fifth" element that activates the hourglass-shaped area between two 8" burners when the two are operated in bridge mode (and LG includes a griddle with the cooktop that is sized to fit the bridged burners).

"a pan on an induction cooktop can exceed the hob size by about an inch or so, and still have adequate cooking. If I regularly use a 10.5 inch pan, and occasionally use a 12 inch pot(bottom measurements), is it best to get a cooktop with a large (11") hob or will an 8.75" hob be adequate"

Adequate cooking of what with what for what? The basic point is that an induction burner (like a electric coil burner) will tend to heat the pan in the area immediately above the burner. Cookware varies in its ability to evenly spread heat. That "inch or so larger" notion is a rule of thumb for some notion of generic cookware. The further you get out beyond the ring of the burner, the less a pan may be able to spread the heat evenly. Some pans do a better job of spreading heat than others. This matters most when you are searing or frying at higher temps and you need the whole pan to maintain the specific high heat across the entire bottom. It matters less when you are cooking at less high heat, say, cooking pancakes or bacon on a griddle. It is usually unimportant when boiling water for pasta, making soup, etc.

GRIDDLES:

A good griddle, when properly preheated, can do a good job of spreading the heat for pancakes. You do not necessarily need a bridging burner for that.

But there are other constraints. You need to have two similarly sized induction burners in the same zone (i.e., running off the same inverter.) They should not be too widely spaced. That makes it easy to set both burners to the same level (say, 3.5 or 4) and get even preheating. When I was recently shopping for a stove (not a cooktop), I found a Samsung range that was specifically set up for griddles (two burners in the same zone that could be linked and controlled together). The GE induction stoves have two 8" burners on the left side of the stove for which GE told me it was fine to run them with a spanning griddle. They just recommended something that would spread the heat well (cast iron or carbon steel) and also to give the griddle sufficient time to preheat. However, other makers (Frigidaire, for example) specifically prohibited spanning any burners.

So, the first thing you should do if you are thinking about spanning burners and oversize pans is downloading and reading the user manuals. If the manual forbids spanning, then you know you cannot use a large griddle with that model.

Then, look at the burner layouts. The layouts on many cooktops are such that it won't be feasible to span them even if the manufacturer does not expressly forbid it. Often, the burners are not directly lined-up and are all different sizes. If nothing else, the different sizing makes even heating a problem. If you have an 11" burner on one end and an 8" or 6" burner on the other, it can be very tricky to get even heat.

I have not tried bridging with a griddle. I bought a square griddle to use on our wolf. Iron does not spread heat as well as aluminum so not sure how it would bridge. Also not sure the hob arrangement would be conducive to bridging possibly the middle back and right back. I plan to meet with wolf and ask them about this concept.

herring_maven: we're basically wedded to Wolf because we want a Wolf oven. Due to space requirements and warranty issues, we can only put a Wolf cooktop above their oven. It is odd that Wolf doesn't offer the larger hob with the 30" unit, although I'd still probably want the 5-hob cooktop. Seems that LG has a lot of nice feature.

JWVideo: The mfr's guides don't say anything about using a pan larger than the hob, and didn't mention bridging two hobs. The griddle is a much smaller issue for me than the hob size. Guess I should call Wolf to find out whether larger pans can be used.

a2gemini: I think I misunderstood your initial griddle comment--thought you were bridging two elements. That makes more sense to just use a single hob griddle pan. At this point in our lives, we rarely have a need for a griddle, so that shouldn't be a problem with me. By the way, I love your kitchen renovation. I was interested in the issues with the Wolf induction cooktop since we are getting one too. What happened with the uneven heating that you had initially? Was that resolved?

If you have the space for it, I'd get the 36" cooktop. Even when it's not fully loaded, I appreciate the space between the pans that my 36" affords me. It never feels crowded. If you regularly use a 12 inch pan, you'd be pushing it on an 8.75 inch hob.

Cj

repac: "... we're basically wedded to Wolf because we want a Wolf oven. Due to space requirements and warranty issues, we can only put a Wolf cooktop above their oven."

If Wolf told you that, then you may have won the lottery. Please contact your lawyer and ask her to consult the FTC rule [16 CFR 700.10] that elaborates section 102(c) of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty/FTC Improvement Act of 1975.

As to space requirements, the LG cooktop is much more compact (vertical dimension) than the Wolf, so you need not be concerned.

Here is a link that might be useful: Title 16, Code of Federal Regulations, excerpt

Love this forum!

Repac- I had to put the wolf issues on the back burner.
I made some awesome stew on the large burner- slow cooked it all day. I put a temperature probe in the vessel and it held steady.

Wolf is supposed to come out soon- I have to call them to set up a time.

Herring_maven:

While it would be best if Wolf specified the heat load (watts per sq. meter, say) that the induction cooktop could endure from a device mounted under it, surely you don't believe that it should warranty the cooktop against any possible heat source located below it. Nor can it be reasonably expected to evaluate all brands and models of residential ovens for compatibility.

The CFR excerpt you linked to seems to me to be related to who can do repairs under warranty, and not to operation with possibly incompatible equipment. But, as you suggest, a lawyer should be consulted if one wants to know what the law is interpreted to mean at any given time.

kas

herring_maven: that would be wonderful if companies couldn't invalidate the warranty based on equipment it is paired with or who services the unit. Told my husband I may have won the lottery, and he was surprised as he buys tickets but I don't. ;) BTW, I have only seen 4 hob 30" LG cooktops; perhaps they don't make your model anymore?

a2gemini: nice to know that the cooktop is holding temp well. Must have been a delicious stew! Are you pleased with the cooktop overall?

repac: ". . . that would be wonderful if companies couldn't invalidate the warranty based on equipment it is paired with or who services the unit."

If: (1) you lived in one of the jurisdictions where I am licensed to practice, and (2) had a client relationship to me, I could give you advice; I have not given you advice, but have recommended that you consult a lawyer in your jurisdiction with whom you have an attorney-client relationship.

kaseki: "While it would be best if Wolf specified the heat load (watts per sq. meter, say) that the induction cooktop could endure from a device mounted under it, surely you don't believe that it should warranty the cooktop against any possible heat source located below it. Nor can it be reasonably expected to evaluate all brands and models of residential ovens for compatibility."

Of course, Wolf's warranty on its oven extends only to its own product; the manufacturer of any cooktop installed above it would be responsible to warrant (or not) its own product. However, if the Wolf oven is so hot that it would damage a cooktop installed above it with the minimum physical clearances that Wolf specifies above the oven, and below the cooktop that are specified by the cooktop manufacturer, then it is highly unlikely that the fire code would permit the Wolf oven to be installed undercounter (irrespective of the brand of cooktop that may be installed above it), or in the wall of a wood-frame house.

kaseki: "The CFR excerpt you linked to seems to me to be related to who can do repairs under warranty, and not to operation with possibly incompatible equipment."

Section 102(c) [15 USC section 2302(c)] was put into the 1975 legislation to remove any ambiguity whether the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act supersedes section 1 of the Sherman Act by implication as the latter applies to warranties. It would be an unlawful tie-in for Toyota, for instance, to make the warranty on a Toyota vehicle conditional on the use of only Denso brand spark plugs (Denso is a Toyota-affiliated company) in its gasoline engine unless Toyota provides the spark plugs free. You are correct as to section 102(c)'s primary thrust, but the provision's language covers the full extent of what its words include.

repac: "BTW, I have only seen 4 hob 30" LG cooktops; perhaps they don't make your model anymore?"

Our LG induction cooktop is a 30" unit, and its largest burner has a diameter of 11"; AFAIK, at the current time, the only induction cooktop model that LG sells in North America is the LCE30845.

The issue is the temperature of the air available to cool the induction unit's electronics. The maximum allowable air temp will depend on the induction unit's airflow configuration and choices of components, power level used, and power duration. This air temperature will most certainly be well below the combustion temperature of any construction or cabinet material likely to be used near it.

For example, although I do not have an air temperature maximum specification for my Kenmore Elite (Electrolux Icon clone), I do have one for my Cooktek wok unit. The maximum allowable air temp at the front of the unit (which is inside a cabinet) is 40C. 40C is not all that warm relative to an oven exterior, particularly one that is not cooled (like Wolf wall ovens) by an airflow passing over the oven and expelled back out the bottom.

kas

Repac - I have not used it much yet - so still learning.
Also, I don't have any comparisons.
It heats very fast and has a lot of options - I can go very low with a melt or simmer or a blast furnace for a pot of pasta.

The only problem child was a small omelette pan- and I don't think it is warped 0 but if I had warmed up the pan first, it might have been just fine.

I hope to cook more soon - I hope to retire before the end of the year and just do consulting work.

I do recommend trying a unit first - I loved the set up of the Wolf over most of the others. Some of the 36 inchers had the large burner in the center and I didn't like that arrangement.

I hear others say they have no buzzing - but I question their hearing....

BTW- the stew was awesome and cleanup was pretty easy.