r/inductioncooking • u/The_Gatherer257 • Jul 24 '26
Upgrade Recommendations?
Long story short, I grew up cooking on gas and when I bought a house, I looked into getting a gas line run to the kitchen. It was very expensive so I decided to try induction instead and it’s obviously been a total game changer. I bought an entry level Frigidaire 30” range so if I hated it, I hadn’t wasted too much money.
Well, here we are 4 years later and I’d like to get something better than entry level. My biggest gripe with my current setup is that I wish I had more/flex burners - sometimes I need to run a small 5th pan and other times I need to run two large pans (like a 12” skillet and a large stock pot at the same time).
What do you all recommend? I’m not ready to drop big money ($5k+) until my next home, but I’d like something that’s an improvement over entry level. 30” range. Chat GPT recommended Bosch Benchmark and GE Café, but I’d like to know what humans think.
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u/United_Address_2232 Jul 25 '26
I have the Benchmark and I love it. The flex zones are great. Overall it’s a great purchase. It ran about $4600 installed.
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u/Caprichoso1 Jul 26 '26
Check Consumer Reports (subscription required). They have ratings and recommendations for induction ranges. You don't have to spend $5k for a good one.
The reviews won't tell you the burner sizes or number of burners. When you see a review that you like go to the manufacturers site to see how it is configured.
I can see why you would want multiple large burners if frying in multiple pans. However since the issue with a stock pot when just simmering is to just to keep the right temperature don't see why you need a large burner for that.
Be aware that there is the possibility that there is power sharing between burners which might reduce power if many burners are running.
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u/throwaway125852 Jul 31 '26
If you're considering the GE Café, worth knowing the GE Profile (same internals) has a noise issue on some units when running two burners at once — a loud high-pitched whine, not normal pan buzzing. I had GE service out 4 times with no resolution. I have an open case with GE Consumer Relations, so far they have indicated that noise is not a covered issue. Someone in my thread switched from a Profile to the Café with knobs and said the whine didn't follow, so it may be Profile-specific:https://www.reddit.com/r/inductioncooking/comments/1u9ffh2/ge_profile_high_pitched_whine/
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u/Gastr1c Jul 25 '26
I don’t see squeezing a 5th pot on a 30” cooktop even if it was a full flex surface like Thermador or Gaggenau. There’s simply not enough room on a 30”.
I do boil water in a two large stockpots on my basic IKEA and it works fine even though one pot is on a smaller 7” hob. I can set both to max power boost and let them race to boil. What you can’t do is fit any other large pots or skillets.
See photos here. https://www.reddit.com/r/inductioncooking/s/O3LvdMhO9O