Sounds to me like the oven is ok and it's just a question of adjustments. I have Wilton pans and they don't cause a problem. Without seeing photos I couldn't comment further on the issues around the bread or the cake layers. I'll give you a rundown of how I use mine and what I do/don't do. Perhaps trailrunner and loves2cook4six also will chime in here as they are both bakers and have the same oven. All this said with the caveat that mine is an older vintage, non-self-cleaning and has the grease screen in back that needs to be removed for the baking modes to work properly. FWIW I find the masterchef settings useless and guaranteed to overcook anything. I ignore them. I preheat 30 minutes. With stone, 45-60 mins. Convection Bake: For single rack I use 2nd rung. For cakes (including angel food), cupcakes any delicate pastry (meringue) and any time I'm doing multiple racks. Have done 3 racks of cookies and 6 pies (which took a bit longer) with success. If not doing multiple racks, I remove all but rack I'm using and remove the drip pan. I don't ever leave a rack in over anything I'm baking. Also sweet or higher-fat bread, anything with a soft crust. Have found this to be even, gentle heat. Intensive: Pies, crusty yeast breads, cobblers -- anything that needs bottom action or a heat boost. Pizzas, naan, calzone with the stone on rack using bottom rung. Heaviest batter breads that might not cook through easily. Surround: I don't use this much because it essentially broils and bakes at the same time. I adjust rack low to high depending on how much browning is needed. Good for things like Shepherd's pie, baked ziti, gratins, casseroles, stuff with toppings like cheese, bechamel or streusel. Bake: I think of this as dumb-bake. My setting is 15 degrees slow so I adjust it. Any time I want a slightly moister baked product or don't need the convection I use this setting since the air circulation will make things drier and crisper. All reheating. I don't find this slower than convection, just has different use. I'm an oven cook and have really come to depend on mine. For savories, autoroast rocks and so does the rotisserie. I like the probe and while it requires a rough calculation of cooking time (another unhelpful aspect) the countdown and alert are great. Again, disclaimer: There are few absolutes and my ideas on how to use "European convection" are based on English oven website I stumbled across which actually made some sense of it. Miele needs to do a much better job.

I just got to catch up to this thread again! I've been blowing and going the past two days between all of this build stuff I have to get done before I leave town for a work trip followed by vacation two days after. So the two weeks of build stuff I'd have to do during that time had to be done this week on top of the regular stuff. Not to mention that I work also AND have two school-aged kids. It's been a mad mad week. So now I have conflicting opinions! I expected nothing less! LOL! Nini, we are doing a CD french door with an under counter beverage fridge in the island. We also have a chest freezer and an overflow fridge in the garage. :) Our kitchen layout is very similar to yours except without that cased opening you have in your "L". Our configuration will have cabinet, sink, cabinet with the super susan on the turn then cabinet after the turn, our range/hood, cabinet then our fridge on that end. Our microwave drawer will be facing the range and we're putting the beverage fridge facing the sink wall but on the set of cabinetry on the stool side. That way people coming from the living area can grab a drink from that side instead of walking to the big fridge. It works nicely. Brianadarnell's kitchen is laid out almost identical to what ours will be if you turned her island lengthwise the way yours is and changed some island configuration. The Dishwasher - I wonder if it's the room or the spacing? Thermadors are supposedly rebadged Bosches. I looked in my friend's and the configuration looked awfully similar to the Bosch I looked in the showroom. Now that have this cook blue light that comes on and off when you open the door so you can see inside. She likes hers but says sometimes she has trouble fitting things - which sounds like several Bosch owners here. Anyway, I don't plan to use the self-clean feature in the oven. I find it takes forever and stinks up the entire house. I find I can clean it quicker myself. I've never had a problem doing that. So that's a non-issue re: dual fuel. I wish someone could make this decision for me! LOL! Why can't things ever be easy??

I thought I would post an update to my situation... after having thermostat things replaced, things were working better but still not normally. Now I would say we are back to square one. I can't depend on the oven to keep temp. I couldn't dream of getting it to do 450 degrees and stay there. The holidays are coming and I'll plan our cooking around it. People have posted here considering purchasing Big Chill and I would never recommend buying BIg Chill. Their customer service is terrible, nearly non-existent. Something is very wrong with their engineering (Bluestar) since a gas oven isn't exactly rocket science. The cheap tin can GE range that the Big Chill replaced worked a million times better. In our previous house we installed a Viking dual fuel. It was solid as a rock, never had an issue with it. Why did we buy Big Chill? If I'm being honest, it was because they look great. Beautiful colors, great styling. I did a little research but come on, would anyone expect all these troubles from a gas oven range? We are considering buying an induction range. It would be really easy to buy a Big Chill Induction in French Blue to replace our lemon. But I won't be taking that chance. This time around I will maybe have to forego the looks for something that works. I just don't want to take another gamble on Big Chill.

“I think I understand where your confusion is.” Nice try, but I’m not confused. "What you said here, that you apparently got from the Fresh Loaf forum, is considerably different from your numerous statements that gas ovens are not a more moist environment than electric. The key is 'added' steam.” Nope, not different at all. If you have enough airflow through that oven to clear all that added steam, what do you think that same air flow is doing to the water from combustion during regular baking/roasting? (1)”A standard electric oven is a very dry environment. There is nothing to produce moisture. If you put a food item in it then that food is cooking in a very dry environment. (2)That food itself does contain moisture and being in a dry environment some of that moisture will be lost to dissipating in to the surrounding dry environment.” Your statement part 2 contradicts part 1. If Nathan Myhrvold, the physicist from Modernist Cuisine, cited above were to be believed, food contributes quite a bit of moisture. Part 2 means the humidity goes up. ”Yes, some moisture is being exhausted by the exhaust fan that a gas oven has (and that most electric ovens do not) but since moisture is being constantly generated by gas combustion then even with exhausting it you still have a considerable amount of moisture still in the oven cavity.” Are you saying that gas ovens have an exhaust fans pulling air through them??? You might want to research that a little more. To make your case, you could try to find a way to gather some supporting data for your argument. You can find several different ways to calculate how much moisture is released by the combustion of gas. You can guess at how much water is released from food and look at the airflow through the oven. None of these things, even if you attempted to provide them, is proof in and of itself. What is the evidence for one or the other being drying superficially to what is cooking? Humidity is a part of this but so is air movement. How is cooking different in each type of oven? What are the observations of cooks that we can tie to what we know about the chemistry of cooking? The strongest evidence of drying in a gas oven is the many the reports of cooks, that gas browns better. You have to get rid of superficial water(drying) so that surface temperature can rise so the Maillard reaction can take place. It is the same thing with a steak to get the crust. It is the reason you don’t want your stir fry steaming. When I read about the Maillard reaction and look at what people report, it makes me rethink that previous line of thought that had been based strictly on the fuel source for so many years and failed to take the oven as a whole into consideration. If you read and understand about the Maillard and other browning reactions and draw a different conclusion, please share how you think it works. Many bakers want a bread crust that is the result of steam being added at the beginnng because the steam promotes starch gelatinization of the crust. Then they want the steam to leave so it can brown. Notice I did not say a good or bad crust but a specific type of crust. The bakers over on Fresh Loaf aren’t seeing the results of that steaming in a gas oven unless they go to more effort(cloche, pan with lava rocks and water, make shift steam injectors etc). I have seen reports of cooks moving from electric to gas that their cakes don’t rise as well. The general principle is that less available water inhibits starch gelatinization, so the rise. I have seen complaints of steam building up in electric ovens when baking cakes. I even read of bakers that turned the convection on and popped the oven door open of an electric oven for a brief time to let steam escape and to fascilitate browning during the second half of baking. For me to understand more about the results you are getting with bread baking, be more specific about how you get steam in the oven and for how long. How specifically do the crusts differ?