Hope, I understand your hesitation over the fingerprints on stainless appliances. However I would personally never choose appliances based on fingerprint resistance, especially since you didn't mention the fridge or microwave which are the main culprits. What do you have there? (Yes, my stainless gets fingerprints but it is easily removed with spray water and microfiber cloth). You might want to walk around a showroom and actually see how the fingerprints show up on different models. Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowes are carrying many brands now. Sure, you might not see any on a white matte plastic surface but looks make a huge difference. I used to have a black shiny dishwasher and the water drips would streak there just like any stainless. It was very important to me that any gas stove top cook method could be cleaned by removing the grates. HTH.

On the subject of stove and griddle combinations, you all might find you prefer one of these griddles instead of the much smaller proprietary ones that come with some stoves. If you want first hand reviews, I bought mine in December after seeing this long thread about them on Chowhound's cookware forum and it is worth checking out. FWIW, I've found the griddle to be every bit as good as it cracked up to be in that thread by the numerous owners and, to the extent it matters to you and your husband, it has a good deal more usable cooking space than the proprietary ones.

You did not say if you were looking for gas or electric ranges, but I can offer a couple of points that might affect your choosing a Maytag range.

First, IIRC, the Maytag double-oven ranges have regular high-heat self-cleaning oven functions but the single oven versions (like almost all single oven Whirlpool products) offer only the much maligned "Aqualift" cleaning cycles. If you are looking at Maytag (or other Whirlpool ranges with Aqualift self cleaning, I suggest you go out to google/ask/bing/whatever and use this search string: "aqualift + gardenweb." Read the threads you find.

Second, if you are looking at the double-oven gas Maytags, be aware that you cannot manually light the stovetop burners during power outages, if that matters to you. If you are considering a single-oven Maytag, be sure to download the user guides and check for instructions on lighting with matches. If the user guide does not have instructions on how to do it, then that is one of the stoves which prevent lighting during power outages.

If memory serves, when I recently saw a Frigidiare twin-oven freestanding range, it had the biggest burner down front (17k btu?) and a largish burner (13k btu or 14k btu?) on the opposite side at the back. I believe that the double-oven GE Profile (freestanding) ranges have a similar arrangment. Though I do not recall seeing reports of the GE having problems with overheating the backsplash panel, I remember thinking that cooks would have to be careful with the largish rear burner to adjust the flame to the size of the pot. Of course, we should do that as a matter of course, :>), but it did occur to me that this set-up could be trouble. Maybe a good reason to consider an extended warranty? (Do read the warrranty document through to be sure it would cover that kind of mishap.).

IIRC, the Maytags only have single power burner.

That said, it seems to me that the Frigidaire was one of the very few gas stoves with a third oven heating element for so-called "true" convection. As on most "true" convection elements on electric stoves, it rings the convection fan and runs on a 120v circuit, but may help even out multi-tray baking and also help with long roasting dishes.

And, btw, when thinking about ease of cleaning and fingerprints, you might want to check on the cooktop surface. Many stainless-steel gas stoves only have stainless trim and have shiny enameled or glassed black surfaces around the burners. Worth checking into how easy they are or are not to keep clean.

Trade-offs with everything.

I have the Frigidaire fingerprint resistant stainless appliances and I love the finish. (Although I have the electric range). So far, no issues with them, but I have to admit I don't cook that much. I am disappointed with the dishwasher upper rack--the folding tines layout is worthless and aren't tall enough to be useful for anything.

Hope Horwitz

wondering if you made a good decision after a year of owning the Maytag or Frigidaire?? I am in the process of purchasing and what a pain it it!!! I too, am all about the fingerprint resistant style;don't want to worry about it with having a family. Any feedback you could give me would be great. about to pull my hair out!!!

Thanks.

I’ve had the fingerprint resistant Frigidaire stainless kitchen appliances now for 3 years and love the finish. They have held up well to my 3 teenagers. Just a quick Windex cleaning and they look like new. As I mentioned above, I hate the dishwasher upper rack layout, but it cleans well.

Hope Horwitz:

Glad to hear you made a decision you are happy with. :) Are they fingerprint resistant? I almost went the Kitch-aid route because they had some good reviews and a nice looking but the only thing that was fingerprint resistant from the appliance set was the dishwasher. So, I am sticking with Maytag for now and I'm just going to keep my range clean and not allow food to become too cooked on; making cleaning too challenging. It's smudge-proof, which I know I will be happy I stuck to my guns on the easy clean finishes. I would become really frustrated if I experienced the fingerprints every day... after someone opens the refrigerator throughout the day etc....Maytag also had good reviews. I haven't made my purchase yet so, if you know anything I should know about the Maytags before I buy, please share. :)

Let me know how you like your appliances once installed and have used for awhile.

Enjoy! :0)