Thoughts on placement of NXR burners? Fine. Never had a Viking, so cannot comment on that. Most pro-style stoves are the same, however. Front to back the burners are roughly 11 inches on center nine inches from the bullnose of the knobs. . In comparison, the measurement was about 9 inches on center, front to back, on my former GE DF stove. How far frm the edge of the range are the burners? Which edge? The side? From center, left burner to left edge is 6.5 inches. Same for right burners. Same approximate distance as on my former GE Profile, too. What is the problem here. Are you using 24-inch diameter canning kettles or commercial size stockpots? Clicking: In the oven? Hunh? Did you read Susan's (aka, DirtyBloomer's) post about replacing the oven glow-bar ignitor? The oven uses a glow bar, not a sparking (clicking) igntor. The glow bar gets really reallly hot, kind of like a small electric coil burner. There is nothing to click. Should be the same with your Viking, AFAIK. The glow bar should not click. Unless it is failing and shorting out. The oven may click as it heats, but that is structural metal responding to increasing heat. Your Viking should work the same way. AFAIK, Viking ovens used glow-bars not sparking ignitors as on the stovetop burners. As for for the oven cycling on an off to maintain temperature, there is nothing in the NXR oven that uses any kind of sparking iginitor. As with every other modern gas oven that I have seen, you definitely hear the gas ignite when the burner reignites to maintain temps. It is a "whoosh" and "hiss" sound, not a click. Seems to me that, if you are getting clicking sounds from the oven in your Viking, then either your glow-bar is broken or something is shorting out intermittently (aka, sparking) I bought the DRGB from Costco. The NRG has been discontinued, at least in North America.) 304 versus 430 stainless: does it look different? Well, I do not see it. Never heard of anybody complaining about it. Never occurred to anybody so far that the the 304 panels would look grossly different. Usually, the paranoid worry that the 430 parts of the stove will rust out in front of your very eyes if someone is breathing moist air anywhere in the room where the stove is located. That worry was pretty thoroughly discussed in one of the long NXR threads which you've probably already read. Does the 430 clash with the 304 stainless? I've never seen it. I've never heard of anybody complaining about it. But, maybe you are a much more elite and perspicacious person than me, and the differing steels will look as different to you as a mauve plaid and a metallic chrome yellow? I suppose, over time, there might be some subtle differences. The 430 is harder than the 304, so the 430 oven door will be less likely to incur and show scratches than the 304 cooktop. This post was edited by JWVideo on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 12:59

Yes, I am happy with it - I have the dual fuel model. My only complaint with it has been the knobs, which is now a non-issue. It looks great, and for me, has performed well. I've had no problems. The front right burner takes a little getting used to (the one with dual flame), but it works great for boiling a big pot of water for pasta, etc.

I thought it might be a renter expectation/marketing issue...even if a $300 craigslist coil-top and a brand new GE cafe are functionally identical, most potential renters will still be influenced to be more likely to rent the place with the newer/prettier/seemingly more expensive (and therefore, in their minds, better) range. And, to be fair...its not really true to say "no electric range really works any better than any of the rest, except for induction." Even if that is mostly true of the cooktop portions (and even there, there are issues of burner size, flexible burners, bridge burners, hot surface indicators, etc etc), the ovens on electric ranges clearly differ in quality just as much as on dual-fuel ranges, as they are the identical ovens...and even a brief familiarity with this board will show you that people have strong opinions about the relative quality of the ovens in ranges. One other thought...you say you don't want to buy induction now because it might be a problem with renters (cookware). I get that, and you may have other reasons for rejecting induction now - you know best for your situation, I am sure - but...you could always just provide a set of Ikea cookware or similar with the condo rental, to avoid the issue. Having induction would potentially be a selling point in and of itself, on both quality of experience and eco/green grounds, if you educate potential renters appropriately. Just a thought.

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.