In general: I have had open and closed burner gas tops and closed are 100% easier to clean, I would never never get open unless I had daily cleaning help. The BTU rating on the highest burner is important, as well as a very small BTU simmer burner. I also need continuous grate to slide a pot over, and prefer mechanical knobs to electronic keypads. There are some cooktops where the grates are too high off the burners and there are complaints of a feeling of under-powered burners despite the BTU rating. I think this whole open burner for the home thing is nothing short of ridiculous, it is more of a high volume restaurant issue, but his is gardenweb... I do not like the performance of gas ovens. I like electric and I love the functionality of convection. I would never buy an oven without convection. So I would vote for closed burner gas cooking and electric ovens.

Sealed vs open burners - best way to describe as the appliance sales person put it to me - "do you want to bring the sink to the stove, or the stove to the sink" - I chose open - I like being able to take it apart and bring it to the sink we have a Viking 36" all gas open burner (6) - Oven is plenty large - Oven capacities do vary manufacturer to manufacture make sure to check on the internal specs good luck

Five Star is the pro-style brand of Brown Stove Works. Five Star was the least expensive line of pro-style gas and dual fuel ranges until the recent emergence of import-based competitiors such as NXR,Thor, Ancona, etc. You don't need a retailer to work on them. Like the NXR/Thor stoves, the Five Stars use simple, mature technology with minimal electronics. Pretty much anybody (including homeowners) can fix just about anything on them. Try googling "Five Star + ranges + repair + Chicago" and you'll probably find somebody reputable who works on them and/or can get parts. Also, you might call the Five Star "800" customer support line to find servicers who are in the Chicago area and who stock any Five Star parts which aren't readily available generic parts. The stove factory is in Tennessee. Brown has been making stoves there since the 1930s. Five Star is a sideline for Brown. Most of Brown's business seems to be supplying very basic gas and electric ranges to operators of subsidized housing projects and making stoves under contract for the likes of Summit. Brown got into the pro-style lines by making some stoves for Viking for a while when that company first started up. After Viking created the market for pro-style appliances and got big enough to bring all of its stove manufacturing in-house, Brown launched its own Five Star brand. IIRC, that was around 1981. Because the Five Star brand has always been a sideline for Brown and has always had a small share of the market for boutique and pro-style stoves, there haven't been many threads here on the stoves. The longest write-up here on the brand was this one from last year: [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5-star-range-review-dsvw-vd~4379186[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5-star-range-review-dsvw-vd~4379186) There were a couple of threads here about the 48-inch model from a decade ago: [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/five-star-48-range-dsvw-vd~2309192[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/five-star-48-range-dsvw-vd~2309192) [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/five-star-48-dsvw-vd~2286955[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/five-star-48-dsvw-vd~2286955) If you haven't already seen them, other threads here on Five Star have been: [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/five-stars-for-my-fivestar-ranges-dsvw-vd~2671320[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/five-stars-for-my-fivestar-ranges-dsvw-vd~2671320) [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/30-gas-range-decision-blue-star-five-star-etc-dsvw-vd~2326023[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/30-gas-range-decision-blue-star-five-star-etc-dsvw-vd~2326023)

I just had my Five Star dual fuel 36" range installed this week. So... I've had it for a few days, lol. I opted for sealed burners. I had the same thing installed about 25 years ago in my previous house. I loved that thing and hated to leave it behind. It's still kicking. This one is much better, though. There are a few differences between that one and this one. The grates are lodge cast iron and are much beefier than the previous version. I think the main upgrade from 25 years ago is the griddle/grill. It used to be a huge unit that you had to lift out and switch out. If I remember correctly, the griddle used to be steel, more like a smooth commercial kitchen grill top. Now it's a solid piece of lodge cast iron that you flip over to switch between the grill and griddle. I haven't used it yet, but I will likely use it this weekend for pancakes and maybe some homemade english muffins. We do grilling outdoors, and really the griddle was what I was looking for, and I cook with cast iron all the time so I'm thrilled to have a larger surface griddle. The four burners have an audible click-click when the gas lights, but the griddle/grill does not. It's going to take some time to get used to. The grease drain seems to be similar to the previous one; I expect that to work just fine. If I'm being honest, I might have preferred six burners. I can during the summer, and having more than four burners would be nice. That being said, I'm quite happy to have the griddle back in my life. There are no local companies that carry the line. When I bought the one for my old house, the local high end retailer carried it. They don't now. I obviously didn't get to see it or touch it before buying it. I called them to order it. I chose to pay an extra $150 to have them move it into the garage, else they were going to drop it at the curb. I don't have a pallet jack, so I was fine with paying that extra fee. The unit was shipped to the West Coast (I'm in Oregon) and arrived well crated and in perfect condition. That was my biggest concern - shipping it across the country from Tennessee to Oregon. My appliance installers picked it up from my garage with their truck and moved it into our other driveway and installed it in the kitchen. It was a fairly easy install for them. They even removed the ridiculously large sticker on the front of the oven door, using goo gone to remove every last bit. The install instructions probably haven't been updated since the last time I bought it. The space between the cabinets is supposed to be 36 3/16". I had to have our cabinet installers come out and provide that space, as they only gave me 36". Then the counter people were supposed to leave the ends of the soapstone even with the cabinet edge, and they didn't, which chewed up the 3/16" .... so in the end, I only had 36" width. Five Star confirmed that it was fine to only have 36" (and the unit measures out at 35 7/8") and they were right. It was a tight fit, but it's perfectly fine. The oven is quiet. The convection fan brings in a bit of noise, but it's pretty quiet. Only issue I have is that the wok ring is apparently not in stock. I had to send an email to them, letting them know I wanted it. They'll mail it to me when it is back in stock. Minor detail really. Before I purchased it, I asked Five Star for the name of the local repair shop(s) that would service it. I called one, and spoke with them. They said they see a few of them each year and they are super easy to repair. You're probably aware of the limited electronics. It's one of the selling features for me. I remember looking at the Miele with the tilt-out control panel and just silently screaming "nooooooo". You do need a make up air system for the hood vent. I think the 36" dual fuel is 89k BTU, so it needs a 900 cfm fan. Pretty sure code across the country requires MUA over 400-ish CFM. I haven't had to clean it yet. I haven't used the broiler.