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greasetrap_gw

36" Rangetop & Wall Ovens vs. 48" Range

greasetrap
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago

Our current kitchen plans call for a 36" rangetop along with a cabinet to hold two 30" ovens. I haven't actually spent a lot of time looking at appliances yet, but after some initial research, I'm leaning towards a Bluestar rangetop and a steam oven stacked over a conventional convection oven (possibly the Wolf M series, but I'd like to know that the porcelain issue has been resolved before spending that kind of money).

What I like about this layout, is that it would give me a great rangetop with a grill, it would keep my wife and me from bumping into each other (as she normally uses the ovens and I normally use the cooktop), and I think the steam oven would be very useful.

I'm a bit concerned about the heat and steam buildup in a cabinet enclosure though. But my biggest concern is that our cabinets run mostly around windows and we'll have very little room for upper cabinets. With the current plan, we'll have only 59-65" of upper cabinets (depending on whether we have the hood overlap the rangetop or not), which is significantly less upper cabinet space than we currently have.

We've thought on and off that it might make sense to move from this configuration to a single 48" range, as this would give us an extra 18" of upper cabinets, but ultimately rejected the idea, because we'd really like to have a steam oven.

I was just reading though, that Thermador has come out with a 48" professional-style range with a grill and griddle on top, along with an 18" steam oven, a 30" convection oven and a warming drawer below. It would give us all of the appliances in our old design along with the warming drawer (which we might not use often) and a griddle. Also, everything would be under the ventilation hood. I'd lose my Bluestar rangetop and my wife and I would still bump into each other now and then, but maybe that's a reasonable compromise to get some additional upper cabinet space.

My biggest concern about the Thermador though, is that I really don't like the simmer burners on our current Thermador range. They're not what I would call true simmer burners. Instead they're normal burners that go on and off by themselves to produce a certain amount of average heat. Does anyone know whether the new Thermador simmer burners are like this?

I'd appreciate any input that others might have on this idea, and any opinions on the Thermador range. Also, does anyone know what the 48" Thermador Professional range costs, and whether there's any other brands that I should consider? I believe Miele has a new range with a "burst of steam" feature in one of the ovens, but that sounds more like it's for baking bread and not a true steam oven.

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