These may get you started on GE Cafe. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg091156223879.html http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1208384211120.html http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg0318191927806.html http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg0521032230516.html http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg120318404081.html http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg1122244928714.html If you do a google/bing/whatever search using "GE Cafe + gradenweb" and "GE Cafe + chowhound" and "kitchenaid + dual fuel + gardenweb" as search strings, you will get more hits. A couple of things to note on threads from prior to 2012. One is that the Cafe threads will be about earlier versions of the Cafe line and some of the earlier ones had a problem with oven use overheating the front mounted control knobs. My recollection from stove shopping last year was that GE did a redesign in 2011 that fixed the problem. The other thing is that Kitchenaid (and corporate parent, Whirlpool) had problems with self-cleaning ovens cooking the electronics and/or tripping an internal over-temp circuit-breaker (which required taking the oven apart to re-set). KA/WP supposedly fixed this problem in 2012 by installing stronger cooling fans for the stove electronics. Something to research when considering the KA. IF you have access to Consumer Reports, you may want to check out the embership survey results. My recollection is that GE ranges have been noticably more reliable than KA ranges in the first five years of ownership

Had experience with a dual fuel range (Dacor) - hated it. Perhaps the tech is different on the Kitchen Aid but my feeling is that you don't mix microprocessors with heat, moisture and grease. Well, you can, but you're almost certain to have . . . . difficulties. Now have a 36" BlueStar - love it. Not a sealed top - good. No electronics except for the ignitors - good. It is not self cleaning - good. There is a 48" BlueStar with burners from up to 22k. And a fan convection oven. Your mileage may vary. Here is a link that might be useful: BlueStar Cooking

"Commercial bakeries use nothing but gas ovens." This is not true. If you are talking about bulk bakeries, they are more inclined to because it is often cheaper but they also have steam injectors to add humidity when needed. I know several specialty bakeries that use electric ovens. Many deck ovens in commercial kitchens are electric. I knew of a bakery that was called "the Electric Bakery". It really depends a lot on what they are baking. I know a baker that has specialty ovens for pies. This really has nothing to do with home ovens because they are a different breed anyway as they are expected to do many different things. "Dual fuel is excessively expensive, and overly complex for no benefit in performance ." Performance is different things to different people. They have different needs so there is no one size fits all. If I were selling appliances, the first thing would be to assess that person's needs and make individualized recommendations based on those needs. I most likely would never recommend ranges to begin with unless there was a compelling reason like space or cost issues or even a preference for "looks" over cooks. Pick out each component because it meets individual needs in the best way possible. As far as cost, you can buy electric ovens with features that have high utility for less than some gas ovens with limited features. Electric ovens can be complex, but so are our home computers and cars these days. This is not necessarily a bad thing. These ovens can have features that many consider helpful in how they use their ovens. It takes a computer board to coordinate fans, heating elements and tight temperature control. I love being able to control the direction of heat and fan speed in my oven. I can have air movement slow or fast to facilitate browning or not if I am baking a cake. It has a lot greater range of temperature, with or without the fan than many ovens gas or electric that cost a lot more. There is a learning curve with these features especially with the many choices something like Gaggenau or Miele give you. The combi oven is the king of control of the cooking environment but not in a range yet. The other side of the coin is some ovens have this figured out and others, not so much, so you have to read as many reviews as you can. To minimize risk if you want these features, buy the longest service agreement that you can. They can be difficult to evaluate and compare because a feature named the same name in two different brands can mean two different things. Even the term "dual fuel", in most ovens it means gas burners and an electric oven but 5 Star when they say dual fuel means a gas oven and electric oven together in the same range. You have to decide what is a benefit and what is a burden? No one answer. "could you please explain why all gas is fine" "All gas is fine." I might agree with that statement depending on how you use your oven but that in no way means they are the same and it in many cases gas is not the best choice. Gas and electric ovens are constructed differently. Because you have combustion for your heat source, another difference, gas ovens are vented more to remove products of combustion including water, so those products of combustion and humidity from food move out of the oven and into the kitchen. That may be good or bad depending on where you live, but how is that significant to cooking? It is much more difficult to keep added steam in a gas oven if you are doing that for bread or adding a pan of water for cheesecake. Because there is more of an air current, in a gas oven, this removes more moisture from the surface of what you are cooking. This inhibits starch gelatinization during the first part of baking so inhibits rise and changes the appearance of what you are baking. On the other hand, because it evaporates moisture from the surface and allows it to heat more quickly, the Maillard and other browning chemical reactions take place more quickly. This is why meat, vegetables and even baked goods brown more quickly. Will you notice? A lot of people say they don't. I have baked in gas and electric ovens for over 50 years and I used to attribute differences in outcomes to different ovens rather than a difference in fuel but with the many books and websites that have come out on food science, you can see the rationale for the differences in outcome that cooks report in cooking/baking forums. It was kind of a "aha" moment to put these comments with the science. All of the information coming out challenges what used to be conventional wisdom and yet it might be hard to see if you are not baking the exact same recipe side by side. You do see the same observations cooks make repeatedly in terms of cooking on cooking and baking forums and people seem to notice the difference more coming from electric to gas but you do see the occasional comment about excess moisture in some electric ovens when they are coming from gas. Most advertising literature and websites about ovens actually say a gas oven provides moist heat and electric dry but they are only looking at the heat source and not the oven as a whole and the process of cooking which provides a lot of moisture to the oven chamber. Another difference is that there are more and more features being loaded into ovens now as noted above, mostly electric but sometimes gas too. Some electric ovens have added steam. Combi ovens are very useful in their ability to control humidity and really make the case for buying ovens separate from the range top instead of having to pick the priority of the burners or the oven. I am not a fan of the current trend of hiding the bake element in electric ovens. Sometimes with pies, you need that bottom element exposed. It used to be you could put a tray under the element to catch spills. If you put it on the bottom now, it will melt. Some other things to consider. gas broilers are of two types. There is the traditional gas broiler, but they are not very good. Many prostyle gas ovens have an infrared broiler. They are very hot and even, but can be small. They are great for a couple of steaks but not so much trays of appetizers or broiling larger amounts. How big is the oven? Do you want a quick preheat or need room for full commercial sheets? Look at the rack size for usable space and size top to bottom. What is the temperature range, lowest and highest? What are the increments that you can set your temperature? 25F or 5F? Ovens are not an easy choice these days but I think it helps at least some people to realize the differences so you can at least make a somewhat informed decision.

I looked into your question because I have had some annoying experiences with sealed burner conversion kits for my basic cooktops. I didn't find that the orifices for the kits were all that perfect and needed replacements anyway or 'leaving well enough alone'. It appears that your range has sealed burners as well. I assume (not sure) that open burners are like old classic burners without orifices. I see that your range is one of these fancy very expensive units. So first: I would suggest that if possible you get another range with open burners instead because you would get easily adjustable and probably FAR better flames. However if you already have this unit, I would suggest that you find an experienced plumber who has an orifice drill kit who will from experience and a little trial and error, bore you a set of orifices that will fit your unit better than any kit. The plumber's charge will still be a trivial cost compared with the range. You could instead buy a cheap orifice kit Like This from ebay etc. I linked this one simply because it was cheap with a whole bunch of orifices and one might hope that a few of them might be close to your kit. Bigger hole; bigger burner; bigger flame. I didn't bother to check the size of those burners (just the large count). You could find a similar sized new range with similar btu burners and try their kit. They might even save you a few bucks while hiring a plumber because he could redrill some of these orifices although he would likely rather use his own and charge you more.