DF usually means gas burners and an electric oven but FiveStar makes what they call a "true" DF, 48 inch with two ovens, one gas and one electric. I would ask yourself what do you like about the DF or an electric oven? What features will be meaningful to you in the way you cook? These features are only good if they are useful and they work. These are some differences in the way electric and gas ovens bake/roast. These features can vary quite a bit brand to brand. -You will commonly read that gas is moist heat and electric heat is dry. This is only if you look at the source of heat without considering what goes on in the oven. Electric ovens hold on to more of the moisture from what you are baking or if you add steam. This actually ends up "moist" heat. This promotes starch gelatinization.This is mostly a benefit for those that want a particular type of crust when baking bread. It also will delay the setting of a cake or things that rise a little giving it a better rise. Gas ovens do not hold on to the moisture very well because they are ventilated much more. Gas actually releases moisture as a product of combustion but it leaves the oven chamber quickly so a gas oven has "dry" heat. Some bread bakers cover their bread to keep the moisture in the first half of the baking process in a gas oven. Some have even tried blocking the ventilation to keep moisture in the oven. This dry heat is good though for the second half of baking because it promotes browning. In some blogs I have read, bakers open the electric oven briefly after a cake has set, to release steam and/or turn on the convection fan. The dry heat of a gas oven is better for roasting as it evaporates moisture and promotes browning. The convection fan will do that in an electric oven. -Some electric ovens have a very narrow range of temperature. The normal swing is about 25 degrees on either side of the set temperature. I have not found it that important to have the very narrow swing in temperature. -Some electric ovens have modes with the ability to direct more heat from the top for roasting and from the bottom for baking. The convection fan speed may also vary, slower for baking, faster for roasting. You might also have two fans. Electric ovens also might have third(and fourth) elements called European or true convection. This is a benefit when the oven is full in having things bake more evenly. You can't always tell when these elements are being used in a given mode. My Electrolux oven has a little indicator that shows the rotation of the elements but most do not. You can hear a difference in fan speeds. Gas ovens typically have an on and off switch for the fan. I like the different modes but some people do not find utility in them and consider them needless "bells and whistles". They do require a computer board to coordinate them which some do not like because some ovens have had boards that fail in self cleaning. Some also do not like the sound of cooling fans that can run after you turn the oven off These features do have the potential to heat an oven more evenly if they work. I would avoid any new models with these modes until they are proven. Some electric ovens have an "auto correct" feature for convection. It is ok if optional, but I don't like for an oven to automatically lower the temperature for me. This is not always necessary. Electric ovens are more likely to have self clean. One model of the Capital Culinarian AG has self clean but is $$$. Many people avoid use of the self clean because it seems to be a possible source of problems with computer boards and interior porcelain enamel failure. Look at the broiler. Some higher end ranges have a infrared broiler that can be narrow, but widths of the broiler can vary. Look at the range of temperature and how can you use the fan? Some ovens only go down to 225F. Others might go down to 80F for proofing.

I had a Kenmore/Frig non-convection gas range for 15 yrs: 2 power plus burners with digital controls/timer. Excellent range - the only reason I gave it up was to give it to my niece, a great cook, who had bought her first home with a crummy cheap Roper in it. Replaced it with a Kenmore/Whirlpool gas range in 2002. After 5 yrs the control board died, no oven or broiler. It went a little wonky before that so I did have warning. Was SHOCKED at how much it costs to replace those boards - $370 plus labor! Tried a "reconditioned" board to save money ($175 vs $370)- disastrous. Board died in 5 months; just had it replaced again (two days ago, in fact). Sprang for the new board and a 2 yr warranty, at which time I hope to replace this with a Lacanche or a Bluestar (woohoo!). Outside of the board troubles, I love the performance of this stove. It has 2 Powerplus burners in front, a configuration I like a lot better than my old stove. The digital control temp on the oven is amazing, and on the burners it's even more amazing. I have never used a stove able to simmer so low, in some 40+ yrs of cooking on many different gas stoves. Last year there was a discussion thread of "how long does it take your stove to boil 6 qts of tap water?" This range took 1 min longer than a Viking, which is pretty good considering it cost $900 (not counting those #%$&! controller boards, of course, LOL).

Posted by allykay I've looked at a couple of YouTube videos done by a cooking school chef comparing Wolf and Viking burners with Capital (Culinarian) burners, and a similar one for Blue Star. These are marketing videos done by Trevor Lawson of Eurostoves. He sells Capital Culinarian and used to sell Bluestar. The bottom line is that the placement, number and angles of the holes in the burners make both the Blue Star and Capital burners distribute heat much more evenly across the bottom of the pan than on Wolf and Viking burners. Heat distribution needs to be considered in the context of actual cooking. There are several factors that influence how effectively heat is transferred to your food. No one burner is the the most effective in heat transfer in all situations. Even CC and BS are very different in this way. The CC burner in the video is 5 inches across and has inner rings. This would provide fairly even heat across the bottom of a 6 inch pan. If you use a 12 inch pan though it would create a hot spot in the middle of the pan. You would need something wider to provide the most even heat. In this case a ring burner, open, that has a little wider spread of the heat might be "more even". Some ranges, like BS have burners are different sizes to accommodate the difference in pan sizes. None of this matters too much though if you buy pans that are made of adequate thicknesses of heat conductive metals like aluminum(good) or copper(better). Pans made of steel, cast iron or stainless steel are poor conductors of heat and require matching the pan to the size of the flame. Multiply cookware is an attempt to add some of the heat conductive properties of aluminum and copper to stainless. These are hard to evaluate because the amounts of heat conductive metals used are proprietary. The performance of the pan is blunted by the encasing stainless, but they do often go in the dishwasher. If you have a copper pan of adequate thickness, not only will your heat be even across the bottom but up the sides as well. Aluminum pans are much cheaper and are very even as well. If you cook with cast iron or steel, or even multiply cookware, you might want burners that have various sizes. It will also matter what you are cooking. A pan of chicken broth will allow movement of the fluid and transfer of heat away from the bottom of the pan much more than a pot of thick mashed potatoes. Posted by deeageaux If anything the new gas Wolf models are worse. They used to be 16k btu with that tiny inner burner. Now they are 15k btu without that tiny inner burner. The previous Wolf burner was also semi open. Functionally they are about the same. To me the sealed burner is a little easier to clean. The newer burner still has two burners(stacked) too, but the idea is that the heat on the simmer is spread out a little more avoiding the little circle of heat dissed on the Eurostove video. For anyone looking at ranges, try to see the range in person, live if possible. If you can't do that comments on this forum by actual owners can also be helpful if they contain pros and cons.

Things you might have noticed in your reading: Hood should overlap the cooking area by a few inches Airflow should be of the order of 90 CFM per sq. ft. of hood entry aperture for residential style hoods Calculated air flow requirement from above should be 2/3 of the blower's (zero static pressure) CFM rating, more or less depending on myriad factors Duct size should keep max power flow velocity in the 1000 to 2000 ft/min range Noise can be reduced by one or more of these mechanisms: Using a remote blower with a long duct in-between; not applicable to going directly out the wall Using a remote blower with a silencer in-between; not applicable to going directly out the wall Using a more powerful than needed proximate outside wall or in-hood blower and running on part power Using a larger blade external blower with appropriate motor and gearing for the required CFM (applicable to up-blast commercial roof blowers) Hood performance and efficiency improve with the degree to which they emulate commercial hoods, given the limitations of residential kitchen architectures. This means having volume under the baffles, using true double reversing baffles, having low resistance, low turbulence air flow above baffle area to the ducting. I am not familiar with Hauslane, and in any case do not try to rate hoods I haven't used, so I'm limited to Wolf, and in particular to their Pro Island hoods. No air leaves the kitchen via the hood that doesn't get supplied to the kitchen. The supply is called make-up air. Read MUA threads here. For best hood performance at the levels that the hood air flow should be able to reach, deliberate MUA is needed, not house leakage. Whether this results in an expensive complex system or a modest cost simple system will depend on factors that will be obvious from reading MUA threads.