Take a look at the Capital Culinarian Series ($3200), open burners. We just installed the Capital Culinarian CGRT366, 36" 6 burner rangetop. We could not be happier with or decision. Very glad we went with to open burner design. That aside we also looked at the 48" rangetops, in the end we concluded the extra burners were not going to be used and with the extra cost or the rangetop and added cost of the larger hood made no sense. Most all pro-type rangetops are going to be very closely priced. I can say the Capital is very much the equal if not superior to other brands. The Capital generates huge amounts of BTU's and the standard simmer burner works very well. We got the 6 burners and added the wok ring and bought a Chef King 12âÂÂx23â Steel Griddle. The Capital Wok ring works great, we use it at least twice a week. The Chef King Griddle once seasoned works great also, though it is heavy. In my opinion we have the best of both worlds, 6 usable burners and a griddle and a rangetop can the can truly get a wok hot enough. Cleaning is a snap. Hope this helps. This post was edited by DJ493 on Thu, Jan 23, 14 at 10:43

We just finished our kitchen reno and have the Wolf 48" with 4 gas burners and double griddle. We were originally going with the 5-burner gas cooktop but after attending a Wolf demo dinner, we decided to move up to the rangetop+griddle. In the two weeks we've been in the kitchen, we've used the griddle to make weekend breakfasts (french toast, hash browns), and burgers. It's been great, through it does take a while to cool down. We like that each half of the double griddle has its own thermostat so we can just turn on one side if we aren't cooking a huge meal. We did a lot of research and reading reviews from people who had the griddle vs. the overlay and in the end, decided the griddle was our preference. I think you have to look at the types of things you cook when deciding if it's the right configuration for you. Also, we put in the E-series single onvection oven and the combi-steam oven. I will write a separate post about the steam oven but I absolutely love it and have used that more than the rangetop so far.

No picture here, just a comment - I read your other posting. I wanted a 42" minimal style wall hood for my 36" cooktop, but could not find what I wanted. I either had to use a 36" or a 48". Since 48" would not fit on the wall, (eveything was planned around a 42"), I went with a 36". I was concerned that It would look ridiculously small, the opposite of your problem. The point is, is that it looks fine. I think once you get yours up with everything in place you won't be unhappy. Apparently it is too late to go smaller, so embrace the hood!! Isn't Daki's kitchen beautiful!! Her hood looks just fine.

It was 7 years ago but the range top looks about the same. They did redesign the knobs. The blue light lets you know if they are on. Wolf does not have that. Some of the other brands I would look at would be BlueStar, Capital culinarian and American Performer. There are many posts on this forum about the various characteristics of burners- sealed vs open vs semi open burner trays capped vs uncapped burners star shaped vs ring vs multi ring burners dual stacked burners btus low and high end all burners the same size vs burners in various sizes one thing I liked about the Dacor range was the oversized grate in the middle Also consider induction I would consider how you cook to see what is important. Some stir fry so like the ultra high BTUs and uncapped burners. I use the low end of heat so simmer is important to me.