No help here. I have gas at my one house and a new induction here. Induction wins hands down. I had to buy some new cookware but some of my old things also worked.

Gas scares me. We just had an incident of a man's house blowing up minutes after he left it. If I didn't love our other place so much I would sell it because of the gas lines.

I went round and round, just as it sounds you are doing. I love to cook and I cook a lot; breakfast every day for two big teen boy eaters, dinner everyday, I work at home too. I can, I bake, I make homemade yogurt and granola weekly.
I bought a Bertazzoni, but then canceled the order because the minimum temperature the oven can go to is not low enough to incubate yogurt. I ended up with a Bosch dual fuel, I love it. It was not too expensive and I feel like not spending the extra money was a good decision. The only thing I regret is that it does not have a 'cook time' feature. I liked that feature on my old GE Profile, though I hated everything else.

We have a 30" GE profile gas slide in range. Also looked at GE Cafe, which has a more professional look. We opted for the Profile because it was fine for our needs and a little more economical, considering the large scale/cost of our reno. My previous GE gas range lasted 19+ years and our contractor purchased it to use in his cabin. So far, we've been happy with it.

My commercial/pro range (of a brand no longer available) is all gas (propane in my case). It was one of the first generation of pro-styled home ranges which I bought about 20 years ago. It was made by a commercial range company (Jade) as a sideline.

It does not have all the bells and whistles that a modern pro-style range has. What I would really like would be glass doors (though some say that makes standing in front of it hot), an oven light. I do have one (fan-forced)convection oven. I wish its thermostat allowed one to proof dough, dehydrate or make yogurt in it, but I accomodated to doing those tasks elsewhere because it never occurred to me to use it in that way. I wouldn't want to run the oven for long times when I wasn't awake and paying attention to it, anyway.

What my range does have, however, is utter simplicity. Despite the fact that it is no longer made (though Jade still exists) I can get parts from the manufacturer and it is simple to repair. It has no electronics except for burner ignition, though I use matches to light the burners because I hate to wait even those few seconds and the clicking is annoying.

If you plan on having the range forever, there is something to be said for simple, straightforward, non-electronic beasts. There is no tiny circuit board, or solenoid to capriciously go bad and become irrecplaceable.. No 10 cent or $200 dollar part will render thousands of dollars of appliance un-fxable.

Range shopping is mesmerizing, and where you start and where you end up are often completely different places.

HTH
L.

holly-kay, that is horrible. I'm sorry to hear that. I had the same thing happen a couple of blocks from house a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, in the house that blew up, the owner was still in there. Very sad. The house next door blew off it's foundation. Yes scary, but that is a very rare occasion. The chances of dieing in a wreck are higher than a gas explosion. Especially where I live!! I hear great things about induction but will stay w/ gas for now. Thank you.

localeater, is this not the hardest thing to do?!? It's been driving me nuts! I've not read much about the Bosch ranges. Which one do you have & for how long. Sounds like you're very happy w/ it. Thank you for your input.

chicgeek, I've been considering the GE Cafe range. Still need to check out more about it & want to see in person. Am going this weekend.

liriodendron, Thank you for all of your information. I've been reading about the commercial/pro ranges & you are correct. No bells or whistles, but just darn good cooking & longevity! It's nice to see some things sticking to the basics & not so fancy dancy sometimes! Makes clear sense.

I appreciate all of the information. This is such a daunting task!! I love this website! Thank you!

i love all- gas ranges. i actually prefer them to the fancier dual fuel models because the all-gas ranges are simpler and have fewer electronics (to get damaged).
i think you can get an all gas 30" range made by bluestar in your budget. if you do a search on the appliance forum, several people are getting them from Costco in Canada for great prices.

Hi bicyclegirl, I recently went through what you are going through, the one thing that I wanted was a range with the look of a slide in, (ie. no back sticking up against the backsplash). I went with the GE Cafe and while it has only been 6 months, I love it! I have found that I use the middle griddle a lot more than I thought I would.

30" DF GE Monogram range. Love it!

I can tell you that my brother and SIL have had very poor luck with their six year old Dacor....lots of repairs, especially in the first two years. It went out the first Thanksgiving they had it and we carted a half cooked 25 lb turkey to the next door neighbors to finish cooking it...fortunately, the neighbors were away for the holiday.

Several years ago I heard a famous chef (cant remember which one) say that the average home "chef" does not need a professional range...d that they are overkill for the home cook. In fact, he had a regular range in his home kitchen....just sayin...

Have been very happy with our GE Profile convection...

We bought a Bertazzoni last November and love it! I had never cooked with gas and there has been some learning on my part. Love the gas oven for cookies and roasting. I don't yet have the hang of it for breads, but honestly haven't tried too much! I got the burgundy one.. It sort of reads red, but certainly not a fire engine red. I like the simplicity and clean look.

Like Bluetea, I wanted the slide in look with no backsplash, the Bosch I got is the HDI7282U.
I did not get the GE Cafe which I think is awesome looking, because I am on propane, not NG. The GE loses more on the conversion. If you are on propane not NG when you are researching BTUs of burners make sure to look at the propane values.
I am very happy with the Bosch. The black glass stove top, not stainless, is really easy to clean. WIpe it down, dry it with a microfiber cloth and it looks brand new. It has been in use since early December, three meals a day. The oven bakes exceptionally evenly. And my bonus surprise, I love the warming drawer. Never had one, never thought I would use one, love it.

We have the GE Cafe and have generally been happy with it. The two "super" burners get nice and hot, and I love the look. I went for the model with two ovens, and I really like that feature. We had one small issue with the install--it's designed to look like a slide-in range (although it's really freestanding), but it wouldn't go flush against the back wall--there is a small (less than 1 in.) gap between the range and the wall. Our contractor ran the backsplash a little lower to help conceal this. If you do go with the Cafe I would recommend talking with someone who has installed one before to troubleshoot this issue.

Go to see any ranges you are considering, in a live demo, if at all possible.

Seeing, touching, turning on burners, dismantling burners to understand what cleaning entails -- caused me to decide against the range I was planning to get (Wolf AG) and choose Blue Star instead. Really happy with it!

I like very much both the GE Profile and GE Café. But I leaned towards the Profile because the Café does not overlap the countertop on the sides and in the back. The Café just buds up against the countertop and that was a deal breaker for me.

American Range Performer is in your price range and is a pro range. Look over at the Appliances forum for more info about it.

Remember though that you will need some sort of riser on the back of these high output pro all gas ranges, or you will definitely have to have a non-combustible surface behind the range..

what's a riser needinfo1? I've been looking at the ARP & will probably go w/ that one.

Thank you to everyone for all of your great feedback. This website is awesome!

When you look at the range some of them have a flat, flush appearance across the top. This is called island trim and is usually standard.

Other ranges have a riser--a rectangular stainless extension at the back of the top along the wall that extends upwards anywhere from 5" to 10" to 20" depending on the manufacturer of the range. Some ranges vent their oven gases/heat up through these rather than having the heat vent straight up through the little holes on the island trim. These risers are plain with no dials or anything, so basically it changes the appearance of the range and is visually the equivalent of that part that sticks up on a standard stove. All of the pro ranges require for safety reasons that their ranges be installed with either a riser (purchased as an add on to the range itself) or with a non-combustible area on the wall behind the range itself.

I initially did not think I liked risers, but we purchased a floor model Wolf AG that came with the 10" riser on it already. I really like the effect and am glad ours came this way because I do not know if I ever would have thought on my own to put in a 10" riser.

Last month I had a 30" Jenn Air all gas pro range installed. So far I love it. But what I love most was the deal I got. We went to Sear's Scratch and Dent and there was a very small scratch on the stainless top. We have two teenage boys who cook alot and I knew I'd be on them to be careful with it, so eliminating that worry was worth the $2000 discount off the price. And when they delivered it the gas line was apparently bent beyond repair so Sear's agreed to send us a brand new stove for the original discounted price! So now we will see which kid owns up to the first scratch!
My range is on the island (which I would NOT recommend a range going BTW) and I needed it to be a slide-in or free-standing without the controls on a high back. I really love the look of it. I had a white stove with light gray grates previously and I loathed the grimey appearance those gray grates always had. (remember..teenage boys cooking)
I need to spend more time cooking on my Jenn Air when the weather cools down to give a better report of the performance.

Try Caloric. It is made by Maytag, I think, but specifically for gas companies. I inadvertantly got the same stove as my brother except mine was Caloric. I paid $600 less for mine. It was a 30" 4 burner, but they have it all-convection, 6 burner, stainless, griddle in the middle, white, black, dual fuel, self clean. You can find them online. I am not sure where you are located. I was in the Panhandle of Florida when I got mine. I had it for 10 years and it still looked like new, heated like new, and from what I undertstand the new owners still have it in their kitchen-4 years later with not one repair-ever!