# Which 48" cook top to choose?



## dan1home (Oct 24, 2006)

Hi All,
I'm fairly new to the world of cooking and am ready to purchase a high end cook top for my kitchen. I'm tied between the following configurations:

Combination A:
Cooktop: 48" Viking with 4 Burners and 24" griddle
Ventilation: 48" Viking Professional rear down draft

Combination B:
Cooktop: 48" Wolf with 4 Burners and 24" griddle
Ventilation: 48" Viking Professional rear down draft

Combination A:
Cooktop: 48" DCS with 5 Burners and 17" griddle
Ventilation: 48" Viking Professional rear down draft

Any opinions are appreciated...  As for the griddle, I always wanted one. Is the griddle something I will use often?

Thanks...


----------



## dan1home (Oct 24, 2006)

Does no one have anything to share???


----------



## free rider (May 23, 2006)

I wish I could add. Have you searched the forums? I remember someone commenting about Viking.


----------



## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Skip the Viking- or at least, check it out carefully. Mine has had to have the oven burners replaced every 2-3 years; the igniters 2-3 times in 10 years; and the oven is a BEAR to clean. My last service call was almost $300. 

I love the cooktop and would get one of them if I could have someone else's wall ovens. It's very easy to clean and cranks enough BTUs for good home cooking. I have a Viking hood exhaust system, but it looks like you're installing somewhere that needs downdraft (on an island, perhaps?).

Do your homework! Keep asking here, and use the search tool to see what's been discussed in the past. Of course, the age of the post may make a difference, but it's informative. I'm in the market for a 30" and will look very, very seriously at a GE dual fuel. No more non-self-cleaning ovens for me.


----------



## dan1home (Oct 24, 2006)

Well looks like I am going to go with combination B. After doing some research and getting various opinions, it looks like Wolf is definitely the better brand to go with.


----------



## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

We wish you much success with your new equipment! What will you be cooking with it?


----------



## [email protected] (Oct 1, 2006)

I've been hearing a lot of Viking bashing lately. I've had my Viking dual-fuel (gas cooktop, electric ovens) 48" range for about 6 1/2 years now and have had only 1 service call (for a faulty igniter on one burner) in all that time. The electric ovens (1 large and 1 small in the 48") are self-cleaning and the clean cycle works very well.

I have a Viking chimney hood, very powerful, which I vented through the 2nd storey roof with an exterior fan, so that noise would not be a problem.

The cooktop on my range has 6 burners and a grill. Living in Toronto, I use the grill a lot during the winter, when I don't feel like trekking out onto the often snow-covered back deck to get to the Weber grill. I often wish I'd gotten the grill AND the built-in griddle, because the griddle can be used as a simmer plate, which I wasn't made aware of before purchase.


----------



## viralmd (Oct 30, 2005)

Measure the internal dimensions of the OVEN! 

The Viking has a small one! So does Wolf! DCS and Blue Star are by far the larger ovens! Be careful, because they don't talk about their ovens much.


----------



## chef marty (Nov 7, 2006)

I've heard many good things about bluestar ranges. 
I am new here so it won't let me link. Go to garden web and view their forums on appliances.

Garden Web is full of equiptment stories and suggestions. Spending some time there will either help or confuse the daylights out of you because there is so much to learn. I am restoring a house in Italy and I will buy a Lacanche. It is expensive but I need the great antique feel along with its incredible cooking capabilites to complete the look of my kitchen. Each brand has loyal followers so pick a brand and make friends.

The lacanche UK site is good for research and prices.
prizer-painter with the dot com and w's will get you to bluestar.


----------



## hollysmother (Nov 30, 2006)

sp?
Redoing my kitchen piece by piece, inch by inch, I've purchased 2 15 year old SubZeros (freezer + fridge), they are sitting in the living room while I save for a floor. I have not finalized a floor plan on this tiny old space but at least it's gutted. we eat take out food on a piece of plywood balanced on a garbage can base, tres bohemian, and I live on the North Shore of Long Island, no one would guess I live this way. Plywood floor, 100-year-old studs for walls, the ceiling leaks when the snow melts in winter, but I can dream.

Now I see that there's a lacanche range ('Sully' model) used for sale in a house in Connecticut, being sold by the contractor. I can't ever afford this new, and my heart is set on a bluestar, but I am wondering if a used and therefore sharply discounted Lacanche would be as good as the more-costly new Blue Star Range. I have no interest in acquiring a beautiful piece of furniture if I can't cook on it. I have waited soooo long for a nice range to replace the piece of junk GE that came with the house.

So if anyone out there really knows these brands -- high end ne plus ultras with serious BTUs and features -- I would love to hear from you. Take your time. I can't figure out how to get the 5-6 foot Sully model into the kitchen now that I have taken up so much space with a pair of SubZeros.

I am competing with my sister. She always got everything. But I am the one w/ talent. I just want her to walk thru my new kitchen when she sneaks over again someday and think, Wow!

Plus my daughter and I will be able to cook together. That's priceless. I can't wait. She's such a sweety. Puts up w/ so much adult crap.


----------



## deltadoc (Aug 15, 2004)

Viking has traditional reliability problems. Wolf--You're paying for a name. Since SubZero bought the residential Wolf division, the quality has gone down and the price has gone up.

Bluestar is the one I'd go with. I think I remember that they have one that is similar to my Thermador Professional gas cooktop, with 4 burners, a 12" grill and a 12" griddle.

I use all 6 features a lot. But then, this is the first Thermador Professional gas cooktop that they offered and it was supposedly built by DCS back when DCS was outstanding quality.

If it were me, I'd go with Bluestar. You get one of the highest BTU gas burners available in a residential unit.

doc


----------



## mikeandalyssa (Jun 24, 2007)

Hollysmother - I am really trying to find a Sully for less than retail and its very hard in this country. Is the used Sully still available and if so can you post contact info for the seller/contractor?


----------

