Sorry, just took a look at this thread again and noticed your question...by the time I got to Miele, I had decided on induction, so I didn't give the Miele an actual test drive. I did give it a pretty thorough inspection at the Miele place, though, and thought it was a very sexy range -- and the performance seemed very similar to the Wolf dual fuel. I say that b/c the Miele also has the stacked burners, which I really liked, but the BTUs are higher than Wolf (which top out at around 16k, I believe -- Miele was closer to 20k or so -- I can't quite remember). The Miele ovens on the 48" range were very nice -- the smaller one is a speed oven, and the bigger one is a regular convection. The speed oven wasn't a big plus for me personally, since I really wanted a steam oven as a second oven, but there are people on this forum who love their speed ovens. One thing I really liked about the Miele oven, which Wolf doesn't have, is the burst of steam option, which is great for baking (you can program up to 3 bursts of steam for up to 6 min. each during cooking). I didn't care that much about the MasterChef options on Miele, but again, others love these. At any rate, the Miele seemed very similar to the Wolf, I liked the steam option on the oven better and liked the Miele burners better (also, if you're interested in a grill, theirs was excellent and seemed very similar to the Wolf, which I think is the best in the business). If I had stuck with a range, I would have been very tempted by the Miele.

"Commercial bakeries use nothing but gas ovens." This is not true. If you are talking about bulk bakeries, they are more inclined to because it is often cheaper but they also have steam injectors to add humidity when needed. I know several specialty bakeries that use electric ovens. Many deck ovens in commercial kitchens are electric. I knew of a bakery that was called "the Electric Bakery". It really depends a lot on what they are baking. I know a baker that has specialty ovens for pies. This really has nothing to do with home ovens because they are a different breed anyway as they are expected to do many different things. "Dual fuel is excessively expensive, and overly complex for no benefit in performance ." Performance is different things to different people. They have different needs so there is no one size fits all. If I were selling appliances, the first thing would be to assess that person's needs and make individualized recommendations based on those needs. I most likely would never recommend ranges to begin with unless there was a compelling reason like space or cost issues or even a preference for "looks" over cooks. Pick out each component because it meets individual needs in the best way possible. As far as cost, you can buy electric ovens with features that have high utility for less than some gas ovens with limited features. Electric ovens can be complex, but so are our home computers and cars these days. This is not necessarily a bad thing. These ovens can have features that many consider helpful in how they use their ovens. It takes a computer board to coordinate fans, heating elements and tight temperature control. I love being able to control the direction of heat and fan speed in my oven. I can have air movement slow or fast to facilitate browning or not if I am baking a cake. It has a lot greater range of temperature, with or without the fan than many ovens gas or electric that cost a lot more. There is a learning curve with these features especially with the many choices something like Gaggenau or Miele give you. The combi oven is the king of control of the cooking environment but not in a range yet. The other side of the coin is some ovens have this figured out and others, not so much, so you have to read as many reviews as you can. To minimize risk if you want these features, buy the longest service agreement that you can. They can be difficult to evaluate and compare because a feature named the same name in two different brands can mean two different things. Even the term "dual fuel", in most ovens it means gas burners and an electric oven but 5 Star when they say dual fuel means a gas oven and electric oven together in the same range. You have to decide what is a benefit and what is a burden? No one answer. "could you please explain why all gas is fine" "All gas is fine." I might agree with that statement depending on how you use your oven but that in no way means they are the same and it in many cases gas is not the best choice. Gas and electric ovens are constructed differently. Because you have combustion for your heat source, another difference, gas ovens are vented more to remove products of combustion including water, so those products of combustion and humidity from food move out of the oven and into the kitchen. That may be good or bad depending on where you live, but how is that significant to cooking? It is much more difficult to keep added steam in a gas oven if you are doing that for bread or adding a pan of water for cheesecake. Because there is more of an air current, in a gas oven, this removes more moisture from the surface of what you are cooking. This inhibits starch gelatinization during the first part of baking so inhibits rise and changes the appearance of what you are baking. On the other hand, because it evaporates moisture from the surface and allows it to heat more quickly, the Maillard and other browning chemical reactions take place more quickly. This is why meat, vegetables and even baked goods brown more quickly. Will you notice? A lot of people say they don't. I have baked in gas and electric ovens for over 50 years and I used to attribute differences in outcomes to different ovens rather than a difference in fuel but with the many books and websites that have come out on food science, you can see the rationale for the differences in outcome that cooks report in cooking/baking forums. It was kind of a "aha" moment to put these comments with the science. All of the information coming out challenges what used to be conventional wisdom and yet it might be hard to see if you are not baking the exact same recipe side by side. You do see the same observations cooks make repeatedly in terms of cooking on cooking and baking forums and people seem to notice the difference more coming from electric to gas but you do see the occasional comment about excess moisture in some electric ovens when they are coming from gas. Most advertising literature and websites about ovens actually say a gas oven provides moist heat and electric dry but they are only looking at the heat source and not the oven as a whole and the process of cooking which provides a lot of moisture to the oven chamber. Another difference is that there are more and more features being loaded into ovens now as noted above, mostly electric but sometimes gas too. Some electric ovens have added steam. Combi ovens are very useful in their ability to control humidity and really make the case for buying ovens separate from the range top instead of having to pick the priority of the burners or the oven. I am not a fan of the current trend of hiding the bake element in electric ovens. Sometimes with pies, you need that bottom element exposed. It used to be you could put a tray under the element to catch spills. If you put it on the bottom now, it will melt. Some other things to consider. gas broilers are of two types. There is the traditional gas broiler, but they are not very good. Many prostyle gas ovens have an infrared broiler. They are very hot and even, but can be small. They are great for a couple of steaks but not so much trays of appetizers or broiling larger amounts. How big is the oven? Do you want a quick preheat or need room for full commercial sheets? Look at the rack size for usable space and size top to bottom. What is the temperature range, lowest and highest? What are the increments that you can set your temperature? 25F or 5F? Ovens are not an easy choice these days but I think it helps at least some people to realize the differences so you can at least make a somewhat informed decision.

I appreciate the input and especially what helps answer my question. @jalarse, I love your setup and that's helpful feedback! I recognize that there is a big difference between a "Want" and a "Need" in this case, but we are set on the 48" Wolf in some configuration and that's a non-negotiable. Without going off on too much of a tangent, I'll add that we're moving from a 2200sq ft house built in late-2017 with a 30" Whirlpool cooktop to a 4400sq ft house. No kids, no pets. We're lucky enough to get to build our dream house and the Wolf Range/Rangetop was one of the top 3 things on our wish list. Consequently, there are other elements that are important to us in this decision beyond just the functionality. I would compare our question on dual fuel vs. gas to buying a sports car and deciding between the 400hp motor or the 450hp motor. Either choice is probably overkill, but does the more expensive option truly offer a benefit we would look back on and say "I should have spent the extra $x,xxx and done that," or "I'm glad we didn't waste our money on that." To answer a few questions: -We currently have a builder-grade Whirlpool oven and 30" cooktop which we can't stand. -Types of baking: I wouldn't say we gravitate towards a single type of baking, but the majority of how we use our oven is for entertaining. I will add that my Mother (who will be 5 miles away) is a phenomenal French cook, and my future sister in-law (also close by) has aspirations of opening a pastry side-business. Consequently, the ovens would get used in a variety of different ways and by different people. -Yes, we've thought about the ventilation setup and are already factoring in the cost of upgrading to a 10" ductwork as the Wolf specs call for. -We don't feel the need for more than 4 burners which is why we're strongly considering the Wolf 4 burner/full griddle setup. -A 48" Rangetop may be a waste of space, but we will still have at least 8' of countertops on each side as well as a ~12'x6' island. Consequently, I don't feel the lost space moving from a 36" will be missed. We'll also have an additional 6-7' butler's pantry separating the kitchen from the dining room. Thank you again!

We decided on the 36" Thermador Dual Fuel Pro Harmony with griddle. It'll be a few months before we're able to install but I'm looking forward to it! It's sitting in my garage right now just being a tease. The main impacts on our decision were the depth (standard vs commercial) because it's in a tight corner which would be uncomfortable with a more protruding appliance. And the fact that it came with a free dishwasher rebate. Even though we didn't actually need to replace the dishwasher, I couldn't resist a shiny freshie one vs the one that came with the house. I thought really hard about going with the Wolf especially with their good customer service history, but I was worried about the porcelain chipping, backorder status, and the fact that some of the features that were a plus on the Thermador like the telescoping oven grates, were available for an extra fee on an already more expensive unit. The Thermador was already a stretch for us so that's where we stayed! I decided I wanted a dual fuel rather than an all-gas, so we eliminated the BlueStar, though it seems like a solid choice otherwise. Best of luck to you all with your decisions - now it's just puzzling out the hood and ventilation systems for me. If you thought the range decision was hard - eep!