I own a 36" Wolf DF and am one with porcelain issues. I love the burners with a great low heat and the oven is wonderful. I am looking to replace it though. After dickering with Wolf they have agreed to provide the part and $350 in labor. The problem is the labor starts at $800+ because they don't know what they will find and the time may vary depending on how fast the guys work. They will only guarantee the part one year. They used to replace ovens with this problem even when 4+ years old for a small fee. Most posters here and elsewhere have had more than one replacement and the replacements don't last as long as the one before. I don't want to risk inhaling or ingesting tiny glass shards when the liner starts to degrade. "I thought electric was a more consistent, and therefore better, option for baking/roasting? " "gas is better for roasting because of the moist heat. " Consistency has nothing to do with gas or electric, but bulk for thermal stabilization (providing radiant heat), air movement within the oven chamber(providing convective heat), placement of burners and accuracy of thermostat. Some companies seek to improve this by adding among other things,more insulation, more bulk, fan(s), a third and possibly a fourth element with computerized controls and and a thermostat with a narrower variance from the set temperature. When looking at humidity in an oven, you have to look past the immediate heat source and look at what happens with the oven and the cooking process. In general a gas oven has more ventilation through the oven chamber so the water that is a product of combustion is vented out along with more heat, so the heat is drier. Electric ovens are not ventilated as much so hold moisture from cooking. The moisture in the electric oven is beneficial the first half of baking breads and cakes because it allows the dough/batter to expand a little more, promotes starch gelatinization and allows better heat penetration of what you are baking. "Dry" is better the second half of the baking process. People seem to pay more attention and it makes more difference for bread. There are many ways people use steam for bread. "Dry" heat from a gas range or using the convection mode on an electric stove gives crispiness to a roast and may be better for some cookies, pies etc. External moisture has nothing to do with internal moisture of a roast. The amount of internal moisture is due to the temperature of the meat. Plus you have to pay a huge premium for dual fuel when in fact it does not cost the manufacture a lot more to make. You pay a premium for the additional elements, fans and the computers to make them run correctly. It would be up to the individual to decide what is huge and if it is worth it. They have fantastic 23k btu open burners with very even heat. No need for high maintenance tin lined French copper pots. What the heck does this mean??? If you have a burner with a flame pattern of 5-6 inches wide, if you use anything wider than 8 inches, you will benefit from a pan that has good heat conduction. Best is heavy gauge copper, lined in tin or stainless. Not everyone polishes. You can also get plied cookware with copper that goes in the dishwasher. Cheaper is aluminum available in several configurations including plied cookware. This is a very biased statement from a sealed burner owner that thinks dual stacking makes any meaningful difference. The purpose of dual stacked burners is to provide two separate burners each with its own range of heat. You would have to look at the range of BTU output for each burner to see the benefit. Rating by temperature is meaningless. I might have a BTU output of 325 and the temperature of what I am cooking could be 190 or 80 depending on the pan and what I am cooking. CC's 23k btu burners are capable of 145 degree simmer which is more than reasonable. Other than raw foodist, virtually no one needs or can use Wolf's 100 degree simmers. This is unbelievably presumptuous to pontificate about what other people should or should not find useful in their kitchen. I use low heat daily for -cooking a whole dinner or pot of soup in a LeCreuset pot using minimal energy -serving off the range, no worries about any scorching pastas, mashed potatoes etc -a short term sous-vide -anything that used to require a double boiler A few weeks ago I was making a syrup that had to be held hot while another step in the recipe was completed and even with the low simmer, it would not stop boiling. I could have "used" even lower heat. There is a whole big world of people that cook in many different ways. Wolf's sealed burners will not give you a decent stir-fry or Pittsburg steak while the CC will. Cooking is about the temperature of the cooking surface. The source of heat is just one component of this. A cook who understands how the properties of cookware work as well as how what you are cooking comes into play will be able to combine these things to come up with the right temps for the cooking surface on both high and low end. You can find blogs where cooks preheat cast iron to extremely high temps by low powered burners to cook pizza. Some restaurants cook a steak on a rock table side with no flame underneath. You just need to understand how to accumulate heat in your cooking surface. How are those pictures representative of the burners referenced? The CC is way off. I have cooked on many different open and sealed burners over 50 years. I agree with weissman that ease of cleaning burners depends on the build and also has a very subjective component. I think you have to avoid generalizations. Even the black enamel on the Dacor range we had was much more difficult to clean than the black on our current Wolf. This, an observation from my husband.

We bought a Wolf 30" dual fuel range last year. They were running a 500 dollar off promo at the time and gave us free glide racks. But I have never heard of anyone being able to bargain with Wolf on the price. Every dealer we got a quote from in NJ gave us the same price.

The Wolf Df bakes beautifully and you can fill it and everything will bake evenly. It is a fabulous oven. Unfortunately my oven started with the blue enamel chipping at a little over 4 years of age. It is out of warranty. After back and forth with Wolf the most they will do is pay a small portion of labor and supply the part. The labor starts at $800 with no cap and they will only warranty the part for a year. With their ongoing issues, I don't want to do that. Some have been through multiple ovens. This has been an ongoing issue with Wolf and they did replace ovens that did this even four years out. No longer do they do this. The new wall ovens have replaceable bottoms to make them cheaper to repair. The ranges do not. Before this happened I was a huge fan of the Wolf Df. When I bought it they told me I would not need an extended warranty because Wolf would stand behind it. This is no longer the case. I too am looking to replace it with something that bakes as well. Search blue chipping on this forum.

Have you ever watched steam or smoke rise? The farther up it rises the more it drifts off to the sides as well. If you have a vent flush to the ceiling, you will most likely miss most of the steam/grease/smoke as it's already drifted out of range of the vent...and you say you have high ceilings so it would be even worse than 8' ceilings. Yes, you could get a really powerful vent to suck everything straight up, but I suspect it would take pets and small children with it! :-) Vents are usually mounted approximately 30" above the cooking surface and even then it's advised that you get one 6" wider than the cooking surface in an effort to increase the "capture area" b/c of the sideways drift. I'm not a proponent of down drafts either, but as long as you don't fry, brown, do any cooking with oil, or use the charbroiler, you'll probably be all right...although you will probably be able to smell the next day what you had for dinner the night before... I really don't mean to be so negative, but I think you should really think about this. I second the idea that the range should really be against the wall...aside from the venting issue, it's a safety issue as well, especially if you have younger children (unless you have a large overhang in the back...24" or more, and decent space on the sides...again, 24" or more on each side). Most of my time is spent prepping...and that's when I like to be able to see/converse with others. When I'm at the cooktop, I need to pay attention to what I'm doing...and that's even more important if you have gas. You also do not usually spend much time at the cooktop...you put something on a burner & just periodically check it while you're continuing to prep, cleanup, set up, etc. If I had to choose, I would much rather have the sink in the island than the cooktop.