Siemens Touch Sensitive Stovetops

Posted by Joel Johnson, January 16, 2008 7:00 AM | permalink

The latest inductive cooktops from Siemens have—as the brand name "touchSlider" might imply—a touch-sensitive slider below each burner that light up when you select the heat level your desire. Completely unnecessary are totally nifty.

Siemens touchSlider induction and electric ceramic cooktops [Appliancist]

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Discussion

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#1 posted by dirtdirt

, January 16, 2008 7:22 AM

Nothing says "slide your fingers over me" like a hot stovetop!

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#2 posted by Anonymous , January 16, 2008 7:41 AM

Can't wait to see the warning labels on this one

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#3 posted by dculberson , January 16, 2008 7:42 AM

My mother's fancy touch-sensitive electric cooktop has needed repair two or three times since being installed... my basic (but nice) gas range has needed repair zero times. Microprocessors are fun, but much less reliable than a valve and a sparky bit.

(But I do love this cooktop!)

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#4 posted by Anonymous , January 16, 2008 9:44 AM

They suck, spilling water or moving pots will accidentally turn them off, stay away from it!

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#5 posted by Anonymous , January 16, 2008 10:52 AM

from the makers of the Aushwitz gas chambers its the burn the crap out of yourself stove.

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#6 posted by PetroleumJelliffe

, January 16, 2008 11:44 AM

I'm all for more intuitive stove controls (as per Don Norman's Design of Everyday things), but nothing instills fear of touch like a stove top!

Was this invented in Poland?

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#7 posted by chrisfrelin , January 16, 2008 12:19 PM

Yeah - great - encourage us to touch the stove... Howzabout a stove with touch sensitive burners, so when a pot or pan is removed from the surface for longer than a minute, it automatically shuts off? That way i could feel less like I should live in a group home or have a life skills counselor whenever I leave the burner on...

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#8 posted by Kevin , January 16, 2008 12:43 PM

It uses induction cooking, so it won't burn you if you touch the surface, only if you touch a pot.

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#9 posted by jitrobug , January 16, 2008 2:31 PM

It doesn't really match Donald Norman's observation about bad stove top design though - the controls still don't really map very well to where the burners are.

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#10 posted by LarryD

, January 16, 2008 6:16 PM

Although the location of the controls might not be great (close to a heat source and prone to accidental activation), the concept in principle is a good one.

I have a ceramic top stove and absolutely love it. It is superbly easy to keep clean. Alas, there are the standard dial controls which are as big a pain as ever to clean and keep clean.

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#11 posted by drewstarr , January 16, 2008 7:13 PM

@ #7 -- Not entirely true.
While the cooking surface won't get hot from turning it on, it WILL get hot when turned on and used with a pan. Induction heats the pan. The hot pan then conducts heat to the surface. Given that induction cooking surfaces are generally made with materials that have low heat conductivity when compared to the metals used in conduction cooking surfaces, the surface still can get warm enough to cause burns if one were to touch the surface for too long after a cooking session.

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#12 posted by pelrun , January 16, 2008 11:03 PM

Microprocessors are fun, but much less reliable than a valve and a sparky bit.

Considering how troublesome those sparky bits have been on my last couple of gas stoves, I beg to disagree. :)

Besides, microprocessors aren't nearly as fragile as you suppose (thank god), and they certainly aren't prone to filling the room with flammable gas if they fail to turn on properly. :O