I spent six months agonizing over this exact question! My poorr KD had to redesign between 48" range and 36" rangetop and double wall ovens! Looking back at how often I waffled between the two - I feel sorry for the poor man! But, he didn't give up on me and I finally made a decision. Unlike soonermagic, I AM a baker. I had double wall oven in my last house and I LOVED having two ovens for baking large batches of bread or muffins. Even cooking supper I found two ovens helpful - it didn't matter if two items cooked at different times and temperatures. I had two ovens. I also loved not having to bend down to check how something was cooking. My delima was - I loved the look of the 48" range and the extra countertop space!! But, in the end, I could't get past having to bend down to get things out of the oven. We are committed to this house for the long haul - which means I'm only going to get older, not younger, and in 10-15 years I'd probably be frustrated with bending over to check how my muffins are browning! And the truth be told, when I was pretending to fit everything in my drawings, I didn't like the storage with the range. I actually like the storage layout with the rangetop and double wall ovens! I like having my pots and pans below the rangetop. I have a deep drawer set between the rangetop and ovens for casserole dishes, pie plates, bread pans etc. Above the ovens I have my cookie sheets and muffin pans and below it I have cooling racks and cutting boards. I think you'd be surprised by how much you can store in a double oven cabinet along with your ovens! And price: I was looking for a high powered BTU gas rangetop with a 'pro look' and I wanted good convection for baking my bread in the oven. When you seperate your appliances you can pick and choose with more versatility. I was able to get just what I wanted and needed from my appliances for several thousand less than the (gorgeous!!) Wolf and Dacor ranges - which I had my eye on! With that money saved I splurged intead on an integrated refrigerator! But I didn't have to compromise what I was looking for in these appliances, I just had more chooses because they were seperate. Because I have a large island (my husband refers to it as "the continent"!) I had plenty of countertop space and felt good about putting in the double wall ovens. So, think through cost, space, bending issues, size of ovens etc. into your plans for cooking. It took me a while to make that decision, but once I did I felt good about it. I thought through BOTH options very thoroughly.

I can answer the BS oven door question. My 36" BS RCS was installed two days ago (haven't used it yet, hopefully this weekend). During the burn off of the oven (high temp is 450 F for an hour) I checked how hot the oven door got, as that has been a big issue noted on these boards. On my range, the SS part of the oven door did not get hot, just a bit warm. The glass on the oven door got hotter but not that hot. What did get quite hot were the sides/edges of the oven door. I could touch the side but not for long. Definitely quite hot. Not instant burn/scald though. There are vents (or look like vents) right there so it makes sense that those areas heat up a lot. Your kids would have to press their hands up against the 2" side of the door for several seconds for it to affect them negatively. More likely a kid running around will touch the front of the door and that is not a problem, on my range at least.

We are re-doing our new home and simply don't have room for a double wall oven. I know I want induction - have it currently in another home and want to stay with it. I think I'm coming to the acceptance that rather than a range, a cooktop with single oven below is preferable (one reason is that there are so few slide-in induction ranges). I like the features of the GE Cafe and the Electrolux cooktops & ovens. I'd appreciate comments about either brand.

I second the above comments. I keep going back and forth as i love the look of a range .The other advantage for me of having a wall oven is that it is so much easier to cook with an oven which is higher up and easier to take big heavy pans in and out of the wall oven. When I look at ranges which might work for me. (I'm only looking at induction or induction and gas in one unit so my choices are much more limited.) there is always something about one of the aspects that I don't like. Like the Miele 30 inch induction range, I like the oven, the cooktop doesn't have "burners' which straddle. I also want something bigger than 30 inches. If you choose separate components you can get exactly what you want. The disadvantage is that you are limited by the cutout of the cooktop if anything goes wrong down the line with that cooktop. Your countertop material also is affected. If you have a very long countertop run, (longer than 10 feet) you will have to have a seam. With a range, your countertop will end at the range. Hope that makes sense. it could also be more expensive to get separate components.