After having such a horrible experience with the Kenmore electric range, I am afraid to try Kenmore again. Still have some extended warrranty left which will transfer to the Samsung. I have had great luck with my other Samsung appliances, so I hope I do with the range also. My husband laughed at me when I told him that the appearance of the Kenmore just left me cold, but when he saw it, he felt the same way. Blah. Can't put my finger on why. gscience chick, after baking I usually leave my oven door cracked open in the winter anyway for the heat boost to the kitchen. My son uses Circulon Infinite pans on his induction and really likes them. (Interesting to get cooking advice from my son!) In browsing the net, Circulon has a 25% off sale this month as well as deep discounts on the Infinite (looks like Symmetry will be replacing it). I found an 11 inch skillet for roughly $18 and a twin pack 10 and 12 skillet for $36 (Symmetry), etc. Then on the potsandpans.com website I was able to find the 3qt saucepan for a really good price. I have a few pots and pans that I can use from before (I hope). Two of them have 8 3/4" bases - hope I can use them . . . I love my Calphalon Contemporary saucepans and hate to lose them, but I see that they are coming out with a Contemporary IH line (induction friendly) - in Australia, but not here yet. Maybe soon . . .? Guess my life is kind of dull when I can get so excited about a new range! Any hints and suggestions will be appreciated!

First thing is that you very probably would have no defects with an NXR if you got one but they really are not for everybody. No more so than manual-transmission-with-low-range, 4-wheel-drive, manual-hub trucks are the vehicle everybody should drive. Second, to find out from whom Sears sourced those two Kenmore gas stoves have a look at this link which tells you how to translate the model numbers to identify the manufacturer. http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/sears.shtml You will need to get the full model number. I'm not sure if Sears still posts that on the sales website but I think you can take the product number from the sales web-site and find the full number on Sears Parts Direct. Third, according to Consumer Reports's membership surveys, Frigidaire and Kenmore single-oven gas ranges are among the most reliable. The CR product testers did not test either of your models but gave other, similar Kenmores decent to pretty good marks in most stovetop and oven categories except for the gas broilers which they rate as so-so. Apparently the gas Kenmores mostly do a decent job with oven self-cleaning (a function that the NXR does not have, btw.) Fourth, since you like to cook with heavy iron pots, have you considered getting an induction range? Iron is great on induction. But, I have to ask this: how were those coils breaking? Did you mean that the use of heavy CI pans wore on the burners so they stopped working or did you, maybe, drop big fryers and dutch ovens a few too many times and actually break the elements? If it was just from use, you likely would have little problem with induction. If the other, well --- the ceram surfaces are pretty tough but dropping a CI dutch oven from two feet up can crack them just as they can break a coil There is a Frigidaire induction model (also sold as a Kenmore Model: 95073) which runs about $1500. I've seen it on holiday weekend sales for down around $1300. (Might also look for it on the Sears Outlet sites, too.) A bit more than the Kenmore gas ranges you were looking at but worth considering if you otherwise would have to pay to add gas plumbing and a 120v outlet for a gas range. Fifth, your mentioning ease of cleanup also suggests considering induction. Most folks (though not all) find that induction ranges are hard to beat for ease of cleaning. This post was edited by JWVideo on Tue, Mar 25, 14 at 14:04

I don't know what to tell you. I wasn't crazy about the look of the Kenmore either but it's growing on me. I also got this unit for a little over $1K not the usual $2K so I couldn't pass it up. I know someone here had problems with the oven temp on the Bosch. I didn't really bake much because of my problems with the oven fan. I did make cookies using convection and was able to bake the 3 trays without a problem. The oven was a little bigger and I did like the rack positions better. I haven't really baked in the Kenmore yet things have been really busy here. I've only used it for chicken fingers and oven fries. Things come out crispy and well cooked. If I bake this week I'll let you know how things turn out. Since I can compare the Bosch and the Kenmore, I would have to say I like how the Kenmore cooks. Like I said before the cooktop seems better. With the Bosch my pans took forever to heat up. I thought maybe it was my new pans until I had the Kenmore installed. Another thing to consider is where you purchase your appliances. I could have purchased mine from Sears for a slightly cheaper price but decided to give my business to a local store. It was a bad move on my part. With Sears I could have returned the defective unit. The local store was no help at all. I had to fight for over 5 months to get the thing out of my house. Does any of that help?

You can drive to work in a Toyota Yaris or a Porsche 911. Both will get you where you're going via an internal combustion engine, maybe even with an MP3 player, and possibly even on board navigation. But the difference in driving the two can NOT be understood by someone who doesn't enjoy the nuances of driving. Regular folks who think buying a Porsche is a silly extravagance will never ever "get" it. They don't know what they don't know about the differences between the two, so they are perfectly satisfied with a boring econobox. Frigidaire is the boring tinny 1970's econobox of the appliance world with a few racing stripes to give itself airs. And the people reviewing it, well, not to sound elitist here, but they don't have experience with a higher standard to compare it to. They don't know what they don't know about the nuances of cooking. Anyone can "steam fry" a meal. Very few can do an actual stir fry. If you don't have the budget to make a purchase of a pro style range at this point, that's fine. Very few of us are able to get what we 100% want as if money is no object. But, you really have to look at the ultimate goal here and keep your eyes on the prize. Spending $1700 on something that doesn't function any better than something that costs $500 is wasting that money that you do spend. I'd suggest really analyzing your goals here. A 36" IS a step up in "space" but a true 36" pro style range has a pretty large oven that takes a long time to come to temp and is overkill for most situations unless you need to fit in a full sheet pan. 6 burners are usually overkill for most for 90% of the time that they use the range. Thus the popularityh of the 48" range, as it has a smaller oven that gets used more often. And you can do a griddle surface on it as well. If pro style cooking is your ultimate goal, then think about doing a 48" rather than a 36". Or consider doing a pro style cooktop like one Bluestar has now, and buying a second hand wall oven from Habitat for Humanity or Craig's List. That will give you an immediate return for your investment that won't need to be repeated. As long as you are also budgeting for the high CFM hood that goes hand in hand with having a high BTU cooking machine in your home. If you size the oven cabinet for a 30" oven and buy an extra filler or two, you can replace the oven at any point down the road with a more capable model but you will have enjoyed the FIRE of the cook surface until that happens.