It's a tough call since $3500 is a significant amount of money. Personally, I don't buy used stuff - period. You never know for sure what you're getting - you're potentially inheriting someone else's problems. "The seller said ..." How well do you know and trust the seller? If you have the money and had planned for the Culinarian, I'd strongly think about doing that.

I would have thought that the Wolf would be fine except for the part where you were looking forward to the extra BTU's. A griddle on the burners really is adequate for almost anything you're making in home quantities (and for all the specialty appliances that are turning up in home kitchens I've yet to see a flat top). There's no substitute for BTU's. A lot of home cooks (like me) don't have a big use for 23K BTU, but if you do, you do.

Also, a Wolf is too good for interim. If you get the Wolf now and put your Culinarian money to another new home project, if you're anything like the norm, you'll never go back to the kitchen. You're going to have that used Wolf for the rest of your life in that house. No one gets a Culinarian who isn't full on serious about cooking, and cooking is the most important thing in a kitchen. Let the popcorn ceiling or ugly wallpaper stay around for another year or two while the money tree sprouts a few new leaves, and get your most important appliance the way you want it. That way, when you have it for the rest of the life of your house you won't be looking at it as an interloper and the thing that's keeping your sear second best.

I am going to give you my experience recently. I built a house 10 months ago and my dream of that wolf dual fuel was huge. Long before teh culinarian came out. Built my kitchen around that gorgeous wolf. First, my disappointment started when it would take me 40+ minutes to warm up my ovens (even the small one) to anywhere near 400 degrees. Racks were also hard to pull out. Then came the very uneven cooking on using convection and cooking on more than one rack. I called wolf. Sent a guy who stuck a thermometer in the oven to check temp. Told me it was fine. Next comes a chef. I was impressed on that and she baked cookies. Too bad that it was only on one rack. They were fine. Then she came back and it was multi racks. She says it is fine, I say not. It was obvious the cookies on the bottom much darker than the ones on the top. As a matter of fact a couple on the top rack were still very undercooked as she scratched her head and blew that off. She told me she would have the factory check why this happened, but then I would never hear back from her. I swear it was the convection system, the fans, something. They never took a thing apart. Griddle hard to clean. They did a buy back. Thank goodness! Ordered my new culinarian. It had an issue at delivery, so they are making me a new one. Company immediatly brought me a precision while I wait. Similar ovens at least to culinarian. A pleasure to cook with. Their griddle very easy to clean. I am giving you my experience because it was my dream, but I feel it was all in the name for me. No more of that. I need a cooking machine. Took 20 min to boil water on that wolf.

When I was making the decision I looked at the live Wolf-- both the AG and the DF-- at the dealer and also looked at the live Blue Star. I had gone to the dealer feeling sure I wanted the Wolf and I left the dealer with a changed mind, feeling sure I wanted the Blue Star. If you really look at them both in operation -- whether CC or BS or Wolf -- and you really should do this before you make your decision -- you will know whether you can be happy with the Wolf.

Sayde, this is a good point. When I purchased my wolf, unfortunately none of the units were active units. I figured this was normal until I went through this. I asked wolf to find me ovens in my area I could bring cookies to and see if my ovens were the same and if it was normal. They gave me 2 names of places, and NEITHER had an active unit. One place told me they have a contract that states they will not make the wolf units active. They can only turn on the electric of them, nothing else will work UNLESS you find a wolf live kitchen and wolf products only. I thought this was a bit unnerving. Most other units I could see something fire up. I went for looks. I was silly. Now this precision in my house, I realize it is as nice as the wolf minus the red knobs, but i am getting a red range now instead. I have cooked more on this precision than I cooked on that wolf for months. Makes a big difference....when you wanna cook again! : )

"UNLESS you find a wolf live kitchen and wolf products only"

this is absolute BS. It may very well be the agreement that dealer has with it's distributor, or it may be a "line" because hooking up appliances is expensive in showrooms. Wolf's corp. policy is not an across the board no live units unless you only sell all Wolf. Think about it.............why would I do that as a business executive?

jfolley - sorry to get this thread even further off track, but which red did you pick? I think you said but I forgot.

Now that it is time to actually order it, I am on the verge of chickening out of the flame red I chose. We will see.

I ordered 2003 Ruby Red! I am very excited!!! Flame was a bit bright for me in my kitchen.
Antss, I am only giving you my experience i my area. Wolf gave me 2 showrooms they thought were active and they themselves had no idea where they could find an active one. I am only telling what one of the places told me. I did everything I could to try and keep my wolf and finally gave up. glad I did now, honestly it has been a little inconvenient but hopefully will be best in the end.