laugh

When we remodeled 6 1/2 yrs ago, not only did we have a large family, cook daily, but also felt it would be an investment when it came time to sell. The market in this area really would call for it - 36" range
I keep a portable griddle over 2 burners which doubles as a warming tray . Very glad we upgraded

good luck

I have 4 burners - please shoot me if I need more, LOL. IMHO, for me the ideal would be a 36", 4 burner stove, so that the bigger pots would all fit. I have a counter top, single induction cooktop and it is used not because I need more than 4 burners, but because the bigger pots don't fit together.

6 is better than 5 where the fifth is in the center, in my opinion. I never used my center fifth burner and I found that having the fifth burner often resulted in the layout forcing the other four burners too far to the edge. I just switched to a Dacor DR30D, which is much better because the four burners are more inward but still allow for me to use a large skillet and a large Le Creuset at the same time.

Now, my parents have a Wolf 5-burner cooktop where the fifth burner is off to the side. That works well, but I haven't seen that in a range. So I'd say go with 6 if you can fit it and fit it within your budget.

I wanted enough room for large stockpots, and to be able to have more than 4 pots of soup or sauce cooking at the same time (I like cooking large batches of stuff and then freezing some for later).

After I finished my kitchen reno and realized how much more fun it was to cook and bake. Unfortunately it was then too late. It is my only regret.

A 6-burner range was my #1 priority for the reno. I have yet to use more than 4 at a time, but the number of burners wasn't the point for me, rather fitting large pots. I recently had two very large stockpots, a saucepan, and an enormous canning pot comfortably going at the same time. I'm so happy I went with 6!

We went to 6 burners when we did the last kitchen. It's so nice to have the flexibility to use all 6 burners. There have been times when yes, all 6 are going. The biggest plus is the size though of the burners and all the room on the range. Quite a few of my pots are large (wide) and they didn't fit very well on the smaller range.

In this house I again went with 6 burners, would not even consider 4 burners and a griddle or grill option. I told my dh only if we did a 48" would we be able to add the grill or griddle. I now will use my George Foreman sitting on a cookie sheet on the burners if I want to grill inside. Works like a champ (no pun intended) and the hood exhausts all the smoke.

Take your large pots and pans to the store and try them out. See what you think.

I have a 5 burner 30 inch cooktop. I use the center, biggest burner all the time. I wanted more than 4, but only had 30 inches, so this is perfect. My plan is that if I ever decide i need a 6th, is to buy a single induction like gardenpixie mentioned.

I thought long and hard about whether to go for a 36 instead of a 30. And I admit to being influenced by all the aspirational kitchen images featuring 48 and 36, but never 30. Finally though I had to admit to myself that I had never and would never use more than three at a time. A 36 oven is also something that would not be of benefit over the 30 (I have a Blue Star which has an oven that takes full size sheets). I could have accommodated any size range but ultimately stayed with the 30. No regrets -- where I do wish I had gone to 36 rather than 30 is the sink, not the range.

I decided when I removed the double wall ovens from my plans (had them in the old kitchen). I still needed at least two ovens so I went with a 48" range with six burners and a grill. It's big enough that I can (and do) accommodate two cooks simultaneously. Most of my day-to-day cooking is on the left side with four burners. The two burners on the far right, separated by the grill, usually service the baking station. Love the setup.

When the appliance store ordered the wrong Thermador pro rangetop for someone else & sold me that PCG366g (he had wanted the grill model) for 1/2 price!!! I had the room. I absolutely love it now, but at the time I did NOT think I was worthy. Two years later & I'm a MUCH better cook. REALLY!

I have a 4-burner, always have. I could never think of a time when I wanted more burners so when I did my reno I decided to save the money and stick with a 4-burner. So far I have not needed more but I agree with blfenton. Now that I have my new kitchen I enjoy cooking so much more and am wondering if I will regret not putting in a larger induction. I did, however, plan my cabinetry to fit a 36" cooktop in case I wanted something larger in the future.
I also went with one oven plus a micro-convection combo. Again, not thinking I would ever need more but am already regretting not getting an additional oven. I had no idea how much more fun it is to cook in the new kitchen!

We have a 48" with 6 burners and a grill. I didn't see why we needed anything that big, but my husband insisted. I caved, since I made pretty much all of the other kitchen decisions. Today, I'm glad I lost this battle. We usually don't have more than 3 going at once, but I love having the room for the big pots and room to spread out so my husband and I can tend to different things on the stove and not get in each other's way.

I have a 6-burner only because that's what came with the house I bought. It was a new build. I replaced the 6-burner cooktop with a 6-burner range, because I'd gotten used to it, it was to scale, and it's better for resale in my area.

I've never used all 6 burners at once. I've used 4 at once on a couple of occasions (cooking for a party or holiday). It's possible that on one occasion in 5 years, I may've used 5 at once.

I like having the extra room, though. Continuous grates allow me to slide pots and pans all over the place, and I have plenty of room for large-diameter pots and pans.

Wow, it's great to hear what went into all of your decisions! I can relate to many of them (all except for the market reasons. Hardly anyone's kitchens around our locale look like anything showcased on GW.)

I'd love the extra room for the big pots and pans. The older our kiddos get, the bigger the pots grow! Yet there are days that go by that I just use 1 burner. But when I do want to do big batches of something, it can be a challenge.

We're considering putting in 2 30" stoves, since like Mrs. Pete said, the big guys are so pricey. We figured that this way, if one goes, it is easily swapped out, even with something of of Craigslist. But if a big 36"-48" stove goes wonky on us, boy are we in trouble. That would be an expensive and time-consuming replacement. I'm struggling with the idea of giving up 30" worth of extra counter and cabinet space to put in another stove, though.

We do have multiple crock pots, a rice cooker, a large electric griddle that we drag in and out frequently, and a huge Cucinapro 16" skillet. I've considered getting a portable induction cooktop, too, if that would solve the extra burner needs. Frankly, I'm feeling a little bit of small appliance overload. But aybe there's always room for one more.

Oh, and I like the idea of one more oven, too. (Already have a two oven 30" range.)

One of these days I need to make up my mind.

gardenpixie, tell me more about your induction top. Do you have a photo? I too have pots that won't fit on my cooktop burners and have been trying to decide what to do. But I haven't found anything with a big enough burner yet.

I spent the first 25+ yrs of my married life cooking on a series of really crappy stoves in the various homes we lived in. When I finally got to renovate and choose my dream appliances I popped for a 6-burner 36" all gas range. To be honest, it is a bit of overkill. I was just so disgusted with my old smooth top electric, of which I could only use 2 burners at a time, because either my pots were too big to sit side-by-side, or because I needed an "off" burner to move a cooking pot onto, because the burners cooled off sooooo slooooowly that empty pots could be damaged just sitting on them. I think I can count on one hand the times I've had more than 4 burners in simultaneous action. But I love the large oven, especially when hosting dinner parties and family pot-lucks.

And overall, I smile every time I look at it!

It depends on the size of the burners. If you're talking about a gas rangetop with four 12" burners, you can go awhile before you need to move up. But if you're talking about 2 large and 2 small burners, I was growing out of that several years ago, when I had to cook large batches of things in shifts and try to keep the first batch warm as I cooked enough to serve the whole family (10). More large burners, multiple work spaces, and decent traffic pattern were my top priorities in the new kitchen.

We put in a rangetop with eight 12" burners, which is usually more than we need, since I neglected to realize they were all big burners, instead of half small and half large. Still nice to be able to spread out, since some of our pots and skillets are wider than 12", and we often have 2 or 3 cooks working at a time.

Four burners, all the same size and not too close to each other, would be fine for me. Our electric range had 4 differently-sized burners, and we couldn't cook a small pan on the large burner. Well, I suppose we could have, but we didn't. Cooking anything larger than the radius of the burner was a bit of a nightmare, so we knew we wanted burners that were all the same, and gas so that we could control the flame better, then I kept telling my husband what a great place GW kitchens was, he headed to Appliances, and we ended up with a 48" six-burners plus grill. Those Eurostoves videos are strangely seductive.

I'd run out of space on my old range at least every other week. There were past dinners that I could not make because I did not have enough burners. Went with a BS 48" with grill and could use the grill as a simmer if I run out of burners. I use 5 or 6 burners at least once or twice a week. I think I could have gone with even more burners that the kids help cook too. Now using all those burners also means a lot more pots to clean up. Thankfully DH is the clean up crew (usually).

When did you decide to go from 4 to 6/8 burners?

When I found a great deal on a 42" hood and a 36" range.

Was origninally planning on 30" range.

Rarely use more than three burners but love the room when using large pots/pans/grills. And the large oven that fits a full size baking sheet.

Dr. Beanie--where are those eurostove videos??? I think I'd like DH to see them. : )

There are just the two of us here, but we both love to cook, and DH makes beer. We originally decided just a wider (36in) cooktop would be nice and then opted against the grill so went for the extra burners instead.
Even with just using the outer burners it is nice to have big pans "side by side" with no problem.

Only just this week did I decide to go from 4 burners to 6 (combined induction and gas), but even though my kitchen is large, I hate to give up the counter space.

Over the last 25+ years I have cooked for many very large crowds with a single 24" oven and a 24" cooktop. In several places where I've lived over the years, my prep space was barely 12"x24" (no exaggeration). It forced me to learn to plan ahead, cook what I could the day before or the morning of and only do at the last minute what really had to be assembled last minute. This way I wouldnt also be exhausted by the time the guests would arrive. For everyday cooking (pretty much always from scratch), habits of being organized and having a repertoire of recipes which cooked themselves paid off. Small urban apartment refrigerators were always more of a problem. When I finally got (for me) a large kitchen (which for GW standards was barely a butlers pantry) and a 30" range, I realized how inefficient and time consuming taking two steps from the prep area to the stove was, and how undisciplined I became in terms of using more utensils and space. Also, by then I had a dishwasher finally, and didn't have to clean up while cooking for mere space reasons, which also led to chaos.

Now I have a large kitchen where it's possible for several cooks to spread out. And the 7-8 steps it takes me to get from my sink to my cooktop don't bother me a bit. I cook huge quantities at a time to store complete meals in the freezer for busy or lazy days. And although it's annoying that my oversized stockpot, wok, and skillet (all 13") can't be centered on their burners simultaneously, I somehow manage just fine anyhow. I wouldn't give up my double wall oven, though.

I am about to change my cooking island (not the rest of the kitchen) because a huge crack appeared in my 30 year old corian countertop. So I might as well change cabinets and cooktop. I bought a portable plugin induction unit hoping I could work it into my setup to grow to 5 burners. But it's clutter and rather tall, and it seduced me into wanting a decent induction cooktop. So now I've taken the plunge, planning a 30" induction 4-burner, and a 2-burner gas unit side by side with a little bit of space between them.

I was stuck with a cheap electric stove with 2 small and 2 large burners. I knew I wanted gas, but didn't really have a specific size in mind. I searched in stores and online, occasionally browsing Craigslist to see if I could find something vintage. I happened upon an older 36" Thermador for less than I would have paid for the cheapest electric range on the market and only about $50 more than what used 30" ranges were going for. Made the 4 hour trip, spent a few bucks changing from NG to LP, and have enjoyed it every moment since. I rarely have over 4 burners going at once, except holidays and I enjoy the extra room in the oven for Thanksgiving, but most of the time the extra oven space is overkill and I don't enjoy waiting for it to preheat. I often use the old electric range or the countertop convection/toaster oven if food will fit.

In a victorian we owned we put in a 48 inch range. I loved it, so much space for large pots and pans and for more than one person to be cooking at a time.

Unfortunately, next house there was not room for a 48" range so we were back down to the standard 30" size. That is a hard adjustment, much easier to adjust to bigger than smaller.

I am hoping I can do the 36 inch in this house, we currently have a small wall oven and 30 inch cooktop. I actually have more issues with the small oven than anything else. We had 20 plus people for xmas and food had to be baked in shifts as there is only room for 1 pan at a time.

I upgraded by going with a Wolf range -- 30", 4 burners, not by increasing the size of the range. The range is designed so that I can cook with my largest skilets/stew pots, etc. on all 4 burners at once. Plenty of room to accommodate large pots/pans. I entertain for crowds frequently and use my range a lot. I've found 4 burners totally adequate for my cooking needs.

If I had a large enough kitchen, I'd love to have a second oven.... Now that would be a feature I could really use.

I decided to go back to a 36" cooking appliance the first night I cooked on the piece of **** 30" that had all four burners grouped together. That was 2002. Love the 36" rangetop!!!

I had a 48" 6 burner for many years,but currently I cook on this gem with 4 burners and is why I absolutely will move back to 6 burners. Of the four burners shown, only the two BACK burners light reliably--the front burners need to be lit with a match and continue to have a clicking of the ignitor for many minutes after they are lit. Two repairmen have been out to try and fix this but they all shrug and tell me that a 35+ yr old stove has its problems that they cannot fix.

If I use a large stock pot, I actually cannot fit the tops on them--too little height. I also cannot see into a pot on the back burners. Not enough space either. Certainly can't stir a pot in the back. The 6 burners will be almost entirely so that I can move around and place large frying pans, larger stock pots and generally feel like I have space.

Here's the kicker though...I did cook Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner for over 15 people using this stove and one small oven, proving that you can do a lot with very little!

LOL i decided to go from 4 burners to 2 to make room for a 12"w barbeque grill. 2 burners (plus an instant hot water dispenser) are fine for us - they'll be an oven and a GE Advantium 240 as other cooking options, and maybe a stored-away single burner for emergencies.

Don't hand me any lines about resale value. If prospective buyers' taste buds aren't well enough developed to appreciate grilled food, i can substitute several gas or electric 24"w (actually 60cm) 4-burner cooktops in place of the 12"grill/12" 2 burner cooktop setup. - they fit the same cutout.

I had decided to go to 36"/6 burners range or rangetop due to lack of space on the 30" for big pots and pans. I was scouring Craiglist for that when I found a 48"/6 burners/grill rangetop and double ovens for $450 total.

They are not-really-used - came out of a wealthy home where the owners never cooked, decided they wanted a different look for the kitchen, and gave the appliances to the caretaker to dispose of. The rangetop is really a bit too big for the kitchen, but at that price we had to get it.

I have a 48" range and had to figure out what configuration I wanted for the top. I got the 48" for the two ovens (would have preferred wall ovens with a 36" rangetop but my floorplan didn't allow it).

I knew I wanted the griddle - had one in the last house and used it often... am using this one often too. I never ever need more than 4 burners so I opted for the charbroiler for the last 2 spots and I have yet to use it (fearing the clean up and we have a gas grill right outside). But even if we didn't put in the charbroiler there would rarely (if ever) be an instance where I would need more than 4 burners.