Wolf 30' Range - All Gas or dual Fuel ?

13 years ago

Hello All;

I am considering a Wolf Range because practically all of the reviews I see on them are very good. I am having my kitchen remodeled right now and I'll probably be ready for the hood and range installation in about 6 weeks. I have been debating whether to go with all gas or dual fuel for atleast a year, probably longer. I know that the Wolf Dual fuel range has some convenience features like temperature probe, and self clean and every salesman seems to be pushing them but I am way more interested in performance than in a longer list of convenience features. So I come here to GW to hopefully get some unbiased suggestions/recommendations.

I am a cooking enthusiast and only want something that does best with the food I like to cook. I tend to not bake too many cakes/cookies but bake a lot of main dishes in the oven. What sort of things is a dual fuel range best at cooking and what sort of things is a all gas range best at cooking ? How about the broiler in both - are they best at cooking certain things Dual Fuel vs. All Gas ? How about convection - is dual fuel or all gas better performing in one or the other or are they about the same ?

Beyond Performance, is there any compelling feature about Wolf dual-fuel that makes it a better choice ?

Tim

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Comments (4)

wekick
13 years ago
The burners are a little different but have not cooked on a Wolf AG so can't compare. We have a place we can go close to my house and actually cook on Wolf ranges. Do you have anything like that? Some think the simmer runs a little higher with the AG burners, but I guess you could always use a simmer plate. The BTUs listed do not tell the whole story and the simmer will depend on the pan-what it is made of and size. I would prefer the semi open burner in some ways. The flame may be a little more straight up but it would be nice to look at and see for yourself.

As far as the oven goes, with the DF, the biggest advantage is being able to direct the heat. The roast mode brings more heat from the top to brown and it great for roasted chickens etc. The baking mode brings the heat from the bottom which I like for pies and quiches to get the bottom crust nice and done. There is also a convection setting that uses the element around the convection fans. I haven't used that as much. I am not sold on the necessity of that third element. Maybe I will find something that I like to use it for.

on the other hand

The AG has the infrared broiler which is great for steaks but doesn't cover as much area I think some have said. I mostly use my broiler to brown the tops of something I made or sheets of appetizers so I like the element to cover a large area. I do my steaks either in a cast iron skillet inside or grill outside. Some feel that the AG is better to bake bread because it is a moister heat. You can always buy a thermometer with a probe that beeps when it comes to temp, and some feel this is a better way to go because it is much cheaper to replace it than the one that comes with the oven.

It may help to read the instruction manual online and compare the two in that way
john_com
13 years ago
>>There is also a convection setting that uses the element around the convection fans. I haven't used that as much. I am not sold on the necessity of that third element. Maybe I will find something that I like to use it for.

Try using convection or convection roast on your next roasting chicken, they turn out great. Sometimes the convection mode makes more of a mess in the oven though.
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wekick
13 years ago
I use the convection roast for chicken all the time. I mentioned it in my post.
I am just not sold on the necessity of the third element. Wolf recommends the straight convection mode for multi rack cooking. I think the conv roast and bake heat the oven pretty evenly. It seams like with the element being so close to the fan, it is blowing super heated air immediately in front of the fan and on the last oven I had, that was the case. Everything got really dark on the back side. I might try it on this oven but, I just have had great results on everything with out it.
john_com
13 years ago
>>I use the convection roast for chicken all the time. I mentioned it in my post.

Perhaps I mis-read but I did not see any mention of convection roast in your post that's why I offered my experience with it.

Wolf 30' Range - All Gas or dual Fuel ?

Comments (4)

wekick

john_com

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wekick

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