Hi there, Personally, I would probably go with either a Wolf or Blue Star....(But, that's a personal choice)....Viking & Dacor have a bit more service issues....At least, they have in our over 30 years of experience. HOWEVER...Whatever you choose, a griddle is a very nice touch....I'd say, a much better choice than a grill. A grill is sort of a "one trick pony", a Griddle can come in handy for MANY types of cooking methods! Breakfast cooking, pancakes, bacon, grilled sandwiches (paninis, etc), hot dogs, thinly sliced steak for Cheese Steak sandwiches, burgers, stir fry, eggs, vegetables, and a host of other things.....All with less smoke. Griddles require much less cleanup, and a heck of a lot less smoke to deal with. A simple scraping of the waste/drippings into the small hole is all you need to do. A grill inside the house is always more of a hassle. I still suggest a very powerful hood to go over that range....whichever range you choose. You'll still want to deal with smoke & heat the minute you start cooking on that high powered range and/or griddle cooking. Take care. :)

Don't know if the NXR could be said to boost resale values of the house more than the Berta ranges or vice versa. Neither brand is well known. The Bertas do look spiffier and you can get them with colored finishes.. The NXR is, frankly, plain and definitely industrial looking. THe NXR might look fine, though. Have you seen the Fine Homebulding spread that I've linked to below? It's an article about a transitional neighboorhood reno (Bay Area, though) with a 36" NXR and a Kobe hood. Gives an idea of possibilities. The Berta range and hood combo sounds like quite the deal. Is that dual-fuel Berta a 36" or a 30" unit? Price seems way low for a 36" dual fuel Berta. Last I recall hearing here was that a 36" all-gas Berta could be had for $2999 but that the dual fuel models were a lot more expensive. Also, what do you know about the hood that goes with the Berta range? Here is a link that might be useful: Fine Homebuilding: Alex Nerland's kitchen with NXR This post was edited by JWVideo on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 18:57

I really like the Wolf range but never even looked at ranges at all before this week because of price/oven issue. However, that was before I found this deal which put it in my upper price range. So I'm trying to research the range and look at it realistically vs getting swayed just by the price. If I didn't get the range, I would be buying the Kenmore double convection oven with Wolf 5 burner gas cooktop. Not sure if Wolf range ovens would be better or not. I do LOVE the cooktop part of the range and the "wow" factor however just concerned with oven heights. However, I would have the steam oven at perfect level above the warming drawer so that may offset the lower ovens on range. I live in southern TN. Not that I want this to influence my decision, but houses in my neighborhood (range from 500k-3 Million) do have majority high end appliances. So even though we don't plan on selling , I believe the Wolf range would fit the house better... However, for me personally, I would be happy with both scenarios. Thanks for all the help/input!!

We owned a 48” Thermidor for 14 years and regretted it for 12 of those years. We put at least $2,000 into replacement parts over that time. And yes the oven fans were very loud and near the end they would stop working and then my oven would stop working. I spent over two years researching ranges and reading hundreds of reviews. Finally we decided on the 48” RNB. We considered the Platinum but I had the same concerns as M concerning the heat coming from the back of the oven only and the constant fan blowing. Convection isn’t always the best for baked goods, bread, cakes, cookies etc. After reading some reviews on the pros and cons, I decided to go with the RNB. I have no regrets. The ovens are so quiet that I had to check to see if I turned them on. I was so used to hearing a loud fan that at first I thought something was wrong. Took a little getting used to the quiet. I love these ovens! My Christmas cookies all came out perfect; nicely browned outside and moist on the inside. Cheesecake, brownies, bread, and pizza have all baked beautifully. Meats and casseroles bake evenly and on time. My old Thermador has not baked evenly in a very long time and often stopped in the middle of baking. The RNB small oven does a wonderful job. Both ovens heat up quickly. My old small oven was useless. It took nearly an hour to heat up and twice as long to bake. I baked two 9 x 13 dishes at once in my small RNB on Christmas day and they were both finished at the same time. I could never do that in my Thermador. The ovens clean up easily, if you just take a few minutes to wipe up after a spill. I did want the higher burners of the Platinum but the oven made the difference. Also I did not need to move the griddle around. I would have like a grill to but we grill outside whenever we want so that isn’t an issue. The rolled steel griddle is like a restaurant and so much nicer than I expected. You can turn it on and leave it while you prep with no concerns. I went to a restaurant store and purchased a cleaning pad like they use in restaurants. Cleanup is easy. Something else I love is the removable steel trays underneath the burners and griddle. I just stick them in the dishwasher every couple of weeks and the look like new! I would never go back to a Thermador. I hope this helps.