Thank you both so much for your suggestions. I am feeling like I am really leaning toward induction, but I am disappointed as I just read rave reviews on Elux ovens, but awful reviews on their cooktops, and vice versa for Bosch. If I could install a Elux oven under the Bosch cooktop I think Id be very happy, but Im not sure if that can be done. I don't want anyone voiding my warranties because we mixed appliance brands. I could possibly put my oven in my island? Glad to see I have an option to get a very professional gas range if I go that route. I'm not sure yet what the discrepancy is regarding the size of the hood. Would a 20" pass inspection and adequately remove grease & odors or not? If it would, don't know why I'd need bigger? But if it wouldn't, think I better look for more affordable range, if I go that route. What type of hood would I need for an induction cooktop? I believe the requirements are lower? Induction sounds like it would fit me best, especially since I've never used gas I think maybe I just don't know what I'm missing. But I have to figure out how to get a decent oven in an acceptable space.

I didn't think of this as a double-oven, but I should have. It might just serve. Lots to like about this model. Definitely worth checking out if the expense is not a budget buster compared to the actual double-oven WP model. (Reports here have been that some internet vendor sites have had the Samsung Chef induction offered at $2500 but most other vendors seem to be asking $3100+). There are some design aspects to consider trying to research before making your decision, or at least things that would give me pause until I could sort them out. 1. Most induction ranges, including Samsung's freestanding models, have 19 or 20 settings for the induction hobs. The owner's manual for this one, however, only mentions 10. Don't know whether this is just an instructional artifact of the manual or if the range actually is limited to ten settings as with the WP product with which this discussion started. Might be important if you do much with low temp settings. I think about this because of how frequently I use pressure cookers. 2. The stove-top is more spacious than most other slide-ins, but the trade-off is that the oven vent is a narrow slot on the front of the stove, just beneath the left side of the oven control panel. The concern is that this location might make the oven control panel and the #2 burner knob pretty hot. All the "Flex-Duo" user reports I've seen were about free-standing ranges with the oven vent at the back with a bigger and full-width vent. Maybe the "Chef" model's oven-control-panel has a powerful cooling fan? If so, one wonders: will it be noisy and/or obtrusive? 3. I think I saw something about the 75F max difference that alvieray mentioned, but it may have been about the flex-duo oven on one of Samsung's freestanding radiant smoothtop ranges or possibly about the NE599NOPBSR freestanding induction range which was only marketed in Canada. Both could be worth researching further to get a better handle on how well the flex-duo concept works in practice. This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Oct 10, 14 at 19:37

maryil: " I am very interested in the Miele Convection Steam Oven, and having a 30" induction cook top. I would like to have a conventional oven as well, but not really a 30", a 27" would be fine." As you have discovered, there are great differences between both the actual vertical dimensions of various cooktops and ovens and -- just as importantly -- the clearances that specific models of cooktop require below, or that certain models of oven require above, the appliance. We have had an arrangement such as the one you desire, but not with the brands that you have been looking at, for almost 15 years now. From our (possibly obsolete) experience, the LG induction cooktop is the skinniest induction cooktop that you are likely to find. It is about the thickness of an Apple MacPookPro laptop of 2008 or so vintage. Part of its secret is that the exhaust for the air that the cooling fan blows over the electronics when the cooktop is in operation is at the rear of the cooktop above the surface (in the stainless trim). The exhaust slots are very skinny: about the thickness of a U.S. nickel, but they seem adequate to the task. Because the volume of the room is for all intents and purposes infinite for the purpose of accepting the cooling airflow, considerations of saturating the exhaust area as could happen for units that exhaust into the enclosed volume beneath the cooktop are moot. Among wall ovens, we found that the Bosch convection (not steam) ovens were a few inches shorter, top-to-bottom, than the other brands that we measured or checked the specs for. That would allow you to mount a Bosch lower (farther from the underside of the cooktop), but you then would be stooping lower to lift your Thanksgiving turkey out of the oven as your guests salivate. Because we had no problem with clearance below a cooktop, we used the compactness of the Bosch wall oven to mount it high, with a shallow drawer under the oven for hard to store items like cookie sheets and pizza stones.

We rarely have a need for a microwave, but after doing without for three years I knew I wanted one. We opted for the Bosch speed oven, and use it much more than I thought I would. Use is about 30% speed cooking, 20% microwave, and 50% of the time we use it as a small convection oven. However, the oven that has fully won me over is the steam oven. It is wonderful, and after some glitches with the control board it is working flawlessly (Bosch has been top notch for repair and service). It does everything that a regular microwave does except pop corn. Food reheated in a steam oven doesn't even compare to food reheated in a microwave. I've used all three (speed, steam, full size convection) at the same time on quite a few occasions and love having them all. However, if I had to pick just one of the smaller ones to go with my full size it would be the steam. I'd put a tiny microwave in the pantry for that rare need. Good luck with your new ovens!