Reflecting on what gtadross said about sizing a hood, I recall that the general rule of thumb for matching hood capacity to gas burner cookers is to have a hood capacity of 1 CFM per 100 btus of the rated capacity of the burners. IIRC correctly, the GE Cafe dual-fuel's five burners are: 20k btu + 17k btu + 9.1k btu + 8k btu + 5k btu. Add that up and divide by 100 and you get 591 CFM. IIRC, the BlueStar ranges straddle this figure: the RCS model with 15k burners and a 6k simmer burner equates to a 510 CFM vent capacity where the RNB with three 22k burners and a simmer burner would be about 700 to 800 CFM under this rule of thumb. Seems to me that you've pretty much got the same hood requirements regardless of whether you get a Blue Star or GE Cafe. At this point, somebody is likely to suggest an induction range. (For electric ranges, the rule of thumb is 100 CFM per lineal foot of stove top which, for a 30" ranges, translates to a minumum of 250 CFM of hood capacity. ) I suspect that you've already considered that option and rejected it. If nothing else, I'm guessing that, if you really like the Blue Star ranges, the aesthetics of induction ranges won't appeal to you. (I mention this from personal experience of stove shopping a year ago where one of the considerations for me was that I did not care for the appearance and touch-pad controls of the induction ranges that were in my price range.) Still, if you haven't considered induction, there are a couple of good choices in the price range you seem to be talking about. Beyond that comment, it seems to me that there are two different considerations in addressing hood sizing and your kitchen's need for venting and make-up air. (a) code requirements which only some places have adopted but which your contractor must follow if your locality has adopted them. Some folks may view these requirements as a bureaucratic game of regulatory over-reach, the rules of which can be flouted with impunity. and (b) Practical safety: You cannot flout these with impunity. So, how tightly is your house is buttoned-up? Do you have gas-powered fixtures (water heater, furnace) and/or fireplaces/woodstoves from which your hood may backdraft CO? Btw, I'm using "CO" as the abbreviation for carbon monoxide, not Colorado. I did recently see a couple of rangehoods that seemed large enough to backdraft a state, though. :>) Anyway, if you have all electric heating or a large and drafty house or if your other gas fixtures have their own make-up air, or if you live in a warm climate where windows can always be left open, then you may not actually need an in-kitchen MUA system. It happens that, in my (very-cold climate) house, the water heater and furnace were isolated enough down in the basement that their MUA systems cost me than less $200. The take-away for me is that fixture-MUA can take care of any potential back-drafting without the difficulties and expense on adding MUA into the kitchen. However, this is very much a YMMV kind of thing. For me, the main consideration is that physics (e.g., air flow) and chemistry (e.g., the toxicity of CO) cannot be evaded the way that building code requirements can be disregarded, Now, as gtadross's post implies, most localities will allow you to install a BS range without any vent hood at all. But, doing the hood later raises some practical questions. Can you later install a hood yourself? If not, and you have to contract the work, then any competent contractor is going to have to address the regulatory and practical MUA considerations then. It will be more expensive later. Just my 2 cents worth. This post was edited by JWVideo on Sat, Nov 2, 13 at 15:20

You did not give adequate information. If you were on a time crunch, say so because even if people are very busy, they might make time to help you. Keep in mind that people come and go and are not paid so they might not answer instantly. Most people realizing that not everyone is on here everyday might post gentle "bump" to bring the thread to the top rather than a sarcastic comment. In the mean time search the many threads already posted.

Kim Taff, As far as self clean you can have a gas oven with self clean as jwvideo mentioned. Capital ranges have a model with self clean and a rotisserie. That range does have high BTU, uncapped burners and an open burner tray, which is a whole other issue. As far as DF, I would love to replace my Wolf due to the aforementioned issues but am just not sold on any yet. Miele does have one that came out recently and there is a current thread on that. To me you already have the ideal set up with wall ovens, especially if ergonomics are an issue. You can pick range/cooktop and ovens separately so you can get the best of each for the way you cook. As to gas vs electric, I have had both types of ovens over many years. Yes you can bake with gas. As with many things in cooking, I would agree that there are often marketing claims that oversell some features. Just because you can bake in a gas oven does not mean there are not differences. I have even had differences just in the electric ovens I have had in this last remodel and used in the last couple of years in rental condos. Whether testing broilers or ovens, you would need to test side by side with the same recipes and bakeware and with food that would show the differences. Gas heat is the result of combustion of gas which has byproducts so they are ventilated quite a bit more. This means that there is more movement of air through the oven and more heat and moisture into your kitchen. This increased movement of air is drying, superficially to whatever you have in the oven if it is open and exposed to the air. This promotes the Maillard reaction so things brown faster. This is why many like gas for roasting. Many bread bakers add water for steam during the first part of baking because they want a specific crust and want the surface of the bread to stay soft, allowing a better rise longer. It is much more difficult to keep the humidity in a gas oven. Many bread bakers get around this by using a cloche or even rigging up a way to add steam as they bake. This drying effect of a gas oven can also change the way cakes and muffins bake. Electric ovens hold onto the humidity from what is being baked or roasted or when water is added. For roasting, that would inhibit the Maillard reaction but some electric ovens get a lot more complex and some have a roasting mode that uses more heat from the top and a high speed fan to overcome this. Some electric ovens use fans and more elements programmed to have a multitude of modes to produce various baking environments. They are run by computer boards so when you combine these boards with heat, there have been reliability issues with some ovens. These boards also require fans that run after the oven is off so if noise is an issue, there are whole threads on that. Convection fans in general are marketed to provide more even heat but they don't always do that and if you are using the fan, you have drying which is not always what you want. The bulk of the oven also contributes to the evenness of heat and is the main thing in standard bake. Electric ovens can have additional elements, in back and dual fans or even fan towers as in the new Wolf M wall oven. Occasionally there are threads on specific ovens that will indicate how well these work. Some ovens have pure convection modes. They usually combine a high speed fan and the immediate heat of an element in the back, so often create hot spots. Another issue with newer electric ovens which may be different for some is the concealed element. One recipe I have have made over the years is an upside down caramel apple pie in a clear colorless PYREX(old trademark, borosilicate glass) pan. It has baked well in standard gas and electric ovens with an open element on the bottom. It doesn't get done on the bottom with an electric oven with a concealed element. One of the repair guys was here recently with my fridge and we were talking about general reliability in ovens and he thought the concealed element caused a lot of problems. There are a few high end ovens with elements that are under glass but they seem to have other idiosyncrasies. Charon70 mentioned the broiler. A regular gas broiler doesn't get very hot because the heat from combustion goes up. Some gas ovens have infrared broilers so that you have radiant heat evenly over a given area. It is usually a much smaller area than an electric broiler. The electric broiler's evenness varies according to how close the passes are.

Wolf DF has electronics too. You have to have them to control the heating elements and fans. If you get the DF, some dealers offer a 10 year extended warranty, but read it carefully to make sure the liner is not excluded. Some have considered the enamel loss cosmetic but it is not. It is essentially glass shards coming off with the potential for them to be airborn, especially with the convection fan. Don't run the self clean. Some have failed without running self clean but many failed after running it. My damage did not appear until 4.5 years which is the case for many ranges. This was after the warranty was up. Even though this is a known issue, Wolf not only would not stand behind their product, they would not tell me how much to fix it, only that it would start at $800. I've read reports of repairs costing. $2500. I have not had it fixed because they would not guarantee the new one wouldn't fail. It is unknown what the rate of failure is but some posters here have had as many as three fail. There are some lawsuits where there were more failures For just one owner.