KitchenAid - 30 in. Wide 4 burners Built-In Downdraft Gas Cooktop with Automatic electronic re-ignition - Stainless Steel

The stove functions well with a good range from very low to high heat. The grates are nice and heavy and overall it has a nice industrial look. It would be sweet of the grates were hinged and you could just flip them up rather than having to lift them off to clean. I have a few complaints regarding some of the design features. The center downdraft vent (which does work well) is a great accumulator of food debris from cooking. It requires frequent cleaning. Note that the control knobs along the right hand side, because they are so close to burners, are always getting splattered on and around, and are a challenge to keep clean. And when you try to clean around them it is easy to turn them on accidentally - always check! But my biggest complaint is there is a raised ring around the base of each control knob that appears to be metal. But it is not metal, it is just plastic painted to look like metal, and they are just held on with a piece of adhesive. And just under a year after getting this cooktop the rings began to come loose. When I called the customer service department, they recommended I have the warranty company come out to look at them, which I did. But then after waiting 3 weeks for them to com, they told me this was only a cosmetic defect and thus was not covered (there is only a 30 day warranty on cosmetic defects). So now I can pay $30 each for new knob rings with an adhesive attachment which will only last about a year, or I can just glue them on myself with gorilla glue or something. Rather disappointing for what I paid for this cooktop.

Purchased in January this year. Used it for one month. Under the burner knobs are rings that look like metal but they are plastic. They are attached to the cooktop by a peel away sticky tape. The lower right burner is the one I use the most, so the heat from burner loosens the tape and the ring comes loose. I just had another one tonight come loose and dislodge. The Kitchen Aid repairman said they are $25 to replace, but would be a waste since they will come off too. He said it is a design flaw. So we have to come up with some way ourselves to make sure the rings won't come off. The stainless steel scratches very easily. I wiped a small crumb off with a soft towel and it left a long scratch. It also stains easily. The downdraft is good and I love the burners and heavy cast iron grates. But overall disappointed with this Kitchen Aid appliance.

A very attractive unit. Works extremely well. Installing it helped me in selling the house!!

I will preface by saying we only had a couple of options (literally 2) to replace our gas, downdraft 30inch cooktop. If you bought this you may be in the same boat. I was not about to buy another glass cooktop (perhaps because the crack in it was the reason we were replacing it in the first place) so this was it. I won't go into the rigamarole that was getting it installed - 3-4 visits by 2-3 different companies and finally spending an obscene amount to have them adjust the gas line. They all said to blame the original installer.... easy out. Anyway.... the cooktop is divine. Really. The grates are great... you can just slide pots and it creates an even surface across the entire cooktop. Do watch out if you think you are going to rest a spoon... they slip between the slats. Cleaning is a breeze - every lifts off and you can wipe the whole thing down. Trust me.... we need that with teens cooking (see illustration). I saw some reviews about it scratching.... I can see how that might happen... haven't had issue here and we cook a lot. The only 'con' -- it's super quiet. All of us take turns leaving it on.... I told my husband, if we were just a few years older, our teenagers would use that as an excuse to put us in a home. Luckily, they are guilty too.

Had to convert electrical outlet and run a line for the gas, but then it was easy to install (hubby did it), and looks and works great. Goes perfectly with all the other stainless appliances, and I"M SO HAPPY to be cooking with gas again. This model has the center downdraft, which is exactly what we needed, and it has superior drafting-- definitely an improvement over the other cooktop we had.