Thanks tbelczak! This is unfortunate. I have being saving up for this and other items to get my basement electric setup done. I unfortunately have already spent out the money for the electrical and specifically for this induction cooktop . I guess I will still end up going with this and just be careful on the power setting/usage. I think in my electrical(very limited) research, the 240v can vary on your location +/- a few volts. Is it possible your house may have a lower voltage coming in (or did for that short period of time) causing it to blow? I guess any voltage below 233.33 would put you over 15 amps at the 3500watt setting.
Since you did open it up...did you potentially see anyway to provide an external control for the power? Something that could be useful for temp controlling?
I don't know enough about electronics to answer your question about controlling external power, but I've included a photo of the insides that may tell you something. Seems like everything associated with the external power is a screw terminal and easily accessible.