My wife and I are renovating a 700 sq. ft. house. We're thinking of a 24" rangetop and a 24" wall oven. In the Washington DC area the BS deealers are an apppliance store and one kitchen designer who doesn't stock anything. Nobody has an oven. We even tried to get a salesman to give us names of customers so we could ask to look at their's but he wouldn't do it. The factory in Reading PA has a showroom with a 30" oven but it's not connected. If you want to talk to them ask for Monique. She's honest and helpful. I'm looking forward to hot broiler to make black and blue steaks with. I've never seen a salamander but it looks so easy to change the rack position. Oven shelves don't give you such a good choice of heights. If I bought their high splash with a shelf it would perch there nicely without using up counter space and my hood may catch the smoke. It bothers me about wall ovens that you can't vent them when you broil. With an electric oven you have to do it with the door open and a lot of greasy smoke goes into the room. Somebody here told me that with these ovens you close the door to broil. I don't know if that improves the smoke or not. I can't comment on char broilers but all I can think of is my house filling up with smoke. I guess you can see what my obsession is. I'll be waiting to see if you get some info here.

I think I would go with two smaller ovens rather then one huge one. A 36" one would take forever to preheat, even if you were cooking something small. My friend with one now almost exclusively uses a high-end toaster oven instead- and her expensive oven sits most of the time. Maybe an additional oven with a special function- like the Advantium or Miele steam oven.

I have the GE Cafe Dual Fuel. It was recommended to me by a friend who is a chef. I have had it for about 5 years and like it a million times better than the ceran-top electric it replaced. I haven't had a single issue, and it cleans up as well as you can expect stainless steel to clean up. I use the baking drawer for boxed hors dourves or reheating casseroles. I don't think I would bake a cake or make a roast in it, but the drawer is definitely handy when I am entertaining an army. The oven's convection and roast options heat very evenly, and the power-boil burners are much hotter than the ceran-top. I haven't noticed that the broiler turns off when you open the door. A message comes up on the LED display that says "close door", but I don't usually have the door open for more than a minute or so. It might turn off if left open for a longer period of time. Maybe you can ask GE. I would imagine that the metal knobs would get very hot if the door is cracked open for any length of time. Three large grates, certainly no sharp edges. This range does have the middle griddle, and while I never use it, it's nice to have that real estate in the center of the cook-top. If I'm sauteing and it gets too hot, it's so easy just to slide the pan over on the continuous grate. Same with large pots of boiling water (like for corn on the cob). I can let the water cool a bit on the center grate before I pour it out, and still be able to use the burners. That being said, I am redoing the kitchen, and if I can find an induction range that fits in this 30" space, that will be my next cooking method. I just feel that induction is safer than an exposed flame. Plus, I like the idea of putting a pot on to boil with a timer, just in case there's a distraction and I forget the kettle is on... I hope this helps! GE Cafe Dual Fuel

Joe, the three I'm looking at are the GE Profile, GE Café, and the Samsung. All are in the mid $2k range. The Samsung is so interesting because it can be one big oven, but reviews are mixed...apparently if you're using one oven, the other one gets hot too and therefore the cooking temperatures need to be within 150 degrees of each other..but as I think about it, I am really never cooking anything outside the range of 300-450 degrees. Of course, bottom oven in all of these ranges is essentially on the floor, but I would use top oven 95% of the time. I want the griddle too, but I guess none of these ranges' griddles get hot enough for searing/blackening, or even burgers...so would be just for pancakes and toasty sandwiches. Will probably end up going with one of the GE models.