Ladybug: I'm not sure if this helps or not, but I'm in a very similar situation as you. I have done a lot of research on 48" ranges and am keen on having high BTU and a lot of interior space. After having a long conversation with Trevor (from Eurostoves), I actually went to the Capital factory and was very impressed. In fact, it's the only appliance I have decided on! So, if they can assure you that you can get easy service relatively close by, I'd go with the Culinarian. Hope that helps!

Just to get on my soapbox a bit - I know nothing about this particular range but the philosophy of getting an extended warranty for an unreliable product is flawed. First of all, there's more than just the expense when a product breaks - there's the inconvenience of not having the appliance working, the wait for parts, and the inconvenience of having to be home when the repairer comes (usually multiple times - the first to check it out and the next time when the parts arrive). Also, there are times manufacturers deny that anything is wrong - there's another thread recently where someone with a flawed GE Cafe range was told that's how it works and if you call us again we're going to charge you for the service call for user education. Anyway, personally I'd look for a known reliable product rather than relying on an extended warranty.

I have the Monogram 36" with grill but only for a few weeks.So far I am completely satisified with the cooktop. The extra 1,000 BTU's is really insignificant and I think the grates are fine the way they are and would not want lighter ones. It appears to me that making the grates lighter is a way of lowering the quality without lowering the price. I know nothing about the other brands.

Hi Kayla - overall I like the dual fuel range. My husband loves the digital meat thermometer that came with it and we've made the best prime rib roasts since we've gotten this oven. The pre-heat does take awhile but we've gotten used to it. I've made cookies and they turn out great. We have also started using the lower oven more if we're baking something in a shallow dish, frozen garlic bread, rolls and etc. because it doesn't take as long to heat up. We've used the griddle to make sandwiches and pancakes and I'm happy with how that works and the easy clean up. I would say the stove top is easy to scratch if you aren't careful when you clean around the burners. Make sure you lift the grates up, off and set aside to clean and not just lift the front of the grates so you can wipe underneath. You'll scratch the little raised lip on the back of the stove top with the burner grates. I'm still not crazy about the overall height of the stove top but that's not really a fault. My husband on the other hand (6'2" tall) LOVES the dual range and all of it's features. He would highly recommend it to everyone. I like it. We also bought the matching over the range microwave. We bought it because you can bake in it and I thought we would really use that feature a lot but have found it takes a really long time to pre-heat the oven feature of the microwave and you have to use this little round raised baking rack which I have very few dishes that will fit, actually none now that I think about it. I thought it would be more like my old toaster/convection oven that sat on my counter top and it's really not at all. For the most part we just use the microwave to re-heat and warm things. I hope this helped