Have you considered BlueStar?

What type of cooking do you do? What type/sizes of cookware?

I had not considered a BlueStar. I was told only Wolf and Miele have an infrared grill. I am an avid cook and frequently use large stock pots (20qt is my largest) and 14 inch frying pans. Cleanup ease is important to me.

This Thermador PCG364WL Professional Series 36" Gas Rangetop also incorporates an electric grill. Big $$$ though.

I eliminated Thermador because it does not have infra-red.

I have a Wolf gas rangetop w/ griddle. Older model w/ the semi-open burners.

The grates are pretty much self-cleaning. If one gets to looking grubby, I switch it to the most used burner so the gunk gets incinerated. The grates have gone thru the dishwasher a handful of times (didn't know that was a no-no) but have observed that the grates don't really look much different after being thru the dishwasher so I mostly stick with doing the switcharoo.

That's good to know. Any idea why you are not supposed to put the Wolf grates in the dishwasher?

The only thing that I can think of might be potential rusting where the porcelain doesn't totally cover the cast iron--or where it might chip off (which hasn't happened on my cooker.)

Thanks.

Just for the record, Bluestar grates can go into the dishwasher too. And just as @ci_lantro, we usually don't bother. Good cast-iron grates keep themselves clean pretty easily. And open burners make clean-up a breeze. As long as your range(top) has all cast-iron and no enamel anywhere, it should be easy to keep clean.

Can't say much about the grill that you can get with Bluestar, as I am not a big fan of indoor grills. I do know though that there are two different designs. If you look at it in an appliances store, have them show you both the RNB and the Platinum model.

Personally, I'd rather get the Bluestar range and use the infrared broiler for those things that you use the grill. Less hassle with splatter. But I can understand that different home chefs have different preferred work flows.

That's odd. I was at the appliance store yesterday (there are only two in town that carry the "good" stuff but each only has a sample model of each brand) and was told that the company rep said that Bluestar's grates shouldn't go in the dishwasher.

Thanks so much for the info.

what did you decide? I'm in the same situation... :)

As I said earlier, I wouldn't get an indoor grill. Overall just too much of a pain, and I can always use either the outdoor grill or the absolutely amazing broiler in my Bluestar oven. In fact, we just had Tandoori chicken (ATK recipe) made with that broiler. Very happy with the results. A strong infrared broiler is quite the game changer and we use it almost daily -- even if it's just to make toast. I don't think any manufacturer other than Bluestar puts quite the same type of broiler into their ovens, though. It's about the closest thing you can come to a commercial salamander in a residential setting (yes, I know you can buy residential salamanders, but that's a whole different complication and you probably don't want that).

Even if you are only looking at rangetops rather than full ranges, I would still recommend Bluestar. Their open burner gas options leave everyone else in the dust. Simple design, but it works so well. It's based on a very similar time-tested commercial solution. In fact, I had a chance to cook on a ~25 year old commercial Wolf. It looked and felt just like my trusty residential Bluestar, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Bluestar is a direct improvement of the good old commercial Garland ranges that Julia Child loved so much.

For residential ranges, Wolf has since spun off a separate company and they have made a lot of changes to their models. Modern-day Wolf doesn't share all that much with its commercial roots. I personally feel that is a downside. But if for some reason I decided against buying Bluestar, then Wolf would be the runner up. It has its little quirks, but then who doesn't?

Nothing is perfect. And I guess the same can be said about my favorite Bluestar. With Bluestar, the big elephant in the room is that it requires a little bit more work when it is first installed and it might need a little more calibration during initial setup. Do that, and you'll be happy for years. It's a very basic design; nothing much can really go wrong. But if your installer skips this part of the process, you'll be frustrated until you adjust shutter valves, lower limits, and possibly one or two other settings. On the other hand, more mainstream-brands such as Wolf have been dumbed down so that they don't push the envelope quite as much; but the upside is that even without in-the-field calibration, they'll likely perform OK. Dealers/installers love that. And if you don't have access to a good local dealer, then it might be the decisive factor.

As for Miele, I generally love that brand. They make amazing dishwashers, and several of their ovens (notably the combination steam oven) are great appliances. But I have never been particularly impressed with their gas ranges. Not that they are bad per se. They just don't stand out the same as Bluestar, and to a lesser degree Wolf.