Dear Gardenwebbers, I haven't posted in a while but have been following every single word you have all typed-I've turning into a stove stalker ROFLOL! Of all the threads I've read over the past year regarding stoves, this is the only one whose posters have actually taken the time to break down the decision-making into the critical components. Not just reviews or opinion, but usage, wear, cost, BTUs, options,even the way the stove sticks out from the walls and integrates into the space. Well done!!You have no idea how helpful you've been! I still haven't made a decision, but I'm inching closer. Like a few of you, I took a step back and asked what I really needed/had to have. One of you rightly pointed out that deciding whether one is a stove top or oven cooker could help out. My ovens are super important to me, and have been the big sticking point in my choices (more on that in a minute) but I do most of my cooking on the stovetop.I REALLY want a coup de feu.If I pick the two burner one coup combination offered by Molteni or Gullo, I'll have to really up my cooking game and plan a bit more ahead (you have to allow the plaque to come to temperature to really use it effectively. So I was concerned I wouldn't have enough "regular" burners.But then, like you all advised, I took a step back and paid attention to what I was really doing "most" days-turns out I'm usually only turning on two burners anyway. When i move to more burners, that's when I could use a million more, so the coup definitely could work out then. I'm still kind of intimidated by it-the Molteni and the others I'm considering are very powerful, but I think that's just lack of self confidence. Burner strength/BTU's were very important to me as well. I currently have an old Wolf Gourmet line-they were better made than the current offering, heavier and more powerful.The max burner is 18K, but it loses power when the other ones are turned on, and then I can't get that nice carmelized sear on the food. I love the oven though. It's gas with a broiler and a (very noisy) convection fan, and sticky racks. Don't love the noise and the stick, but the size is pretty good, and it works well. All the units I'm considering are more powerful, but some more than others.Like everyone has noted, the ovens seem to be what pose the most dilemmas. I worry about cleanability. My current stove is a PITA to clean.The Rorgue has a neat water bath under the burners to rinse out spills-cool!It's also the least expensive of my three choices (So far. Am waiting on the cost of the UL listing fee, plus I have to add in taxes and VAT) but I can have every little gadget I had lusted for(of course, I'm now really rethinking everything). But it's the least pretty/french range looking of the batch. It does come in colors though. I'm nervous that if i select a range with two ovens that I won't be able to use them for what I occasionally need-larger sheets and pans, so I'm really leaning towards one gas oven in the range, and a Miele Masterchef 30" in the wall, which is 6" bigger than my current oven (I have a few pans that I really have to grease up the sides of the oven to squeeze in). I'm going to a Gaggenau cooking demo at Purcell-Murray this weekend and check out their ovens too. Anybody have some feedback on those? I'm also considering getting a smaller range and adding in two induction burners into the counter for quickie cooking for the kids (I have five). I could have had them built into a bespoke range, but the electric components have to be kept far away from a high heat source, which screwed up the size of the unit massively Our quotes from the contractors are coming-scary! I just wanted to thank everyone for all the input-every single comment has been so helpful. Oh, on a side note, there's a ROCKIN' Morice stove for sale that I found on the internet. It's not the right color for em (it's blue and silver) but maybe it would work out for you. It's got 3/4 burners (one is a single grate but with two burners under it-is that one or two?LOL) and a coup de feu. The oven is electric. I've (hopefully!) included the link. Parts are still available for the Morices. If it had been a different color, I would have jumped on it-great price. well, I'll be continuing to follow everybody's stove progress, and hope to have a stove too. Soon... Here is a link that might be useful: Sea Sales Morice cooker

We went through the same conundrum a couple months back. We had a 36 inch, 6 burner Blue Star range. Taking a 20+ pound bird out the the oven was not easy--and it will get worse as we age. We just sold our apartment and bought a new one with a bigger kitchen, that we are renovating. We went with the similar, somewhat updated BS range and with Miele 24" speed cook and 30" wall ovens. We didn't want to give up the terrific infrared broiler in the gas range, but wanted an oven that didn't require us to stoop down.

Well, funny you should ask because I just discovered that the NXR oven can maintain a steady heat as low as 135F. The lowest marking for the NXR's oven dial is 150F but it operates below that. Last September, GWbasic ran a test where he was running his NXR oven at 140F. Here's the link with his post and pictures. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg0900375212746.html The other day, I decided to see if I could use the oven to make yogurt which requires a steady temp around 110F for four or more hours. I was able to get my NXR's oven to hold a steady 135F for three hours. Because it seemed like a stupid pet trick, I quit at that point. Maybe there would be a sous vide recipe or dehydrating process where that temp could be useful?. That temp is too warm for yogurt and bread proofing. I can get the oven to hold around 95F to 100F by turning on the oven lights. If I put a pan of hot water in the oven with the bread, I can get it to hold about 110F for a little over an hour and a half, but then the temp slowly declines to the 100F range. Anyway, I've used my NXR oven for extended simmering at 170F and it has had no trouble holding even temps at 200F for slow-cooking/braising tough cuts of beef and pork. I've also done the old Cook's Illustrated "low and slow" roast beef, again with no trouble holding a steady 200F. [EDITED TO ADD: Point of clarification. I just realized that some folks somteimes refer to a "range" as an "oven" and those folks might think I was referring to simmering and braising on the stove top. However, I'm talking about doing these things in the actual oven here, not the stovetop.] In doing these things, I've verified the oven temp by cross checking with a dial-type oven thermomter and a remote digital probe type. Is that the kind of info you are looking for? This post was edited by JWVideo on Sat, Apr 6, 13 at 12:31

The rental will be short term (ie a few months at a time) for engineers and other professionals in the oil industry, typically with families. It's a four bedroom townhouse. They pay well but expect a great deal. I have to buy a professional sized built in (ie tall like sub zero) because I don't want to spend the money to remove the brick (and frankly it's really a nice feature). But I'd like to avoid the seven grand I spent our a sub zero for our place. In the long run we may sell the place, but again, in this neighborhood they'll expect to at least look higher end :) I'm not sure I can even get Bertzatolli in Alaska, but I'll do some research. I'm not worried about getting my money back if I can keep to below $15,000 in appliances in the kitchen. I expect the rest of the work will be around $85,000 and want to have a better figure so we can write that into our offer (ie we're low balling because it's in bad shape!) If we do "short term" it would be a minimum of 30 days because we don't want to do the hotel tax thing...and it's against the rules in the associations. But here in Anchorage there's a great need for higher end short term, furnished etc., places. For instance I'm paying $2000 a month for a 1970's duplex in the hood, on a month by month rental because our house is still under construction. So, long story short :) That's why we want to put nicer things in it (we'll be asking between $4000 and $5000 a month in rent in the summer months). You'd expect a lot for that wouldn't you :) Even if you don't use it LOL