Have a 36'' Wolf rangetop w/ infrared griddle. Grew up using an Okeefe & Meritt w/ a center griddle so I knew that I wanted a griddle & exactly how I would use. That & cooking in my parents' restaurants. If you've any short-order cook experience then you already know how versatile a griddle can be. That said, the Wolf was installed only a couple of months ago & we're still in the midst of a DIY kitchen remodel so I've not been cooking a lot. None the less, I already know that the built in (Wolf) griddle is far superior to a burner top griddle. It's a thick hunk of steel--takes longer to preheat but retains the heat much better and the heat is much more even. Precise temperature control. Used it to keep homemade french fries warm...worked great for that. DS uses it almost daily for grilled sandwiches & burgers. Un-used it's a fabulous 'thaw plate'--not so fast as microwave thawing, of course. Requires some foresight in meal planning but requires no energy consumption and eliminates the cooked portions of meat that you sometimes get using a microwave. I also envision using it as a 'proofing' device for when I need to speed up dough raising. (I'm a fan of long, slow dough raising for flavor development generally but sometimes you need to kick start the process so dinner rolls will actually be served with dinner instead of being served with dessert. Not that there's anything wrong with having fresh-baked bread for dessert. :) I'm sure that I'll get good use of the griddle once I'm back into cooking mode. The remodel requires a lot of thinking & concentration so my creativity and energy are at a low point when it comes time to cook dinner!

We got the 48" with a single griddle and 6 burners. We previously had a grill in an old Jenn Air, and it was RIDICULOUS to clean. Overall, we like the griddle though it isn't especially easy to clean either. It is nice for warming up tortillas. What we have found is that given its size (single griddle), it doesn't offer any better convenience or space than our All Clad nonstick double burner griddle, and the All Clad is easier to clean. So in retrospect, I think it would have been better to get the double griddle for the advantage of extra space and being able to cook LOTS of pancakes at the same time. I can't think of one time we have used more than 4 burners, so it wouldn't have compromised our space. We use our All Clad griddle way more often than the Wolf griddle. The Wolf griddle does heat up more evenly though. We live in Texas so we can grill outside most of the time. However, I want to purchase a cast iron grill for those times we're just cooking a couple of pork chops. Our other cast iron cookware sears meats really well on the Wolf gas stovetop. We have a Best external blower (EB15 rated 1500cfm), and while a bit loud, it is incredible at removing odors and smoke. We combined it with the Best PIK45 and are very happy. The built-in hood parts are simple/easy to remove and toss into the dishwasher. Our builder recommended Best and we're very pleased with their products.

Yep, have to take into consideration the size of the pans, 2 large (12"+) pans and they'll need to be offset, can't be side to side or front to back inline. One of the reasons I like the 22k's so much are that the flame pattern is larger in diameter and covers the bottom of a pan better, any pan. I have them adjusted so that they'll all simmer quite well, the reason the 8k gets used so little is that it's pattern is quite small and I don't use REALLY small pans that often. My DW likes it better as she has her 'egg' pan which is about 6" across and she tends to get things a bit hot on the other burners. She too actually reads directions and figures the dials are accurate, so has some issue w/the big burners unless she really intends to burn something (hard sear). I tend to look at the dials as a guide and 'read' the flame, I know how hot I want something so make the flame wherever I need it regardless of what the dial says. After a while you should know how far to turn the dial to get what you need without looking. I did have a learning curve, I've been using mine about 18 months (36" RNB) and have a better handle on it now. As far as the dials getting warm, I've never had that issue. Now the space in front of the griddle when it's on a higher setting gets freakin' hot! I'm surprised no one has ever mentioned that, you only need to put your hand there once and you'll remember not to do it again :)

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.