That is a tough call. We all have doubts about decisions and once the decision button is hit... more doubts. First and foremost, you have chosen a lovely stove top. My cast iron griddle is almost 90% out and on two burners or the center big single. I've gone back to basics the past few years...chop by hand, toast, and no longer use countertop appliances. It is my therapy to cook with good ingredients and fresh. I do often have 4 burners going because i multi-task and enjoy prepping for the week and making stocks and sauces. Panini i just put a heavy enameled pot on top. It does become intuitive for any love of cooking. French top? Not sure. I actually think i have one in my summer home. Maybe? It is a wood fired stove with a solid thick iron top and i slide pots over and away and such a fun way to cook. Adjusts with this and that to give air flow over different parts of the top. I do like the slide around of the heat. On a flat surface. Under your possible french top would be a single burner? Still has a slide ability to reduce a strong simmer to a very low heat. But you could do that on a grate top, 6 burner with a griddle. Not all restaurant trained chefs actually know how to cook BTW. Judging by many mediocre meals i have had out in NYC. No love and a bit like robots. An old friend of mine was on Iron Chef and won but that is an exception. To truely love what you are doing and are passionate about cooking, you will know what you need and work with what you decide.

I am so glad that you piped up about your Frigidaire issue, Practigal. Thank you. I don't think it was a coincidence that you were participating in this thread. So..is it crumbs of rust dropping down from the burner...or, is it rust coming up through the paint...or is it oxidation of the gas itself, that maybe it is burning "dirty"? Good ideas, Mrsnyefnyef. I have an update, but I'll share it at the end of my post. ; ) I agree, Eurekachef. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the BS rangetop after test driving it (unless you don't like standing over a high heat cooker.) "my regrets comments was that I just didn't want you to finish your project and then turn back and say, well I should have..." Ah, I understood what you were getting at much better that time, Gooster. That makes a lot of sense. Here is the update: I found 2 incredibly good deals at Goedekers website this weekend for scratch and dent Miele's. The cooktop (yes, a cooktop, not a rangetop) is 42" wide and has 6 burners. They looked like they are configured *perfectly* for the way we cook. Originally I was looking for all the same BtU's on the burners, but these should work fine because of the configuration. Originally I was looking for sealed burners, which this has. The knobs are off to the side rather than on the front. I find this to be a nice feature since I tend to lean into whatever I'm cooking. This way I won't be lighting the stove with my belly! Also, little ones will have a harder time reaching the knobs. Finally, at about $1200 less than full price, it was too good a deal to pass up. They also had a set of 30" Miele Master Chef double ovens for almost half price (open box). I hemmed and hawed for a while on this one. It's definitely more high-tech than what I was originally looking for. In order to do the cooktop, we'd have to head into wall oven land. Wall oven land was full of techy gizmos. Given that, I might as well try one that is highly regarded by bakers and has the lowest repair rate in the industry (according to Yale Appliance's website, anyway.) Thank you all for helping me process this big decision! I really appreciate the input each of you gave me.

Sorry, just took a look at this thread again and noticed your question...by the time I got to Miele, I had decided on induction, so I didn't give the Miele an actual test drive. I did give it a pretty thorough inspection at the Miele place, though, and thought it was a very sexy range -- and the performance seemed very similar to the Wolf dual fuel. I say that b/c the Miele also has the stacked burners, which I really liked, but the BTUs are higher than Wolf (which top out at around 16k, I believe -- Miele was closer to 20k or so -- I can't quite remember). The Miele ovens on the 48" range were very nice -- the smaller one is a speed oven, and the bigger one is a regular convection. The speed oven wasn't a big plus for me personally, since I really wanted a steam oven as a second oven, but there are people on this forum who love their speed ovens. One thing I really liked about the Miele oven, which Wolf doesn't have, is the burst of steam option, which is great for baking (you can program up to 3 bursts of steam for up to 6 min. each during cooking). I didn't care that much about the MasterChef options on Miele, but again, others love these. At any rate, the Miele seemed very similar to the Wolf, I liked the steam option on the oven better and liked the Miele burners better (also, if you're interested in a grill, theirs was excellent and seemed very similar to the Wolf, which I think is the best in the business). If I had stuck with a range, I would have been very tempted by the Miele.

Representatives from the company have been saying for years- “It is cosmetic”. Shards of glass coming off the liner mixed with a convection fan, is not cosmetic. ”I have never heard of it happening.” http://www.wolfblueovenchipping.com/case-information/ ”It only has affected a very small number of appliances” and yet some here have had three or more in a row that failed. “It was fixed years ago.” Last case in this forum was reported this year on an induction range. Previously Wolf has brought oven after oven during the full warranty time. They gave this person a hard time. The “M” oven was designed to make it easier to repair. It has been affected too. One tactic Wolf has used in the past is to upsell if possible when people have issues with something like the “E” oven. They get them to pay the difference to buy an M knowing it has the same issues and these fail too.. Even if they had the fix tomorrow, it would take several years to know if it really worked because some go bad after the warranty is out. This happened to me and they would not give me an estimate to repair, only that it would start at $800. I have read of repairs costing $2500. I personally have had issues with blue enamel in Dacor, Electrolux and Wolf so I would not buy blue in anything except Gaggenau.