It is tough picking out a new range. I am looking for a third range in the space of 7 years to fill the space in my kitchen. One thing I like about the prostyle ranges is the depth that allows the use of big pans. The Pro Harmony is cabinet depth so you lose this benefit. The burners on all prostyle ranges are wider sealed or open, so you will have small pans enveloped on high heat. Most come with at least one small pan burner though. My current range is a Wolf DF with sealed burners and I like the burners. I can use a 7 inch, shallow sauce pan on the burners and it will heat evenly but the key is having cookware that is heat conductive. For smaller pans, I use the small pan burner. In evaluating a burner, look at the BTU range high and low to evaluate the heat you will use. To compare apples and oranges you need the actual BTU number not "140 degree simmer". Next look at the burner configuration. Star shaped burners have the burner ports spread over a greater area. Some have the ports oriented in such a way that when you turn the heat up the flame flares to the side of the rays. This keeps the foot print of the heat about the same but in order to take advantage of that you will have to size your pans to the burner. This is useful if you cook with pans that have poor heat conduction like cast iron or thin metal. Other burners have the ports oriented toward the outside. When you turn them up they will flare more toward the outside, expanding the heat foot print. This is good if you use bigger pans. Sealed and open will do that but the amount of flare depends on the way they are engineered. If your pans conduct heat well(thick aluminum or thick copper) you will maximize the usefulness of any burner. There are all kinds of videos on youtube and if you can't see a range in person that will give you an idea of the size of flames in relation to your pot and you can also find videos about what is involved in cleaning the burners. They are all different. Some are marketing videos so you have to take with a grain of salt but you can see the burners in action. The reason I am getting rid of my Wolf is that the blue enamel started chipping at 4.5 years old. They won't give me a price to fix it but only that the labor starts at $800. In light of the ongoing issues with Wolf Blue enamel and the fact that they will only warranty the repair for a year or maybe even less I don't want to reinvest. The AG range does not have the blue enamel though. One thing to consider is that someone related on another thread that they talked to Wolf and Wolf now will only warranty the interiors of their ovens for 60 days. The actual wording of the warranty does not mention porcelain interiors but only stainless so not sure how they can do that. I liked the AP too but they do not have any warranty on the interiors or glass of their ranges so that is a deal breaker for me given the history of revolving appliances in my kitchen.

Thanks so much for the replies. For those interested this is a new construction so there's not much for photos. The kitchen will be L shaped with a 4x7.5' island. I'm not sure on my budget for the stone but I believe I can go up a bit in price if need be. Right now I'd say mid range is my price point. I appreciate the photos poohpup and the input gr8day and herbflavor. I was considering something leathered with not a lot of movement for the perimeter and maybe something wilder on the island. Any more pics that anyone has to share would be greatly appreciated.

We owned a 48” Thermidor for 14 years and regretted it for 12 of those years. We put at least $2,000 into replacement parts over that time. And yes the oven fans were very loud and near the end they would stop working and then my oven would stop working. I spent over two years researching ranges and reading hundreds of reviews. Finally we decided on the 48” RNB. We considered the Platinum but I had the same concerns as M concerning the heat coming from the back of the oven only and the constant fan blowing. Convection isn’t always the best for baked goods, bread, cakes, cookies etc. After reading some reviews on the pros and cons, I decided to go with the RNB. I have no regrets. The ovens are so quiet that I had to check to see if I turned them on. I was so used to hearing a loud fan that at first I thought something was wrong. Took a little getting used to the quiet. I love these ovens! My Christmas cookies all came out perfect; nicely browned outside and moist on the inside. Cheesecake, brownies, bread, and pizza have all baked beautifully. Meats and casseroles bake evenly and on time. My old Thermador has not baked evenly in a very long time and often stopped in the middle of baking. The RNB small oven does a wonderful job. Both ovens heat up quickly. My old small oven was useless. It took nearly an hour to heat up and twice as long to bake. I baked two 9 x 13 dishes at once in my small RNB on Christmas day and they were both finished at the same time. I could never do that in my Thermador. The ovens clean up easily, if you just take a few minutes to wipe up after a spill. I did want the higher burners of the Platinum but the oven made the difference. Also I did not need to move the griddle around. I would have like a grill to but we grill outside whenever we want so that isn’t an issue. The rolled steel griddle is like a restaurant and so much nicer than I expected. You can turn it on and leave it while you prep with no concerns. I went to a restaurant store and purchased a cleaning pad like they use in restaurants. Cleanup is easy. Something else I love is the removable steel trays underneath the burners and griddle. I just stick them in the dishwasher every couple of weeks and the look like new! I would never go back to a Thermador. I hope this helps.

As for a griddle, the big advantage to a built in is that you can turn it on to a set temperature and that is what you will get. With an overlay, you will need to adjust it like you would a pan. I have an overlay and don’t find it hard to do. Wolf and BS both have steel plates. Wolf is twice the thickness of BlueStar. This allows more even heating but it takes longer to turn up or down. Wolf uses an infrared element to improve the eveness if heating, but they still warn in the manual that it is uneven. Some people like this though because you have a cooler and warmer zone. This is the element for BS. Thermador used an electric element and an aluminum plate so would most likely heat the most evenly of these three because of the aluminum. It is also removable. As others mentioned, you can buy a plug in griddle and often they are aluminum for this reason. Advantages to the overlay include flexibility of your burners. if you need all 6 you have them. You also flexibility in where you put the griddle. You might put it across 2 burners in the back. You also have a choice day to day of metals which have different thermodynamic properties. I have an aluminum one that is made by Royal Industries. The 15”x23”, 2 burner size has almost 50% more cooking area than the built no. It is aluminum and comes uncoated which does season eventually or nonstick. I use it for sandwiches mainly but have used it for many other things too. I have used it in the oven too. http://royalindustriesinc.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_22_48 There are also also some that are steel. They come in 2 or 4 burner but the 4 burner is very heavy. https://www.dvorsons.com/ChefKing/Griddles.htm You also have more heat heat available on the add on. The BS and Wolf have 15K BTUs for 2 burners, while the add on uses two 15K BTU burners at a minimun. You can also turn one burner way down with an add on. There isn’t really a universal best choice on all of this, it depends on your needs.