And just for the record....it can be added to as well (but in the middle of a run casey's idea is much better!!) I had a 15" deep cabinet with exposed sides turned into an 18" deep cabinet. It's nearly invisable (if I tell people where to look they see it, but normally no one can tell). But it was a bit pricy. Not as expensive as a new cab would have been (it was an antique and solid walnut) but it can be done by a professional. Again....no need in your case but I thought i'd share. FYI

The Wolf has a 3/4 inch thickness vs BS 3/8 inch so will take longer to heat up but the thickness is one aspect that would make it heat more evenly. Some people do like having warmer and cooler zones though. The increased mass from the thickness of Wolf holds much more heat and will also make it take longer to adjust the temperature up and down. In discussing burners, the term "open" burner gets tossed around indiscriminately and causes confusion. Some people use "open" to talk about the burner tray and others about whether a burner is capped or uncapped. Some have even attributed high BTUs to "open" burners. The open vs sealed burner tray is mostly about a preference for cleaning one way or another. There are videos online about cleaning BS. If you do a lot of Wok cooking, the BS uncapped burner with a more upright flame would have more heat coming lower on the wok so would be better for stir frying along with a few more BTUs. Wolf has increased their BTUs by quite a bit but because they are capped burners, it can cause the flame to flare more on the highest settings. I would want to see how wide the flame is on a live range. I have the older model Wolf that tops out at 15K and the flare is not as much as some capped burners but not sure what it is with the increase to 20K. The dual stacked burners help this but as you try to get more range in BTUs, it can make more flare. There is no way to compare simmers on these two ranges until you can compare BTUs and the BS BTU has never been available. They only give a very nonspecific temperature rating. The star shaped burner with BS gives more even heat if you cook with cast iron, steel or stainless pans if you size the burner to the pan. If you use heavy gauge copper or aluminum they will even the heat of the burner so the star shape doesn't matter as much. We bought Wolf with the idea that they backed their product and for the most part during the warranty they would. They used to stand behind their products after the warranty but this kind of service has gone away. If you require service, you have to use their techs so you are at their mercy as to what they will charge and if they will give you an estimate beforehand. Agree with homechef59 that the rangetop has a lot less potential for trouble than a range. "Homechef59 I'm all about the open burners. I don't like the sealed ones because of the loss of BTU's. Wolf used to make an open burner unit, but they stopped that a while back. " ---- I am curious as to your rationale for your belief that you lose BTUs with a sealed burner tray. Can you please explain. Wolf/SZ made a all gas range before the current model -with a semi sealed burner tray, that was tight against the burner but broke down for cleaning. and it had a burner with a smaller simmer burner inside and both were capped. I had never heard of Wolf/SZ making a range with open burner trays or uncapped burners depending on what you mean when you say "open" burners.

I cook my bacon in the oven. Very little mess if you cook it between two trays. The best griddle? There are some differences but they do not arbitrarily make one better than the other even though they are often pitched that way. Wolf has a 3/4" thickness compared to BS which has both 3/16" and 3/8" reported on this forum. Not sure on the American Performer, you would have to ask. The thicker griddle takes longer to heat and change temperature but holds a lot of heat. It can be more even. Wolf also has an infrared burner which heats more evenly. Wolf also said they changed the surface of their griddle in 2016 but it would be just the same after seasoning.-Not sure what that means. They also redesigned the grease trap so you might want to make sure you get the new design if you go that way. Both Wolf and BS have 15K BTUs to heat a 2 burner size and 30K for 4 burner size. It isn't just a choice of built in or no griddle. There is also the option of an add on. It is a personal preference on which is easier to clean of the two types. Some advantages for some would be that you can have a choice of metals for different purposes. Heavy aluminum heats much more evenly than steel or cast iron so is great for pancakes and sandwiches. These also come in nonstick and are priced reasonably. They only come in 2 burner but you have about a 50% bigger cooking area than a built in 2 burner. The bare aluminum seasons eventually too. This is from Royal Industries. You can also get something cast iron or steel like this Chef King. It is a little bigger than the built in. It is a beast to lift for me. I have a a few 12"-14" cast iron skillets instead. You might need to find a place to store these if you take them off, but you gain flexibility if you want a 2 burner size, (2)two burners or 4 burner. You can also have a lot more heat with an add on as the built ins only have 15K between the two burners. You could have 30K or more with an add on but it is a little more trouble to adjust as the built in is thermostatically controlled. There was someone here a year or so ago who stir fried on their griddle so that might be a consideration for some. Occasionally someone complains about the 15K being anemic. Only the BS and AP come with all burners on the 48" rangetop. I know you can order burner sizes where you want them on the BS but you would have to ask about the AP. The built in has more stability unless you can find an add on like this that fits. ________ "you'll get equally vociferous opinions on the open / sealed burner debate" This happens when people insist that one type of burners are best for all cooks in all situations and if you don't have them you are somehow not a real cook. This goes back to some marketing you see. There are seriously, appliance blogs from appliance companies online right now that claim more oxygen can get to the flame on an "open" burner so you get more heat. Most touting an "open" burner are not even referring to the open vs sealed burner but rather to the higher BTUs, capped vs uncapped burners or some other aspect of the burner. Burners have evolved so in order to really compare you have to look at the characteristics very specifically and evaluate how they fit with the way you cook and your cookware. For instance in this discussion you have- American Performer which is a semi sealed, uncapped, 25K BTU star shaped burner. It is semi sealed because the burner tray comes close to the burner, containing messes but lifts off for cleaning. Wolf is a sealed, capped, up to 20K but can go less than 300 BTUs for simmer and has a dual stacked ring burner to provide this range. They used to make a semi sealed or semi open burner but it was still capped. The dual stacked burner keeps the flare smaller than it would be with a single burner that has a big range of BTUs like 5 star's ultra hi- lo burner(350-21K). BS RNB which is open, uncapped, 22K, star burner. or the RCS which is the same but tops out at 15K. They also make a sealed, capped ring burner that is rated at 21K on the biggest burner. The star burner disperses heat better if the pan is sized to the burner. If the pan is too big, you wind up with heat in the center. The star is useful if your cookware is cast iron, steel or stainless. If you have heavy gauge copper or aluminum the pan disperses the heat. Plied cookware varies depending on what the layers are. There is a lot to consider picking a rangetop but at least the OP is not trying to pick a range and have to consider the oven.

I have a 12" on my BS. I too like making breakfast but do many other things on it as well. We probably use it on average 3-5 times a week, sometimes more. I've wondered about a 24" griddle but seem to get by fine w/the 12". When it's just the 4 of us I can do 8 pieces of french toast at a time, usually only 6 pancakes. It will do 8 burgers depending on size. I use an oven as a warmer if doing large breakfasts. One thing about using a griddle, say you want to make pancakes. So you turn it on when you start the batter, it will be close to ready while the batter is resting for a minute or two. Pour your cakes, flip, turn off griddle and serve. Your only using it for like 4 minutes total. When doing multi batches it will be on longer of course. W/a 24" I think cooking would be over almost before it began :) Another interesting thing about the BS thermostatically controlled griddle. Say I want to heat up tortillas or even make a few pancakes quickly. The griddle takes probably 15 minutes or more to evenly heat up to temp, probably 20 for good measure. However during the heating process the griddle gets very hot w/in the 1st 5 minutes, plenty hot enough to cook up some pancakes or heat up tortillas, it will then cool down before igniting again, while it's in this mode things don't cook well and you'll need to pretty much wait until the griddle is fully up to temp. But there's a 5 minute window where it will hit the desired temp (~400) or close enough to it to get some quick cooking in. I throw burgers on in this quick heat mode, by the time the temp is dropping they're ready for the cheese, then I cover w/a baking tray to finish melting the cheese. I've found most griddle items are pretty quick to cook so a lot of the cooking is done within the 1st 10 minutes of turning it on. If I'm doing a scramble w/tators and sausage I turn it on before I start prepping so it's evenly heated when I'm ready. Cleaning a built-in griddle take a bit of time. Unfortunately the best time to clean the messiest messes are when it's still hot so you have to do it right away (and hold up dinner a few minutes). Like I mentioned I had my griddle put on the right hand side next to the counter, staging things on the counter is nice and the spatter from the griddle only hits the 2 adjacent burners, not all of them. If I'm cooking something that will spatter a lot I usually cover the adjacent burners. If my griddle has stuff stuck all over it I'll plug the drain hole w/a paper towel and pour some water on the griddle and use a bench scraper to get everything off the surface. You have to be careful not to burn yourself w/the steam, letting it cool a little helps. Usually the water will mostly evaporate while scrapping. I then use a wet paper towel under the edge of the scraper. Then a couple dry ones and light spray of cooking oil wiped completely off with another dry paper towel and it's done. I like to keep my griddle clean and seasoned.