Professional ranges - looking

[Mister F.]

We are going to be buying a new range for our remodeled kitchen. We have an old - and excellent - Chambers, with three burners and a deep well, with a small oven. All gas. We want to add a new professional second range. My specs are 36" duel fuel, with a low simmer burner, and a burner with plenty of BTUs for serious searing. Easy cleaning would be nice,too. I've looked at Viking, Wolf, Dacor and DCS. Reviews are all over the map. I've been told horror stories about Viking's unreliability. Any suppestions, experiences, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Mezzaluna]

Welcome to Chef Talk, Mister F. I hope you'll enjoy looking around the whole site.

We've had conversations in the past about ranges; I suggest checking those earlier threads by using our search button. The discussions have taken place over a period of several years, so some information may be out of date. (For example, you'll see my rants about my Viking range- but it's 9 years old now! The newer models may not have the same pitfalls.)

Good luck! Mezzaluna

[maryopal]

Hello Mister F - I too have a Chamber stove that we have been most satisfied with. I have also toyed with the idea of adding another range - DCS is currently my fav. Regardless, the Chambers stays. You might want to check out this chamber site also, if you haven't already. www.chamberstove.net. Best of luck!

[Jock]

When you say "Professional Range" I'm assuming you don't mean an actual restaurant quality stove do you? Those things have little or no insulation on the outer shell and get screeming hot and very dangerous in a non professional environment. Also, the put out so much heat - about 30,000BTU per burner depending on the model - that you need a special exhaust hood.

If you mean the residential version of a commercial range, (like Wolfe for example) you end up paying a lot of $$$ for the name in many cases.

Jock

[castironchef]

Originally Posted by maryopal

You might want to check out this chamber site also, if you haven't already. www.chamberstove.net. Best of luck!

Couldn't get the link to work. Suggestions?

[maryopal]

Sorry about that, try this instead: http://www.chamberstoves.net/

[ani]

i bought a dcs all gas 36" with a griddle. i love it. it can get any job done like it's nobody's business. it has had some repair issues, however. we had repairs going on within the first 6 months and now it's a year and a half old and those same issues have reared their ugly heads. but NOTHING major. in fact, it's been a couple of months and i have yet to call.

my biggest challenge - the griddle doesn't heat very evenly. it's hard to predict which pancake will take how long to cook. but all in all, i would definitely recommend it. if you can, go and get your hands on all the ones your interested in. that sort of sealed the deal for me. the dcs feels like a tank. the viking is pretty but i read horror stories about it, and if i remember correctly, it only has 1 or 2 high heat burners. the dcs has the same high heat (18,000 btu's) on each burner and also a simmer feature on all. i'm pretty sure they're the only ones that offer that, at least they were when i bought mine. that's my opinion for what it's worth and i'm just a stay at home mom with no training in cooking or baking. but i like to do it and i LOVE doing it with the best equipment i can get, like the dcs.