Is there a reason you’re only looking at those two brands?

I suggest you broaden your search to include the Thermador rangetop. Their star shaped burners are far superior to Wolf’s or the Monogram’s circular burners. They heat food much more evenly, getting the flames into the center of the pan/pot.

We love ours!

Hi Heather ~ I've been looking at several brands and models for a few weeks now. Those are the 2 favorites.

I like that my Bluestar burner grates can all be removed separately for cleaning. I always found it annoying to clean the giant double grates from my old Thermador range, and it was one of the reasons I disliked the Wolf rangetops when shopping for our new kitchen. I’m not sure how the grates come off of the Monogram, but that’s is something to consider. I also like the removable griddle option on my range top, but I don’t know if they have that same option for cooktops.

Are you talking about a cooktop or do you mean a rangetop.

If you really mean cooktop, I think the burner is cut off on the Monogram(top) so the griddle might hang over the controls. Some of the overlays are wider. chef King is 12”.

The Wolf if you use the 9K and 12K, you would still have 21K combined. If you turned the 12K down a little, it would compare with the 15K or less found on most built ins.

One big advantage with an overlay is that you have a choice about what metal you use. You can get one that is rolled steel or heavy aluminum.

The aluminum one comes bare or coated to be nonstick.

http://www.dvorsons.com/ChefKing/Griddles.htm

http://royalindustriesinc.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_22_48

I have the bare aluminum . I like it because it heats more evenly than the steel and is a little lighter weight. I want it to be evenly heated when I make grilled sandwiches or toast buns. I season it like a steel griddle. I had a smaller one on my previous range but it was too small for the range I have now but it had seasoned very well over the years.

The steel takes a seasoning a little easier and if there are hotter and cooler areas, some people utilize that to cook and hold.

"As for using a griddle that spans 2 burners, it just doesn't work well. The heat isn't even-- the ends get very hot and the middle is warm."

There might be a couple of things that influence this.

The first is the metal used in the griddle..

The second is that the Monogram and Wolf both have a burner cap so compared to an uncapped burner, there is more flare on the highest heat. The amount of flare depends on how the burner is engineered. This can leave the middle without heat. If the griddle is steel, stainless or cast iron, the heat transfer properties aren’t that great so the middle can be cooler. Heavy aluminum and heavy copper, will even out the heat more. Thermador was mentioned as a star burner but it is capped so does not bring heat to the center as a BlueStar star burner does. The BSstar is uncapped so it truly brings heat in a more upward direction on high heat and to the middle if that is what you want.

BlueStar star burner, top uncapped Thermador Star bottom, capped

Keep in mind too that medium heat might be all that is required with an overlay. Most two burner built in griddles have about 15K BTUs total. An overlay has the potential to have 2x whatever the burners are. If it is on high and it is difficult to see where the flame is on the pan, you might be loosing all of your heat around the pan. My griddle is heavy aluminum, 15x23” and it heats pretty evenly on medium -med high heat. Burners are Wolf dual stacked 15 K BTUs. If the griddle were only 11” wide and the burners were up high, that might be close to 30K and the flame is closer to the edges.

Awesome, really good information and feedback. Thank you all so much.