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60 inch range vs two 36 inch dual fuel ranges

We are looking at a 60 inch wolf dual fuel but now considering two 36 inch wolf ranges... All will be expensive but having to mega ovens with the 36 inchers is definite advantage vs the 25.5 inch width on the symmetric 60 inch range.....

Any thoughts on two 36 inch dual fuel ranges together - clearly a big hood is necessary either way... Building new so electrical/gas hok-ups a non-issue


9300 square foot house so estimating 30 people when most of family is visiting


Any wisdom, personal experience, opinions are welcome and appreciated!!

Comments (37)

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Are you feeding battalions? There are firehouses with full shifts that don't use that much cooking power. That’s about 30K in ventilation and make up air costs. Plus the ranges. Complete overkill in all situations. Even 50 visitors. You won’t have the room or the resources to seat that many people, or have 1/10 of them actively using the kitchen.

  • PRO
    last year

    Sorry way too much stuff for a home kitchen for sure why not do frech door ovens if you need larger ones I run a catering biz with a 36" allgas 6 burner range with oven and a double wall oven. all ovens are convection

  • last year

    2 Miele 36" inductions ranges can be had with steam injection in the ovens. Made in US.

  • last year

    Appreciate the comments!! We do have room/seating for 28 people and more outside of kitchen/formal dining.


    I like the redundancy of two ranges in case one isn't working... Wolf seems to be the most reliable after talking with 4 different appliance stores. The message was the same from each despite doing business in 3 different states.


    Clearly none of this is a need or we would've built a 1500 square foot house without a garage/shop. Maybe the 60 inch will be enough to serve our purposes.... Staying away from induction currently.... That could be the future but in Idaho there is plenty of low cost consistent propane/electricity available.

  • last year

    You don't say how often there are up to 30 people being entertained in the space but seems like the kitchen would be another great room. If space allows, perhaps consider having a separate work room/pantry with secondary fridge, stove and sink/dishwasher.

  • PRO
    last year

    Consider catering the meals over a certain number of attendees.

  • last year

    we are guessing that itll be 30 people about 3-4 weeks per year. The house has a large pantry (6x19 feet) with another full sized fridge and sink. kitchen will have two dishwashers and one or two ranges. Great room is approximately 30 x 30 feet.


    Thanks for the great advice!

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    The great room is wide enough but needs more length. 20 feet.

  • last year

    WOW I mean I've heard of people whose ovens die at Thanksgiving but buying two just in case?!! I was expecting the OP to say this is a kosher situation...

  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    O have 24 guests often too . Gas ranges are great for good lasting qualities IMO Wolf is totally overpriced for no real benefit. The venting will be a huge turn off I advise you to go a commercial kitchen at the end of the day and listen then ask them to turn the venting off you will get a good idea of how noisy that will be in a home no way would I ever consider that choice . Even commercial kitchens do not have 60" ranges usually .Sorry but really to buy applainces for backup is just plain silly .We have a much smaller house with lots of guests during the summer so we eat outside usually I have space for 20 there in a pinch can do the same inside . I would never design my home for that bunch unless they lived here year round . I think of course this is your home but really 9300 sq ft to look after all year for 3 times ayear visits seems crazy to me . I find keeping 3600 sq ft enough work and we just make it work those 3 x s a year

  • last year

    Many of us here have two wall ovens or a range and another oven, so not that unusual. Buying a second range to get the second oven, that is the unusual part.

    I have a 36" Wolf Induction range and second oven (24" Miele CSO XXL). In hindsight I wish I had done an induction cooktop and three of the Miele ovens.

  • last year

    It sounds like there will be lots of cooking involved and I’m curious to ask a question to the OP as to how many people will be doing the cooking at any given time. I ask this because one of the considerations you should make when choosing a range versus other cooking appliances is the crowding amongst the cooks that can happen when you’re trying to cook for that many people. Have you considered going with a Rangetop (not a cooktop. )and separate wall ovens? Rangetops can be had all the way up to 60 inches wide which would give you lots of options to choose from whether you went with a remarkable number of burners, such as eight burners on the 60 inch rangetop or you can even replace some of those burners with grills or griddles to suit your cooking style. Then, you could opt for double wall ovens or even two single wall ovens if need be. Having your ovens and rangetop separated allows you a lot of flexibility in what sounds like it is going to be a very large kitchen and so you should have the space to do this. And that way, multiple cooks can have their working room and people are not stepping over each other. The most common dimension for wall ovens is 30 inch but there are 36 inch wide ovens if you need something that large. Bluestar makes 30 inch wall ovens that will hold a full size baking sheet and they produce these in both electric and gas versions. I believe they also produce a 36 inch wide gas wall oven. For rangetops, Bluestar’s go all the way up to 60 inches. They also have open style gas burners, which many cooks find superior for a more commercial style burner set up. (preference for burner style is subjective, however ). If Wolff is your preferred brand, Wolf makes rangetops up to 48 inches along with 36 inch and smaller versions of course. I do think you are making a wise choice in having two dishwashers. I don’t entertain nearly that number of people and even I have benefitted highly from having two dishwashers given all of the cooking that I do.
    Here are the links to the Bluestar and Wolf rangetop selections:

    https://www.bluestarcooking.com/cooking/rangetops/

    https://www.subzero-wolf.com/wolf/configurator

  • last year

    We are looking at a 60 inch wolf dual fuel but now considering two 36 inch wolf ranges...

    Why so much cooking space? I know, you said you anticipate up to 30 people 3-4 weeks/year, but that leaves 48-49 weeks each year when all that "extra" is just something to keep clean and extra steps to take. Or sitting un-used.

    When these people are all converging on your house, it'd be easier /cheaper to bring food in, to plan an outdoor kitchen for overflow. If they'd be day guests, they'd almost certainly bring something to serve. Consider, too, that crock pots or other small appliances can be helpful for those short times.

    Your plan seems like overkill. It'll push your kitchen to unwieldy proportions.

    If I needed to feed this many people, I'd care more about seating and serving.

    If I needed to feed this many people, I'd also use paper plates instead of duplicate dishwashers.

    I like the redundancy of two ranges in case one isn't working

    In my 35 years of marriage /home ownership, my oven has broken once and one cooktop burner has broken once -- and each time I was able to get them fixed within days. I really don't think this is a realistic reason to go overboard with ranges/range size.


  • last year

    Why am I thinking the OP is a scammer?

    Shrugging.......

  • last year

    I would think about a traditonal kitchen layout and then having a back kitchen with the additional appliances you need, for me having too many appliances in the main kitchen risks a church kitchen look rather than an upscale home

  • PRO
    last year

    You could be right Kate look at the name of the OP.

  • last year

    Get wall ovens.


    I have heard a lot of people with 36" ranges complain about the time it takes to heat up the oven. Not sure what the benefit of a 36" would be over a 30", unless you really need to fit full size sheet pans.


    60" would only really be needed for wow factor. If that's what you're going for, fine, but without a floor plan we can't really say whether or not that will actually work or fit in your kitchen.

  • last year

    "having to mega ovens with the 36 inchers is definite advantage vs the 25.5 inch width on the symmetric 60 inch range"

    How? According to Cookie Sheet Size Chart, a full-size cookie sheet is 18"x26" which is the "standard size used in commercial settings" with the benefit of "high-volume production". A cookie sheet of that size would require the 31-1/4"W x 17-1/2"H x 20"D oven of the 36" range but would you really use pans of that size? Put it this way: in two ranges with three racks each, six full-size cookie sheets would cover 19-1/2 square feet!

    A 16"x22" 2/3 cookie sheet is used in "home bakeries/small catering businesses" and is "the largest residential size". Pans of this size will fit in a typical 30" range's oven (or 30" wall oven).

    Two 36" ranges would include 12 burners!

  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    With that many burners and ovens you may be able to reduce the size of the furnace or boiler.

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    But you'd need to add an air conditioner to the kitchen for summertime.

  • last year

    Appreciate most of the comments! Not sure how learning from others experiences is scamming.


    Our property is in Island Park, ID, and in the winter it can be a month to get appliance service so that is a consideration. Shooting for high end teliability and an elegant build. Its our first custom home build.


    When its up and running itll be available for short term renta.


    The ventilation part will be addressed when hood is in use. We are likely going with Wolf for reliability. Any other suggestions for dual fuel brands? We thought about rangetops and separating oven spaces but like simplicity of all in one place, etc.

  • last year

    We have a 48” Blue Star range that we love (8 burners) . It did not have the dual fuel option when we bought it, but they do now. And, you have a choice of colors!

  • PRO
    last year

    Sorry only guessing but I still say Wolf over priced and all gas ranges rarely need service and the bonus is in a power outage you can still light the burners at least for now until they all make stupid non lightable ones for some dumb reason. I love my gas oven in my range it does a much nicer job of baking bread and pizza .

  • last year

    Get a 48 inch and a wall oven. 60 inch or 2 36 inch seems over kill. I have a 48 inch Blusestar range. The large oven fits a full size sheet pan. The smaller oven fits a half sheet. It has 8 burners. You will be able to reduce the size of the ginormous hood that would be needed for a 60 inch or 2 36 inch.

  • last year

    In CR surveys, Monogram and GE were the most reliable gas range brands. No data were available for Wolf ranges. Monogram dual-fuel ranges are 30, 36, and 48".

  • last year

    Sit down meals for our family gatherings are 18-20 people. If I had my kitchen remodel to do over again, I would:

    1. Add a second prep area that included a full sink and dishwasher, for two of each total
    2. Two wall ovens away from the main cooktop.


    "bunching" up of cooks is my main annoyance when we have a crowd. I can't imagine how crew bumping elbows at 60+" of cooktop.


    I have a 36" Wolf dual fuel range and love it. I had my heart set on a 48" and I can honestly say I never wished for it after using the 36" for eight years.



  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    The required heated make up air for this large amount of cooking is going to be substantial and substantially expensive. As in, it's probably going to cost as much as your whole HVAC system costs for the home. You will be exhausting the total contents of your home's conditioned volume in about 12-15 minutes otherwise. And replacing it with freezing cold outside air. Which isn't allowed. That has to all be heated. That's several BIG supplemental burners doing that heating. You are going to need a commercial rated LARGE gas supply to the home for all of this. And you will probably get charged commercial rates for it too. Because there will be restaurants that don't require as much gas and ventilation.

  • PRO
    last year

    Huge mistake.

  • last year

    Thanks for the discussion on the hood airflow. It looks like people use various calculations to determine hood size and cfm maximum (BTU's of surface gas burners, size of range top, etc.). We will have some things to sort out as may need a bit above 1000 cfm maximum. Can people who currently HAVE/USE a gas range comment on the size of their gas range, BTU's, house/building size and their hood specs (opening size and CFM).... All that will be helpful and it seems to be a bit more involved than initially discussed with our home builder when we asked about hood size, CFM, and range sizes. At this point 60 inches is the biggest we will go and am considering a bit smaller also.


    The air turnover in the house will be expensive, especially when it's ten below Fahrenheit outside requiring all the new air to be heated, etc. We have heard of negative pressure issues in some homes with large hoods and inadequate HVAC.


    I really appreciate the input and discussion points here!

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    House size: 2780 sq ft

    Gas range: Blue Star platinum 48 inch

    Hood: 48 inch 1200 cfm Vent-a-Hood 24 inches deep

    Passive makeup air system



    You will be told that your hood has to be wider than your range but ours is the the same width. It isn’t an issue for us. Our previous house also had a 48 inch wide hood with 48 inch range and it was fine.





  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Wall mounted hoods with side skirts, or that have adjunct cabinets providing much of the same function, may be able to provide adequate capture without being wider than the cooktop, which is already a bit wider than the plume generation sources for most pans. This is particularly true when the hood air flow rate is high and edge effects allow some capture of deviant plume components. Still, drafts due to air conditioning and/or people movement may cause plume disturbances that larger overhangs will better accommodate. Left to themselves without any localized air flow, plumes expand by 10 degrees or more from vertical.

    In this treatise (first dozen pages or so) the reader will learn about the importance of plume velocity in setting hood flow rate versus the "historical" standard of BTUs per foot of commercial hood. Note that height restrictions on residential hoods limit intake reservoir volume resulting in residential hoods requiring higher flow velocities to achieve full containment.

    https://www.tagengineering.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/KVSApplDesign_catalog.pdf

    I haven't yet seen any complaint here about uncaptured plume components with a hood flow velocity of at least 90 ft/min (90 CFM/sq. ft. of hood entry aperture) resulting from a blower with a specified flow rate sufficiently higher (1.5X more or less) to compensate for pressure losses.

    Example plume velocities and angular distributions may be found in this treatise:

    Thermal plumes of kitchen appliances: part 2 cooking mode, Kosonen Risto, Koskela Hannu, Saarinen Pekka.

  • last year

    This may be a one-off comment as I understand you prefer to not separate the cooking areas and weather can be an issue BUT...with a such a large home, I assume you're going all out and will include outdoor living and perhaps an outdoor kitchen? Our son just built a huge custom home with a second kitchen adjacent to the main one with included a large range, pizza oven, refrigerator, fireplace, etc. and stackable, sliding glass doors which can be opened up in the warmer months to the swimming pool. It was fully vented. FWIW, we use our outdoor kitchen off the main kitchen for our overflow cooking needs.

  • last year

    JT7abcz brought up a great idea.


    Another thought - will you have wood burning fireplaces in the house? Your vent system will need to be properly designed so you don't reverse the flow of your fireplace drafts. You want to make sure you have a professional design it for you, not just your kitchen designer. Our kitchen designer and I had a blow out about her wanting to undersize our hood (to suit her mistake in cabinet designe) when the dealer clearly selected the correct size.

  • last year

    How big is this house that you’re doing a 500K kitchen in it? Is it at least 10,000 sq ft? Where are the actual professionals helping you with this? You are not designing this on your own. You can’t. Obviously.

  • last year

    Yes the OP stated the kitchen is for a 9300 square foot house

  • last year

    Advice: Lose the nickname you are using.