<p>Hey all. The dishwasher thread was so helpful I thought I’d start one on cook tops. We have to replace our Jenn air down draft cook top and the shop we use no longer carries Jenn air … something about price point … but “they’ll be back” ??? ok so they have a Kitchenaid and a GE and they look great but I thought I’d check in with you all.</p>
<p>Anyone have downdraft out there? How do you like it, and what brands are you happy with?</p>
<p>Electric induction? </p>
<p>The Kitchenaid seems to have lots of problems with cracked tops whereas the GE seems to be well rated on a quick web wander. Surprised!</p>
<p>I have fallen in love with everything Electrolux and Miele. There was a huge thread on this a couple years ago, but I look forward to reading everyone’s updates.</p>
<p>(I would have gotten an induction if I didn’t need to give up my drawer under the cooktop - needed 1 more inch of depth) The smooth top one I liked had one large induction burner and the rest were regular electric. This means I could have kept my old pots.</p>
<p>I am not the person to ask, since I despise downdrafts, glasstops, and JennAir in general, but if it suits your style of cooking, more power to you. So rather than push my preference–a high-output gas cooktop with a powerful hood–I would suggest that you check out gardenweb’s forums. A great source of information.</p>
<p>There are some other threads on the subject here within the last 6 mos or so, I think.</p>
<p>I’m actually curious to hear if anyone has an induction cooktop. I’ll be remodeling a kitchen within the next few months, and I have the choice between gas or induction. I use induction heating at work to do alloying of some refractory metals, so I’m always amazed at its power and speed, but I have no idea how the technology’s been doing on the non-commercial side.</p>
<p>We have been actually using our Jenn air downdraft glass top induction unit for (how is this possible) 20 years now. It has worked fine. The finish is coming off the edges tho and the downdraft area has been cleaned enough so the finish is coming off there, too, and since we need new counters we are considering getting a new unit. It’ll have to fit where the old one does. We’ll probably lose the modularity of the Jenn air - we now can change one set of front/back burners to an indoor grill. I’ve used that thing maybe 5 times in 20 years so it won’t big a big deal to lose the modular option. The GE floating glass black unit looks sleek and wonderful to me. I’m sure the burners will be more efficient, too. The glass top does retain little stains/ a few food evidences but it hasn’t bothered me past the first year (like so many of the details of the house that got to my gut until I just got tired of being irritated all the time and let it all go). </p>
<p>I have been happy w/ the down draft for the most part. It gets oh around 90 percent of the steam from a pot of spaghetti water, e.g. The cabinet above has not taken too hard a hit from the rest of the steam. </p>
<p>I have been happy with the flat bottomed pans, too. Cuisinarts are great.</p>
<p>I would recommend against Maytag. The flimsy plastic knobs on out Maytag stovetop keep breaking. I think we are on the third set and all but one is broken AGAIN!! I will never buy anything Maytag again.</p>
<p>We purchased a new cooktop earlier this year, but didn’t go with induction because we would have had to get some electrical work done to support it, so we just replaced what we had. If not for the extra work, I would have gone induction, based on some, but not a great amount of research.</p>
<p>Shyparentalunit, I looked up your model and it seems to have the no knobs touch controls. That looks so good. Here’s my concern - do you ever put stuff down on the cooktop, like groceries, using the unit as extra counter space? And if so, how do you keep from inadvertently turning on the cooktop? I’m a bit afraid of a touch top because I wonder if a burner will get turned on when we didn’t realize it and cause a fire. Do you like the no knobs feature?</p>
<p>I have a Jenn Air down draft. Had to have the electronic panel fixed once and now one of the “buttons” is out again. I hate crap that is made these days. Prior to that we had a 25 year old Jenn Air that was still fine, we just changed out to update.</p>
<p>Hugcheck, I don’t know about the unit you’re talking about, but we have – whoops; had; we just sold the house this morning – a Dacor glass cooktop. It had a “safety switch.” You’d touch the switch for three seconds and would hear a “beep beep beep.” That meant that the burners were locked and couldn’t go on.</p>
<p>VeryHappy Congrat’s on the sale of your house and thanks for the info on the switch for your cooktop. VaBluebird I’m a bit worried about the same thing. Perhaps we should box up the old unit and stash it in the basement when we get the new one. Yeah DH would love more old junk in the basement, lol. The just don’t make 'em like they used to…</p>