Looks-wise, of the two under consideration, I'm thinking the AGA. I know the O and M is later, but I think it's better to go later than earlier, if right on the date doesn't work. Houses do evolve. I never calibrated or worried about BTUs when I had the O and Ms. The people who refurbished them had them set up with 3/4" gas lines and they had POWER. None of this was my doing. Coincidentally, I believe all three were the same model and had the grill-a-vator (sp?) broiler. I've not felt anything as solid, except for a real La Cornue. However, I do understand your thinking about this. I have one question: How often do you think you would use a rotisserie? I regret not having thought of this in my own kitchen. Is a rotisserie worth giving up the look you want? This post was edited by kitchendetective on Fri, Mar 1, 13 at 11:56

We completed a kitchen remodel in April '09 and selected the 36' dual fuel Aga in vintage white with a cathedral window. We LOVE it! I will say that this range was a splurge - it was $5,000! However, both my husband and I feel it was so worth it. We did not want a kitchen dominated by stainless steel appliances. Without a doubt the Aga gave us a classic look - it's not vintage, per se, it's timeless and certainly is a show piece. EVERYONE who comes into the kitchen comments on the range. I did not want wall ovens - I didn't want to take up that much space for something we would only use occasionally. The 36' Aga is perfect for us. When we entertain, I have had bacon wrapped apricots in the broiler, chicken and pasta baking in the multi-function oven and side dishes/desserts baking in the tall ovens. I love not having to fire up a huge oven when I just need to bake a side dish for two - the tall oven is perfect for that! When my nieces/nephews visited, we spent a snowy afternoon baking cookies. The Aga kept up just fine! In regards to the size of the ovens: In the tall ovens along the right side of the range, we bake our side dishes or a pie. I have had no problems fitting my Pyrex dishes into these smaller ovens. We often use the tall oven for keeping breakfast items warm. Unlike other ranges, I can set it at 150 degrees and it's perfect for keeping bacon, biscuits, eggs warm. I can pull the warming tray out with my bare hands at this temperature. I also enjoy the plate warming rack that's at the bottom of this range. We have gotten rid of our toaster and use the broiler for browning toast - love it! In order to broil a steak, I have to turn the rack upside down as otherwise it is too shallow. If I want to broil several larger pieces of meat, I use the multi-function oven. Speaking of the larger, multi-function oven we have no problem fitting my 9 x 13' pan of pasta, beef tips, casseroles, etc. in this oven. We generally do not cook turkey on Thanksgiving, so that's not an issue for us. However, with the main oven measuring 16w x 14d x 12h (shelf on the lowest rack), I can't see how roasting a turkey would be a problem. It is true that when it came to my cookie sheets, I could not use my existing ones. I was sad to have to give my brother-in-law my Doughmaker cookie sheets - he was thrilled! However, the Doughmaker Biscuit Sheet (10' x 14') fits perfectly into the larger oven. With the Aga gas cooktop, I can FINALLY cook grits without having any burn at the bottom of the pot. The precise flame control is fabulous - perfect for cooking tricky grits! We considered the Aga 44' range but it was just too large! There was no way we needed to take up that much space - I wanted counter space! The 5-top burner is plenty big enough for cooking everything we need for a large get together. I'm not a foodie and I don't cook gourment - I specialize in just plain old good home cooking! I've added a link to a post on my blog that shows our Aga. Here is a link that might be useful: Our 36 Aga

Have a Capital DF and love it. Simmer on main 25K burners is excellent; small pan rear burner can also double as simmer but doesn't have quite the flame spread as the large burners if you're doing sauce reductions or holding other dishes at low temp where you want even heat across the bottom of the pan. High heat stirfry or panbroiling are faster than the other choices you list other than induction (the Appliance Advisor trade web site had a good comparison a few years back on this). Note, BTUs are a measure of how much gas you're burning, not of cooking efficiency: that is a function of flame design and how it interacts with the construction and bottoms of the pans. The oven is feature laden with true convec, faux convec (just a recirc oven blower more common), temperature controlled broiling, a rotisserie, different oven heat distribution options and an oven moisture assist feature other than for some baking tasks no one can quite figure out (at least in our house). Were you to go with wekick's suggestion on a rangetop and wall ovens I'd also suggest looking at Bluestar along with Capital. If you have any opportunity to cook on your choices that can be most helpful in making your decision. The best information in our decisions came from those who had actually cooked on the equipment and cooked similarly to us.

I purchased a Fulgor Milano 36 inch dual fuel Sophia range this past year when we renovated our kitchen. We have had no trouble with it. We do switch our baking pans around inside while baking as I don’t think any oven heats perfectly all around but that said, the oven cooks beautifully. It has two convection fans and many useful oven settings that all cause the oven to heat/ cook a little differently depending on what you’re using the oven for. The burners are amazing and the cooktop is a dream to clean. All the burners get super hot down to a bare simmer. The cooktop is totally nonstick with a matte finish. I can’t say enough about how easy it is to clean the cooktop. Anything literally wipes right off. The self clean oven feature works great. The pizza/multibake setting cooks amazing pizza, frozen or freshly made. The one thing I was surprised at and didn’t know to ask about while researching pro ranges was where the oven vents out. This one vents out the front right onto your thighs. I wish it vented out the top back behind the burners instead because when you’re oven is on, especially at high heat you definitely feel it. Wearing an apron really helps and now after using the oven for a while I dont notice the vent that much really even without an apron. Although I wish that were different I would still buy this oven again because for a price tag under $5400 you can’t beat what it offers. All the other pro ranges with the features the Fulgor offers are at least 2k more expensive. I did purchase the optional griddle but chose to remove it (when in use it sits on top of the burner grates, not in place of) because unlike the wolf, thermador etc the cooking surface of this range top is a bit longer front to back and a bit more narrow side to side than the others. The other brands burners/cooking surface are a bit wider and more shallow front to back in configuration. Because of this there is a little more room between the burners front to back so the griddle tends to get hot spots. The griddle also needs to be seasoned well but once you do that it’s pretty nonstick. Overall we are thrilled with how well all the features work, so much so that we call it the “Lovin” (instead of the oven) because we love it and it makes cooking a real pleasure. We also have the Fulgor 36 inch pro range hood with 1000 cfm. It’s excellent as well. Both are solidly made with real craftsmanship. Excellent fit and finish.