I just lean mine against the wall where no one will trip on them; under my desk usually. I've kept mine in good condition, even after 7 years. I've trained people not to put anything on them, when the stove is not in use. When my mom visits, she is inclined to put things on that spot.

It did not crack during delivery from the stone yard to the fabricator. It was not cracked on their lot while it sat there for quite some time. I went to match paint, tile, etc. MANY times. It was fine- other than the sticker that caused the stain. It is NOT marble or onyx - the delicate materials. It is quartzITE which is harder than all of the stones, thus what the stone people are highly recommending for kitchens to those who want the look of marble but the durability of granite. SO that's what I got. I felt confident in it's durability and it's gorgeous, so I paid a good bit more per square foot for that beauty and durability. He said the insurance covered dropping the slab on the crane when it arrived at his lot from the distributors. He said nothing about it cracking DURING fabrication. I interpreted the insurance as neither the distributor wanting to accept responsibility for transportation nor the fabricator - so they ask the customer to cover that gamble. That is what I thought I was declining. But the more I think about it, granite companies should have insurance for dealing with delicate materials and subcontractors that break them. Why should the customer Pay for their breaking of a slab!? If I ordered a 5000 dollar appliance and it arrived damaged, the appliance company replaces it. I'm not asked to pay extra insurance for transportation on a refrigerator! The warranty begins once the perfect condition refrigerator is on your property. NOTHING in life works this way. Something is wrecked. The person at fault has THEIR insurance pay for it. They broke it. He has yet to tell me exactly what happened, but during the day of installation I was at the house painting the laundry room and something secretive seemed to be going on in a different language amongst the subs. I think that it happened during fabrication. When offered the insurance, breaking during fabrication wasn't mentioned, and no I didn't think about that. And I would have thought that absurd. I thought he was referring to the changing of hands. I had never heard of such insurance so I knew nothing about it. I was already paying a lot of money for a slab that they told me was the hardest stone of all the stones. I was also agreeing to paying him a good bit more per square foot for its hardness and how that hardness affects his tools. So the distributor and the fabricator are telling me how HARD the slab is and charging me more for that hardness, so paying insurance for fragility didn't make sense. He presented the insurance as if it was for dropping it from the crane when moving from the delivery truck. Now if my 2 year old beat the slab with a hammer and broke it, would I expect the fabricator to pay for that? No. So how is this any different? My point about the range is that immediately when he informed me of the broken glass he offered to buy an entirely new range. I didn't ask for that. Those were the first words out of his mouth. So if he's willing to spend 2500 on my range then why won't he be comfortable forgoing the 2500 bill while I handle the range? That was my thinking because there's no way I'm trusting them to repair the crack. If I get the crack repaired, I will find another company to do it later on. This company does not have the leather finish tools. The slab came from Brazil with a leather finish - it was not fiished by the distributor or the fabricator. To the poster who said I seem worn down--- I AM I AM!!! Before this renovation we purchased a lot to build on. Had blue prints drawn up and ended up selling the lot to the builder that said he could build 2600sf in our budget then later says he couldn't after we spent 10,000 on the blue prints. It's all been very stressful! A lot of lessons learned but nevertheless, very stressful doing all this with 4 young kids. Not asking for sympathy. Just saying that I am worn down. However, I will fight this last fight. I'm not paying that bill. If he wants to replace the slab then I will pay him in full. But otherwise, the more I think about it in terms of other situations - appliances, furniture, windows, doors....The customer isn't left with a damaged item! Wish me luck. I'm calling him now to discuss our options. Hopefully we can come up with a solution that we are both comfortable with.

Allison, I have a 30" range and 36" (high cfm) hood with new white cabinets. Well, the other night when I was cleaning up the kitchen, I noticed there were these tiny, little, clear spots (assume grease?) all over my right upper cabinet. It got less and less spotty as it went to right. It's also on the wood range hood cover. I tried to wipe it off, but it is not coming off! Grrrr! I am thinking it is because that right front burner is the power burner, and we use it the most. We also have the hood at the highest recommended height which reduces the capture area. I hope it hasn't wrecked the paint on my new cabinets! So my recommendation is to get a nice powerful hood that is at least 6" wider then your range, unless you don't cook a lot and/or you are diligent about wiping down the fronts of your cabinets after cooking. I'm bummed about mine. :-(

That is an interesting conundrum, indeed. This had never occurred to me. I just measured, and yes, you are correct. On my 30" Bluestar RNB, the per-burner area is exactly 11". So, if I want to use a pot bigger than 11" diameter, I'd have to either not use one of the adjacent burners, or I'd have to use a smaller pot on that burner. That also explains, why the range has a 5½" blank grate going through the center. It makes sure that there is no interference side-to-side. There only is interference front-to-back. Having said that, I have owned my range for many years now, and I cannot recall this ever being a problem. But then, over the last 20 years or so, I have accumulated a very carefully curated collection of steel skillets, cast iron pots, tri-ply pots, and a wok. They perfectly complement each other; but it took a long time to find exactly the combination that works for my cooking style. It's not a large number of pots, but each and every one of them has a well-defined purpose.