I am considering purchasing a KitchenAid 36" 6 burner professional stainless steel cooktop (Model No. KGCP467JSS) and would like any advice on this. It is within my price range and has the appearance on a good quality range top without the high price of the high-end brands. I read one review on this cooktop on another site and the owner complained that the stainless steel backguard got really stained and ruined within the first month on using the cooktop. Any input is really appreciated.

You can drive to work in a Toyota Yaris or a Porsche 911. Both will get you where you're going via an internal combustion engine, maybe even with an MP3 player, and possibly even on board navigation. But the difference in driving the two can NOT be understood by someone who doesn't enjoy the nuances of driving. Regular folks who think buying a Porsche is a silly extravagance will never ever "get" it. They don't know what they don't know about the differences between the two, so they are perfectly satisfied with a boring econobox. Frigidaire is the boring tinny 1970's econobox of the appliance world with a few racing stripes to give itself airs. And the people reviewing it, well, not to sound elitist here, but they don't have experience with a higher standard to compare it to. They don't know what they don't know about the nuances of cooking. Anyone can "steam fry" a meal. Very few can do an actual stir fry. If you don't have the budget to make a purchase of a pro style range at this point, that's fine. Very few of us are able to get what we 100% want as if money is no object. But, you really have to look at the ultimate goal here and keep your eyes on the prize. Spending $1700 on something that doesn't function any better than something that costs $500 is wasting that money that you do spend. I'd suggest really analyzing your goals here. A 36" IS a step up in "space" but a true 36" pro style range has a pretty large oven that takes a long time to come to temp and is overkill for most situations unless you need to fit in a full sheet pan. 6 burners are usually overkill for most for 90% of the time that they use the range. Thus the popularityh of the 48" range, as it has a smaller oven that gets used more often. And you can do a griddle surface on it as well. If pro style cooking is your ultimate goal, then think about doing a 48" rather than a 36". Or consider doing a pro style cooktop like one Bluestar has now, and buying a second hand wall oven from Habitat for Humanity or Craig's List. That will give you an immediate return for your investment that won't need to be repeated. As long as you are also budgeting for the high CFM hood that goes hand in hand with having a high BTU cooking machine in your home. If you size the oven cabinet for a 30" oven and buy an extra filler or two, you can replace the oven at any point down the road with a more capable model but you will have enjoyed the FIRE of the cook surface until that happens.

Yes, some of us have no other options b/c of the design of out kitchen. I had an old Jenn-Air electric rrange w/ a downdraft in my "original" kitchen and was perfectly happy with it. I did lots and lots of research, attempted to change design to avoid downdraft and just could not seem to work around it and accomodate other priorities in the room. So.....we have a 6 burner Dacor gas (propane) cooktop. (36"). Installed a 36" Thermador downdraft. Chose this model b/c it rose higher than others and wanted one that would be taller than my tallest pot. The sales guy convinced me that a 600 cfm remote blower would be more than enough. I had plenty of conversations with him and the HVAC guys, talking about what I wanted, what I had learned, etc. The 600 cfm doesn't really seem like enough, we cook in our kitchen daily, often several times a day. I don't remember smells lingering like they do now, steam can hang around, and heaven forbid that we burn something, that fills the room for sure. Anyway, the bottom line is that if I had to go back and do it all again -- ideally, the design would not call for a downdraft. Can't undo that one - so, I might consider a different cooktop -- electric or induction. Finally, I would make sure that I have a blower powerful enough to handle what I am doing -- I think we should have gotten a stronger blower, and we still might. But for the time being I am learning to live with this and adjust our cooking accordingly. The Thermador has done its job to the best of its ability. I do like the additional height of 14" as opposed to most others which I believe are 8-10". I also wish that we had gone with the 1000 cfm inline blower rather than the 600. Here is a link that might be useful: Thermador downdraft

Yes - we ended up with just the Thermador gas range- Thermador PRG366WH Pro Harmony® 36 Inch Wide 5.1 Cu. Ft. Slide In Gas Range with 6 Burners. We were close to getting the Thermador Dual Fuel professional range 36” pro grande commercial depth range which includes 2 induction burners and 4 gas burners but hesitated due to extra $$ and increased depth. We have been very happy with the range we got but definitely still wishfully dreaming about the Pro Grande!