The Wolf has a 3/4 inch thickness vs BS 3/8 inch so will take longer to heat up but the thickness is one aspect that would make it heat more evenly. Some people do like having warmer and cooler zones though. The increased mass from the thickness of Wolf holds much more heat and will also make it take longer to adjust the temperature up and down. In discussing burners, the term "open" burner gets tossed around indiscriminately and causes confusion. Some people use "open" to talk about the burner tray and others about whether a burner is capped or uncapped. Some have even attributed high BTUs to "open" burners. The open vs sealed burner tray is mostly about a preference for cleaning one way or another. There are videos online about cleaning BS. If you do a lot of Wok cooking, the BS uncapped burner with a more upright flame would have more heat coming lower on the wok so would be better for stir frying along with a few more BTUs. Wolf has increased their BTUs by quite a bit but because they are capped burners, it can cause the flame to flare more on the highest settings. I would want to see how wide the flame is on a live range. I have the older model Wolf that tops out at 15K and the flare is not as much as some capped burners but not sure what it is with the increase to 20K. The dual stacked burners help this but as you try to get more range in BTUs, it can make more flare. There is no way to compare simmers on these two ranges until you can compare BTUs and the BS BTU has never been available. They only give a very nonspecific temperature rating. The star shaped burner with BS gives more even heat if you cook with cast iron, steel or stainless pans if you size the burner to the pan. If you use heavy gauge copper or aluminum they will even the heat of the burner so the star shape doesn't matter as much. We bought Wolf with the idea that they backed their product and for the most part during the warranty they would. They used to stand behind their products after the warranty but this kind of service has gone away. If you require service, you have to use their techs so you are at their mercy as to what they will charge and if they will give you an estimate beforehand. Agree with homechef59 that the rangetop has a lot less potential for trouble than a range. "Homechef59 I'm all about the open burners. I don't like the sealed ones because of the loss of BTU's. Wolf used to make an open burner unit, but they stopped that a while back. " ---- I am curious as to your rationale for your belief that you lose BTUs with a sealed burner tray. Can you please explain. Wolf/SZ made a all gas range before the current model -with a semi sealed burner tray, that was tight against the burner but broke down for cleaning. and it had a burner with a smaller simmer burner inside and both were capped. I had never heard of Wolf/SZ making a range with open burner trays or uncapped burners depending on what you mean when you say "open" burners.

OpaOne. From one Opa to another, I'd like to thank you. Reading your posts on Houzz/GardenWeb here and your link posted above (WordPoint/Disqus), I've decided to do a BlueStar RNB 48" rangetop with a 24" griddle in our kitchen remodel. It makes so much sense to me to do the same set-up that you have with the griddle as a faux French Top, using the portable inductions (which I have two of) for other items such as the Fisler pressure cooker, etc... Also, the idea of being able to place my "giant" de Buyer carbon steel Paella pan entirely on the griddle is a "no-brainer" for me. Also was thinking of doing crepes on the griddle once it is well seasoned. Basically, a large thermostatically controlled griddle is the way to go and could be a very Jack of All Trades cooking unit. I was wrestling with doing the 60" RNB rangetop (for the 2 extra burners) or a set up using the BS 36-inch Platinum with a 24-inch BS RNB all griddle butted up against it. The costs of double gas lines/electrical, ventilation, and cabinetry and the ridiculous price mark-up made that point moot. Early on I definitely decided against the range, due to my age and bending over, plus I prefer electric ovens over gas. I'm going with the 30-inch Thermador Professional double wall oven with bottom dual convection and rotisserie oven and their steam oven above. Their steam oven has the largest capacity available on the market. I wish that Miele or Bosch offered the same capacity. I am also thinking (planning stage) of matching a 30-inch (Thermador) Speed Oven under the coffee bar counter (all appliances on the same wall), instead of a plain microwave or microwave drawer. On the ventilation above the BS 48-inch rangetop, I'm leaning towards a 54-inch wide by 27-inch deep Z-Line 1200 CFM stainless hood. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Photoclick I have never had double ovens. At times it was limiting but I managed. When we live in France, the women were amazing. They turned out fantastic dinners with very little in their kitchen. Clearly they didn't have double ovens or much else for that matter. I always wondered where the endless bottles of champagne came from since their refrigaration was pitiful (undercounter size ) When we did a major remodel in Fl I could have had a double oven but decided against it. I had a rangetop, a wall oven and a GE Advantium, first generation which I thought was the cats meou. The advantium picked up that void when you are trying to juggle the turkey the dressing etc etc. and also came in very handy on a daily basis. The reason for a wall oven was back surgery , inability to lift things from an oven nearly close to the foor If you have a lot of space and a lot of money, go for what you want. Honestly though I would ask people who have a double oven how often do you really use both. We rarely go out to eat; I cook at least 2 meals per day and we entertain. I've managed just fine. I will have the opportunity to have whatever I want on this next remodel, it will be my sort of last hurrah. I will go with a single wall oven, an advantium and a top of the line rangetop. (the kitchen foot print can handle way more) I can have a dinner party, a large gathering or anything else I want with that equipment. If I start to think I need more, I think of my French friends and how they managed with very little and turned out fantastic dinner parties. Equipment helps, but the cook is the most important ingrediant. Happy Cooking as Jacque Peppin would say Inga

I have a 12" on my BS. I too like making breakfast but do many other things on it as well. We probably use it on average 3-5 times a week, sometimes more. I've wondered about a 24" griddle but seem to get by fine w/the 12". When it's just the 4 of us I can do 8 pieces of french toast at a time, usually only 6 pancakes. It will do 8 burgers depending on size. I use an oven as a warmer if doing large breakfasts. One thing about using a griddle, say you want to make pancakes. So you turn it on when you start the batter, it will be close to ready while the batter is resting for a minute or two. Pour your cakes, flip, turn off griddle and serve. Your only using it for like 4 minutes total. When doing multi batches it will be on longer of course. W/a 24" I think cooking would be over almost before it began :) Another interesting thing about the BS thermostatically controlled griddle. Say I want to heat up tortillas or even make a few pancakes quickly. The griddle takes probably 15 minutes or more to evenly heat up to temp, probably 20 for good measure. However during the heating process the griddle gets very hot w/in the 1st 5 minutes, plenty hot enough to cook up some pancakes or heat up tortillas, it will then cool down before igniting again, while it's in this mode things don't cook well and you'll need to pretty much wait until the griddle is fully up to temp. But there's a 5 minute window where it will hit the desired temp (~400) or close enough to it to get some quick cooking in. I throw burgers on in this quick heat mode, by the time the temp is dropping they're ready for the cheese, then I cover w/a baking tray to finish melting the cheese. I've found most griddle items are pretty quick to cook so a lot of the cooking is done within the 1st 10 minutes of turning it on. If I'm doing a scramble w/tators and sausage I turn it on before I start prepping so it's evenly heated when I'm ready. Cleaning a built-in griddle take a bit of time. Unfortunately the best time to clean the messiest messes are when it's still hot so you have to do it right away (and hold up dinner a few minutes). Like I mentioned I had my griddle put on the right hand side next to the counter, staging things on the counter is nice and the spatter from the griddle only hits the 2 adjacent burners, not all of them. If I'm cooking something that will spatter a lot I usually cover the adjacent burners. If my griddle has stuff stuck all over it I'll plug the drain hole w/a paper towel and pour some water on the griddle and use a bench scraper to get everything off the surface. You have to be careful not to burn yourself w/the steam, letting it cool a little helps. Usually the water will mostly evaporate while scrapping. I then use a wet paper towel under the edge of the scraper. Then a couple dry ones and light spray of cooking oil wiped completely off with another dry paper towel and it's done. I like to keep my griddle clean and seasoned.