Like you, we also thought people who designed the Gagg oven as compared to Miele, didn't spend a couple of minutes doing usability testing. It is pretty obscure and terse with symbols and little in English. After reading the manual online, turns out it is not too complicate as after all, it is just an oven :). You select the mode, then temp and all is well. Once there, the Gagg has side openning door which we really like. My wife hates lifting heaving things over the oven door. In addition, the rotisserie on the Gagg is much heavier duty, capable of 13+ pounds where as the Miele is split over two smllaer units with each holding half as much. So given above, we decided to go with Gagg even though we would have loved to have the Miele interface on it. We figured that we learn to use the interface whereas nothing makes up for the other two features above. The other factor was that we like the Gagg steam oven better as it is also a normal convection oven. The Miele is pure steam which to us, is not necessary as we have other ways to doing just pure steam. By going with Gagg oven, we can have its combi steam match it. For the third unit, we are just getting a GE microwave. We use the micro a lot and wanted it to work well and not have some kind of compromise because it is a speed oven. For example, we like the left openning door on that too, as opposed to some speed ovens where the door opens down. Miele speed oven seemed nice but there were too many complaints about the expensive glass tray, and difficulty to keep it clean. As to having 4 ovens, we didn't see the need as we have a wood fired Pizza oven. This way, we have one of everything :p. Have you considered one of these? They are expensive and take up a lot of space but if you want Pizza done right and in 2 minutes per, nothing else replaces it. And they also are wonderful for grilling over coals with a ton of space, no worries as far as clean up ("self cleaning" at 1000 degrees), and you can do ton of other things from baking bread to roasting items.

This is a great thread, and thanks to everyone for the insightful information! I'm wondering if you can give more details on how you clean your Wolf CSO? I watched a video for Thermador's CSO and was a bit alarmed by the evaporator well in the bottom that one has to clean with a provided yellow sponge each night. Do you find that you need to do the same with your Wolf? We had a demo at the SZ showroom and they said a simple wipe down of any moisture inside would do. Also, the chef said that at home she only needed to refill the water when needed, 1-2 times per week (and she has a family of 5). The Thermador video also said that the water should be emptied out each night. What do you do to clean/maintain the water for your Wolf? Thanks for any info you can provide!

I got an email message from skik2000 asking, "We are remodeling our home and are considering a combi. What have you been cooking in it? Do you think it provides superior results to regular ovens or is it the quicker cooking that you like?". There was no link in the email so here's my response: We've only had our Gagg installed for about 3 weeks. So far it's great, but we are still figuring out what works. Our steamed-roasted chicken was a little too steamed. The steamed eggs a little too soft. The first time we roasted salmon I cooked it too long. The last time it was divine. These problems are user errors in my opinion and part of the learning curve. Thus far, straight up steaming seems the most straightforward and has high caliber results and is F-A-S-T. Steam-roasting is a little trickier (how much steam and for how long before I go to dry heat?) and something I definitely want to master for steam roasted (starchy) veggies, chicken and more over this winter. Based on my experience thus far, my guess is that in the long term it will generally provide a faster, different cooking experience than a conventional oven. For foods that do well with the steam, the product may be superior and definitely more convenient. For foods that don't require steam, I don't think it will provide an advantage other than a quick heat up time and faster cook times because of it's small size, but time will tell. The oven does seem to heat up super fast (~4-8 minutes) and cook faster than our previous 1956 range and crappy rental ranges we've cooked on for years. I wouldn't recommend a speed oven if you are getting a steam oven because I think the size and heat up make it much faster anyway. I'm definitely enjoying the new flexibility the steam oven offers and think we will enjoy it's functionality for years to come. I didn't steam a lot of foods before either but see so many uses now that we have it (steamed eggs, rice, grains, a steamed 12oz filet of salmon in 12 minutes - it's fast food!, grains, beans, heat up left overs, more). BTW, we didn't pay full price. We got a 200 series model off of ebay for less than 1/2 of retail. It was NIB with 5-year warranty. So far so good. Selling points were ease of use, I liked the simple interface better the Miele, plumbed, side opening door which worked much better in our space, and it's reputation for being the gold standard of steam ovens. Hope this helps.

I also have a Wolf induction cooktop and a wok gas module, which I got because I was afraid of getting all induction and hating it. Turns out, I rarely use the gas anymore. Only for the pots I still have that aren't induction-friendly. It takes a little while to get used to touch controls vs. knobs, but the cooking is fantastic. More responsive than gas, both in getting things up to temperature and then back down. The cooktop gives off no heat so when you have a lot of things on the stove at once, it's not as hot as when you cook on gas (the pots themselves and what's in them give off heat). And clean up is amazing. Mine is 6 years old and still looks brand new when it's clean. The downside is that the touch controls don't work when your fingers are wet, so you have to dry hands before changing temps. And the rings are a little tough to see - they're subtle. But I think the newer Wolf models do a better job of making the rings more visible. At least the 36" does. I'm completely getting rid of gas in the next house.