Not clear what you hope to find out.

I mean, lots of gas stoves have self-cleaning ovens. There is a non-trivial risk of failure with any current gas, electric and dual fuel stove with a self-cleaning ovens. The risk is that the high heat from self-cleaning cycles may damage those microprocessor driven digital control boards. It may be a 5% risk or 25% risk. (We don't know because those statistics are not available any place we've been able to find.) If it were a 25% risk, then 75% of owners wouldn't have the problem. Your 18 y.o. Thermadors may have been built before the proliferation of the current kinds of controller boards or maybe you lucked out with being in the majority of owners who did not have problems with their self-cleaning functions in their ovens.

Sounds like you might be looking at some specific models. I'm guessing that because you mentioned a $2k price differential. That sounds like you aren't interested in GE and Frigidaire/Electrolux ranges. Also, a a search here could turn up dozens of discussions of dual fuel versus all gas ranges. So, it might help get you some more specific responses if you could be specific about the particular stoves you are comparing and also spell out the kinds of cooking you do or want to do.

Thanks, I'm looking at Wolf and Thermador. I'm still trying to navigate how to search for the right thread on here!

I don't even know if either of my 2 new ovens has self-clean. Hmm.

If you only need it cleaned once a year, you can hire someone to clean your oven with EZoff for the price differential and get the oven you want to cook in, not the one you want to clean. :)

I attended a Wolf/Subzero cooking demonstration. Based on comments from others in attendance as well as the Chef, the gas range requires a little more work to get the same cooking results as the Duel Fuel. You will have to turn the pans etc...if baking. Whereas the Duel Fuel oven has more temperature oven control. The Chef seemed to treat the gas range like a step child. He even mentioned that people come to the showroom saying, "I need the gas range because of the infrared broiler." Then he proceeded to demonstrate how the duel fuel range broiler will produce the same quality sear on a filet mignon as the infrared broiler in the gas range. There is certainly a subtle push to get you to purchase the duel fuel over the gas range. I think the best way to know is to cook in both if possible. The showroom in Atlanta will allow to use the ovens to help you determine which one to purchase.

I have an all gas 36" range. (DCS, older version). It bakes just fine, better than my old electric ovens. I know plenty of successful bakers who use gas. I don't need to turn anything either to get good results. I think the "chef" demonstrating for Wolf was simply doing his job...upselling a product.

All gas is easy to clean. The flat floor and sides are easy to wipe down. I have had my range for years now and I have never had to deep clean it. I just wipe spills and grease splatter after broiling or roasting as they occur. Microfiber towel. SOS pad for the occasional burnt on spot. Yes I use SOS pads. They work, have for decades and I haven't ever damaged anything with them yet.

I was leery of going all gas because of the hype also. I am glad I went with all gas. I do plan to put a 24" electric wall oven in the kitchen in the future but not for baking. Just so I can have a smaller oven for casseroles and things.

Kim Taff,

As far as self clean you can have a gas oven with self clean as jwvideo mentioned. Capital ranges have a model with self clean and a rotisserie. That range does have high BTU, uncapped burners and an open burner tray, which is a whole other issue.

As far as DF, I would love to replace my Wolf due to the aforementioned issues but am just not sold on any yet. Miele does have one that came out recently and there is a current thread on that. To me you already have the ideal set up with wall ovens, especially if ergonomics are an issue. You can pick range/cooktop and ovens separately so you can get the best of each for the way you cook.

As to gas vs electric, I have had both types of ovens over many years. Yes you can bake with gas. As with many things in cooking, I would agree that there are often marketing claims that oversell some features.

Just because you can bake in a gas oven does not mean there are not differences. I have even had differences just in the electric ovens I have had in this last remodel and used in the last couple of years in rental condos. Whether testing broilers or ovens, you would need to test side by side with the same recipes and bakeware and with food that would show the differences.

Gas heat is the result of combustion of gas which has byproducts so they are ventilated quite a bit more. This means that there is more movement of air through the oven and more heat and moisture into your kitchen. This increased movement of air is drying, superficially to whatever you have in the oven if it is open and exposed to the air. This promotes the Maillard reaction so things brown faster. This is why many like gas for roasting. Many bread bakers add water for steam during the first part of baking because they want a specific crust and want the surface of the bread to stay soft, allowing a better rise longer. It is much more difficult to keep the humidity in a gas oven. Many bread bakers get around this by using a cloche or even rigging up a way to add steam as they bake. This drying effect of a gas oven can also change the way cakes and muffins bake.

Electric ovens hold onto the humidity from what is being baked or roasted or when water is added. For roasting, that would inhibit the Maillard reaction but some electric ovens get a lot more complex and some have a roasting mode that uses more heat from the top and a high speed fan to overcome this. Some electric ovens use fans and more elements programmed to have a multitude of modes to produce various baking environments. They are run by computer boards so when you combine these boards with heat, there have been reliability issues with some ovens. These boards also require fans that run after the oven is off so if noise is an issue, there are whole threads on that.

Convection fans in general are marketed to provide more even heat but they don't always do that and if you are using the fan, you have drying which is not always what you want. The bulk of the oven also contributes to the evenness of heat and is the main thing in standard bake. Electric ovens can have additional elements, in back and dual fans or even fan towers as in the new Wolf M wall oven. Occasionally there are threads on specific ovens that will indicate how well these work. Some ovens have pure convection modes. They usually combine a high speed fan and the immediate heat of an element in the back, so often create hot spots.

Another issue with newer electric ovens which may be different for some is the concealed element. One recipe I have have made over the years is an upside down caramel apple pie in a clear colorless PYREX(old trademark, borosilicate glass) pan. It has baked well in standard gas and electric ovens with an open element on the bottom. It doesn't get done on the bottom with an electric oven with a concealed element. One of the repair guys was here recently with my fridge and we were talking about general reliability in ovens and he thought the concealed element caused a lot of problems. There are a few high end ovens with elements that are under glass but they seem to have other idiosyncrasies.

Charon70 mentioned the broiler. A regular gas broiler doesn't get very hot because the heat from combustion goes up. Some gas ovens have infrared broilers so that you have radiant heat evenly over a given area. It is usually a much smaller area than an electric broiler. The electric broiler's evenness varies according to how close the passes are.

Thank you for all of this helpful information. In an ideal world I would have a gas cooktop with electric double wall ovens. As you said, ergonomically I prefer ovens at eye level and baking with electric. I have an all gas Viking in our mountain house and I love the gas cooktop. In the new kitchen layout at home base our goal is to open up walls and create more flow so we have limited space for double wall ovens. An all in one range makes the most sense with the new layout. At one point I tried to make a 48" range work, but I wanted adequate work/prep space on either side so I decided the 36" with one large oven was fine. In a kitchen remodel, as I'm sure many of you have found, there are always trade-offs. Do I go for the best range and get what I want (dual fuel) and cut back on other areas/cost-wise or scale back on the range? I guess this is a better description of what I am asking and it all boils down to what is most important to the individual cook/family. I am trying to not make the self-cleaning feature the deciding factor but I am aware of the reality that I don't regularly wipe down my oven inside after each use-- the cooktop gets a good cleaning but I tend to neglect the oven. At this stage of my life, I'm thinking, would that be something I'd be willing to start doing and is that worth my time and attention?