Camilla, we are in your situation. In our latish 50's, still working long hours. And on work nights we like to cook fast and clean up fast. Nothing, IMHO, will beat induction for that. As much as I wanted an Aga range -- okay, for the looks, I admit -- we are going induction with a 30" basic Bosch cooktop, one 30" Electrolux wall oven, a convection microwave, and a mid-sized Breville oven which looks to be an amazing thing for two people. (My mom loaned us one for the remodel, and wow . . . just wow.) We are mounting the oven so that the door drops about mid-thigh, and if our small kitchen would have permitted it, we'd have followed the new trend of mounting the dishwasher up high, too, or gone with flanking dish drawers on either side of the sink to limit bending. Regarding ventilation, our appliance dealer (a very high end shop) told us with induction you need ventilation, but you need a lot less of it as you are venting only the smell and steam, not the heat. There is very little excess heat with the induction process. He recommended significantly less venting power to be mounted over induction vs. traditional gas or electric. Some here will disagree with that, but we are following his advice. But back to the range -- having had gas, but having often used induction while traveling, I already know I will never go back. Never, ever. If you are totally remodeling, I'd put the Viking on Craig's List and make life easy. Good luck!

Thank you all for great info! Wolf's cold spots in the middle is a little bummer. I wouldn't expect this kind of design on 5 way bridge cooktop. The elements suppose to be made by French company Jaeger Hiflux. Their Crescendo model is quite different from what I have ever seen in induction cooktops. Check this out.. http://www.jaeger-sas.com/#!induction-en/cl7w Anyway since Wolf has no flex in bridge mode then we might take another look into 36" GE Cafe model which was #3 on our list. It has only one no flex bridge mode, but it's much cheaper than Wolf or Miele. That model has many positive reviews including #1 on CR rating (99 out of 100). On both GE & Wolf we like simple, clean interface. GE is better with 17 vs 10 levels on Wolf. On GE minus side is power sharing (not quite sure how much problem is that in real use) and only 1 year warranty vs 3 year on Wolf. However much bigger problem on GE Cafe is SS color. My DH says that specific color is clashing with our choice of Silestone Kensho countertop (light gray). I don't see it as bad but we might loose it on that argument. No question the decision between Miele vs Wolf vs GE Cafe is giving us more headaches than any other appliance.

@aspen75, I have that same griddle that I use on mine. I understand and experience what you are saying and it is a bit of a disappointment. However, it has never hindered my cooking abilities on it. I mainly use my griddle for fish, shrimp, or pancakes (DH sometimes uses it for squash and zucchini) and because the heat ends up dispersing throughout the griddle, I never have issues with the food I cook. Sometimes I might have to move my fish or shrimp around as it cooks, but it still cooks. I'm still very pleased with my Wolf and so glad I went with it over gas, which we had before and which definitely had far worse hotspots. I have not tried a cast iron griddle on mine because I like the ease of cleaning the one I do have. Plus, I have a Blackstone on my patio just off my kitchen and I use it a ton in the spring, summer, and fall when I truly need a griddle ;)

@r, I thought I would chime in here to just say that I don’t think you are “obsessing“ at all regarding the use of knobs in this case. One of the most crucial variables in any kind of industrial design is the way we interface or interact with whatever the product is. Most of us utilize capacitive touch controls or infrared type touch controls on a constant basis with everything from iPads, smart phones, as well as any number of house appliances. But I would suggest that your instinct regarding cooktop or rangetop controls makes a lot of sense. Consider the difference in using a wall oven versus a cooktop. Most cooks in the kitchen can get the opportunity to wipe their hands in order to use touch capacitive controls on a wall oven. Of course, the case could be made that turning a simple dial, can be more intuitive, then going through a series of menus to get to where you want to go, since in the end, the mission of the wall oven has not really changed very much since our grandparents time which is essentially to bake the cake or roast the chicken. The reason I suspect that cook tops and range tops, as well as ranges are a particularly good candidate for knobs is due to the fact that the controls are often placed on a horizontal plane. Many people, especially those who are new to induction appliances for example, have learned a hard lesson as the very sensitive touch controls do not always take kindly to steam, water, droplets, and oil or gravy splatters. It is not hard to imagine why this is problematic because if you put any of these liquids on top of your smart phone screen, you would discover that the touch controls that works so beautifully such as the ones I’m using right now on my iPhone to create this post do not take kindly to having these substances on top of them. There are lots of examples of folks who have touch capacitive controls on these horizontal locations where the entire appliance is either shut down or thrown off its game. Of course, the majority of modern products that have knobs do not use the analog/mechanical controls of knobs of the past, but are in fact, “knobs“ that interface with micro control boards behind them. Still, there is an entire field of design that studies user interaction, and I do think that, at least, in some instances, such as with cooktops, knobs actually, do make a lot of sense. One can certainly debate where the best location for those knobs would be to avoid getting splatters on them since Cleaning knobs is not exactly, a fun time for most folks. Some people would assume that installing Touch Sensitive controls in all sorts of consumer products that once used knobs, levers, and buttons, is simply a design trend, and I’m sure there is truth to that. But a little voice inside also suggests to me, that one of the reasons they have moved away from knobs and especially the electromechanical kinds used in the past, is due to the cost of manufacturing. I do not have a data set to support this theory, but if you consider the labour and the bewildering amount of copper wiring that went into something such as a 1950 electric stove, some of which had lots of extra features, you can begin to imagine the cost savings of having a micro “motherboard“ taking the place of all that complex analogue electrical structure. I truly enjoy all of the benefits and possibilities that I have with my smart phone, laptop, iPads, etc. But I do think your instincts for knobs are not without merit, because sometimes, appliance designers attempt to answer questions that no one ever asked. My two. Cents 🤔.