HI all, We just decided on an XOV36S range hood based on deeageaux's recommendation.

Now, we are looking for a range. We wanted a cooktop and a microwave/oven combo initially, but we're warming up to the thought of buying a range now. We do a lot of high heat cooking (indian). We hated the GE gas cooktop we had in the previous house, The grates were set high from the burner and we felt like there was not enough heat - and with the down draft sucking in all the heat, it used to take us forever to cook anything.

Our budget is around 3000$ for a 36" gas range. This puts many of the high end brands like wolf and thermador out of the budget. We really like the idea of open burner, it just seems so much more efficient. Bluestar and Capital are the only companies that make open burner ranges. Am I correct? I am not able to find pricing on bluestar RCS anywhere online. RNB and capital culinary is out of our price range. We are considering NXR range - it does seems to have good reviews for the price, but we are not sure if NXR's closed burners will be efficient. From some pictures and youtube videos of NXR range, the grates seemed very thick and the distance between the burner and grates is well over an inch.

Another option is to just stick with a bluestar cooktop and getting a microwave/oven wall combo.

Suggestions please? Thanks in advance.