This is a previous thread on the subject. While there are differences in humidity-gas being drier due to more ventilation(also more heat in your kitchen) and electric being moister due to it being more closed and less ventilation, the difference is in the technology available in some electric ovens. I have two different electric ovens and use all the modes. I love being able to direct the heat from above for roasting. The roast mode with convection is a beautiful thing. My neighbor on the other hand hates convection because "It makes things too brown". I love having self clean. If you decide on a brand, gas or electric, search that brand on this board and you might find people that have experience with that specific oven. There is a huge difference in the way ovens are made gas or electric. Here is a link that might be useful: gas vs electric ovens

Mikael, Interesting thoughts. I would imagine that a HVAC professional who's a good tinkerer could fix you up with stronger burner outlets in a vintage range, but then you'd have to figure out how to increase the capacity of the valves themselves, wouldn't you? I'm certainly no expert, but dimes to donuts some geeky gas tech guy who lives in his mom's basement could outfit you in a jiffy. ;-). But aren't gas stoves (like the OKM) UL listed for the btus they're designed with? The efficacy of doing such a modification probably depends on how severe the building code/inspectors are in your area. If by surface flames you mean the burner pilot light (it's one for all 4 burners), it is well covered and not exposed. Our OKM pilot does make a slight warm spot under the griddle where it sits, but I rather like that feature for tasks like melting butter. But maybe you mean unsealed burners? I will share that I used a friend's full-grated Wolf gas stove while on a visit a while back, and those honking big grates actually rather annoyed me. I wanted to put things down -- stirring spoons, mise bowls, etc -- in the center between the burners, but couldn't do so because of the full grate. So I suspect that's all a matter of habit, like many of these issues. If you've never slid pots back and forth without lifting them slightly, you won't miss not being able to. Question: what's a "patio stove"? Up here in Maine, anything like that would be covered in 5 feet of snow half the year. :)

“I've never had anything but electric, but I've always turned my baked good 180 degrees at least once. None of my ovens have ever had the same temperature front and back...the back half always cooks faster!” To the food, it makes no difference what kind of heat is being used. Heat is heat, simply BTUs. However, how the heat is delivered will make a big difference on how the food end up being cooked. Here is the science on heating (cooking) food. There are three main and different ways to heat up food: 1. By microwave, which I will not discuss because it’s OT. 2. By infrared radiation 3. By conduction. Before I move on, let me point out that “Convection oven” is somewhat a misnomer. It should be called “Forced hot air”, because all heat produces convection, with or without a convection fan. Infrared (IR) heating is when you are in sunlight, you can be heated up even the air temperature is freezing. Conduction is when you park your car under the sun and you first entry your car and you feel that blast of hot air. Electric oven has electric heating elements which can generate IR only. The IR hits the food and the oven walls, raising the temperature of the walls and the food, which then heats up the air, the air then heats everything by conduction. Gas heats by exothermal chemical reaction. The heat generated heats the air and any objects near the flames. The heated food and objects then heat up the air by conduction. IR is a form of light, which is electro magnetic radiation, and light travels only in straight line, therefore anything in shadows will not be heated. Furthermore, Dark color objects get heated faster. Gas heats up the air, hot air moves by convection and heats the food all around. Electric heating elements are either on 100% or off, there is no in between. When it is on, the food gets the maximum IR heating. Electric heat is 100% dry heat. Gas heat is valved from low to high and gas combustion does produces water as one of the by products of the chemical reaction. All the above, combining the particular design characteristic of the physical oven, will give you different end results, depending your cooking skills, habits and recipes. I am not sure I answered your questions. :-) dcarch

Consumer Reports has ratings and reliability estimate for 17 electric double-wall ovens (consumerreports.org - $10/month digital). Appliances Connection has only six gas double-wall oven from one manufacturer but 381 gas double-wall ovens.