I have a high shelf on my BS SS back splash. The lights don't really keep stuff too warm but if there's a burner on it will. I have one of my 22k burners in back for pasta water, if that's on hi touching the shelf can be painful. Also the oven vent comes out at the top of the shelf (travels up the backsplash and exits just above shelf height). I've melted/deformed a few plastic items using a very hot oven (pizza @ ~550deg.) While I use it quite a bit I don't think I would do it again and would probably remove it if we had a proper backsplash on the wall. 2 things I really dislike about it. 1st, the grease. On the way to the fan grease deposits all over anything on the shelf, including the shelf. Everything on it must be thoroughly cleaned periodically. 2nd, it blocks the light to the back burners, kind of frustrating when the pans on the front burners are well lit but the back ones are in the shadow of the shelf. The melty plastic stuff I can live with as I just replace it with metal, wood or ceramic items. However occasionally grabbing the salt pig will wake you up as it will get pretty warm up there. I do like keeping my oils/water in plastic dispensers but just make sure they are toward the front of the shelf. The burners don't heat up the shelf to the point of melting things but the vented oven sure will.

Lowspark, nonstick pans can spoil your culinary skills so far as knowing how and what kind of pans tend to stick. A thinner SS pan overheats faster and tends to stick more. Also, if you are using veg. oils in SS they stick much faster and easier. I learned this the hard way when I first started cooking. I started with copper bottom Revereware, they didn't make nonstick in those days unless you knew how to cure your cast iron which I thought was ugly and in those days you were considered a slob if your cookware looked like you even used it. I noticed that when I fried eggs in the bacon grease or butter they didn't stick at all. I always browned my meat in the cast iron because it didn't stick and everyone expected those pans to be "ugly" and used. I avoided using them for my tomatoey recipes, my usual, which didn't hurt the SS at all and they always cleaned up super easy. I found that Barkeepers cleaner left them shiny without much effort. I use plastic scrubbies, dish cloths and scrapers for hard burns, hate steel wool. SS shines up really nice. It was the copper bottom that caused me to replace them about 20 years later. Can't believe I kept them that long. I find that SS pans that have an inner layer of aluminum heat up faster and more evenly and only burn when you try to fry soy sauce, LOL. Hope you solve your problem.

Hi Lovetoshop, 6 months ago prior to starting my kitchen reno I looked at Sears. They have an outlet section to their site. I am not sure what you are specifically looking for. If you just want a standard 36 inch cook top (Electric? or Gas?...) you might find one in a price that is fair to you. Here is a link http://www.searsoutlet.com/d/index.jsp?intcmp=xsite_Sears This GE cooktop is 36 inches and $569.00 I am not a huge fan of GE. But they are rated well in Consumer Reports. I think the Sears outlet has other brands too. You can also check out Epinions.com This is a site that has public opinions on everything. I found it really helpful when I was searching appliances brands. ~boxerpups

I agree with Live Wire that function should come first! But after that, if its still a toss up as to what to go with, I'll tell you that I've only had a black electric cooktop and stainless gas and I prefer the stainless when cleaning, and obviously gas when cooking. I have soapstone countertops and stainless gas cooktop with downdraft. That was the only layout I could work with, and have wood beams in the ceiling so I had to go with downdraft. When my husband cooks bacon it smells up the house, but other than that, I've found no issues with the downdraft.