Sadiebrooklyn, I don't think a wall oven generates any more heat than a range oven, it's just handier. aprince, 80 amps is fopr the whole apartment. Sadly, the electric appliances just won't work. Finally, Shannonplus2, self-cleaning is non-negotiable, my cheesey GE gas range has it and it works perfectly. I will NEVER clean an oven by hand again. And I don't have a staff to do it for me. So, I am still shopping. I think I will have to settle for two 24" self cleaning gas wall ovens and a nice 36" gas cooktop or one 24" oven and a 36" range with a self-cleaning oven for the occasions when I am cooking for a crowd. It isn't ideal, but I'm at my wits end.

There are gas wall ovens if you want one. I posted this on the chowhound cookware forum and this is the gist of what I posted. It used to be conventional wisdom that gas was moist heat, due to the release of water as part of the products of combustion and electric dry heat. No one has actually measured humidity, that I can find, in ovens to say if this is the case. I have used both kinds of ovens over many(50) years and found very little difference. I almost think that gas may be a little drier,due to the following reasons. There is much more ventilation with gas so the humidity from the products of combustion are ventilated out. If you read the bread baking forums, you will find they have a hard time keeping steam in a gas oven needed for the first part of baking and resort to covering the bread to steam it. I have read stories of roasts being better in a gas oven. Sometimes they will say it makes a better crust or is juicier. People will attribute this to the moist heat but in reality it is not going over the optimum internal temperature that makes a roast juicy and it is a drying effect that makes the external parts crispy. This is why convection is such a good thing. On the other hand the electric oven is more of a closed system and does hold the humidity given off by food or added humidity better. I think an electric oven may be better for baking cakes and things that rise better because it does hold a little more humidity and allows the rising action to work a little more before it sets and have read baking forums that say this. I have seen it advised to open the door of an electric oven a little, a few times to let the moisture out toward the end of baking a cake. Another consideration is that once you raise the temperature of the air, the relative humidity is much less in both and not that different percentage wise. All these things are going to depend on what you are cooking and the build of the oven. Some advantages of electric that may depend on the brand and features it has. Some ovens have a thermostat that has a very narrow temperature swing, as litle as 2 degrees. Some have the more conventional 25 degree swing on each side of the setting. Some electric ovens have a third element around the convection fan that can produce a more even heat especially when it is full. All gas oven and some electric have just the fan. There may be additional baking and roasting modes that make use of top and bottom elements to produce certain effects. For example a roasting mode may utilize the top element more to produce more browning from the top. Electric ovens are more inclined to be self clean but there are gas self cleaning ovens. Gas ovens may have an infrared broiler. Good Luck in your search.

Update: Apparently there's a known problem with the island trim on my range. They're ordering the part & will install in 9 days...me, I'm hoping this will help with the noise issue too. Repair guy says probably not, but hey, I know fan noise is often more about the way the air moves than the fan itself, so I can hope. Though neither the service guy nor I am clear on why I have island trim without an island. Stove was installed against a wall in the store, so I never questioned. I don't care one way or another that I know of--anything here I'm missing? We're waiting on the "simmer burners going out" issue until we solve the fan one, because it might all be caused by the airflow being wrong. At least the repairman agrees--first words out of his mouth when fan went on were "that's really weird". And he's smart enough that the next thing he did was call the manufacturer! Thank you all for your help--hearing that it was a real issue from you guys really helped us calmly wait the week for diagnosis!

Well, taking a second look, even though there was mucho rust after using the self-clean oven approach, I saw a lot of gray underneath - a good sign. So, after watching a few You-tubes on the subject - I rinsed out the pot with hot water - thoroughly dried with cloth and over gas burner, put on American Idol, and tackled it with absorbent cloths, oil, shortening and salt. I just kept cleaning and cleaning - never got it quite all off, but finally applied the recommended grapeseed oil and let it preheat in a 400 degree oven. Got engrossed in Idol - so it probably stayed in the oven for an hour. Happily, the grapeseed oil sealed it up quite solidly - and the cloth wiped over it comes out perfectly clean! The pan bottom almost matches the lid again (which had not been affected). I will do another couple of cycles of oiling and preheating. (Will post my phone photos if and when I can find the proper cable to upload.) Thanks to each of you for the input.