Re sale. Funny I used to think that way, but then I realized that where I live, most seem to buy the house then redo it to the way they want it. My neghbor next door bought her house, redid it(interior only since we cannot change anything about the outside) and didn't move in for 8 months. She also removed the good appliances(I thought they were good) including the sub-zero in the kitchen. This has happened in several of the houses around here...they are bought..and the insides are replaced.... and these houses are far from being "run down" or in poor shape. So I am not going to worry about resale value when it comes to what appliances I have in the house. I buy what I want and I don't really care what my neighbors think about them, because when I am gone my ideas will get replaced.

Have a DCS 30" dual fuel. No complaints about the fan, but that's a subjective issue. My Zephyr hood is noisier. In general, a very nice, heavy duty appliance. The bead blasted stainless cooktop requires patience when cleaning. You can get it perfect but it takes elbow grease and multiple steps using oven cleaner and sturdy cloth. Don't use any abrasives like Barkeeper's Friend or Scotchbrite pads. You'll scratch it and there's no way to repair it. When you first get it, wipe the cooktop down with some acetone before using it. They use sticky tape to hold down the burners in shipment and the glue residue from that tape will burn right into the cooktop. And it's extremely difficult to get off. The acetone will help you avoid that issue.

Bring your pots into a showroom to try them out. Function-wise I suspect you would be happy with any of these, but layout may be another story. I chose the Miele (not with the flex burner - was not out yet) because I wanted to easily be able to use 3 12" skillets at the same time - it's great for that, and much better than the newer model IMO or any of the other models. Many of them just have smaller hob sizes which are not as good for larger skillets (boiling water doesn't matter so much - so depends on what you are doing). Love the separate burner timers too - we use them a lot more than we thought we would for our pressure cooker, rice, pasta, drying cast iron, etc. Definitely thrilled with our choice all the way around! You probably can't make a wrong choice here though.

So, time to chime in here. I went with the Blue Star 36" induction cook top 2 years ago. Looks great, LOVED the knobs, worked fantastic... for about 18 months. I'll note that unlike their other products it only has a 1 year warranty. First, the two rightmost burners started indicating they were overheating when the central burner was in use (and the rightmost were not). I reset the system at the breaker per the manual and it rand great for three weeks with a hitch, then the central and right top burner cut out entirely. Three days later they came back, but wouldn't heat above level 7 (out of 10). I had (or so I thought) the good sense to get an extended warranty, but after getting a service guy out here the warranty company informs me it will cost more to fix than I paid in the first place, so they're going to cash me out. Blue Star may be good in other areas (no experience here), but based on my experience with this one, I don't think they have enough time making this product to reach their usual degree of reliability. Addendum: looks like Blue Star (when I bought it) had a narrower cut out (18") than anything currently on the market, including their own product. At least it looks like they're learning from past mistakes...