It's not too big for any kitchen if it's what you want. If you'll use it all, often, and cook your hearts out, it's worth it. If you have no other use for 12" of cabinet space and wouldn't otherwise have a second oven, it might be worth it too. There was a picture floating around here about four years ago of a tiny kitchen, smaller than many closets, in an NYC apartment. It was basically a fridge, a sink, and a massive range. I think it was a 36" professional range, so deeper than normal. There was also a picture of an NYC apartment where the kitchen was basically a wet bar with an induction hot plate built into a drawer. It just depends on how much room you think you need for the actual business of cooking.

The AG Jade range that we returned (did a buy-back), in addition to having a number of other issues, also had a loud cooling fan that came on when the oven reached a certain temp. It then didn't shut off until the oven had cooled down to a certain temp. There was no way to manually switch the fan off (or on). Hated that. We purposely got a quiet vent hood, and then ended up with a noisy range/oven. We replaced the Jade with a Wolf AG range. Much quieter fan, and it is equipped with a switch to turn the convection/cooling fan(s) on/off. HTH

There are several options that are all related. Smeg, Bertazzoni, Fisher Paykel and Verona are all built in northern italy and will share many features and even some components. I happen to like the Smeg since it is 6 burners and the door feels a little heavier on our floor model. They will cook pretty well, but many of the burners are on the small side. The burners also use a Thermocouple, meaning you will have to hold the knob in for 1-3 seconds when you light it to make sure the thermocouple hits temperature. Otherwise the valve will close and you will have to start over! The over budget choice would be the Capital MCR366. That unit should come in around $3999 and it is a Pro range (all large burners, infrared broiler, etc). Depending on where you are located you may be able to get a discount on it as well.

Oh geeze, here is my anal retentiveness rearing its ugly head again but here we go again. Hang on... Probably due to the terrible review that Consumer Reports gave Bertazzoni years ago on an older model people are shying away from the new model. Does the new model make up for the sins of the last model? So how about this comparison, The Bertazzoni MAST366GASXT vs. the Fisher & Paykel OR36SCG4X1? Off the top, I can get an extra burner with the Bertazzoni. The Fisher & Paykel offers only 5 burners. The Bertazzoni has better btu numbers, going from 750 btu's to 19,000 btu's. Fisher & Paykel goes from 1,000 btu's to 18,000 btu's. One of Bertazzoni's burners goes down to 750 btu's but the rest of their burners have higher btu's. What if you want to simmer more than one sauce at a time? Fisher & Paykel's burners only go down to 1000 btu's but all of their burners go this low. I am not worried about the btu's at the high end but the low end I am worried about. Are Fisher & Paykel's 1000 btu's low enough for a gentle simmer? The Betazzoni doesn't have a storage drawer. The Fisher & Paykel does. The Betazzoni seems to have a thin rubber door seal which can wear out faster than Fisher & Paykel's more robust woven door seal. Also, on the Bertazzoni, I can easily see sauce spilling into those rear air vents at the back of the oven. Is there a way to clean these vents if this happens? The Fisher & Paykel doesn't have this problem. The Bertazzoni has a 11,000 btu infrared gas broiler. Is it similar to the ceramic infrared broiler in the BlueStar Pro range? Though infrared broilers are preferred, is Bertazzoni's 11,000 btu broiler better than Fisher & Paykel's conventional 13,000 btu gas broiler? I finally found a stat that is the same on both ranges. The baking/roasting power on both ranges have a maximum 17,000 btu's. The difference is that Bertazzoni's oven is always on and kept at a constant temperature. I've never cooked with a range like this before and I wonder how much of an advantage it really is over conventional oven that turn on and off to regulate the temperature. Finally, at least of this writing, Fisher & Paykel is offering an extended 5 year warranty on all of their products, unheard of in the industry. Bertazzoni's warranty is the conventional two years so you will have to purchase an additional warranty for peace of mind. There are other questions I have too but this is a start. The problem with appliance dealers, blogs, and reviews is that no one really seems to be a consumer advocate. Has anyone addressed the issues I brought up here? I think potential customers would like to have answers to these questions.