Thank you for your replies. My girlfriend bought a Miele Steam Oven (size of a microwave). I thought they would steam vegetables, but oh no, she steams ribs before they barbeque them, she steams potatoes to make mashed, she seems to steam a lot of things I never knew would be steamed. And yes she bakes one loaf (so small oven) of bread. I found the KA oven and thought what a perfect solution. So if you don't buy KA steam assist ovens, and it seems there is a lot of fear for KA ovens, would you buy Monogram ovens or what. Love your input a lot.

I am not sure I agree with M (a first! I always agree with M). LOL. Thank you for the compliment ❤ Shannon, let me make an effort to put you at ease again. You said that you have gone years with having a tile backsplash behind a high-powered range, even though it came with island trim. I believe you. There is a difference between what you can probably get away with, and what building codes tell you to do. When I was younger, I for years lived in an apartment that pushed a gas stove directly against a wall. Since it was just a rental apartment, I couldn't make many changes. I simply decided to mount a glass cutting board to that wall. It helped quite a bit, as I left an air gap behind. And that's pretty critical. That's why the manufacturers backsplash works, too. Nonetheless, when I moved out, the paint behind the cutting board had bubbled up in places and gotten scorched. But it never caught fire. So, there's that. So, the same is true in your situation. You most likely will get away with tile on a combustible surface. There might be hidden damage to the wall. Or there might not be. Impossible to tell. And if you sparingly use both oven and rear burners, then there might never be an issue. But nobody can tell in advance. And building codes have to deal with people doing stupid things. Such as setting your oven on fire (which my dumb ass has managed to do twice in my life) You don't want your house to catch on fire, simply because you forgot what material the backsplash happened to be built from. And if the stove manufacturer explicitly tells you that operation without a backguard isn't safe, then they probably have a reason for that statement.

Sometimes it depends on if there is a reliable local dealer with excellent service, sounds like your friends have had great experience with Kitchen Aid. We’ve had good luck with a Thermador 12+ years, it has a warming drawer between the microwave & oven, then there is a 2nd matching wall oven across in an island. The problem with the combined units is if one part fails you want to make sure it can be fixed/replaced independently. We replaced the microwave last year, it was a simple switch out.

We did, I like it so far only been using it like 3 weeks. Good burners - easy to light and the convection dual fuel is nice. The timer in the app is dumb we just got a regular counter top timer. Which for a oven that cost as much as it did - seems strange. The phone barely rings when the timer goes off and it only rings one time. We have used the app to turn the oven on a few times but notice that if you use the oven normally and then flip the dial to wifi for the next time you might want to use it- it will turn the oven back on because in the app it says: stay on- even tho you didn’t start a new cycle. I don’t know if that was a fluke ? But we had the oven back on yesterday because I turned it to wifi when we were done using it. Also when I did try to use the timer for multiple cooks- like cookies - in and out of the oven. The app couldn’t start the timer over and it just didn’t work the second time - which I didn’t realize until like 8 minutes in. So the app is meh. But it will turn the oven on… The oven is pretty.