From looking on line (link below - see page 4) it appears that there is the usual requirement for non-combustible material on the wall above the range and below the hood. Countertops can be installed on both sides of the GE Monogram range, but any side wall adjoining the countertops must be at least 12" away from the range burners. I assume this is because of the intense heat that can be generated by the burners. I'm not sure exactly what you are calling a "fireplace" that you are installing this range in. Is it totally brick from floor to hood, or only from the cooktop surface up? I recommend you check with your architect, contractor, and your GE dealer (and check local codes), but my guess is that you will be fine if you plan on installing the range within a brick "fireplace"(?) that provides a suitably insulated noncombustible surface on both sides. The drawing accompanying the GE Monogram installation manual shows what appears to be a sheet-rocked wall (not brick) 12" away from the cooktop, but better safe than sorry. BTW - Re: the "fireplace" that you are installing the range within. One other thing you might want to consider is the width of the range hood above. Although we're installing a 48" GE Monogram hood above our 48" range (doing this because we got a terrific deal on the exhaust hood, and I think it will be adequate), there are many folks on the forum that recommend that your hood be at least 6 inches wider than your cooktop. Do a search on this forum and you'll find plenty of threads on the topic. You might want to figure out your hood before you lock yourself into a particular width of brick "fireplace." Here is a link that might be useful: Installation Manual for GE Mongram 36

Hello again. I am a member of the Manhattan NKBA as such monogram invited me and about 12 others to their experience center in Louisville last year for a few days. This was not to sell their products but to show us how to use them and also to pick our brains as to what consumers want and what they can do better. One part consisted of us going around a room with 4 pro ranges ( 48" models) and clipboards simply comparing the 4 and features. The Thermador simply had amazing quality and everything felt great and solid. Things like opening the door etc. We also had specs and the burner output on Thermadors star burners is the best in the industry. Knobs feel good, there is great lighting and it is all easy to read. We were told that WOLF has amazing customer service. I am aware of that. Their range was the worst. Compared to the others it actually felt " cheap" borderline rickety and I can not believe I am saying this as I always loved the way it looked.. The GE had a lot of great features. Like racks that can stay inside the oven when self cleaning. I do believe I remember all the others have to be removed as they are plated and can not withstand the very high heat.Clean by hand this means. The oven capacity was also very large. Top is easy to move pots and pans around on as the entire cast iron surface is large and level. You can flip the iron around and have a moulded surfaces for wok pans... The parts are pieced together and can easily fit into a dishwasher. The knobs are easy to turn and read. Soft closing door. Great burner output. Easy to install with feet that have huge wheels under them. Can be leveled easily. The list just went on..... Still our main criticism was that it looked " boring" LOL. Not much personality. It's still pricey and it all checked out but a secret part of me wanted those red knobs... I know it's probably a sick personality flaw of mine... Like lusting after Loubotin shoes. We all know they hurt but want them anyways... After all this I just ordered a 30" dual fuel monogram for my place in New York. I will get it next week. I have an older Viking in Florida and all the lettering on the front has come off simply by cleaning it! I like the Viking but that alone is a shame. No one seems to sells those decals to have them stuck back on!!! I have no idea how I am cooking on that thing. I believe VIKING was sold last year and its been upgraded since then but I have no personal experience with the newer models so far.

"Commercial bakeries use nothing but gas ovens." This is not true. If you are talking about bulk bakeries, they are more inclined to because it is often cheaper but they also have steam injectors to add humidity when needed. I know several specialty bakeries that use electric ovens. Many deck ovens in commercial kitchens are electric. I knew of a bakery that was called "the Electric Bakery". It really depends a lot on what they are baking. I know a baker that has specialty ovens for pies. This really has nothing to do with home ovens because they are a different breed anyway as they are expected to do many different things. "Dual fuel is excessively expensive, and overly complex for no benefit in performance ." Performance is different things to different people. They have different needs so there is no one size fits all. If I were selling appliances, the first thing would be to assess that person's needs and make individualized recommendations based on those needs. I most likely would never recommend ranges to begin with unless there was a compelling reason like space or cost issues or even a preference for "looks" over cooks. Pick out each component because it meets individual needs in the best way possible. As far as cost, you can buy electric ovens with features that have high utility for less than some gas ovens with limited features. Electric ovens can be complex, but so are our home computers and cars these days. This is not necessarily a bad thing. These ovens can have features that many consider helpful in how they use their ovens. It takes a computer board to coordinate fans, heating elements and tight temperature control. I love being able to control the direction of heat and fan speed in my oven. I can have air movement slow or fast to facilitate browning or not if I am baking a cake. It has a lot greater range of temperature, with or without the fan than many ovens gas or electric that cost a lot more. There is a learning curve with these features especially with the many choices something like Gaggenau or Miele give you. The combi oven is the king of control of the cooking environment but not in a range yet. The other side of the coin is some ovens have this figured out and others, not so much, so you have to read as many reviews as you can. To minimize risk if you want these features, buy the longest service agreement that you can. They can be difficult to evaluate and compare because a feature named the same name in two different brands can mean two different things. Even the term "dual fuel", in most ovens it means gas burners and an electric oven but 5 Star when they say dual fuel means a gas oven and electric oven together in the same range. You have to decide what is a benefit and what is a burden? No one answer. "could you please explain why all gas is fine" "All gas is fine." I might agree with that statement depending on how you use your oven but that in no way means they are the same and it in many cases gas is not the best choice. Gas and electric ovens are constructed differently. Because you have combustion for your heat source, another difference, gas ovens are vented more to remove products of combustion including water, so those products of combustion and humidity from food move out of the oven and into the kitchen. That may be good or bad depending on where you live, but how is that significant to cooking? It is much more difficult to keep added steam in a gas oven if you are doing that for bread or adding a pan of water for cheesecake. Because there is more of an air current, in a gas oven, this removes more moisture from the surface of what you are cooking. This inhibits starch gelatinization during the first part of baking so inhibits rise and changes the appearance of what you are baking. On the other hand, because it evaporates moisture from the surface and allows it to heat more quickly, the Maillard and other browning chemical reactions take place more quickly. This is why meat, vegetables and even baked goods brown more quickly. Will you notice? A lot of people say they don't. I have baked in gas and electric ovens for over 50 years and I used to attribute differences in outcomes to different ovens rather than a difference in fuel but with the many books and websites that have come out on food science, you can see the rationale for the differences in outcome that cooks report in cooking/baking forums. It was kind of a "aha" moment to put these comments with the science. All of the information coming out challenges what used to be conventional wisdom and yet it might be hard to see if you are not baking the exact same recipe side by side. You do see the same observations cooks make repeatedly in terms of cooking on cooking and baking forums and people seem to notice the difference more coming from electric to gas but you do see the occasional comment about excess moisture in some electric ovens when they are coming from gas. Most advertising literature and websites about ovens actually say a gas oven provides moist heat and electric dry but they are only looking at the heat source and not the oven as a whole and the process of cooking which provides a lot of moisture to the oven chamber. Another difference is that there are more and more features being loaded into ovens now as noted above, mostly electric but sometimes gas too. Some electric ovens have added steam. Combi ovens are very useful in their ability to control humidity and really make the case for buying ovens separate from the range top instead of having to pick the priority of the burners or the oven. I am not a fan of the current trend of hiding the bake element in electric ovens. Sometimes with pies, you need that bottom element exposed. It used to be you could put a tray under the element to catch spills. If you put it on the bottom now, it will melt. Some other things to consider. gas broilers are of two types. There is the traditional gas broiler, but they are not very good. Many prostyle gas ovens have an infrared broiler. They are very hot and even, but can be small. They are great for a couple of steaks but not so much trays of appetizers or broiling larger amounts. How big is the oven? Do you want a quick preheat or need room for full commercial sheets? Look at the rack size for usable space and size top to bottom. What is the temperature range, lowest and highest? What are the increments that you can set your temperature? 25F or 5F? Ovens are not an easy choice these days but I think it helps at least some people to realize the differences so you can at least make a somewhat informed decision.

@Heather Spencer I'm not a pro but I dove into the ventilation question a bunch when I was looking at what to do in my own kitchen. There are a ton of posts on it here, too. ventilation is pretty location dependent as far as what you can get away with, but what you should do is use a hood that's sufficient for the range you buy, and provide the makeup air system that's required for it. If you are anywhere that has cold seasons, or if you live in a tight house, you need to have makeup air. Passive systems work in temperate climates, but not so great in cold climates. The makeup air system is designed to prevent a backdraft situation with combustible appliances. In a cold climate with good insulation, houses don't leak, which means your hood vent will suck more air from your house than can be replaced by leaky doors and windows, causing a dangerous situation. The higher the CFM, the harder it is to replace the air without a system in place (gas dryers, gas water heaters, gas fireplaces, and even bath fans contribute to this calc). For a 48" range you need a serious range hood (Wolf recommends 1100 CFM for their 48" range if I remember correctly). Anything over 400 CFM typically requires makeup air. I ran through the calculations in the code in my state when I was trying to decide on a range and found out that it didn't take much to throw me into full makeup air system, so I decided to go with induction. If you choose a 48" range and pick a lower CFM range hood, you'll end up with smells and smoke, unless you just have the range because it's pretty and don't do more than boil water or make grilled cheese on it. So, in order to do it properly, it costs money. More in cold climates, where makeup air needs to be heated. Less in temperate climates. My builder estimated about $5-6k for the makeup air system (not including hood). I priced out what I would need from fantech, and it got me close to that number. So it is true that the ventilation + hood can be as much if not more than the range itself. ETA: this isn't specific to 48" ranges - Wolf recommends 500 CFM hoods for their 30" dual fuel range, so it's more about the power of your range than it is about the size of it. But generally the bigger your range, the more power it has.