I don't see any screws, but it looks like mine will come apart on the top where the "cracks" are. I don't know how to take it apart, but if It stopped working I would probably try harder, I didn't want to break it. I have never had a problem with any of mine.

Hi there needinfo1! Unfortunately, no, it is not just the grates that look dirty, the surrounding black surface gets cruddy as well with dirt and grease, but also with water spots. Once you remove the grates for cleaning, though, the surface is easy to wipe down since it is smooth. The grates take more time since they are full of little nooks. I am a fairly neat cook so I don't understand why the black gets so dirty looking. It is very discouraging. I have a friend with the smooth top all-electric legacy and that stays much cleaner looking. Personally, I don't like to cook on an electric cook top -not enough heat control for me -- but if you are ok going all electric, the cleaning will not be such an issue. Since you seem to be fairly interested in the Aga, I thought I will share some other info with you. Ignore what is not of interest to you! large vs small oven: I use the smaller convection oven 90% of the time. I have even changed the way I cook to use the smaller oven. For example, I now make two smaller pans of lasagna rather than one big one. I do this for two reasons. 1) while the smaller oven preheats extremely quickly the larger one takes an inordinate amount of time to preheat, longer than any other oven I have ever used and I don't like to waste the time (or the energy use) waiting an 2) while I am of average height my husband is quite tall and he finds it too low to go to stoop down to get things out of the low, larger multi purpose oven. If you, or someone in your house, is tall, this is something to think about! noise: The small oven is a convection oven and the larger multi-purpose oven has a convection mode. The fan noise that comes with convection is not quiet. If you are cooking on the stovetop at the same time and have the exhaust fan running, it adds up to quiet a bit of noise. I am okay with this, but I have noticed that I sometimes don't hear things (like the phone ringing!) when both the exhaust fan and the convection fan are running. the broiler: The little broiling oven is cute and works well for things like bread. I would love to be able to use it for things like chops but the rack is just too close to the heating element to fit much more height than a piece of bread. There seems to be room, so I wish Aga had mounted the rails for the rack just a bit lower so the broiler could be more useful. So there you have it, the good, the bad, and the dirty! Good luck with your decision, Lilly

We did a custom height liquor drawer here, for those tall bottles. And placed it next to the refrigerator drawers, with the hutch above for the glassware. The custom island has pot and pan drawers facing the range, and the trash facing the sink. And a custom powder coated iron counter support system. The oven stack was custom, and placed the french door oven above a microwave drawer. The corner drawers are next to a custom sized tray base. There were some compromises for homeowner preferences, but for the whole, the project turned out well because the homeowner was open to listening to ideas to improve the layout. Your layout has room for improvement that will make it easier to work in your kitchen. I would hope that you are open to all ideas, and not just about cabinet customizations.

Thanks everyone. To tell you a little more, I no longer have a desktop and use a laptop for everything. My I've had 2 touchscreen laptops, so I have a keyboard for typing and use the touchscreen for navigating, editing and things you might use a mouse or the touchpad for. My son has left his personal laptop with me to use while he's been working, so I am trying the Mac without a touchscreen. I do find it easy to type on and like that. I am not finding myself using the touch bar for the most part. I do find myself touching the screen to try to scroll up or other things I would do so quickly before. I'm not ready to throw it out the window, so I guess I might adjust. I do not like to type on the touchscreen. No. I did that for a day or two on the laptop once the keyboard started dying and I figured I had that end around -- but it drove me crazy. I couldn't even see what I was typing if it was anything more than a short line or two. It was short lived anyway -- it disappeared and now just has a ghost -- just a line to show where the top edge should be. I miss it only because there is a laptop sitting idle over there and I hope I got everything backed up because I don't now that I will have any access to it. My boys both have ipads and use them for a variety of things - a lot of music support. The youngest got his because it was the preferred way to have his college choir sheet music and he could use it for textbooks and class materials in other classes and have so much less to carry around. The oldest got his when he was talking about getting one and I gave him the one I had and just wasn't using. Though I have considered the ipad pro with keyboard as an option now. I think the comment that change is hard sums it up. I will need to make some changes no matter what I decide, but I'm nowhere near as frustrated with this Mac as I was with WIndows 8 when that first came out. That is encouraging.