$2500 is tough to get a quality pro range. Bertazzoni is a good look for the money and will give you better performance than the Jenn-Airs and Kitchenaids. I would suggest Capital if you can get it for that price. Thermador is normally much more for a new one. 5 Star, American and Blue Star are a little new to most markets and could be tougher for service. If you can stretch your budget buy a Viking - by far the best out there!!!

I wanted to contribute my experience- we got the capital culinarian all gas 48" w/ the griddle (so we have 6 burners) within the past year and I have been using it for a few months. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our decision!! I too did a lot of research and did not read many negative reviews about it- and they are very well built, pretty, and simple design-wise (my husband is a contractor and thought they were most similar to the commercial ranges he has worked on, i.e. if something breaks it would be easy to fix). I probably wouldn't need 6 burners just for cooking- but it is nice to have. I also do a lot of canning/preserving, and do use 6 burners at the same time (simmer for warming lids, canning pot, pot for extra hot water, pot w/ stuff to be canned, pot w/ syrup for the stuff to be canned, one pot w/ dinner cooking). My husband loves the griddle- very easy to make breakfasts, hot sandwiches, etc. You could always do 4 burners and a grill/griddle as an option if you don't can/need 6 burners. Also, I really enjoy the big oven on the 48" (not sure how this compares in size to the 36" since the 48" has a large and small oven and the 36" one large oven). It can fit 9x13" pans side by side, and cookie sheets. The roll out racks aren't as smooth as some of the other brands we looked at (we liked the thermador racks the best- very smooth) but they work pretty well. Also, I haven't had any problems w/ the baking heat/evenness, and our oven is gas (which I think is typically worse than electric ovens?). I haven't baked bread yet- but have done a lot of other foods (cookies, casseroles, etc.). So if it were me I would definitely do the 36" over the 30" :-) It sounds like you would use it w/ all the cooking that you do. If you have any questions about mine please let me know :-)

Without knowing anything about you and your family's needs, it's difficult to say whether you should get a 30" or a 36" range. How many burners do you regularly use? How many do you need when you entertain (if you do) and for holiday dinners? If 4 won't cut it, get a 36" range. Your kitchen is large enough to accommodate a 30" wall oven, too. Personally, I'd prefer to use the smaller oven most of the time so that I'm not working over a hot oven while cooking on the range. Another option would be to do a 36" cook top, a 30" wall oven and a 30" speed oven (MW combo, multi-function). Separate appliances cost more but, as DrB477 pointed out, 36" ranges are spendy. You didn't ask for lay-out advice but your lay-out doesn't make the best use of your kitchen's footprint. Your fridge and range are crowded together and your island's angled shape puts the sink farther away from perimeter counters than recommended, plus it provides limited counter space. Given the opportunity to take advantage of your misfortune (my sympathies), it seems a shame not to consider addressing these issues at the same time. Are you on a slab? Even if you are, can you move plumbing at all? If so, here's one possibility that relieves appliance crowding and gives you a larger island with more counter on each side of the sink plus a lot more room to work on each side of the range, and better work aisle widths. Do you have pantry space somewhere? Or are you doing pantry cabinets? There's room to add them to the above plan, either between wall oven/MW and fridge, creating a "wall of tall" or at one end or the other of the range run. Good luck with your rebuild! PS. If your fridge is a standard depth fridge, you may want to allow a wider aisle between fridge run and island. Or you could investigate recessing the fridge into the stud space a few inches.

I went to an appliance store today. On the 5-burner issue, it seems to be depend on the model. Some don’t use the space well, so it is crowded. But others do “edge to edge”, meaning they place the burner closer to the side edge, so there is more space between burners. I measured (yes, you know you’re remodeling when you travel with a tape measure, LOL) and the “edge to edge” cooktops had burners about 3.5” from the edge of the stove, while others, even those with a grate that goes to the edge, have burners 6.5” from the side of the stove. So some of them are wasting 3” on each side, so 6” overall on a 30” wide stove. Also, the saleswoman pointed out that slide-in stoves have more space front-to-back compared to freestanding ones, which have that panel in back (she says the panels have been getting thicker in recent years). So just an FYI if this helps anyone who is shopping.