You might want to check Consumer Reports (https://www.consumerreports.org/join - $10/month digital). In general, you'll find that different manufacturers excel at producing different types of appliances, and that fancy-pants brands are not always the best and, in some cases, are not reliable. You can follow up with owners' reviews of specific products on such sites as appliancesconnectin.com, ajmadison.com, Home Depot and Best Buy.

Thanks for the response. I have used those sources, plus the yale appliances blog a lot for my research. Ton of helpful information, though the challenge is going from all that information to settling on a decision. Was wondering if anyone had insight or personal experience with the specific brands or products I've been looking at. We are definitely looking at a 36" range / rangetop / cooktop, and from what I've seen from consumer reports they don't have a lot of fully up to date reviews (so older models / previous iterations) on some of the brands I have looked at.

I know people absolutely love their Bluestar ranges, there are a lot of discussions about them, here's a semi-recent one:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5522039/help-me-decide-on-bluestar-range#n=26

I actually have a 36" Wolf cooktop (almost 17 years old and still going strong) and Wolf double ovens (5-6 most old / replaced 16 year old Thermador double oven). I absolutely love both appliances.

I also know people love their inductions and if I ever move and remodel a new kitchen will look at considering this. I just did a kitchen for my 80 year old parents and thought induction would have been much safer for them, but my mom didn't want to learn a new cooktop at her age and didn't want to get new pans. Otherwise I would have like to have an induction for them.

As for wall oven and cooktop instead of a range, I absolutely love my cooktop/double oven setup and prefer it better than a range setup (I have that at our cottage) I remember looking at professional ranges back when we were renovating 17 years ago and the oven was just so low that I preferred ovens on the wall. As the years pass I am so glad I don't have top stoop down to get things in/out of oven

Definitely mix/match if you are looking for the best appliances suited for you. Stick with all one brand if you are only concerned about price over performance.

Take a long look at the difference in warranties as well as call customer service of each brand to make sure they are easily- accessible.

And definitely make sure you have service people easily-available for each brand in your area. For example I remember Miele was harder to find service near me so it was out of the running as an option.

ccwaters and ci_lantro, thanks for the excellent responses. I will definitely inquire about service repairs in the area. I live in San Francisco, so hopefully should be easy to find. I'll have to talk more with my wife on the wall oven issue as she has only used ranges before. I like the convenience of having the oven higher up, but the cost increase may cause us to hold on that change.

I would really like to have a demo of different appliance brands and cooking on induction. Is anyone aware of any great appliance showrooms in the Bay Area that would be a good option for this? The two stores we have been to so far have been relatively small with no live demo capabilities.

Lastly, I realized I had some inaccurate assumptions about the Jenn-Air gas ranges / ovens and the need to control via app. If anyone has direct experience with the Jenn-Air gas or duel fuel range or wall ovens I would love to hear it.

For reference, below are the current views of the kitchen. We are likely going to open up the wall next to the refrigerator, we may put in a door way where the refrigerator is to the foyer space, and we are looking at possibly having an island (depends on the removal of the wall). Will be a complete gut, and there is a bit more natural light that will enter the kitchen from behind where these photos were taken.

Did you make a choice yet? I liked induction too but was worried about scratching it with our pans. Wanted Thermador 30" 5 burner, but didn't like their french door refrigerator, so went Wolf duel fuel 30" and subzero. With that, you can get an extra $1000 or 3 years additional warranty.