In my last house I had an old gas double oven and a separate gas cooktop. I am a baker first and a cook 2nd. I always had beautiful cakes, cookies, breads etc. When we redid the kitchen I was disappointed not to have the gas double oven option (we were not looking at high end items -- I got GE profile electric double ovens and gas cooktop) At no point during that remodel did I think (or be told) that you can't bake cookies, cakes etc well in gas ovens. Now with this remodel all I am hearing is the difference in baking with gas is sub par if you want to do cakes cookies etc. and it is making me 2nd guess myself even though until the last couple of years I have always had a gas oven. The good news is is that I think the Wolf DF is really ugly and I really like the looks of the 48" AG -- plus it is cheaper -- and I know I can cook well in it -- only thing that is really holding me up is the no self clean -- I am just not an oven cleaner :-(

“I've never had anything but electric, but I've always turned my baked good 180 degrees at least once. None of my ovens have ever had the same temperature front and back...the back half always cooks faster!” To the food, it makes no difference what kind of heat is being used. Heat is heat, simply BTUs. However, how the heat is delivered will make a big difference on how the food end up being cooked. Here is the science on heating (cooking) food. There are three main and different ways to heat up food: 1. By microwave, which I will not discuss because it’s OT. 2. By infrared radiation 3. By conduction. Before I move on, let me point out that “Convection oven” is somewhat a misnomer. It should be called “Forced hot air”, because all heat produces convection, with or without a convection fan. Infrared (IR) heating is when you are in sunlight, you can be heated up even the air temperature is freezing. Conduction is when you park your car under the sun and you first entry your car and you feel that blast of hot air. Electric oven has electric heating elements which can generate IR only. The IR hits the food and the oven walls, raising the temperature of the walls and the food, which then heats up the air, the air then heats everything by conduction. Gas heats by exothermal chemical reaction. The heat generated heats the air and any objects near the flames. The heated food and objects then heat up the air by conduction. IR is a form of light, which is electro magnetic radiation, and light travels only in straight line, therefore anything in shadows will not be heated. Furthermore, Dark color objects get heated faster. Gas heats up the air, hot air moves by convection and heats the food all around. Electric heating elements are either on 100% or off, there is no in between. When it is on, the food gets the maximum IR heating. Electric heat is 100% dry heat. Gas heat is valved from low to high and gas combustion does produces water as one of the by products of the chemical reaction. All the above, combining the particular design characteristic of the physical oven, will give you different end results, depending your cooking skills, habits and recipes. I am not sure I answered your questions. :-) dcarch

Your 200A service should be fine to run a wall oven. The oven will need 220V (volts, not amps). Easiest way to explain it is ... You know how the plug for your dryer looks different than plugs for the fridge or lamps? An electric dryer also uses 220V, and those require different outlets with different wiring. It sounds like you have that in place already, so it would be cheapest to stay with that. If you have a gas range and electric wall oven you have the best of both worlds, IMHO. But, if you want a gas range you just need to hire a plumber to run a gas line over to it. I don't think you can tee off the line to the range, you would probably need a new line from where gas comes into the house. But I could be wrong on that!

I would try to have separate ovens and range tops for about the same reasons. There are a few differences in the oven between the RNB and platinum. Two things would be important if you are a baker. The platinum uses the Pow-r burner and it is not additional but the only burner. There is no bottom burner. This is an issue for me in baking pies and even cakes as most recipes count on heat from the bottom. There might be some other things that rely on that but those would be the main issue for me. the Platinum has the convection fan on low every time the burner comes on as it must because the heat is in the back of the oven. You can't turn it off. This is drying to what you are baking. This is on top of an already dry environment in a gas oven. As a side note most manufacturers state on their website and in their literature that a gas oven is moist heat because water is liberated as a byproduct of combustion. Gas ovens have more air moving through so the moisture is removed. Electric ovens hold onto the moisture from food or added moisture. If using convection during roasting it will only run high speed when the Pow-r burner is off and low when it is on. Drying is a good thing when you are wanting something to brown because it evaporates superficial moisture allowing the Maillard reaction to take place. It is not such a good thing at the beginning of baking cakes or things that need to rise. As as far as a griddle, it is interesting that some of the features often listed can be a good or bad thing depending on how you use your griddle and burners. I'll use cookncarpenter's bullet points for a framework. There are all kinds of options. "Always on the stove top ready to go" The flip side is that you have less flexibility. This might be less of an issue with a 60" range, more with 36" One positive here for built in would be more stability unless you bought an overlay that is fitted. Some people use the griddle everyday so never would take it off. If you want a 24x24" griddle it would be very heavy but some people just have 2 overlays and use as needed. "No need to remove, store, replace" You can remove and store. "Thermostatically controlled, set desired temp and forget about it" I think it would be easier to reproduce a temperature with a thermostat. One side while talking about temperature would be that you are limited to 15K BTUs on the BS RNB built in. With overlays, you could have 2 15K burners or maybe more lined up front to back so much more power. "Once seasoned, extremely non stick-Cleaning is essentially a scrape, and wipe with paper towel (never soap)--Use for pretty much anything that can be cooked in a skillet or on a grill--Can be used as french top for sauce pans, great at keeping foods/plates warm--Excellent for warming tortillas and or leftovers" These things are pretty much true with all griddles. Chef King is popular and seasons well as does cast iron. Soap is somewhat controversial. :-) Even aluminum will season but it takes longer. Some aluminum griddles come in a nonstick coating. One thing to consider is the metal that makes up the griddle. Griddles are generally made of steel, cast iron and aluminum. Steel and cast iron tend to have zones of heat, lower and higher while thick aluminum tends to heat much more evenly. There is a photo of this in the review of the platinum that is on the front page of the appliance forum. An aluminum griddle can be bigger because of its excellent heat transfer properties. I have one that is 17x23 that can grill a boatload of sandwiches. Aluminum takes less time to heat and is much quicker to respond to adjustments in the flame. Some people like to have both and you can always buy the add on aluminum if you have a built in. It's not near as heavy as the steel. Some have replaced the griddle that comes with the Platinum because the heat is so intense coming out of the hole on top.