2) Sounds like you got unlucky with a bad blower. A 1000 CFM hood with the griddle should be fine. If you had the infrared grill, it would be a different story. 3) I'm guessing what you are seeing is, indeed, humidity. A gas oven will exhibit plenty of moisture on the backsplash until the oven heats up and the water is turned to steam. I'm also guessing you're coming from an electric oven. Enjoy the humidiity, especially if you bake. Breads, cookies, etc will all turn out better. 4) "Season" the griddle just as you would a cast iron skillet: dampen a wad of paper towels with vegetable oil. Swab the griddle with the wad. Heat the griddle on max until you see smoke. Once the hot griddle starts to seem dry, CAREFULLY rewipe it with the wad (wear an oven mitt or other substantial protection if this makes you nervous). Cool the griddle completely. Repeat entire sequence three times. Your griddle is now good to go. NEVER clean it with soap, or you will have to start over. Same goes for acidic foods, such as tomato, vinegar, or lemon. Be prepared to embrace that dark mahogany patina; the showroom-new gray is gone forever.

Maybe the old oven temp was high. ;-) Can you give us an example of what you are cooking and the time difference? It is possible that the thermometer you bought is off. You could always have Wolf come out and check it.

It sounds as though your range is working just fine, but that perhaps your hood can't keep up with the normal condensation that burning natural gas produces. What kind of configuration does your hood have? Is it a plain straight shot to the exterior for the ducting? Or are there a lot of turns and distance? Are you going out the roof or a wall? Every twist and turn of duct run takes away from the ability of a fan to suck out the bad stuff. The shorter and straighter the run is, the more work those Cubic Feet per Minute actually manage to do. Who installed the ducting, what kind is it (rigid or flex, and what size) and did they install any in line dampers? Exterior damper caps? If a "handyman" installed the ducting, they may have used an incorrect pipe size, such as a 6" duct when they should have used a 10" duct. Flex ducting has ridges in it that reduces the airflow and let the air deposit small grease particles in the ducting. If any dampers were installed to keep out the cold air in winter, they may have been installed backwards, or be partially blocked or frozen in a partially closed or closed position. How far from your cooking surface is the bottom edge of the hood? How many CFM does it have, and what speed do you typically use when baking or roasting? Hoods that are installed too high or without enough CFM won't typically vent ordinary cooking by products very well, and when you get to high performance situations, forget it entirely. How new is your house? How airtight? If you have a newer home that is fairly air tight and a high CFM fan, you may not have enough air infiltration in order to have air flow. It's like sucking on a blocked straw. No air moves anywhere until there is some air introduced at the bottom of the straw. You may need make up air. You can experiment to see if your air flow becomes better by opening a window. If this improves the hood's air flow, then you've got a serious issue on your hand that needs immediate attention. Your furnace, fireplace, gas dryer, or other gas fired appliance can backdraft and fill your home with carbon monoxide when your hood is being operated. You're just going to have to play detective here and go through the possibilities to rule them out.

This post made me laugh ... I thought I was the only one who noticed where the vents were placed in a range! I agree that their placement can really be an issue with some ranges and that was something that I took into consideration when I was choosing which to buy. FamCook, is the floor model you are looking at the old-style AG with the top that comes apart? If it is, there is a removable drip tray that is positioned directly above the oven door. The outer edge of the drip tray forms a downward curve that covers over the door vents completely. If you were to spill some hot liquid while standing at the stove, the curved edge of the drip tray makes an excellent splash guard. I feel very confident that no spills would make it into my oven door vents while the door was closed. Some of the other ranges I looked at did not have any sort of protection over the vents .. some had such huge vents in the door that I couldn't see how things WOULDN'T fall into them! Of course, you'd have to be careful to avoid situations like you describe above where liquid fell in while the door was OPEN, but I think that since it has happened to you once, you are now aware of the possibility and it's unlikely that it will happen again.