Convection is something I use frequently and would recommend. From what I hear, the warming drawers at this price point are not worth the money/space. Regarding the center burner... If I had a choice, I would rather spend the money on 4 good burners (15k BTU+) than 4-5 mediocre burners, but in this price range, they all seem to be a similar setup (probably built by the same 2 companies). I have a hard time envisioning a decent size griddle getting evenly heated with any of these center burners. The Frigidaire has slightly higher burner output on average, but then there's that CNB to deal with.

Pardon my COFS, but your question about 5-burner gas stoves is actually a bit more complicated than you might have thought because there are three different kinds of 5-burner 30" ranges, and discussions go back least at decade. (BTW, COFS = chronic old fart syndrome, which is what I suffer from. I don't mean to sound testy, but sometimes come across that way, so please don't take any of what I say as personal criticism.) Currently, the three kinds of center-burners are: (a) oblong and oval "griddle" burners (which are typically rated for 9k to 10k btu-hr. and often come with a non-stick oblong or rectangular griddle). The expensive GE Cafe line of gas and dual fuel stoves ($2800 - $3200) have these, and that's where I've seen most of the comments and discussion. So do some less expensive GE Profile, Bosch, Kitchenaid and Electrolux Icon in the mid to upper-mid- price range, as do at least some GE and Frigidaire gas stoves priced at around $1k and under. Opinions on the usefulness of the oval burners vary as do the opnions on the supplied griddles. (Thin and cheap is an epithet that has been mentioned a couple of times ;>) Some think the burners are great for making gravy in roasting pans, poaching whole fish (do you have a fish poaching pan?), and pancakes production. Others think the griddle too small. If you flip the griddles over to use them as grill pans (or have an aftermarket pan like a Chef-King, Lodge or LeCreuset), opinions seem to range from "they're okay for a couple of burgers" to "utterly useless." (IOW, no consensus.) Most of the discussion that I recall seeing here has been in the threads on the GE Cafe ranges. You might have to do some digging to find those discussions while waiting for a response here from somebody who actually has one. Also, try searching the cookware forum on Chowhound and maybe eGullet, too. The oval burners are thin enough and bent away from the other burners that (supposedly) you can put normal size saucepans and 10 -ich fry pans on the adjacent burners. At least the griddle plate gives you a place to put spoons and ladles. (b) large, high-btu center burners, made for heating large pots and called variously, "power-boil," "super-boil" and the like. IIRC, DCS was the first to offer style about 10 or 12 years ago. Folks loved it or hated it. Apparently, enough folks liked it that numbers of other brands now offer them including Whirlpool/Maytag, LG, Samsung, Some people find the center big burner handy for large kettles of water (as for massive quantities of pasta or making beer or canning operations or using 14" woks) but most folks here at GW don't think much of these because, as Greendesigns says, putting a big pot in the center doesn't leave much cooktop room on the other burners and makes it hard to use anything but small pans (sometimes, very small pans) when the center burner is in use. The flame spread n these power-burners is so large it can be hard to run smaller pans on them (because even on low, the flames may be spreading beyond the pan base.) (c) small, 5k btu-hr simmer burners in the center for keeping small/tiny pans warm when you are using the other four burners. Maybe you want to melt butter in a steel measuring cup? Seems pretty hard to use them for anything else. GE and Whirlpool/Maytag and Samsung offer these stoves mostly under $1k, as best I can recall. I think I recall seeing one of the $2500 Electrolux Icon or Wavetouch gas models with center simmer burner. This post was edited by JWVideo on Sun, Jul 21, 13 at 16:24

Cooking on induction absolutely rocks. Immediate response, consistant temps--it's wonderful. I hate to clean, but cleaning up an induction cooktop rocks just as much as cooking on one. Nothing ever burns onto the cooktop, ever. Make a huge mess. Swipe with a soapy rag, swipe again with a clean, dry rag, shiney and clean. Done. Haul hubby out to a different demo. If you can find a Miele or Wolf showroom, go to one of those. Then he can be impressed with the performance but shocked at the price point, and you can "settle" for something much less expensive that works well but with fewer bells and whistles, and he'll be impressed with your research and happy to come in on budget. And you can be a happy cook with a spotless range and very little effort. ;-p Cj

Also remember that the free-standing range will have less cooktop surface due to the panel in the back taking up several inches of the cooktop. This can be a problem if you have a big dutch oven or something like that on the stove. Having said that, note that some slide-ins will have oven fans that are noisier and stay on longer. That's because the range's electronics are right on top of the oven and need to be cooled (vs. the freestanding where the electronics are in the panel in the back). Some say that with the general noise going on in their kitchens, they don't mind the fan noise. I myself chose a slide-in. I didn't want even an inch of space lost on my cooktop, and also I simply don't like the appearance of the free-standing ranges with the panels in the back.