Phyrephox, We are wrapping up a total kitchen remodel. I had an old mid- 1970's electric range that came with the house. I had toyed with the idea of having a dual fuel range. I wanted an electric oven because I like to make cheesecakes and pies. We already had the 220V outlet and had previously ran a T for a future gas range in 2005 when we switched from an 1940's oil furnace to a new high-efficiency gas furnace. I found an amazing deal on our local Craigs list for a NEW 30 inch GE Profile dual fuel range. It had been purchased as part of an auction lot from a kitchen remodel company that suddenly went out of business. It must have been displayed in a model kitchen vignette. It was a few years old, but never used! It carried a full warranty by GE. It was white, which is exactly what I was looking for. I bought it for $1,000! It was missing the internal probe, which I probably would never use. It also was missing the instruction booklet which I got from calling GE with the model and serial numbers. The range got hooked up just in time for Thanksgiving. I cooked a turkey breast and it did superbly. I have since baked casseroles, pizza, cookies, and lasagne. No cheesecakes just yet. The oven seems to bake about 25 degrees too cold. (My neighbor bought a brand new GE Profile Dual Fuel about the same time I did and her oven does the same thing) I just adjust it accordingly, either by increasing the time or upping the temp. The cooktop is great. I really like cooking on gas better than electric. Heats up so much faster and much more immediate temperature response. I am having a little learning curve on the pots to burners choices. I am using my favorite 25 year old Reverware copper clad. You do have to match more burner size to pot size, but I'm getting the hang of it. I find I am able to cook most things on a lower setting on the burners at about 2,3,or 4 setting. Most of the time I use the medium and large burners from my everyday cooking. I use the X-large burner for large pots and pans and to boil pasta water. I have had great success using a 10.5 inch stock pot on it. The simmer burner I use for small pots, and light simmer for small batches of soup. I like the electronic controls on the oven and it is easy to use. Cleaning the cooktop is easy too. I'm a "wipe up after you cook gal" so cleanup has been fine. I love having a window on the oven, something I never had before. I like to watch things cook and not have to open the door to do so. I haven't tried the convection bake yet. So far I am very, very happy with this range. I also like the styling of it, it kind of has a rounded vintage look to it which goes well with my bungalow vintage kitchen. This post was edited by NWRain-Gal on Thu, Feb 13, 14 at 3:28

Several points: 1) Higher cfm will not make up entirely for decreased capture area. I think of blower performance as what determines how quickly smoke etc. that has been captured by the hood can be evacuated. Inadequate cfm means the hood will not clear fast enough to "make room" for incoming smoke, thus leading to spillover. However, an overly small capture area means that some smoke will never enter the hood at all. Remember that smoke diffuses laterally as it rises, and that is compounded if there is any cross-current of room air. As a first approximation, smoke that drifts laterally beyond the edge of your hood is lost no matter how high the cfm rating is. Kind of like trying to go faster on an icy road by installing a bigger engine, when the limiting factor is the spinning tires. Re haus proud's comments: all of the major hood manufacturers other than VAH allow remote blower installation. In the case of the OP, though, it sounds like he/she is venting through a side wall. That eliminates possibility of using a blower mounted inside. Only remote option would be to mount an external fan on the side of the house, which on the first floor of a house would look pretty weird. "Air intake surface covering entire underside of hood"? Isn't that all of them, except for some of the "Euro-style" hoods that have a flat piece of glass extending beyond the edges of the hood? Otherwise, the entire underside of any hood is "capture area." However, that is not related to airflow noise. That is almost all generated at the actual point where the ducting connects to the hood. "Forcing" the air through the much narrower diameter duct causes acceleration and turbulence, thus the noise. And remember that the largest duct in any standard hood is 10'', so that's pretty much fixed independent of brand. weissman: my experience differs somewhat. I have a 42'' 600 cfm VAH over a 36'' Dacor cooktop. I clearly get spillover. May reflect how I cook: I love to sear (favorite salmon recipe involves preheating dry pan on max heat for 4 minutes then dumping in fish). I'm hoping the new hood with 1200 cfm remote blower will do better over the Lacanche, and if I could, I would choose a different hood with higher cfm over the Dacor as well. Agree totally that increasing the depth from standard 24'' to 27'', or at least mounting the hood out an extra 3'' or so will partially compensate for the narrow width. amysrq: re choice of hoods--all the companies you name are good choices. As always I'll throw in a plug for Modern-Aire (Modern-Aire) with whom I've had an excellent experience. I know others have liked Metallo Arts for really wild, over the top designs. Any of these companies would make a good hood for you. I think it's more of a design decision: find one you like the looks of and you should do fine.

We entertain a lot and cook every night. When we remodeled we replaced the 30" cooktop and double wall oven with a 30" dual fuel range and 30" 240V Advantium wall oven. You will have to learn sequencing with the Advatium for multiple dishes, especially if you are going to use the microwave. The oven needs to cool down some before using the MW. We got a great deal on a GE Monogram Pro DF range and all of them are working perfectly.

I would start with what you're accustomed to cooking on/with now: Have you been cooking on a 30 and always wished you had a larger cooking surface? Have you been using a 36 all these years and find you actually don't use one or two burners (or whatever the differential between 30 and 36 is)? If you've been using a 36, is it a good tradeoff to lose a burner for the sake of gaining countertop space and the spice rack? Good advice. I cook every day. Ambitious recipes, large quantities, lots of baking, the whole 9 yards, but it's quite rare that I say to myself, "I wish I had a larger cooking space and/or a second oven". It's just not something that I really need or want. However, I own more kitchen goods than a Williams Sonoma store, so that bit of extra storage space would be more than welcome. I wouldn't go with a spice pull-out though. You don't want to store spices by the heat of the stove, and those things are fairly expensive for the small storage they provide -- I vote for a slightly wider upper instead.