Is your primary usage going to be boiling eggs and heating water for tea, or serious cooking? If the latter, do you care about odor and grease buildup on the walls and fabrics? Please review the many many ventilation-related threads on this forum to gain increasing perspective on ventilation issues, or download and review the references within the messages stored at my My Clippings. kas

Interior of mine is: 23-3/4" across. 12" high is usable space from floor of oven to bottom of broiler element. 17-7/8" deep. I've done a small turkey; no problem. The oven is gas and mine's about 25 degrees slow -- there are instructions for adjustment but I haven't bothered since I don't need it to go below 275 though it's probably about 250 on lowest setting. I should add that 500 is highest setting. While the quality of this range is very good for what you're paying, an oven thermometer is necessary to know what the oven temp is. I use a $7 Taylor mercury. To its credit, the oven is extremely steady. It does not cycle on and off and once you get it to temperature it stays there beautifully. I'll trade that any day over the on/off business which I don't find acceptable. But I've found the dial to be just a general indicator. Otherwise, the burners are excellent, excellent double 15K burner and excellent simmer on all. It has a superb continuous top grate so I have space to put a plate down in the center. Convection is great, 3 different styles, color if you want it, lighting is terrific. Looks great, works great. It's just not a Wolf with auto ignition and a precise oven temp readout -- but it's not in the Wolf price range either.

Yes, you will see negatives. You will read that the burners click and the oven fan exhausts from the top and the oven dial is very imprecise. There's not really any temperature below 275 or 300. But Bertazzoni has made stoves in Italy since 1882 and are still selling them. There are negatives posted about every stove. And you don't see the same negatives posted about the "consumer ranges" people buy because there are low expectations for those. It's a stove not an upgrade or a kitchen style choice. The issue with the Berta is that it looks like a high end range. But it's basically a mechanical gas oven with convection. In our apartment the Berta replaced an mid-80s Magic Chef with gas oven and no convection. They were about the same except the Berta had more top power and better burner grates, smaller oven but with lights, no self clean, convection and looked way more expensive. And it has a nice storage area on the bottom. Plus I could clean under it. And it was gorgeous vs hideous. NXR makes a pro style range at a popular price point. I think it's really ugly and don't like the burner arrangement -- but some love it. Verona remains a mystery although it has been a lurker brand for more than 10 years it has never been well distributed or caught on. Perhaps appliance folks like weissman, xedos or deegeaux can explain. Then there are the other Italians -- Ilve, Fratelli Onofri etc. Before I bought the Berta I combed through old threads and emailed owners who had been using them for some time. Everyone liked theirs and were very realistic about pros/cons. The thing with Consumer Reports is that they like Kenmore. If you're going for Kenmore, it's reassuring. If not, you're over here because they don't do a balanced job. This post was edited by rococogurl on Sun, Jun 16, 13 at 13:34

You should post in the Appliance forum. There are lots of knowledgeable folks over there.