Owing to the screen size of your device, you may obtain a better viewing experience by
rotating your device a quarter-turn (to get the so-called "panorama" screen view).
"Produce! Produce! Were it but the pitifullest infintesimal fraction of a product, produce it in God's name! 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee: out with it, then." —Thomas Carlyle
General Gaggenau Information
As a component company of the Bosch Siemens Home Appliances (BSH) Group, Gaggenau induction units can be expected to share at least some qualities and features with those of its sister brand, Thermador. One speciality of the Gaggenau brand, however, is its "Vario" series of compatible "domino" modules.
In the U.S., Gaggenau is so far offering a small subset of their international lines: five units—two of which are from the "Vario" line, but also a "zoneless" unit (which is very close or identical to Thermador's).
One of Gaggenau's Vario induction modules is a wok; it is, however, a flat plate, not a wok-shaped bowl, and requires a special (and not inexpensive) wok-stand accessory for its chief intended use, as a wok cooker. Whether that stand has any magic energy-conduction properties that would heat the sides of a wok as well as a small zone at its bottom we don't know, but we reckon if you want an induction-powered wok cooker, you get one of the kinds with true contoured wok-bowl construction (the Cooktek commercial line has some at prices well competitive with Gaggenau's unit).
Gaggenau's web site—like so many appliance-maker sites today—is a Flash-based disaster, so getting information is difficult.
A few years ago, Gaggenau U.S.A. altered its sales policy to match that it maintains elsewhere in the world: internet sales are prohibited. Even publishing prices is nominally prohibited to dealers. Their marketing seems to be of the "if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it" variety. If that's your bowl of cherries, fine; for the rest of us, there are other brands that can heat a pot of water equally well. BSH's explanation for the change here was that it—
believes these changes are necessary to protect and enhance the high brand image and goodwill associated with the Gaggenau product line.
That would seem to translate to "if you don't have a high-powered salesperson at your side, blowing gently into your ear, you're not likely to be swayed to pay these absurd prices." But BSH doubtless would explain it differently . . . . Sheesh, even Thermador, no bargain-basement brand, has essentially the same products notably lower in price.
Gaggenau Induction-Unit Data
As always in these listings, we give these standard general—
Important notes on these data:
We have spent a lot of time hunting these data--often in several places for each individual unit--but we cannot and do not guarantee any datum to be correct (indeed, we often found conflicting data at
different sources). Caveat emptor!
For those units we offer for sale, the prices shown are never over a day old. For other items, the prices shown are the lowest we found with moderate but not fanatic searching; moreover, they are not updated very often
and are only intended as a rough guide to comparative unit values in cost/power terms.
Most "Features" are not terribly important, and are nearly standard among roughly similar units, regardless of brand name. If some "feature"--shown or omitted--is especially important to you, check on it, because we
did not take great pains over the "Features" data.
Dimensions given here are, as the makers themselves warn, only to be used as guidelines in planning--never do anything (such as cutting a countertop) till you have your actual unit to hand.
A very important unit datum is the "MaxPower" value. Many units show individual-element powers that add up to impressive totals that the unit cannot really supply. That is not a defect or some form
of cheating: it is "power sharing", a clever and useful feature; but, unless the maker is unusually open about data, one can
easily be misled into believeing that the unit as a whole is more powerful than it is. Your dollars are buying cooking power, and you need to be well aware of just what you are paying for in actual cost/power terms for
the unit as a whole.
Similar to power sharing (though less flexible) is the "power boost" feature many units have on some or all of their
elements. (That feature allows a "boosted" element to temporarily, for some short period--rarely specified, but typically 10 minutes or so--run at some set level well over its nominal power, to help with tasks like getting
large pots of water to boiling.) As with true power sharing, if one is not careful, one can get an incorrect impression of the true total power capability of the unit as a whole, which, as we just said, is basically what your
dollars are buying.
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This page was last modified on Monday, 22 January 2024, at 12:46 am Pacific Time.
