m wrote:
I'm evaluating rangetops, and have narrowed it down to Viking, Thermador,
and Wolf. Probably 48" with a griddle, at least, and maybe a grill.

I've seen several posts from folks talking about how much they like the Wolf
rangetop and that
it has sealed burners. From the Wolf website, it looks like they only offer
sealed burners on
the cooktops, not the rangetops. The local dealer is a little bit less
than helpful on this matter.

So, are there folks here who have a Wolf rangetop with sealed burners?

Secondly, what are the issues if you have a rangetop that doesn't have
sealed burners? I
assume cleanup is a pain, but how much of a pain?

Thanks,
P



Our 2-year old kitchen renovation included adding a 6-burner Wolf
rangetop.(no grill or griddle - just 6 burners). The burners are not
completely sealed but not fully open as on the Viking ranges - I think
thay call it semi-sealed. Each burner has its own drip pan that gets
close to the burner but doesn't completely seal it off. They are
removable so you can "take the stove to the sink" to clean each piece -
a feature I like a lot. Additionally, the rangetop has a stainless
steel pull-out drip tray under all the burners to catch anything that
might fall through. I cook every day and the drip tray gets more dusty
than dirty. I love my rangetop.

Our original choices were Thermador, Viking Dynasty and Wolf. Hearing
and reading so many reviews on Viking's quality and service issues
turned us off. Thermador's clicking burners on and off to manage low
heat settings was a turn off for us.

A safety feature I like about Wolf is that if a breeze happens to blow
out the flame, the burner will re-ignite automatically. I don't
remember if Thermador and Viking behave the same way but two years ago,
the Dynasty ranges did not.

I strongly recommend taking a few of your most used cookware pieces and
find a retailer that has these ranges operating so you can see exactly
how your cookware rests on each of the burners and how the flame hits
your cookware. I took a 1 quart All-Clad saucepan and an 8 quart
stockpot and found that the 1 quart pot was very wobbly on some models.
Again the Wolf burner had no problem supporting that little pot very
firmly.

Along with the easy cleaning of the range parts, re-ignition safety
feature, all 6 burners having the same BTUs, accommodating my cookware,
we felt it was the best looking of the rangetops we considered. (I'm
not affilited with Wolf in any way. Just a happy consumer.)

If you do purchase the rangetop, you can contact Wolf and request black
knobs. They'll send them out at no charge. We did this but I haven't
yet used them. I've become very fond of the red ones.

Good luck with your decision.
Mickey