Thanks, vvl, for updating your problems-experience. I have had my 36" 6-burner range for maybe 1.5 years now? Time flies... I bought this range as a risk, basically sight-unseen and comparatively untested. I cannot say how it would have compared with a different range, bluestar for example. I have found the range to be not as fantabulagorous as I had anticipated, but then my experience is minimal. I continue to have simmer problems. I was sent one of the new simmer burners which is as described elsewhere above, with just the inner of three concentric rings of gas-jets remaining (that is, the regular burner has three concentric circles of little holes-worth of gas jets, the simmer burner has only the inner-most ring of these gas-jets). This results in a considerably more compact circle where heat hits the pan - it is small. This makes for less-than-ideal conditions in a large pot, IMO. I have almost all cast-iron but still this does result in an interior hot-spot ring which I do not like much. Far far more useful, IMO, would have been to have manufactured a grate which was covered with a metal plate, a sort of embedded "simmer plate". This would also take care of a secondary problem that the opening provided by the grate pattern in the very center is not teeny enough. I have a small turkish-coffee pot that I can just barely fit onto this small interior-spot, but it is tippy; not safe. This is not a terminal complaint, but one of many annoyances. Because of the insufficiently-small interior grating space I find I use my homemade simmer plate (a pad woven from copper wires by dh) often. It is not as good as a real one would be. The clicking remains mind-bogglingly annoying. As Trevor once said: this is the most annoying sound known to man. I know now how to fix it, with time, patience and a screw driver. I have been given a sufficiently small-enough screw driver by the company for this purpose. But in all honesty, I know this makes me an impatient consumer, but I don't really feel like doing this; I have almost never got the time to. I am always trying to throw together dinner at 8:30 before everyone falls asleep in their plate and there are so many crises floating about. I have teenagers and what would be a fine obsession for a retired person, is a real problem for me: I haven't the clearness of time to maintain these stupid burners. It's really annoying. For me, YMMV. The burners drift out of whack within a couple weeks of fixing them. Really, really annoying. In fairness, sort of, the company has offered to come fix them for me when this happens (I happen to live sort of close to the factory), however, I find this a sort of an embarrassing offer. I should be like billy_g and jscout and Ty-whoever and the other machine-involved folks in terms of just dealing with this stuff. But I am finding in my old age that my former interest in engines and machines and mechanics has fallen by the wayside. I would rather the burners just worked properly. And I would rather the simmer function worked better. I have found that I have modified my cooking habits around the machine's weakness. I almost never make sauces anymore which is OK because we are all too heavy anyway. But it is sad that what I hoped would be an amazing capability is quite the opposite. Making soup stock, which I do all the time, is something of an ordeal because the pot has a tendency to boil dry. I find setting my homemade simmer burner atop the full ring burner on its lowest setting, presuming I can find a burner that won't click at me, is the best for simmering soup. Rendering fat still needs the simmer pad atop the simmer burner in a very small pan; if the pan is too large it gets too cool too far away from the narrow center. I'm adjusting, and again, for all I know this is as good as it gets and another stove would have had its own set of irritations. As I recall there was a tradeoff with cost here and I cannot say how that figures in, now or then even. It seemed a relatively good deal at the time. I'm not sure in retrospect that decision was wrong, but again, I am not unconditionally happy with the machine. I liked the advertised ability to have all burners available, all equally blast-like potentially. I don't really like the solution of providing a smaller burner. I want all burners to go from simmer to blast in all positions equally; that's my preference burner-organization-wise. And given that the simmer burner isn't even working very well for me I will probably swap it back out with the old burner one of these years. As well, there is an issue with the oven that has annoyed the heck out of me since day 1. I have learned to work around it but it's also annoying. Oddly enough, my racks (manual oven) buzz -- it's not the fan as was first thought. And weirdly, it is worse when there is weight on the racks, the more the worse. Go figure. If I pull the racks away from the back wall this will stop the buzzing; I have to remember to do this and sometimes, when something delicate is in the oven it's irritating to have to open the door to correct my oversight. But I have learned to position the racks just so to fix this problem; trouble is just on me to remember, and when running about as I always am, this is another small annoyance. Again, doesn't make me rue the purchase, just not ecstatic with it. I find myself using the electric oven whenever possible to avoid the noisiness of the racks. This is probably not cost- or energy-efficient! The stove has also become not completely horizontal but that's unlikely the stove's fault. A big sheet cake came out visibly not-flat recently. I suppose it's necessary to fiddle the feet to bring it back to plumb. That would be as much of an annoyance with any stove, so is not specific to the CC. I'm trying to be fair.... ;) Lots of more experienced chefs still like the range. I would defer to their broader knowledge of the situation. But from my narrow awareness I am not besotted with the appliance. I am disturbed to hear of others' difficulties too, disturbed on behalf of the company. Perhaps this is not fair of me either. They have tried to be responsive to me. I'm just not happy that there appear to be issues about which nothing much *can* be done, and more maintenance work is required than I anticipated. For a recent poster, there are many, many threads on this forum comparing closed and open burners. I have no problems with the open-burner-ness. I find the stove extremely easy to clean, which is good considering the tendency of simmer to be so hot as to send bloops everywhere ;) Get a fan that covers a large area. ;)

I did a long post over a year ago that explained how these electric ovens were different and why they were worth it to me. I didn't keep a copy but will try to reprise it here. When I had to switch out my oven, I wanted something that moved it tech-forward so to speak. For the past 20 years we had conventional heat -- roast, bake etc from a single heat source in the bottom of the oven. Then convection via a fan in back was added. Now, many ovens have both and you can use either mode. In a high end oven like the Wolf, there are two fans that are said to move the heat more evenly through the cavity. But again, you have a single, bottom heat source with/without convection. At the other extreme you have the Turbochef which combines high speed convection though multiple openinings in the bottom of the oven (vs a fan in back) with microwave plus the broiler element -- all working at the same time. Also, there is a different cooking system which is food-driven rather than cooking driven. F.ex. your setting for rolled boneless leg of lamb would be something like lamb, leg, boneless and then the oven cooks it automatically and tells you how long that will take. I made a video of biscuits baking in the Turbochef and it's fascinating to see how it works. In between -- which is where the Miele and other so-called European convection ovens fall plus some Brit range ovens like Brittania and Rangemaster) -- you have conventional heat from the bottom and/or convection plus the ability to combine one or more with heat from the top broiler element. So you have a choice of 1 or 2 heat sources with or without convection. Those are the cooking-driven settings. F.ex. with Auto Roast, if you notice the broiler element comes on in combo with the convection and bottom heating to do the searing. Plus Miele has Masterchef settings -- a whole system of food-driven cooking choices. You can use either system. I don't use MC often as I usually want more control. If you just want a high end oven that has more a conventional/convection system then go for something like the Wolf. I switched out to the Miele incurring additional cost for the oven itself and for carpentry in the cabinet after 2 years in oven h*ll. I was insistent on an oven that vented at the bottom (not at the top where exhaust heats the electronics), one that could withstand power outages, gave me digital readouts, had a great probe, rotisserie and was more advanced in the way it handles heat settings. I decided against self-clean because I have semi-gloss painted cabinets. I also feel the Perfect Clean is greener but that's a personal choice. I'm an oven cook. I use it far more than the cooktop. When I make the no-knead bread baked in the Le Creuset pot, that pot lid is so hot from being preheated on surround that it burned a wooden cutting board when I put it down. I throw (literally) the bread in the pot and it comes out perfect and cooks 10 minutes faster than the recipe. I can load up that oven with the additional racks while one thing is cooking and set the second timer for something else. The probe (in a whole tenderloin/filet I insert in lengthwise smack in the center of the thickest end) and cook on autoroast. It is amazingly delicious (I marinate it overnight in Cognac and shallots) and comes out perfectly medium rare at 140. I don't see switching out a workhorse like that which is so versatile oven for something that does less but it's the oven I wanted. If may not be the one someone else wants/needs and these days, price matters and this is not the only good oven on the market. There are other great ovens without the complexities. But I'd sure want to have it functioning perfectly before making a decision to get rid of it.

I lost my recipe for this dessert. I know you make the graham cracker crust, press it in a pan. Cut rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces spread on crust, sprinkle with dry strawberry jello, then bake. Ok, problem is I am not sure if there are other ingredients like sugar added to the rhubarb/strawberry layer. It is really good, even kids that won't touch rhubarb gobble this down. I have done a search for "rhubarb/strawberry bars" etc, but only pies or making the jello and mixing it with rhubarb comes up. If anyone has this recipe please post it, I have a ton of rhubarb and want to make this for the grandkids. Thanks for any help.

You're going to need to experiment. "crumbly and split on the center" is often a sign of too much leavening. The first thing I'd recommend is cutting back on your baking powder by about 10%. You could also try increasing your oven temp by about 10 degrees and adding a little extra liquid to your batter. If they're still crumbly, you also might try beating them a little longer to give them a little more structure depending on what kind of flour is in the recipe and how much fat. The weaker the flour (read cake flour here) and the more fat, the less you're worried about overdeveloping gluten and making the cake tough. For a healthier/lower fat cupcake recipe that uses AP flour you'd want to be more careful about overbeating. Hope this helps.