I'm reading all this with interest. I've cooked on a smoothtop for years, and it certainly has its pluses and minuses. We made the mistake of getting a solid black instead of a speckled; it looks beautiful clean, but does show everything, including some scratches. When we bought it I looked for the highest BTU burners I could find. Warped pans will spin (including my otherwise lovely old Griswold cast iron pan), so I prefer solid disk bottoms. I've thought for a long time that when it's time to replace this, I'll go for induction. Gas isn't an option, we don't have it in the neighborhood. Some friends decided that cooking function was more important than appearance, so they bought an old-fashioned coil electric cooktop. They manage to keep it clean, and have a shiny set of burner liners to use when company comes, but like the much faster responsiveness and higher heat output of the coils. The problem with smooth tops is that, for safety reasons, the heat cycles on and off when you've got a burner set to the highest setting, so you never achieve maximum heat. It's usually good enough for us, but probably not if you want something for, say, big stir-fries.

Skuba: Sounds like you are hoping that somebody will have a simple and reassuringly clear answer to whether you should or should not buy that Frigidaire range. Unfortunately, there is no way to give you that kind of answer. The closest we can come to that is the kind of report that sleevendog just gave you. Beyond that, you've discovered the essential difficulties with reading and interpreting user "reviews" about appliances and manufacurers and trying to match those perceptions with the minimal survey and performance testing data available from the likes of Consumer Reports. First, it ain't just Frigidaire that gets negative press. Every maker produces some lemons and some bad products. This is inevitable in large scale manufacturing. It is not hard to find postings about every manufacturer saying: "I'll never ever buy another product from those #$@%&!." Second, while 92% of Frigidaire gas stove customers may be happy with their ranges, the other 8% -- or some of the 8% --- may be very unhappy. Poor warranty service and customer support can turn a disappointed customer into an irate, vitriolic campaigner. Third, this is a problem compounded by the near universal outsourcing of warranty and service support to low cost bidders of sometimes dubious competence. (See the long running thread here on complaints about A&E, the Sear's subsidiary which provides warranty service nationwide to many makers.) Fourth, some people start out at angry to begin with. Some are posting to put pressure on a manufacturer. And some posts (positive and negative) are bogus. Fifth, consider this. If Frigidaire sells, say 200,000 gas stoves in a year and 8% of those customers have warranty problems, that's 16,000 customers. If 10% of them are treated shabbily, that's 1600 very angry people many of whome can and likely will post to protest. That can be a lot of hate mail. So, just because there are angry posters does not mean the product is a highly unreliable or bad one. But those kinds of postings should motivate you to check on local service and support and factor that into deciding what to buy. At the outset, I mentioned "interpreting" what you read. If you see patterns to the complaints --- that is if a lot of the complaints are about the same thing, as with self-cleaning cycles toasting the electronics in Whirlpool/Kitchenaid ovens a couple of years ago --- there may be a bad product. Also, look for trends. I'm remembering a problem with some of the early GE Cafe ranges where oven heat could overheat the burner control knobs. Numbers of posters said they would never buy another GE product. GE moved quickly to modify the design and the problem has been solved. But those, "I'll never buy another GE" posts are still out there. Sometimes those posts are well deserved. When GE outsourced its refrigerator manufacturing for a few years (to LG, I think), the dfect rates skyrocketed. At one point, the defect rate for GE and LG fridges (and the Kemores made by LG) was well over 20%. Talk about negative press! And, yet, at the same time, GE/Hotpoint stoves were running an industry leading 4% or 6% defect rate. About five or six years ago, Viking gas stoves infamously reached a 33% serious defect rate according to the Consumer Reports membership surveys. Combine that statistic with the many reports and cautionary tales here, and you could get a clear picture of why you might want to avoid the VIking products. So, the bottom line? There is no simple answer to what to make of those negative postings about Frigidaire. You'll have to sort through them. And, if you do, it would be a service to us if you could report back. :>) This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, May 16, 13 at 11:23

I'm sorry for your awful (and ongoing?) experience. I ordered a KA French door bottom freezer this summer (along w/a KA microwave) .. it took MONTHs to arrive - thinking it was a problem w/the local small appliance dealer I went to Sears to order the range (an Arch. ll series slide in all gas convec. range). Big Mistake. Ordered on 9/11 .. still has not arrived - and no single minded dealer to go to bat for me- just Sears pretending helplessness in their ongoing corporate posturing w/Whirlpool - WP apparently holds a grudge against Sears for not allowing WP to sell Kenmore parts. Arggghhh .. it's awful to be in the crossfire btwn Whirlpool and Sears. Feel like I'd be jumping from the frying pan into the fire going to Lowes/Best Buy etc (all of which cannot get the range until after Thanksgiving anyway!!!). BTW, the refrigerator and microw. I ordered? Still not installed due to delays w/kitchen renovation .. but that's another (although closely related) problem. :) I'm going to post on this separately ... want to see if anyone on the face of this earth has actually RECEIVED the same sort of range I ordered!

Todds, I don't know how to tell this in a few words to explain adequately, so here's the long version: Our oven is the Fisher & Paykel AeroTech dbl oven. I didn't even consider Wolf. They were considerably more expensive for no more benefit that I could see. They weren't really on the short list of ovens most raved about on the appliances forum. The F&P ovens had the cooking modes I thought I'd really use and, as a bonus, the appearance I liked best (I prefer knob controls over glass touch panel). The only thing they lacked that I really wanted was the full-extension, ball-bearing racks which the Monogram ZET models have. That feature, the knob controls, and their price also put them (the Monograms) on the top of my list. The only more expensive ovens I considered was the Miele, for their quality of construction (very high quality control within Miele manufacturing), their accurate performance, and their customer service. In the end, the F&P were close on those points, had the style I like, and the far better price. (I found ours on Ebay for under $2200.) I also didn't think I needed or would use the expensive Master Chef and rotisserie features on the Miele. I think the Wolf was in the same price range as the Miele without any added benefits or as many rave reviews. (Not necessarily any bad reports, but just not as many great ones to indicate great value in the price.) For rangetops, I wanted powerful BTUs for use with propane, 8 burners, and good reputation for consistent performance, durability, and customer service. That put Wolf, BlueStar, and Capital Precision on my list. I believed I'd like open burners most, so crossed off the Capital, and Wolf's customer service swayed me in the end. I also thought I'd like their burner style better, but actually think I was mistaken in that. Knowing that, I would still have a hard time choosing between BlueStar and Wolf, because there have been more negative reports about BlueStar recently, and I've been happy with the rangetop's performance and Wolf's customer service. It's also great that it has a 2 yr warranty while, I think, others have 1. That probably tells you far more than you wanted to know... :-) Feel free to email me through 'my page' if you have questions.