locaiz-I like the Monogram too. The burners all having the same BTUs and all with the simmer feature is a huge plus IMO. Aesthetically, I really like those grates. I investigated Thermador but I heard that when you put the burner on simmer it cycles on and off continuously every 30 seconds and makes an annoying clicking sound as it does so (imagine 'click-click, click-click' every 30 seconds). I did like the star shaped burner though especially for smaller pots, but the clicking thing was a deal breaker for me. I also checked out the new Viking and it was very nice. I put it back on my list. The salesman told me about the new Dacor that is nicely priced at ~$2,000 with 6 burners. Haven't investigated it enough to give a completely educated opinion, but simmer was only available on 2 burners and not all burners have same max BTU output. From the pot size aspect, it does have some different sized burners. Wolf is almost always a good bet, but the price can be a little prohibitive. Open burner vs sealed burner--if you have spillage or overflow with sealed burner all the liquid stays right there. You remove the grates and clean it up. Open burner spills/overflows go into the burner insert and down through it into a tray that slides out from under the rangetop. The debate comes in with is it easier to just mop up at the rangetop or to be able to break down the whole unit and clean the pieces in the sink/dishwasher. I would think that if you're not a pro chef, having "better flame" from the open burner configuration would probably be lost on you (as it would me as well) because you wouldn't have anything to compare it with and even if you did have a comparison, you probably wouldn't be able to tell a difference, again because you're not a pro. These are the only 2 major things I've heard on the comparisons of the two. antss-Just curious, do you have the GE Monogram that was made by DCS or the one actually made by GE? I was told to handle the smaller pots, just turn the flame down. Have you found this to be the case? Thanks!

Hi Kayla - overall I like the dual fuel range. My husband loves the digital meat thermometer that came with it and we've made the best prime rib roasts since we've gotten this oven. The pre-heat does take awhile but we've gotten used to it. I've made cookies and they turn out great. We have also started using the lower oven more if we're baking something in a shallow dish, frozen garlic bread, rolls and etc. because it doesn't take as long to heat up. We've used the griddle to make sandwiches and pancakes and I'm happy with how that works and the easy clean up. I would say the stove top is easy to scratch if you aren't careful when you clean around the burners. Make sure you lift the grates up, off and set aside to clean and not just lift the front of the grates so you can wipe underneath. You'll scratch the little raised lip on the back of the stove top with the burner grates. I'm still not crazy about the overall height of the stove top but that's not really a fault. My husband on the other hand (6'2" tall) LOVES the dual range and all of it's features. He would highly recommend it to everyone. I like it. We also bought the matching over the range microwave. We bought it because you can bake in it and I thought we would really use that feature a lot but have found it takes a really long time to pre-heat the oven feature of the microwave and you have to use this little round raised baking rack which I have very few dishes that will fit, actually none now that I think about it. I thought it would be more like my old toaster/convection oven that sat on my counter top and it's really not at all. For the most part we just use the microwave to re-heat and warm things. I hope this helped

You should really search on the appliance forum - lots of information there. I've had the DCS 30" all gas self-cleaning range for over 5 years and I'm very pleased with it. Lots of other owners on the appliance forum who are happy with DCS. With all gas, only the 30" range has an option for a self-cleaning oven. The dual fuel ranges have self-cleaning ovens although you need to check whether or not the small oven on the 48" range is self-cleaning. Currently, the GE Monogram ranges are made by DCS but that is going to change very soon.

I have a GE induction range and an Electrolux single oven. Both ovens work well. Best to go to an appliance store and try a few. Many stores in my area have them ready for a trial. In MD, Bray and Scraff do as well as some smaller places in PA.