Caldera - Caldera 36" Dial Series 2000 Cooktop, CMT364

Caldera cooktops feature the MagicTouch™ controls. This electronic touch control has 11 instantaneous heat settings and 44 detailed settings. Users simply select the desired burner and touch one of the 11 instantaneous heat settings. To obtain a detailed heat setting, simply touch the digit again. For example, once a burner is selected, repeat touching moves that burner setting from 7 to 7 ¼ to 7 ½ to 7 ¾. The timer control can be set to turn off individual burners at a desired time. In a busy household this can mean no more scorched tea kettles or burned rice. Other unique features include an automatic safety lock system, instant off/recall, and downdraft ventilator control from the cooktop panel. Caldera’s Intentional Touch System™ ensures that a burner cannot be turned on or adjusted by accident or during cleaning. This system also allows the controls to remain fully functional even when covered with a film or liquid.

Electric current is not adjustable like a flame – it is either on full force or it’s off. Therefore, for conventional electric burners to simulate varying levels of heat they have to go on and off during 1 or 2 minute cycles. For example, at a low setting, the burner will be on at full power for 6-10 seconds and then completely off for 90-120 seconds. This surge of heat can adversely affect the food being prepared. Microcycling provides a heating cycle measurable not in minutes or seconds – but in milliseconds! The microprocessor controls on Caldera’s Dial Series cooktops power the on/off cycling of the burner at a blinding velocity at a rate thousands of times faster than any ordinary electric cooktop. It is so fast that the “on” and “off” virtually blur into an uninterrupted flow of smooth, predictable heat at any of the 44 settings. It is now possible to keep a pan of chocolate melted while sitting on the stove for 2 hours or more without burning. Sauces won’t burn – just quietly simmer. Bubbling soups won’t boil over. No other cooktop, regardless of its price or power, allows for this type of controlled simmer. Competing cooktops do not allow for the heating of delicate sauces with a microcycling simmer setting. Other cooktops can heat food, but they cannot so precisely control the simmer which often results in cooking disasters.

The Dial Series cooktops are made from black ceramic glass with radiant ribbon burners. These cooktops are designed for elegance and beauty and can be inlaid into a granite countertop for a smooth, continuous surface. They are also available in a beveled edge for installation with synthetic or wood countertops. The graphics for the control panel and the burner indicators are an application of powdered glass that is screened on to the ceramic glass and then fired to fuse the two glasses together. This creates permanent markings that can not come off.