First, I must say thank you to all who share their knowledge! I have learned so much...maybe too much.:) I too am in a quandary about appliances... researching my life away! I value your experience! Essentially everything we eat is made from scratch. My husband and I both enjoy cooking- he makes magic with a wok and anything in the fridge! I love to entertain and serve elegant meals that I know our guests would never put the effort into or enjoy making. My Italian heritage also requires that I make lots of comfort food-eg. BIG pots of "gravy", risotto etc! I can't imagine cooking with out the availability of "simmer". I host 5+ course sit down holiday dinners for 5-15 people. With that in mind, here's my situation: For a whole house remodel, I am deciding between a CC or BS range top. Probably 36" due to space issues. Either 6 burners or 4 w/grill. Here are my questions: 1. Love the CC but am concerned about having only 22K BTUs and the simmer reviews. 2. Love the BS but had ruled it out due to service issues. I am a rural 2 hrs drive from Reading PA. and initially thought BS proximity might be a plus. Just put them back in the running since I read their service has improved. Really? 3.A bit of a clean freak, I vowed never to have a hood but have decided to deal with it in order to have the CC or BS range top. I read another thread to learn about cleaning a baffled hood like a Modern Aire. OK- I can do it - when I'm not cooking I'm cleaning so what the heck? BUT: With heavy cooking, how often must they be taken apart to clean the fan and degrease? Does the SS lining discolor after a year or more, or turn that "cooked grease brown" (like what happens on sealed burners). My 10 yr old Viking cooktop looks terrific but it takes time and elbow grease (especially post a DH cooking extravaganza!)I am wondering how painful it will be to keep it up to my standards.(sparkling clean and no odor) How does one keep the grill clean and free of gunk and greasy odor? Thanks in advance for your advice and for helping me set reasonable expectations. I am so afraid of making a very expensive mistake!

Kay- I purchased my CC from Treavor in Boston (I am in NY). Frankly having him there to take care of service makes it worth every penny compared to dealing with a local appliance store (it might also be beneficial for you tax wise). Between the BS and the CC I think you would be fine with either one. I find the CC burners to be incredibly useful. They go from burning hell hot to low enough to sit a paper plate on top of them. I cannot see any advantage to having different sized burners with this much control. When comparing the two I think looks are a major deciding factor (for me the BS looked too commercial, I like the clean lines on the CC).

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.

What is a "local safety officer"? What do you mean "a bunch of back and forth" with your "local safety officer and Wolf"? What prompted you to use your CO meter to test the levels? They are employed by our BC safety Authority who are the regulators for all regulated work, gas and electrical and such. As a licensed gas fitter I hold my ticket through them and they are the final say when it comes to appliance safety. Permits and approvals for equipment go through them. I chatted at length with him about the stove and he did agree we can’t do anything because it meets ANSI standards being below 800ppm, but he did say he wouldn’t have it in his house. His advice to me was if Wolf won’t do anything to then adjust the burner input by under firing the appliance to bring the CO back inline. I went to Wolf with this information and they said ‘based on your requirements I don’t think Wolf products will be right for you, would you consider a buy back’. Checking CO is very common here in Canada especially when commissioning an appliance. I didn’t mention the CO alarm going off because it never went off, however it did show peak levels in the 15-19ppm range after cooking for a short period of time. Enough to make me concerned with a pregnant wife and 2 yr old. This is what will happen if you in a room where the CO levels are 800 ppm. The ANSI standards are referring to the CO levels in the air coming out of the range vent. 800 ppm air coming out of the vent does not translate to a room concentration of 800 ppm. Especially if you have your ventilation on. Now, if you were getting 250-300 ppm where the cook was standing, that indicates a concentration of way more than 800 ppm out of the vent, and thus a violation of ANSI standards. Either way, those readings were way too high and Wolf's response was poor. Yes, I agree, somewhat. The stove should never be operating at the ANSI levels, your house would build up to a dangerous level of CO over time ie. When cooking a turkey for hours. Our utility will actually shut down any gas range over 540ppm during normal operation. Also they shutdown any other appliance if its over 250ppm while operating. I agree we need ANSI standards but as new homes get built tighter and with less makeup air having a cooking appliance pumping 800ppm at the vent/flue is insane. Consider this regulation was put in place in 1926, buildings have changed considerably since then. So, what happened when you tried adjusting it? Was 250-300 ppm the lowest it would go? That would surprise me, I have adjusted several gas ranges and have usually been able to get them down to 30-40 ppm from as high as 500 ppm. I knew this question would pop up, but yes I went through the full range of what is reasonable on a brand new appliance. Below is what I went through, to try and reduce the CO: Tested inlet pressure, adjusted within 1”wc of manifold pressure. ‘Wolf recommends having inlet pressure within 1” for proper operation’ – no change Checked flip top regulator and it was set to natural gas Checked manifold pressure on stove it was at 5”wc Verified orifice was correct as per spec sheet supplied by Wolf Adjusted air shutter, no change was actually higher and this was the lowest I was able to get the stove to run at CO tests were done after 10-15 minutes of operation and the burners were warm Clocked meter to verify burner input is correct Verified no blockage in burner tube Verified all secondary air ports were free and clear House is still very drafty, so not a lack of air within the house The only thing I never did was under fire it, as I didn't want to go down that road on a brand new piece of equipment. Wolf blew me away with their service and willingness to make a customer happy. From a cooking standpoint however, it will be Bluestar for us.