oops, that was supposed to be 30" and 36" , not feet

We are actually planning to do the same for our remodel - going from a 30" electric cooktop to a 36" all gas range and I have the same concern about the time it takes to preheat the oven as well as losing the self-cleaning feature. I would love to hear the responses you receive. For what it's worth, my husband is a real estate agent and firmly believes that getting a 36" range (vs. a 30" range) will make the kitchen more desirable because it makes more of an impact on potential buyers. Not that it matters for us because we have no intentions of ever moving. Hope that helps....

Capital makes self-cleaning 36" all gas ranges.

For my new range in my new kitchen, I wanted to have more than 4 burners, and I wanted to have more space between the burners. When I make soup, or tomato sauce, I like to make large batches at once (cook once, eat often!). This type of cooking requires using a number of large stockpots at one time, each one taking up a lot of space on top of the range.

Also, for holiday gatherings, there always seemed to be at least one burner too few for keeping things hot or for a last minute re-heat of some side dish or sauce.

I love having a 36"/6-burner range. If I'd had the room (and the $!), it would have been really cool to have an even larger size with the extra oven. The only downside is the larger space(s) to clean, but it's worth it IMHO!

I have a 36" Wolf AG range paired with a 30" Monogram wall oven at home. I almost never use more than 4 burners at a time but it's nice having the extra real estate on the range top as I am cooking. However, the preheat time is an issue with any 36" gas range (maybe American is different?). If I had it to do again, I would have to consider 30" just because of the preheat time. I find myself using the wall oven most of the time because of the quicker preheat although I love my range's infrared broiler (which heats up very quickly).

Buy what you really want to live with; don't worry too much about resale unless you plan on moving some time very soon. I think people will notice the gourmet, pro-style range itself more than its size.

Also, FWIW, I have a new DCS 30" gas range at our beach place. It's a great range (great oven, infrared broiler, very nice fit and finish) but I REALLY prefer the flame pattern of my Wolf's open burners vs. the closed burners on the DCS. I am finding that the closed burner flame pattern is too wide for anything but large pans unless it's on low so I end up cooking with smaller pans on low heat much of the time, negating the usefulness of the powerful burners. I didn't think it would be a big deal for me but it has turned out to be. Maybe with time I will figure things out a little better. The DCS top is much easier to clean up but I still wish I had gone with an open burner range. Just another thing to consider when you're shopping . . .

Weisman, I know about the capital but just don't like the range that much. For some reason the salespeople in all the stores I've been to were not very enthusiastic about them either.

Cat_mom and zoenipp,

I looked and looked at the wolf AG, I think both of you have responded to my previous inquiry about the maintenance. I love the look of the Wolf but still not sure I want to deal with all the cleaning that comes with it.

Zoenipp, thanks for mentioning your DCS experience. Do you find that you are not able to cook something the way it would come out on the Wolf because of the burner design? I am very interested because my one and only choice for the 30" would be the DCS self-clean gas range due to the room it provides and the spacing. Like Cat_mom, I do want more space on the cooktop than a standard 30" range and DCS 30" can fit four large and one small item which you can't do with even some of the 36" models.

How about those push buttons on the DCS? They look a little strange to me, do they work well? Also, does your Wolf get as hot as the DCS when the oven is on?

I haven't cleaned the insides often (had the range swapped out because of the burner issues, so haven't had one long enough to get the inside too dirty). Yes, it is a PITA to do (the downside of no self-clean, but the alternative would be having the range pump out tremendous amounts of heat for many hours). I always had to clean my oven door manually on my old self-clean range anyway, and had to wipe out the ashes left behind after self-clean, so it''s not as though I had a free ride before!

For the top, once you get the hang of it, cleaning goes pretty quickly (I don't clean the actual burner rings themselves BTW, don't see a need unless there's been a messy spillover--they're burners after all--not suppposed to look pristine and unused!). For spot cleaning or jsut wiping down the burner pans, I have found that Perfect Kitchen spray (from BB&B) was a good recommendation from the people at the SZ/Wolf showroom. Depending on the am't of mess, I'll spray the burner pans or spray a paper towel and wipe. For baked on crud or more extensive cleaning, spray with Dawn Power Dissolver spray gel, let sit (how long depends on how burnt on the mess or how much time you want to wait), and then "scrub" in the sink with a blue scrub sponge (ours usually has some Palmolive dish soap on it already), rinse, and dry. I use a dish towel to dry the pans. If I notice any smudges or finger prints after popping the pans back onto the range, I might give a quick buff with a dry microfiber cloth.

The grates get a quick scrub in the sink with a soapy blue scrub sponge if I'm going to be cleaning the drip pans as well, not if I'm just spraying and wiping them. I do those first, then lay them upside down on a sheet of paper towel on the counter. They're pretty much dry by the time I've replaced the burner pans. I'll just blot up any remaining water/wet spots with a towel/microfiber/or paper towel and we're good to go!

I'm very happy with my Thermador 36" PH (with gas grill) so far. It's dual fuel and self-cleaning, but I haven't tried the cleaning cycle yet. I switched from a wall oven/cooktop, so even though the range is much wider than the wall oven and I lost the under-cooktop space, I still have more space to either side of the range. HTH.

Five Star makes 36" AG ranges with a self cleaning oven. Available with open burners and each burner functions from 350-21,000 BTU.

http://www.fivestarrange.com/ranges/36.cfm