The gas range top will now have the same top as the duel fuel range with sealed burners and the duel layer burners. I was told this was for production efficiency (1 line vs 2) and will go into effect shortly. There are still gas rangetop models out there and I'm guessing there will be some cheap (relative) display models for sale soon as store phase this out of their showrooms.

Owen, Anytime you are dealing with a charbroiler on a piece of cooking equipment you are going to need an absolute minimum of 900 CFM. You also need to take into consideration the overall length of duct run and the number of elbows used in the run. If you have a lengthy run of duct and a number of elbows you may need 1200 CFM. Your local dealer will be able to help determine your needs based on the total BTU's of your range and the variables I have already mentioned above. I also want to try to clear up some of the other things that have been mentioned in this thread. VAH's statement regarding equivalent CFM is something that is often unintentionally misrepresented due a sales staffs lack of understanding or more likely a sales reps lack of properly explaining it during training. The truth of the matter is that, many (not all) manufacturers rate the CFM of their "blowers" not the entire system including filters. VAH tests the entire hood system. The equivalent CFM statement is based on these differences. When you introduce filters there is approximately a 33% drop in stated CFM, thus a VAH 600 CFM system performs equally as well as a competing 900 CFM system from another manufacturer. Since VAH's system is a patented centrifugal extraction style system, no filters are required so when the hoods are tested the result is true CFM ratings. Many people think an external blower system is quieter than an internal system. External blowers are actually no quieter due to the fact that you are still sucking air across a filter which is where most noise in a ventilation system is created. VAH does offer a remote system that is typically used when there is a restriction in the width of the hood. It should be noted that a VAH external system is no better or worse than another external system and the VAH external system offers none of the features of the patented magic lung system. "Aside from this, the other thing I did not like about VAH was each blower only operates at two speeds, Low and High... and if you set one to High and one to Low they fight against each other and make more noise. The Wolf, and others, have infinite speed control so you only use the power you need." I have to disagree with the statement above. The truth is, each blower in a VAH system is in its own housing. So if it is a dual blower there is no possible way for blowers to "fight against each other" as air does not mix until after is in the duct work. In addition to that, based on sound testing done by the same third party tester HVI uses, it has been proven that adding another blower in a VAH system adds little to no additional noise to the system whether 600 or 1200 CFM which is something that is not possible with an infinite speed control. As far as fan speed is concerned, a VAH dual blower 600 CFM system offers speed selection of 300,450, & 600 CFM. The fact that there is not a variable speed switch is intentional for the reasons I mentioned above. 300 CFM has been proven to be the minimum CFM required to extract grease no matter what type of filtration system. Anything less is simply not effective in removing grease from the air stream. It should also be noted that at no time are the motors in a VAH system exposed to the flow of greasy air. The same cannot be said for a filter style system. At the end of the day, tinker toy or not, a 75 yr. track record of no fire claims is testament enough to the fact that VAH just works.

I don't know where you live but I live in the south east so when I was doing research I called the Dacor showroom in Atlanta. The gal I spoke to was Amy (pretty sure) and she knew Everything. She helped me figure out exactly what I would need and how to get it in my budget (which I never thought would have been possible - still not cheap of course, but gave me $ saving tips) I highly recommend calling them (Amy specifically - i never had a good contact for Wolf so I ended up using Dacor.) I just googled the number I called and it's: Dacor Showroom Atlanta (404) 365-9876 she didn't try to sell me anything... but she told me that was because she couldn't sell me anything if she tried b/c they are just a showroom and don't sell anything. Trust me - go to the source for info! (but of course - I'm interested to hear GWers feedback, too!! My issue wasn't about a downdraft at all so I don't have the inside scoop on that but i guarantee you she will)

Series 5 or 7? Viking in the past has had a lot of service issues. They were bought in 2013 and the products were redesigned and it isn’t clear if it has improved but havent heard a lot of positive. I would look around a little more. What type of cooking do you do? What type of cookware do you have? Have you looked at BlueStar?