What is your budget?

For support go to each manufacturers website and put your zip code into the tech locator. It will show you if you have service agencies available that cover your area.

I'd like to keep it under $5000.00

I love my BlueStar RNB 30". The oven fits a full sheet pan. I don't think there's a bigger 30" oven out there. It was about $4000 and hand made in Pennsylvania. The BlueStar website shows over 20 dealers in SF area. BSC Culinary Resource Center, 1665 Mission St, SF has a "complete BS showroom and fulling functioning displays (cooktop, hood, platinum range, range)."

At that price, you have some choices.

What kind of cooking do you do? What type of cookware do you like to use?

Are you looking for something prostyle? This gives a little more depth for bigger pans.

Some other characteristics to consider.

Open vs sealed burner tray. Some people prefer one or the other for cleaning. The sealed is pretty straight forward but there are videos on cleaning the BS on YouTube.

Capped vs uncapped burners-there can be anywhere from a little to a lot more splay of the flame on the highest heat with capped burners. Uncapped burners allow the frame to go straight up.

BTUs. Every burner has a high rating and a low rating. The high rating is pretty easily found and even advertised. The low rating, used to compare simmers is harder to get. It is usually given in temperature which is pretty meaningless. High BTUs are used to be able to stir fry larger quantities. It will also heat large amounts of water faster. You might need to look at your ventilation if you go that way. Some people want really low heat and want to make sure they have a good simmer. There are some capped burners that have two burners stacked to give two ranges of temperatures within one burner. These will typically have very good simmers.

Star are shaped vs ring(s)burners. The star shaped burner disperses heat over a greater area which is useful for pans that don't conduct heat well like cast iron or steel and some plied cookware. You will notice BS has varying sizes of burners so you can match the size to the pan to take advantage of that. If you have cookware that conducts heat well (copper or aluminum and some plied cookware, ring burners will be fine and some have all the burners the same except maybe one small pan burner. I am not sure what type of range you gave now but prostyle burners are bigger so little pans might need the smaller burner.

There are a few ovens that will hold full sheets. I don't use them because for me they are just too big to wash and fit in my fridge but I would love to have that width to hold two half sheets side by side. I would not go by cubic feet but rather usable space which will be indicated by the rack size and placement.

Service is is a bit of a conundrum because it depends on several things. At one level, it is the manufacturer. This can depend on your location. I have heard stories of some manufacturers sending engineers out in California and New York, but that doesn't happen where I live and some people are lucky to get service of any kind. It can also depend on the local service provider and even who they send out. Lastly the dealer can have a huge impact on the level of service. If you buy a BS or Capital product, and are not confident in your local dealer, you might consider buying from

Trevor Lawson- Eurostoves

He takes excellent care of his customers and has even helped those here who were not his customers.

I currently cook on a 48in. all gas Wolf. I will be moving into a smaller home so I will be needing a 30 in.range. I love my Wolf. Not a single service call in 7 yrs.

I will be living in a fairly rural community and service could be an issue. I was thinking about a 30 in. Wolf but need to make sure I can get certified Wolf service for warranty purposes. We also have a fair number of power outages and I like the ability to light the stove. I also like the fact that there is not a circuit broad that can act up. Wondering how users like Thermador or GE Cafe. Liked the features on the Kitchenaid but so many bad comments.

I second the BlueStar recommendation. We were torn between BS and Wolf and eventually decided on BS for a few reasons, one of which was the large oven. We love the range and would make the same decision again.

Where do you live? Is good service available?

I live in Tennesee (Tri Cities area) and yes, good service is available to us.

Do you worry about the oven door getting hot when you cook? The range would be separated from my refrigerator by a 15 in. base cab. Do you think that would be a problem?

I do not see it as being a problem. We cook on the range and use the oven several times a week and though the oven door gets warm, maybe hot even, it has never gotten alarmingly hot to my touch. I know that some people have had concerns about that before, maybe that would be from earlier models? I don't know but we have cats and dogs and I have never had a concern for their safety. My children aren't really children any longer (21 and 18) so no concerns there either. I stand in front of it cooking and haven't experienced any issues myself.

No heat issues for me either with the oven door. It's warm but not burning.

>>> Wondering how users like Thermador or GE Cafe.<<<

I looked pretty hard at at getting a dual fuel Cafe about four years ago.

They have not changed much since then. I liked the Cafe a lot but wound up with an NXR instead.

FWIW, the NXR seems like a knockoff of the really old Wolf residential models from back in the 1980s. Anyway, I chose the NXR for some of the same reasons you liked the Wolf model you are looking at; lack of electronics to act up being one of them.

That may make it helpful (or not) to check out the thread where I posted my comparison of the the NXR and Cafe stoves which you can find here.

No recent first hand experience with Thermadors so I can't help there.

When it comes to service do not use a company that outsources to A&E Factory Service.

I was under the impression that almost every gas range would not be lit if the power went out?

I think you are right, cpartist, about the oven, but the range top can be lit.

cpartist:

It depends upon the specific design of the range electronics. The ones with simple spark igniters or continuous pilot lights (not used much anymore except in commercial settings) can usually be lit without power. Ovens or broilers that use "glow plug" ignition (also known as hot surface igniters) generally can not.

The actual determining factor is the use of electrically controlled gas safety valves, often called "thermovalves". These valves only turn on the gas to their associated burner when an electrical sensor, of some sort, signals that it is safe to do so (indicating that the source of ignition is active). Oven glow plugs create that electrical signal when they get hot enough to ignite the gas.

Bluestar range top burners can be lit without power because they don't use thermovalves. The control knob turns a mechanical gas valve to immediately start the flow of gas to the burner. It also closes a separate switch mounted on the valve shaft to power the spark igniter. If there is no electrical power available, the igniter won't spark but the gas will still flow and can be manually lit. Bluestar oven and broiler burners use glow plugs and thermovalves so they cannot operate without electrical power.

I believe that Thermador uses thermovalves for its top burners as well as its ovens so it cannot be used without power (at least in some models).

Don't know about other manufacturers.