I have the 6 burner 36" bertazzoni. It is one of the best decisions we made appliance-wise, in our new kitchen. I am a busy mom and cook alot on weekends and needed the extra space but didn't want to spend the $$$ on a wolf or viking (which I didn't particularly like the look or feel of anyway). I followed plumorchard's problems with the berta with great concern but took the plunge because the dealer selling it in my area is a certified bertazzoni service shop, super nice sales people, privately owned, great reputation. So glad I made the plunge. I paid $2900 or so, got the tiny island backsplash too. I can deal with the funky ignition situation having spent some time cooking on Smeg and Siemens stoves in Europe, which have the same type of mechanism. Whereas I absolutely totally detest my Asko 3232 dishwasher, I am loving my Bertazzoni. I feel so bad plumorchards problems led to the decision to replace it, and you never know with appliances these days, but I'm happy with the looks, cost, and performance so far.

We bought our Bluestar RNB less than a year ago and have had it installed since Feb'12. Ours is the 36" with 4 burners and griddle. So far, my experience has been mostly positive. To address some of the issues you've mentioned: I have never seemed to need more than 1 simmer burner at a time, so that has never been an issue. Aside from major holiday cooking, I seem to use that burner most often (almost daily) for cooking rice and reheating... Love being able to walk away and not worry about things boiling over or burning. I suppose number of simmer burners will come down to cooking style and preferences. I LOVE the ease of clean-up with my Bluestar! The cast iron is a cinch to clean... a little scrub while still slightly warm and it's done. Often, I will let a few days pass before cleaning and I suppose part of the reason i can do that is because, even when dirty, it doesn't look that bad! Clean-up was a huge factor for me. My last oven had black porcelain top and I was NEVER able to keep it clean or smudge-free, especially with as much heavy use as I put my ranges thru. I also love the size of the oven AND the full extension rack. It has made baking, basting, roasting, etc so much more efficient! Now, to address the oven heat issue... I, too, did a lot of research prior to buying our Bluestar. I believe the door locking problems due to high heat has been resolved. We have not had this problem and I use our oven several times each week, some weeks being daily. That said, the door does get pretty hot during use. While the oven door handle always stays completely cool, the oven door, oven window, and oftentimes, the knobs and front portion of the range (in front of the burners, where you stand right up against) do get pretty hot. It's never hot to the point of burning where it would be dangerous to touch, but it definitely is uncomfortable and even I avoid touching or leaning against it during those times. It appears door insulation is pretty much nil. I would like to point out, however, that I do have 2 small children (20mos and 3yo) who are often in the vicinity when I'm cooking. They know they are not supposed to come near the range while I am cooking and definitely not to touch the oven door when it is on. On plenty of occasions, their curiosity would cause them to wander close and touch it, despite our warnings. Never once have they screamed or gotten hurt. Usually, they touch it, draw their hands back and walk away. I am not in any way trying to defend Bluestar's heat issues, nor am I suggesting you let your kids touch things that are potentially hazardous, just telling it like it is in our experience. Does the heat bother me? Yes, sometimes it really does and makes me wish BS would address this issue and fix it for residential use. If I could get the same exact range/oven without the heat problems, would I? Without hesitation. Does it make me regret my decision? Not yet! Lastly, I do appreciate that the Bluestar has no bells & whistles. Little to no electronic means less break-down in my book at least. I've met 2 people who have Wolf ranges and both have had problems with the electric portions of their units, requiring lengthy service calls and repair/replacement. Though, since time keeping is important to me, I have had to put a clock in my kitchen when I used to rely on the digital ones on the range. Also, no electronics mean no built-in timers, which hasn't been a problem b/c I have one within reach. Also, despite having a manual oven control knob, the temperature settings have been pretty accurate, confirmed by my oven thermometer. One final comment about my Bluestar experience... I've been waiting for years to cook with a wok and now that I have the range (and, more importantly, the vent hood), it has been a dream! I absolutely appreciate being able to remove the grate and just fit my wok into the bowl-like space above the burner. The quality of certain dishes have definitely improved just due to the availability of high heat alone. For someone who loves cooking and experimenting, this has added to the fun in my new kitchen. Hope this helps!

i really like the Thermador brand and we bought the 48" Harmony gas range. We've had it about 6 months now, and I just found out that ambient temp is reading about 25 degrees higher than what it is set at. Also, my probe stopped working which is the reason i was using another thermometer in the oven. Has anyone experienced this? I'm also a little disappointed that the broil function has only one setting which gets very hot. My old Wolf range had low/med/high so i could control the broil better. i have a tech coming in next 2 weeks but wanted to find out if anything has had any issues with their gas range. The things i like about the Thermador are the star burners, the smooth sliding racks, and i like the griddle that we have as well. Very easy to clean since it's nonstick.

@wdccruise yes, i want white White WHITE. but i don't want to move to Europe. i was reading another thread that you may have also been on, that said you cannot really install European cooktops in this country, b/c even with a proper change to the electrical elements, they only last 2-3 years. so i don't think white White WHITE can work, very sadly. i have also moved on to looking at light grey. :( and then, maybe just a few black circles, instead of a big black rectangle, would be acceptable. they do, after all, make the point that the countertop is also a cooktop. again without too big of a black shoutout. i have been told that Dekton can work with Invisicook. but again, i do not want a Dekton countertop. so yes, it should work. finally, what do you mean about having to make the cutouts TWICE? i didn't get why. wouldn't i just make the cuts once in the Dekton. but i agree a screwup would be expensive! thanks!