The older model all-gas range with the semi-open burners is no longer available unless you can find a floor model. The discontinued model had a top that comes completely apart for cleaning. The new model has a porcelain cooktop surrounded by stainess steel and cannot be removed or lifted up for cleaning the areas in between. The discontinued model has single grates, the newer model has grates that cover two buners and another grate that covers the center. The oven door on the older model sticks out about half an inch from the frame, the newer model sits flush in the frame. The styling has been "updated" to resemble the dual fuel. From what I was told at the Wolf showroom, the oven is the same with no changes.

@ foodfiend_gardener, Most of the pricer lines have places where you can try out various cooktops - that's what I would try to do. You might have to go to more than one place, but its a small price to pay for some decision information. I would also consider induction. Forgive me it this has been covered above. A rangetop generally has more space for larger pans because the unit itself is deeper - there is more space available from front to back. I would view that as a positive EXCEPT if its placed near a corner with opposing cabinets. It may require a 4" or so filler to permit the next cabinet around the corner to open completely. The same kind of consideration would need to be given to access for the cabinets on both side of a decision to place a rangetop across a corner. @marthavilla - I think it depends on your personal experience with sealed burners. Just like there isn't the one-true open burner design, sealed burners from different manufacturers are different. I'm pretty sure they vary widely in actual performance (mine have). Same pots, same cook, but different results. I think there isn't a big generality that explains or reconciles every view of open vs. closed. I don't have the budget for an expensive cooktop/range so I'm more familiar with the pretty bad burner designs on the more modest end of the money spectrum where the burners are always sealed. I'm not saying they're all bad, just that the ones I cooked on were. The thing about single ring burners and the center being cold? I have actually experienced this (for 7.5 years) on the last range. I think its possible that the physics-speakers are not making enough allowance for stupid burner designs. In my case, the diameter between where the flames are perpendicular to the bottom of the pan at medium was close to 8 inches on the power burner. Even when the burner was turned all the way down, the effective flame diameter was still more than 6 inches. The more the burner was turned up, the further out the flame moved and the larger the "flameless" center became. It was my experience that the effect of "cold center" on that burner was barely changed by heavier cookware or cookware that was more conductive. It could be changed by stirring. It's possible that I just didn't own any cookware big enough and heavy enough (I would have trouble lifting something like an enameled cast iron pot with at least a 12" diameter on the bottom). The 17k power burner design was Extra-Stupid but the 11k burner design was ok. It had a diameter almost 2 inches narrower between the flames. A properly heated cast iron pot could fill-in the cold center. I couldn't use the same pot (3 qt casserole) on the power burner because the flame would miss the pan on any setting > 1. As a matter of fact, the setting at 2, 3 and 4 was the same as 1 - this was true on all its burners. Because I could literally take the same cookware outside where I had an open burner camp stove - its has 30k burners that I never turn up more than halfway. A 30k burner turned up all the way is a scary burner to me. It was easy for me to ascribe the difference to open v. closed burners. The burners on a culinairian look like a tamed and refined version of camp stove burners. My new range is the baby NXR with 15k dual stacked burners and I'm pretty happy. I get done cooking in less time with better results in doing simple things like browning chicken. I can boil a gallon of water in 15 minutes on any burner. This is a miracle to me. On the stupid sealed burner design, I couldn't boil 2.5 pints of water in 20 minutes without stirring. So, not-stupid closed burner designs have removed some of the open burner desire.. I still think positioning more of the heat in the center of the pot at all power levels is better than positioning it closer to the outer edges. Open burners win in my mind at being able to effectively heat a wide variety of pan sizes and many types of cookware on the same burner.

We chose the 6-burner rangetop with sealed burners. My wife just liked the looks and function of the grates better, and also the knob design. Others prefer the looks of the open burner... so cosmetics are really a personal choice. The sealed burners have the dual stacked feature, which the open do not. Whether that's a big difference or not I don't know. To me it would seem that the sealed unit with these burners might be more versatile, with a wider range of adjustment. The open burner design used on the Wolf has been around a long time and appears to also be used on various other units such as Miele. In that regard one might say it was tried and true. The best thing would be to try both in a real cooking scenario. I think you could do that at a Wolf distributor. Good luck with your choice.

I'm a big fan of my open burners, but it's not a big deal in the following regard: 90% of what most people do on a range can be done with a decent (and not necessarily top of the line) version of a sealed or open burner. That's not to say that the differences cannot be striking or matter to you and how you cook, but it's worth keeping a sort of functional baseline in mind as you sort these things out. WRT which part of the pan receives direct heat -- that's partly a question of the shape of the individual burners. BlueStar (open) has an inner ring and radial extensions -- like rays off a cartoon version of the sun -- so that there's direct flame applied to a significant portion of the bottom of the pan. Thermador (sealed) has a "star" shaped burner, and several mfgs use dual rings. Most of these things can be demoed, if you have the right kind of shop nearby (or a friend with one of the things that interests you). BTW -- the wolf web site should have pictures and features for both their open burners (their version of open) and closed burner models, and I reckon a dealer ought to have a sample of each style, even if it doesn't have precisely the model you're looking at. I did not buy open burners for ease of cleaning, but they have turned out to be pretty darn easy to clean. There are 2 stainless drip trays that slide out very easily -- not visible if you're just sitting in the kitchen or even standing at the range. On a daily basis, it's mostly a swipe of a dish towel or paper towel. If there's more of a mess, it's easy enough to pull an individual grate and bowl at a time and take a brush and hot water to them at the sink, although they are on the heavy side. As others have posted -- plenty of posts on these questions on the appliance board.