deeageaux- "the rest is not really at the front of the luxury class" Luxury class? What does that have to do with cooking/baking? If perceived "luxury" is important, many will get a Viking(name recognition) or a La Cornue(exotic, expensive and beautiful) or hire a cook. On this forum, posters often compare Wolf, Bluestar and now the Culinarian. Many are derisive of Wolf, even calling it a play stove. They seem to be zeroed in on one aspect of cooking, a higher BTU burner. All are great ranges but have strengths and weaknesses. If you know how to cook, you probably would be happy with any of them but there might be some features that would mean more to you than others. I have had a Wolf DF for about three years and love it. It replaced a Dacor DF that I had about 7 mos and never worked right. I'm sure some other ranges are great too but just don't get the "press" on this forum. Very few people have cooked extensively on more than one of these three ranges to compare directly. It is much more complex than one issue for most people. If having the highest heat were the only issue, save yourself some money and buy a Wok burner @ 75-125K. You would really have some heat then! I have also heard of people hot rodding the Wolf to produce higher BTUs. Wolf also makes a 22K wok burner(separate cooktop) that focuses the heat in the center like a real wok burner if you stir fry a lot. The BTU rating is actually a calculated number determined by each company with no supporting independent testing available for the consumer to look at. The Culinarian is self rated, @ 23K. This might be useful though for a faster time in heating water or stirfrying. I would also consider Bluestar(@ 22K) as I like the configuration of the burners(star shaped) and there are different sized burners on that range. I have plenty of heat with my Wolf though and rarely keep it at top heat. If I am searing steaks, I use cast iron which holds heat and sears great. I often here posters here say that the flame is directed outward with a sealed burner on the DF, but after I have used it, I think it is splitting hairs and have cooked on open and sealed burners. If you turn the burner on with no pot in place, and bring your hands in, you can feel the area where the heat rises. I don't find the heat going around the pan but you do need to have the flame adjusted correctly. The only issue might be on very small pans on the regular burners, but if I need to use a small pot, I use the small burner. Most of the time the smallest pan I use is 7 inches in diameter. I make caramel in it and have no problem with the sides of the pan over heating. I love the low end simmer on the Wolf DF. There is online a test, linked below, comparing the Wolf AG(not DF), Culinarian and Dacor simmer. They did not include Bluestar. I did the same test on my Wolf DF on all burners and only the simmer burner had a even the sightest area of discoloration the size of a fingernail-the regular burner had none. The proof is in the pudding though and I can hold mashed potatoes and rice and it will not burn. But here again if you get a Culinarian or Bluestar you can get a simmer plate if it is too hot. Some people also have a preference for sealed or unsealed for cleaning purposes. Either works for me. I really like the Wolf oven because of the different modes(conv. bake and roast) and being able to direct the heat and being able to use the digital thermometer. You can buy a digital thermometer though and you can manipulate the heat by hand if you need to. The Wolf or many electric ovens also have the third element(European or true convection) which is useful if you do a lot of multirack baking in keeping the heat even. I don't find a huge difference between gas and electric baking, contrary to what you usually hear. Some might find to be the temperature of the door important if you have small children or don't want to stand in front of a hot oven. the Wolf stays very cool. You might prefer one of the AG ovens if you want to use an infrared broiler and the Culinarian has the rotisserie feature. The Culinarian and Wolf DF are both self cleaning. You can read about many of the features on these ranges but you have to figure out what is useful for the way you cook. You may also want to consider service, both the quality and availability. I haven't had to have service on my range so can't comment. Next kitchen I might get two different thirty inch ranges. One of them would definitely be the Wolf DF though. Here is a link that might be useful: simmer test

I searched on aj madison on the kitchenaid and it was $5019 and i found i got better prices with my local appliance dealer for my appliances. You might shop around more on the kitchenaid. The wolf you will have a harder time shopping it around as it is set pricing. On splattering we use an old fashioned splatter guard and that works great to reduce cleanup. You pay extra for wolf for the reputation, cache, and service. It might be worth it on resale. On aj madison websiteyou can do a comparison of the specs on each and see the differences.

I have a 36" DCS (gas only though, not dual fuel). So far, I love it, no issues at all. I have only had it installed about 1 month and we are still finishing up the remodel, so I haven't gone nuts with it, but I am very happy so far.

We have a Capital DF (propane) in our retirement kitchen (upping our cooking game was my main retirement goal so a lot of time and effort went into our choices). Bluestar was only range that was close to the Capital at the rangetop burner level--oven wasn't close. Have owned an AG Wolf for many years in the past and cooked several meals on relative's AG Thermador. Thermador was a surprise and with the full bundle discount it can be a good value buy. Wolf still seems to be wed to a sealed ring burner (not a fan). We have put the Capital through its paces on the rangetop (stirfry, panbroiling, saute, saucing and the like) and use the oven for roasting, broiling and specialty breads and flatbreads. Don't do cakes, pies and cookies so can't speak to those types of baking tasks. I would really encourage to look into service availability--including finding out the actual service firms you'd be using and seeing if they are trained on your products. We live in the rural south and the firm that handled Capital's service went out of business a few years ago and there isn't a replacement. We've had some repairs (some self-inflicted others product-related) that we've fixed our self with help from Capital's CS staff and some years back from Trevor Lawson. This problematic repair business also seems to apply to national brands like our Samsung Fridge which we've gotten to know too well. A caveat: There could be new and improved models out there that weren't when we were looking. I'm usually not allowed in kitchen and appliance stores given my cooking proclivities and a little impulsiveness. Good luck: it's a fun search and very rewarding if it works out.