In 2004 we purchased the 30" Kitchen Aid Dual Fuel Convection range and have regretted the high priced purchase ($2800) ever since. Experienced nothing but problems, repairs have been numerous, the door is still lopsided after repair broke two, can't clean the oven without having to call repair afterwards, and now the oven is once again inoperable. The same problems continue to plague the machine, again and again. As of tonight we've decided to dump the stove. Dinner was burned while the temperature was set to 350 and the broiler engaged. Even with the control knobs turned off the broiler continued and the door locked, which resulted in the food or pot knobs/handles catching fire and necessitating disconnection of power. My eyes are still burning from the smoke. After waiting until the oven finally cooled, we turned power on and the safety lock finally disengaged, but even with the controls turned off the broiler once again turned on. This is not the first time this has happened or the first time this issue has been addressed by repair. Tired of calling repair we learned that sooner or later the broiler won't go on, and all will be normal for months at a time. KA suggests turning the breaker off and calling repair as it is a fire hazard. Been there done that, but after numerous repeated repairs KA still refuses to accept that the unit is a lemon or that they're selling faulty equipment. Now we're out of warranty. Figure that during the first year of ownership KA paid more for warrantied repairs than we originally paid for the unit, and due to repairs we were without an oven for approximately one-eighth of the short life of the unit. KA falls short of their image.

Well, if you have the room and budget I'd recommend that you get an AG range and an electric wall oven - that will give you the best of both worlds including a gas broiler.

The Wolf gas range does not have the blue interior and does not have the chipping. We bought Wolf for their supposed "great service" but were very disappointed. There are definite differences in gas and electric ovens. Of course you can bake in both of them, but some people might have a preference for one or the other. Gas ovens produce water as a byproduct of combustion but they have more ventilation so moisture from combustion and what you are cooking vent out so gas is more drying heat. You also will get more heat and moisture dumped into your kitchen. Electric heat does not produce moisture but tends to hold onto humidity from what you cook so are more humid. This will have some effect on what you are baking. The added moisture promotes starch gelatinization so may allow a little longer rise in things like bread or cakes. It also affects the crust. The electric ovens will hold onto added moisture that you might add while baking bread. You can use a cloche to keep moisture around your bread in a gas oven. A gas oven because it is drying promotes the Maillard reaction and therefore browning. This is why many like it for roasting. Drying is also good at the end of baking so that you get that browning which contributes to flavor. If you have an electric oven with convection, you can use the fan when you need the drying effect of more air movement. Electric ovens are as freidajune says can be more complex. They might have additional elements that can direct the heat, more from the top(for roasting) or bottom and may have elements in the back that are in theory supposed to provide more even heat when the oven is full. Some ovens have a variable speed with the fan but very few actually mention this in their manuals. They can also have little oddities in the way they work. You might consider the broiler. Some gas ovens have an infrared broiler which can be very small. I tend to broil trays of things so like a wider electric broiler. Regular gas broilers don't get as hot because the heat goes up.

"Commercial bakeries use nothing but gas ovens." This is not true. If you are talking about bulk bakeries, they are more inclined to because it is often cheaper but they also have steam injectors to add humidity when needed. I know several specialty bakeries that use electric ovens. Many deck ovens in commercial kitchens are electric. I knew of a bakery that was called "the Electric Bakery". It really depends a lot on what they are baking. I know a baker that has specialty ovens for pies. This really has nothing to do with home ovens because they are a different breed anyway as they are expected to do many different things. "Dual fuel is excessively expensive, and overly complex for no benefit in performance ." Performance is different things to different people. They have different needs so there is no one size fits all. If I were selling appliances, the first thing would be to assess that person's needs and make individualized recommendations based on those needs. I most likely would never recommend ranges to begin with unless there was a compelling reason like space or cost issues or even a preference for "looks" over cooks. Pick out each component because it meets individual needs in the best way possible. As far as cost, you can buy electric ovens with features that have high utility for less than some gas ovens with limited features. Electric ovens can be complex, but so are our home computers and cars these days. This is not necessarily a bad thing. These ovens can have features that many consider helpful in how they use their ovens. It takes a computer board to coordinate fans, heating elements and tight temperature control. I love being able to control the direction of heat and fan speed in my oven. I can have air movement slow or fast to facilitate browning or not if I am baking a cake. It has a lot greater range of temperature, with or without the fan than many ovens gas or electric that cost a lot more. There is a learning curve with these features especially with the many choices something like Gaggenau or Miele give you. The combi oven is the king of control of the cooking environment but not in a range yet. The other side of the coin is some ovens have this figured out and others, not so much, so you have to read as many reviews as you can. To minimize risk if you want these features, buy the longest service agreement that you can. They can be difficult to evaluate and compare because a feature named the same name in two different brands can mean two different things. Even the term "dual fuel", in most ovens it means gas burners and an electric oven but 5 Star when they say dual fuel means a gas oven and electric oven together in the same range. You have to decide what is a benefit and what is a burden? No one answer. "could you please explain why all gas is fine" "All gas is fine." I might agree with that statement depending on how you use your oven but that in no way means they are the same and it in many cases gas is not the best choice. Gas and electric ovens are constructed differently. Because you have combustion for your heat source, another difference, gas ovens are vented more to remove products of combustion including water, so those products of combustion and humidity from food move out of the oven and into the kitchen. That may be good or bad depending on where you live, but how is that significant to cooking? It is much more difficult to keep added steam in a gas oven if you are doing that for bread or adding a pan of water for cheesecake. Because there is more of an air current, in a gas oven, this removes more moisture from the surface of what you are cooking. This inhibits starch gelatinization during the first part of baking so inhibits rise and changes the appearance of what you are baking. On the other hand, because it evaporates moisture from the surface and allows it to heat more quickly, the Maillard and other browning chemical reactions take place more quickly. This is why meat, vegetables and even baked goods brown more quickly. Will you notice? A lot of people say they don't. I have baked in gas and electric ovens for over 50 years and I used to attribute differences in outcomes to different ovens rather than a difference in fuel but with the many books and websites that have come out on food science, you can see the rationale for the differences in outcome that cooks report in cooking/baking forums. It was kind of a "aha" moment to put these comments with the science. All of the information coming out challenges what used to be conventional wisdom and yet it might be hard to see if you are not baking the exact same recipe side by side. You do see the same observations cooks make repeatedly in terms of cooking on cooking and baking forums and people seem to notice the difference more coming from electric to gas but you do see the occasional comment about excess moisture in some electric ovens when they are coming from gas. Most advertising literature and websites about ovens actually say a gas oven provides moist heat and electric dry but they are only looking at the heat source and not the oven as a whole and the process of cooking which provides a lot of moisture to the oven chamber. Another difference is that there are more and more features being loaded into ovens now as noted above, mostly electric but sometimes gas too. Some electric ovens have added steam. Combi ovens are very useful in their ability to control humidity and really make the case for buying ovens separate from the range top instead of having to pick the priority of the burners or the oven. I am not a fan of the current trend of hiding the bake element in electric ovens. Sometimes with pies, you need that bottom element exposed. It used to be you could put a tray under the element to catch spills. If you put it on the bottom now, it will melt. Some other things to consider. gas broilers are of two types. There is the traditional gas broiler, but they are not very good. Many prostyle gas ovens have an infrared broiler. They are very hot and even, but can be small. They are great for a couple of steaks but not so much trays of appetizers or broiling larger amounts. How big is the oven? Do you want a quick preheat or need room for full commercial sheets? Look at the rack size for usable space and size top to bottom. What is the temperature range, lowest and highest? What are the increments that you can set your temperature? 25F or 5F? Ovens are not an easy choice these days but I think it helps at least some people to realize the differences so you can at least make a somewhat informed decision.