personally, i wouldn't want a grill inside. i live in chicago, so weather is certainly a factor, but the added ventilation/cleaning hassles it would add would not be worth the tradeoff.

the griddle, however, i'd love to have. although i've never had a built-in griddle and i'm not sure about how much of a hassle cleaning them might be.

i use a lodge grill/griddle pan that sits over two burners and it's served me well, is easy to clean, and adds flexibility.

i think if i was getting a 48" range, i'd want six burners at least.

I had the Therador 36" rangetop with grill and loved it. The ease of use was fantastic---I really loved having all of my food cooking inside the kitchen where I could keep a close eye on it while preping the rest of the meal. When I use an outside grill, the running outside to check on the food always made my uncomfortable. I was either burning what was cooking on the stove or I would get distracted inside the house and let the food on the grill burn up. Having the grill in the kitchen on a range/rangetop was the best of both worlds for me. Plus, just think of the food cost savings of not burning food up on an outside grill...LOL. I'm sure the Wolf is just as wonderful. We've never had a griddle, so I don't know about those.

I have a grill on current cooktop and rarely use it because it is such a PITA to clean. Plus it creates a lot of smoke. Admittedly I do not have sufficient ventilation -- Jennair downdraft. So if you get the grill be sure you get major ventilation, and be sure you are willing to take the thing apart and clean it after every use. My next stove is going to have a wok burner. No grill.

I have a 4 burner plus griddle (by GE Monogram) and am loving having the griddle. We are using it all the time and it is working out really well. I had originally wanted the Wolf but went for the GE Monogram for budget reasons. I had researched the hilt out of it and felt the Wolf was the way to go... I haven't heard anything but great things about them and they are very attractive too! If it is within your budget I would absolutely go for it. I think if you opt for the grill as well, be sure to get a very strong vent hood and be sure that it is on an outside wall.

To me, the upcharge for duel fuel just isn't worth it. There are only a few situations where a typical person would notice the difference between a good quality gas oven and a good electric one. The cost-benefit ratio just isn't worth it to me.

As for the grill, as long as you invest in very good ventilation you would probably enjoy having it. We have a Lodge cast iron grill pan than fits over two burners and it does a great job of "grilling" indoors on the few occasions when we want to do that.

You're paying a lot for the range and dual fuel. You might be better off getting the rangetop and a double wall oven, save yourself some bucks, and get more cooking space.

We have the Wolf 36" rangetop with griddle and the Wolf 42" hood. Love them both. We paired it with the FP double convection ovens.

You can't beat the Wolf...built like a tank, and the griddle has a very thick metal with infrared heating, so you get evenly browned pancakes. The Viking griddle is horrible...thin metal with a flame pattern down the middle leaving hot and cold spots. The Viking salespeople will tout the "quick heating of the Viking griddle and the very slow heating of the Wolf griddle". But it's the slow even heat that you want.

Cleaning the griddle is easy with the right equipment. Go to a restaurant supply store or look online for the 3M griddle cleaning pads. I just use them, a little water, and paper towels to get it clean without stripping the seasoning off. Food never sticks.

The Wolf double flame burner is very effective. I prefer the older open burner instead of the new sealed burners. Cleaning of the pans underneath is much easier, you just remove everything from the stove.

Do your math...see what your budget will allow and what space you have.

Stop now and look at Lacanche. We were so sold on duel fuel on a 36" Wolf and then realizing the price point, moved on to what else we could get.....I'm so happy we went with a Lacanche instead :) Style and function all in the same space... :) So worth the money!!!

Go for it! It's a great product. I've ordered a 36" thermador
with griddle and am very excited about having the griddle.
But the wolf is a fantastic product you'll love having
and never regret. Now's your chance ---take it.

Thanks for all the input. I will now start investigating ventalation systems. I thought I had looked at all the products on market but I haven't seen Lacanche. I will look into this.

We have a 48" duel fuel Wolf with a 24" griddle and love it. We can cook 9-12 pancakes at a time so everyone gets hot pancakes at the same time. Fajitas for a crowd are awesome, and your breakfast eggs can all come off at once.

I have never used more than 3 burners at once on any stove, so getting 6 burners really didn't make sense to me. I did have to be talked into the 24" griddle by DH but I am glad we went that way -because when we cook griddle food, we usually have a lot of family around.

The griddle is really easy to clean, the grease tray is easy to remove and rinse. You don't even need to use much oil at all for cooking except for seasoning the surface. The only thing I don't like cleaning from it is bacon - but that is the bacon's fault, all that grease.

The convection feature of the ovens bakes really nicely as well, convection-roast makes some amazing meat. I love having the little oven as well as a big oven for when I am cooking something smaller.

We're residential builders who have installed both Wolf and Viking appliances, and I would also tell you to run from Viking (not that you mentioned wanting one), especially the Viking refrigerators. Horrible product--just horrible. My Viking range is good, but not without it's issues (cooking unevenly in the oven, the temp being way off, taking several tries to get the burner igniters to work, etc.)

We're building a new house for ourselves right now (which we do every few years, the current house w/ Viking appliances is 2 years old) and I'm going with a 48" Wolf rangetop with 6 burners and a griddle, or 4 burners with grill and griddle (for reasons mentioned above...never more than 4 burners used at a time!). Then we'll put in 30" double electric wall ovens.

I currently have a 48" dual fuel range, but I have learned the gas ovens actually don't cook as evenly as electric ovens, and most people actually prefer gas cooktops and electric ovens.

The purpose of having gas ovens in pro ranges was because it would be too expensive to have electric ovens on all of the time in a restaurant setting where your ovens are on all day/night! Now that we're puting pro ranges in our homes, we just assumed they're better when most people don't find that they are!

Another reason for the double wall ovens, is that I like the idea of having my main oven up higher, especially with my kids (8mos and 2.5 yrs) running around. Lastly, Wolf doesn't offer ball-bearing racks to smoothly glide out that giant turkey or pot roast! A lot of the other oven-makers (GE Monogram, Electrolux and lots others) have these awesome racks installed now. :)

Good luck!
Deb in Seattle

No opinion on the grill. We have the 36" gas Wolf with griddle. I love it!

The one thing I never heard mentioned when shopping for stoves was the quality (or I should say lack of) in the Wolf burner pans. They scratch very easily and aren't the easiest to keep clean. I wipe the stove top down after each use and still have had problems. I know someone else with a 48" who eventually had to replace the burner pans for those reasons. Disappointing for such a pricey appliance!

Also post your question on the appliance forum, or search there, for more on your question.

Just wanted to add my .02. If you will look at the Tradewind liner w/ 1400 cfm and remote blower you will get the best , IMHO, of all the vent systems. You will need it if you are going to be doing high heat and greasy cooking. I too vote for the cooktop and separate ovens. You have to look at how you cook. If you bake a lot you are not going to like gas ovens, particlarly breads etc. Also work patterns are improved in a kitchen where the ovens are away from the cooktop. Good luck and if I can answer any vent questions please ask. c

Look at the Wolf AG as well as the dual-fuel and compare the flame patterns of the burners, open (AG) vs. closed (dual-fuel). I have a Wolf AG range at home and a DCS at my beach place and far prefer the open burners on the Wolf although otherwise they are both wonderful ranges. I would choose the flame pattern on the open burners any day. I haven't seen any difference in oven performance between my gas Wolf oven and the GE Monogram electric oven but the AG Wolf does not have self-clean which would be nice to have. However, the burner difference outweighs the self-cleaning issue for me.

No opinion on the brand but I insist on getting a true simmer burner on mine. I am going with the Dacor 48 inch. I have had a simple gas cooktop and hated the fact that my spaghetti sauce always boiled, even on low.