DO NOT BUY BRINKMANN! I loved my ProSeries 2720 the first year. That's all I can say that's been positive. Been a downhill battle of trying to get parts ever since! I have also been waiting months for a part (Main Burner Support) and while it stated it was on backorder, it had a date that it would be available. So I give a credit card, it's charged immediately, and for MONTHS I keep getting new updated dates of when they'll have this instrumental part. As soon as the date gets close, they add another 4-5 weeks to the "anticipated" date. Don't waste your time trying to call them either... They must have one person, part time who hates their job answering phones, so they DON'T. Every time I've tried getting through to them on the phone, I've listened to the "on hold" music for 40 -45 minutes (real time... timer on my office phone) with no one ever picking up. If you email "customer service" (I use the term loosely in their case) they respond with rude and abrupt answers. STEER CLEAR OF BUYING BRINKMANN. The are really one of the worse companies (grills or otherwise) that I've ever bought from. I won't make the mistake of buying anything from them ever again! PS> At the time of this writing, I've been waiting 8 months for an important part for my grill, while they've had my money the entire time. REALLY! Steer clear from this company who doesn't care at all about the end-user (you and me) who actually use their grills, but only how many they sell to the Big Box stores, like Wal-Mart, Lowes, Menards, etc....

This probably won't be much help because my cooktop grill experience was years ago with a Jenn-Air. It was awful to clean and I would never ever again have one. Wolf may or may not be a different story, but I'm sure others will chime in. If you are going to mainly use it for quick extra meals, a burger or 2, a small steak I would just get a separate grill pan. I have an All-Clad and love it! Use it constantly, easy to clean in the sink, and one of the best purchases I have ever made. There is just the 2 of us and we now rarely use our outdoor grill- steaks, chicken, veggies, burgers all come off the grill pan with a nice sear and are delicious. My mind still boggles at the thought of cleaning that Jenn-Air built-in grill.

Just want to add my 2 cents to the "is SS on the way out?" debate. Basically, anyone currently in the market for a kitchen appliance (as I just was) can't help but recognize that there is no more ubiquitous element in late 20th/early 21st century kitchens than SS appliances. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that its days are numbered, that it will soon be rejected en masse, thus rendering all those SS-featuring kitchens out-dated, even the one I am just redoing now, dang it! But here's what I decided. It seems like the trend right now is toward "classical" -- i.e. least ornate, least pretentious, least gimmicky, most functional, timeless, etc -- hence the proliferation of elements that have been in kitchens for decades, even centuries -- white subway tile, straight-edged soapstone counters, hardwood floors, no-nonsense appliances (metal), etc. So if you go with any of those choices, you are basically joining a trend that is about rejecting trendiness! Paradox! All that to say that I don't think you can put those things, including SS, in the same category as avocado or harvest gold. The former have no pretensions other than functionality, and that is what makes them so super-cool-looking. And that is what makes them timeless. End of speech. As far as scratches and dings go, my 3-year-old well-used JennAir fridge has none, but the fingerprints and smudges are ever present. FWIW.

I wanted to contribute my experience- we got the capital culinarian all gas 48" w/ the griddle (so we have 6 burners) within the past year and I have been using it for a few months. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our decision!! I too did a lot of research and did not read many negative reviews about it- and they are very well built, pretty, and simple design-wise (my husband is a contractor and thought they were most similar to the commercial ranges he has worked on, i.e. if something breaks it would be easy to fix). I probably wouldn't need 6 burners just for cooking- but it is nice to have. I also do a lot of canning/preserving, and do use 6 burners at the same time (simmer for warming lids, canning pot, pot for extra hot water, pot w/ stuff to be canned, pot w/ syrup for the stuff to be canned, one pot w/ dinner cooking). My husband loves the griddle- very easy to make breakfasts, hot sandwiches, etc. You could always do 4 burners and a grill/griddle as an option if you don't can/need 6 burners. Also, I really enjoy the big oven on the 48" (not sure how this compares in size to the 36" since the 48" has a large and small oven and the 36" one large oven). It can fit 9x13" pans side by side, and cookie sheets. The roll out racks aren't as smooth as some of the other brands we looked at (we liked the thermador racks the best- very smooth) but they work pretty well. Also, I haven't had any problems w/ the baking heat/evenness, and our oven is gas (which I think is typically worse than electric ovens?). I haven't baked bread yet- but have done a lot of other foods (cookies, casseroles, etc.). So if it were me I would definitely do the 36" over the 30" :-) It sounds like you would use it w/ all the cooking that you do. If you have any questions about mine please let me know :-)