Thanks for the feedback, everyone! weedmeister: When you say look at the bottom end of a a manufacture's range, do you mean for higher end brands or all brands? The low end of a Bosch, for example, I have to imagine would be a different animal than the bottom end of a Whirlpool, right? rhome410: I like the look of Fisher & Paykel a lot. Lowe's shows their double oven is $4,099 (for a 30") and $2,309 for a single. They seem to be thought pretty highly of here at GW. Are they a better bet than a knob-less Electrolux? $4,900 for a Wolf double? From everything I've ever read, that's quite a steal! plllog: I'm not sure what, if any, showrooms in my area sell Gaggeanau. I'll have to look, just to see if display models are an option. rhome410: I've heard a lot of good things about the Bosch dishwashers. I'll have to take a hard look at their 500 series. chase045: Good tip on making sure the cooktop models are made for propane. I'd imagine some are, but most aren't. rhome410: Thank you for making the effort to find your propane receipt. That seems really reasonable. I'm not sure if I'll go that route or just go with induction, but it gives me something to think about. powertoolpatriot: I've heard good things about KithenAide here on GW, too. I'll definitely give them a look. Yeah, this July 4th weekend has all sorts of crazy deals. If you're in the market to buy, it's like being a kid in a candy store! MCMespirit: Thanks for the tips! I haven't look at Bosch's cooktops, but I've looked at the Kenmore Elite (and Pro) ovens. CR seems to like them a good bit, and with the sales Sears has you can get them at really good prices. Glad to hear from someone who bought one and is pleased. dianalo: Yikes, sorry to hear that! Hopefully it works out for you, but I appreciate the tip (which will come in handy should I decide to try the propane route over induction). GE's website doesn't show any (unless I'm looking in the wrong place), so I didn't know wall ovens with knobs from them were an option. I'll have to shop around and see if I can find any. That's an awesome deal on that Bosch DW. maire_cate: Thanks for the feedback!

About the servicing, I live in a medium-sized city (my hometown) about 1 hour from the closest major city (Syracuse, NY). There are several small to medium sized local appliance stores in my immediate area which will order anything and service what they sell, as well as the major big box stores L...s, HD, BB, and also a smaller sears in a local shopping mall. So, I have always gotten my appliances serviced in this way (through the stores or local appliance repair shops) in the past w/ no problems. I will, however, be sure to ask specifically about servicing Bosch when I make the purchase. About the induction-I have heard of induction, read up on it a little to at least know how it works, read rave reviews (especially on GW) but do not know anyone personally that has one, and frankly have had my hands full researching all of the other modern features common on ranges today. I make a heck of a lot of cookies at the holidays and am told put on a terrific Thanksgiving spread, too! I am really looking forward to using all of the bells and whistles that come on the new ranges. I am not really a trailblazer, and I would be making a huge step up with the purchase of this Bosch range (or Cafe) as my current stove is a 27 year old Hardwick "Classic 100" electric coil top (one of the best in the day, never had a service call except a burnt out baking coil which we replaced ourselves in about 2 minutes for $40 about 3 years ago). It is still going strong otherwise but looks the worse for wear and does not have any of the newer modern features such as convection, smoothtop, probes, baking drawers, instant buttons, self cleaning, etc.,etc., so getting this Bosch model would be a big step for me, which I am really looking foward to. I actually am hesitant about even going with convection, but at least know people who have this, including relatives, and it seems tried and true and very helpful. Not to say that induction is not tried and true and would not be helpful--I am sure it is a wonderful advancement in cooking and probably will be the way of the average cooking world in the not so distant future. It makes sense and I sort of equate it to the new "microwave oven of the 2000's" in cooking advancement, but at this point I am not willing to take that leap just yet. (Actually the saleswoman at sears threw the idea past me, stating that it would be her next dream stove.) But for one thing, I am not willing to give up my old pots and pans which I know will work on the smoothtop just fine. I guess you could say I am just a good old home-cookin gal and I don't want to overwhelm myself with all of that at this point, especially at the price it comes at. I am not new to change as I was brought up with gas cooking with my mother (and grandmother) and would prefer gas, but gas was not available to us until about 10 years after we built our house, so had no choice then. I also have run into a sticking point with my husband on that issue as well. He is used to electric and fears fumes from the gas since we do not have the ability to vent to outside w/o a huge renovation project bigger than we are planning at this point, even though we do have other gas appliances, including a gas furnace, hw weater and dryer, and I realize that gas stoves today do not have pilot lights anymore (like Mom's did). It is just something he cannot get his head around, and since I am used to electric now and has done me well, I will continue down that road and not have to deal with his ultra-sensitive sense of smell! I actually do like the baking part of electric ovens better, and I am sure that the advancement in electric cooktops has been great compared to 25+ years ago, so I think I will be very satisfied with this. So there, I have now bared my soul on why I have chosen electric over gas or induction! All I ask is for a good quality stove with a good track record and some nice features to make my life a little easier. Hope you can understand my reasoning, but thank you for bringing it to my attention :)!! Oh, and also about the knobs, yes I agree, it is not a deal-breaker and I'm sure I could live with not having solid metal knobs, just don't want to have to keep replacing them, tho.

I wonder if you are spending that much what are you getting for your money? There are a lot of people here with big budgets and houses that are in expensive neighborhoods. Lots of expensive stuff get put in these houses/kitchens for the relative luxury value for the place it is in, not necessarily for the performance value. (If a house is worth $1 mil then, you are just not going to see a $500 range.) You really have to remind yourself that this forum has a huge spread of budgets. Many people (not necessarily here but where I live) stick in $5000 range in a million $ house because they can and they have to for resale. You asked.... Will it last longer? In my personal experience, the less electronics there are, the longer the range tend to last. This has nothing to do with the cost. The electronics control panels tend to break down and are expensive to replace ($100 to several hundred$). So on a cheaper range, the entire range gets chucked and replaced. If the range was expensive to start with, the owners are more likely to replace the broken parts. I have a pro all gas range ( ie $5000 range) that is quite old and still going strong. No electronics. I had an all electric range (ie $500) without any electronics in my rental condo that was 25-30 years old and tenants never complained. When I lived there, it worked fine. I have had other ranges with electronics that went kaput on me when not very old. (I have rentals, so I have somewhat higher than average user experience.) Regarding looks: some higher end appliances will keep their looks longer. I have a 15 plus year old custom color Viking and their models have not changed much. (The ranges with electric control panels tend to date themselves sooner, IMHO.) Ovens: I agree with others that the more expensive ones tend to be more even. My gas oven on the range is pretty good. My expensive Miele oven on the other hand is amazing! Are they for serious cooks only? No. I do not consider myself a serious cook. I like to cook but not a serious cook. I live in an affluent neighborhood where everyone has expensive appliances. Some of these appliances get rarely used, sad to say. Some folks put in the expensive appliances because that is what they really value and they are willing to scrimp on other things to make it happen. There is no right or wrong answer to your question. I have used expensive appliances that did not perform that well and cheap appliances that were great. Even if you get expensive appliances, you need to pick carefully. Price alone does not guarantee higher performance as many people will tell you on this forum.... Good luck.

Another take on the induction question with a little sprinkle of humor. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/induction-cooking-emf-magnitude-vs-other-things-missus-is-a-bit-concerned/  Tim says, Ugh... If she's worried about cancer... dump her now? There's no convincing someone like that, to understand statistics and significance. At least that I've heard of. If you're looking for the opinion of an EE, I would gladly give you my opinion on the subject -- if you'd like it in writing, I can even sell your wife a certificate saying as much! Maybe that wouldn't help. I don't know. What are we talking about, anyway? Cooktops aren't always-on. They're either off until turned on, or pulsing infrequently to check if a pot is present. The RMS EMF at the surface is not very large either way, when not actively heating something. When heating, it's only large under the work being heated. EMF drops off rapidly with distance. If your wife is so strange that she finds it enjoyable to read books while laying over the cooktop, I might be concerned, but only for mental health reasons, not for EMF reasons. Or if shoving her head towards a pot that's being heated, I would be more concerned for safety reasons, and then mental health reasons... There are biological effects of EMF, but not at these field strengths. Not by orders of magnitude. The primary effect is simply dumb old heating. Diathermy machines, microwave ovens, and the military's ADS, operate on this mechanism. There is no biological effect beyond heating (obviously, too much heat and you cause burns, but that's not unique to EMF). Strong pulsed fields can induce voltages in neural tissue (transcranial magnetic stimulation), which do have direct neural effects, but these are temporary. Anything that produces fields with too little energy to cause noticeable heating, or pulse peaks strong enough to cause noticeable induction, is completely and utterly inconsequential. Example: ESD can have quite large (peak) EMF, but is over very quickly, and delivers very little energy (on a human scale). (Anyway, sparks are well known to cause people to involuntarily jump or twitch. But again, that's just a neural stimulation thing, nothing more.)