I'll acknowledge that this is off-topic enough that maven's questions might get overlooked by others who could help, but here goes, anyway. The current Miele is a wonderful stove but it is also $7k. The Bosch is over $3k. Neither the Bosch nor the Mieles would be close to maven19's budget and neither would likely be available through your builder. If it were me, I'd go for the GE freestanding (PHS920) over the Samsung. Should I assume you are referring to the Samsung NE597NOPBSR? I think that model has been or is being discontinued, so you might be able to get a pretty good deal on it. From the postings here and at chowhound from owners, it seems most buyers have been pleased with their Samsungs unless or until they needed service. Samsung has a reputation for being difficult to deal with, not being good with customer support, and having difficulties in timely getting replacement parts. The NE models have only been out for 3½ years. A search here will turn up numbers of threads about the GE induction PHS (slide-in) and PHB 920 (freestanding) and the similar predecessors, the PHS/PHB925. For those who have need post-sale support or service, most folks have given GE high marks for post sale service and support. I'd pick the GE PHB920 for several reasons. I like the burner layout better. The GE has two 8" diameter burners on the left (versus the Samsung having 7" or maybe a little smaller). Those slightly bigger burners work better for me because I often cook with larger pans. YMMV. FWIW, both the Samsung and GE allow you to link the controls for the left hand burner. Niether of them is a true-bridging-element, however. With a large rectangular griddle, the area between the burners won't get as hot as right over the burners so food in the middle will take longer to cook. Another thing is, If you are into techie stuff (and maybe even if you are not), I understand that the latest iterations of the PHB920s are supposed to work with smart phones and there is (or shortly will be) a bluetooth/wifi enabled pot probe. Wile that kind of thing gets pitched to the eGullett crowd of sous vide enthusiasts, it can be very useful for regular cooking tasks. For example, you can get timer controls on burners which I would find useful useful to avoid distractions when making oatmeal or rice, or using pressure cookers. A third thing is that the GE's oven has a full-power convection heating element. Many electric ranges (like the Samsung induction ranges and the older GE inducions models) use a small 300 or 400 watt element around the fan. The GE has a full 2000 watt 240v element which seems like it could be pretty useful for multi-rack convection baking and roasting. A fourth thing for me would an aesthetic consideration. This is very much a matter of personal preference. Both the GE and Samung have brushed metal fascia, but the GE has a gray casing and sides where the Samsung is black. My personal preference is for the GE. To me, the Samsung's look of black sides and brushed metal fascia --- well it makes me think of a large microwave. This may be a bigger deal for me than others because, in my old-house kitchen, the stove has an exposed side. Others might prefer the black sides. YMMV or you might not care at all. Another stove you might want to consider for your budget range is the Frigidaire slide-in, FGIS306. It lists for $2100 but usually can be had for a lot less. (Go to the AJ Madison site, put the stove in "the cart" and you will find he delivered price is under $1500.) I would consider this stove if you would prefer a slide-in style of range and like rotary knob burner controls.

Having moved from 18 years of all-electric coil cooking to gas a year and a half ago, I have an observation on disk versus ply that is different from others. Most of my pans are All-Clad stainless, as I also have an induction top so I want most of my pans to work on both the induction and gas. However, I have a few pieces of other stuff, some all-aluminum, and a couple of pieces of disk-bottom cookware. In my experience, disk-bottomed cookware is great on electric, as all the heat enters the pan through the bottom. The pan's thick bottom distributed the heat well across the bottom, better than with the All-clad, which is thinner. However, I had problems using the disk-bottomed cookware on my gas range. The gas burner sends a lot of heat up the side of the pan, which caused the area just above the disk to become much hotter than the rest of the pan, and caused things to burn. It is obviously fine for boiling water, but then plain think alumnum would work better because of increased conductivity. The tri-ply All-Clad does much better on gas, as the laminations are all-around the pot, preventing hot spots. So, in my opinion, in general, thick disk-bottom pans are best on electric heat sources for even distribution, but ply cookware works better on gas, to prevent hot spots from forming at or near the disk-pan joint.

Thanks very much for the responses. I let my subscription to CI expire a few years ago, so I appreciate Blondelle's filling me in on what those folks had to say. And mrsmarv, thansk for the user-opinion on the Member's Mark. I definitely want to check it out, and thanks for the advice on how to find the cookware. I'm wondering if you know if there is any difference in quality between the Tramontina cookware sold thru Sam's Club, and that sold directly from the Tramontina website directly? I know there is another thread going right now where people are talking about Tramontina, so I'll also see if those folks know.

For the hash browns, heat your skillet on medium-high for a couple minutes with NOTHING in it. Then, add whatever fat you are using and allow another few seconds for it to come up to temp (because your pan is already very hot this will happen quickly)...then, after the fat is hot ONLY then add the potatoes. You can tell if the pan is ready by dropping a small piece of whatever your cooking into the pan...it should immediately sizzle...if it doesn't the pan was not hot enough when you added the fat. When the potatoes are in the pan, lower your heat slightly to medium-low. Then, and this is important....DO NOT TOUCH THOSE POTATOES. You mentioned you had "stirred" your hash browns and that's, probably, why they stuck. You have to let them sit until a crust forms. This is the same technique used for searing a steak or roast, etc. Do NOT touch whatever is in that pan until the caramalization has occurred. When the crust has formed on the potatoes they will let go from the pan and then are ready for turning. For me, I cut my potatoes in about 1" dice for hash browns and they can take a full 5-8 minutes before they are ready for me to touch. For a piece of meat, you will know when caramalization has happened because the previously stuck like glue steak has loosened itself from the pan and you can turn it easily...if it's still sticking it's simply not ready to be turned. Back to the potatoes...at most you might have to turn your spatula upside down and lightly loosen the potatoes in order to turn them but they WILL come right up and certainly not be glued to the pan. The key is learning to keep "hands-off" until the correct time to turn and starting with a properly pre-heated pan. For me, the instinct to fuss with food in the skillet was 'cause I didn't want it to burn. Unless you just walk away and completely forget what's cooking that won't happen. Be sure to use enough fat also...for, say, an 8" skillet filled with hash-browns cut in 1" dice and piled in the skillet 1-2" deep...go around your skillet 3-4 times with the oil. If there's not enough fat...then food could burn. In my weekend cooking class for home cooks at CIA, we practiced for an hour on this technique using hamburger patties. It took me quite a while to "get it" that my instincts to fiddle with the food in the pan were causing my problems. I've taken several of CIA's home-cook classes and they're wonderful...it's an advantage to living just 9 miles from the campsus which, BTW, is georgous...all old brick buildings set on a hilly site...very picturesque. I've taken 3 courses there....knife handling (excellent); artisan bread (too elementary & not enough time to practice); and a general technique class (excellent). But the parking lot is huge and I hated hiking with my cane and cooking stuff up to the buildings...I digress, sorry. Unfortunately, the one time DH and I coughed up the $200 or so to eat at the school's French restaurant it was ghastly and I do mean GHASTLY. It must have been truffle week in class and/or the school got a real deal from their produce supplier 'cause truffles were in everything...way too much of a good thing. Dinner was so horrible, we passed on desert. I couldn't bear the thought of truffle chocolate something-or-other. Now, with all that said...you WILL get some pieces of food that stick to a SS pan. But, you want that to happen...that's where we get the wonderful stuff to make sauces, gravies, etc. from. And, why a non-stick pan is not the best for searing. Quickly deglaze your skillet with a liquid of your choice and again...DO NOT STIR that pan. Just allow the liquid to quickly heat up and all the stuck pieces will loosen all by themselves with little or no assistance from the cook. Once that happens, lower the heat dramatically and stir away to blend any additional ingredients into your sauce. As for the high heat issue...there will be times when you want to do that such as searing meat, however, much of that flames shooting a foot in the air around the pan stuff you see on the Food Network and the chef tossing the skillets around is for show. They can shake that pan and move it all around the burner but what you WON'T see them doing is poking at the food with an implement of destruction until caramalization has happened. Then, with great fanfare they will toss the pan and flip.