SAMSUNG 30" Built In Smart Induction Cooktop, 5 Elements, Flex Zone, Virtual Flame, Black Stainless Steel, NZ30K7880UG/AA

This is one really nice cooktop. It is easy to clean and heats up instantly! I tell all my friends how nice it is. I demo it whenever I can. It is fun to use too.

Having suffered with an old electric cooktop for the last 16 years, I am very happy with the speed and control of cooking on this Samsung Induction Cooktop. Yes the controls are slow to respond and I do accidentally turn the whole unit off occasionally, but the cooking speed and control is worth the idiosyncrasies. We had to purchase all new cookware, except one cast iron frying pan. With the right cookware, this is amazing. The Lodge LPGI3 Pro-Grid Cast Iron Reversible Grill/Griddle Pan does not work on the Flex burners, even though it is cast iron. Only one burner will work at a time either combined or individually. The other doesn't sense the pan and turns off. In replacing the previous cooktop, it only had a 40 amp breaker and the specs call for a minimum of 45 amp. So far, I have not experienced any nuisance tripping, but I also don't anticipate using all 5 burners at the same time.

this is by far the best cooktop I have used

samsung First, let me say I did not buy this from Amazon, I bought if from Best Buy, summer of 2017. That being said, it is my goal to put my review in any place that sells this item so that no one else has to go through what I have been through. The only good things worth mentioning about this induction cooktop is that it is aesthetically beautiful, with its blue glowing "flames" and implied functionality of using a griddle. I say implied, because it doesn't work. Firstly, this cooktop is one big mess. I scarcely even know where to begin. I will start on the left side, the elongated flex-burner where I should be able to confidently put my Le Creuset griddle and assume that it is going to cook somewhat evenly. Nope, not even close. The flex-zone implies that I can use one button to basically turn this section into an area that I can control with one "control", instead of having to adjust them independently. My griddle fits this area perfectly, yet, it cooks so unevenly that I have to shift food constantly as I am cooking. Pick one up slide it down, slide another in its place. The centermost area seems to cook the most efficiently, with the front end getting the least amount of heat. Again, my griddle does not hang over these burners, yet the frontmost portion of the griddle simply warms the food such as pancakes or grilled cheese sandwiches until I slide them down to another section, so I spend all my time rotating food. Even when using these burners independently, sans the flex-zone, the front burner is definitely weaker. As if that wasn't enough, a few weeks ago, out of the blue, after I had browned a roast on this left side, the glass just cracked. Nothing dropped on it, not so much as a wooden spoon, and yet it cracked. An appliance repairman who was here for something else said it was obvious that the crack came from within, so there's that. Now we will move on to the center back burner. I have several pans that are the same size as this burner and I was so looking forward to having a large burner. WRONG! If you look at the photo of the water boiling in the skillet and the quesadilla browning in the skillet, you will see that it is as if they just painted a bigger burner image over a 5 1/2 inch element. Whenever I have to brown any kind of food, I again, spend all my time moving it from one place to another in the pan. The only part that browns is that little circle in the middle. meanwhile that tiny center circle of heat burns in my pan because it is so much hotter than everywhere else, no matter how hard i try to avoid it by shifting food, moving the pan etc. I use high quality cookware, All-Clad or Le Creuset. This is not pan problems or user error. I have been cooking since I was a young teenager and I am 61 years old. I am also well adjusted to the digital world. I use iPhones, iPads, computers with Windows, a MacBook Pro. I am the person in our house who sets up the mesh wifi, the modems etc. I am no rookie when it comes to electronics. Moving on… The back right burner works as expected because I don't expect much from it. It's a small burner, I use a small pan. The front right burner is once again under-powered for the size of its “paint job”! It looks to be a 9 inch burner, and it is okay, although still does not induce even heat under a $250.00 pan. The burning of the deeper, beige pan was an accident. There was a little water left in my rice and I wanted to quickly boil it out. I walked away and when I realized I had left it on, I quickly returned. When I poured the rice out into a wide pan to stop it from cooking, this was what was on the inside of the pan. Yes, it was my fault it burned, but this pan was completely centered over that 9 inch burner and sits flat on the burner and this is what I found in my pan. Evidence that this burned certainly does not "burn" nor cook evenly. Best Buy has been to my house several times, Samsung has been here several times. Best Buy changed out the parts for the back center burner and it still does the same thing. They replaced the cracked cook top, but I found a big long scratch on the new one. Not Best Buy's fault, I saw them take it out of the box it was shipped in. Today was a revelation in that I truly believe they, Samsung, think a small 5.5 inch induction magnet is going to excite the molecules in the bottom surface area of an 11 inch pan. Both the employees of Best Buy and Samsung have been as nice as they can be, but they are unable to fix this problem. Do yourself a favor. DO NOT BUY THIS COOKTOP UNLESS YOU NEVER ACTUALLY COOK. After all, it is pretty. Personally, I am leaning toward going back to a conventional glass cooktop. With them you can at least "see' the heating element. it will however NOT be Samsung! One last thing, and it is of great aggravation. Those nifty little "use your fingers to slide the burner control to the temperature you want" controls are terrible. They may be that way on all cooktops, but I am reviewing this one. I cook. Real food. So there are spatters and drips and sometimes a greasy finger. You can not change these controls unless they are wiped down and relatively oil free. Now, I understand that in a perfect world, that makes sense, but when you have four pans going and you lift the lid from one and the steam dripping from the lid lands on one of those buttons, it will change it. It will turn them off. It will turn them down, it will turn all the burners off at one time if it lands on the power button. Then you have to remember what you had everything set on before you were so careless and dripped a drop of water from a lid on your cooktop if you realize it right away. Sometimes, it is a few minutes before you realize you have turned something off with a water droplet. But you know what else it does, it TURNS THEM UP! So the chicken you have been working so hard to evenly brown in your tiny little 5 inch spot of heat is now burnt black because after all, this is induction. What happens, happens immediately! So if a drip of steam/grease/water falls on your control and the control thinks that warm water is your finger and it just so happens to land on power boil, or the highest setting area on the slider, you are SCREWED! It happens so quickly you scarcely have time to respond, even if you are aware of it. Yes, it has a lock button and I use that when I only have one pot on the stove and to keep it from coming on when my cat inevitably walks across it with her warm little paws at midnight. But when you have four pots of food going and you need to adjust temperatures as you are cooking in real time, that lock button is a pain to deal with.

Had this cooktop for just about a year and already one of the burners is failing (circuit board issue). Only way to diagnose/fix is to remove it, which would damage the countertops. Also Samsung provides no service whatsoever. I've been a huge Samsung fan (over 10 products/appliances) but after this I will not buy from Samsung.

It constantly locks up. cant finish cooking a meal cutting off breaker still takes well over 4 hours before it powers back on; horrible performance this unit is crap I will lick my wounds and purchase a different unit; anyone looking for a deal on this unit let me know I have one available..