I feel your pain! I am close to the end too, but choosing (in this case) between Wolf and Viking (although leaning wolf) and all gas versus dual fuel (it all comes down to money somewhat)-- which did you pick?? For me, the burner, griddle question was a no brainer.... you can easily get a double burner griddle for the times you need one (in my house, this would not be more than once a week, if even). I have MANY times wished I had a fifth burner-- even just to accommodate larger pans. Now I will have six :o). Re your hood. I was told by more than one person you can get away with a 36" hood if you don't have the griddle but must have it you do. Even so, your upper cabs are supposed to be at least 3" off range on either side (The same distance the oversized hood would take up). It may come down to the building inspector in your town (assuming you pulled a permit)-- I would ask around. Also, someone told me you can get away with a 17" deep hood (versus standard 20") -- especially if you oversize and if you turn on at beginning of meal. If you are tall like me (5'9"), this could keep me from smacking my forehead regularly. I am in the southern part of CT and our local retailer services Wolfs, so no worries for me there-- Marsillios in Fairfield, if you need. Good luck and look forward to continuing the conversation.

I chose the Cullinarian with 6 burners after agonizing for months over the decision. I ended up picking six burners for 2 reasons. One is that I like to mostly cook on the center burner because the range hood works best there if you are making something that requires a lot of exhaust. The second reason was that I figured I would buy a 4 burner Chef King griddle becasue I thought the 12" griddle a little small anyway.

I've been looking and came down to Caphalon (they have at least 2 different ones and you want the larger one for those burners -- available everywhere, I recently saw both sizes at Target while some stores have only one -- larger one is about $50) and a Lodge cast iron (sold at Walmart in the camping section or camping stores -- about $35-45). While I was trying to decide between those, DH pulled out the Dacor griddle we had on a cooktop 2 houses ago. We had tried it front to back and it wouldn't work, but we discovered we can put it across 2 burners side to side, so we are going to try that next time we need the griddle. If that doens't work well, we'll probably try the Calphalon or Lodge. I wish Wolf made one that woud fill 2 burners and store flat.

>>>"any induction owners have regrets . . ."<<< Numbers of threads here on the exact question. The two most detailed ones are probably "Anyone w Induction Who'd Go Back To Gas" which ran from 2007 to 2015 and "Does Anyone Here Who Went Induction Regret Your Choice" which started in 2012 and is still getting posts. You can find some more threads (albeit shorter ones) by typing "induction + regret" in the search box at the top of this web page.