Product review (5 stars): Beautiful Dual Fuel Range, Cooks Wonderfully.
Review of PRO366DFSVI Bertazzoni Professional 36 Dual Fuel Range, 6 Burners,
Natural Gas - Vino (Red) Color

2015-July

We have recently purchased the PRO366DFSVI (VI for Vino) but this review would apply to any of the PRO366DF (DF for Dual Fuel) ranges.

I searched online for reviews for this range before buying, and I did not find much, so I thought I would contribute here.

I did find a few reviews for the all gas version (the one with the gas oven rather than electric).  Based on those, and my speaking in person with a friend who has one, I opted for the dual fuel.  The gas ovens are reported to have a tendency to have hot spots.  My friend agreed that this is the case, she gets around it by placing a cookie sheet on the bottom rack to disperse the heat.  But I opted to spend the extra dollars for the electric range. This also added to the cost, as I had to install a 220V plugin to support it.  One of the nice things about the all gas range would be that it only requires a standard 110V socket.  So, not only is the initial cost less, the installation cost is less.

But the point of this is to review the dual fuel range, so lets move on.

I admit that I was drawn to this range because of its beauty.  It is the most beautiful higher end range I have seen.  While marketed as Pro, I believe it is not Pro in the since that Viking or Dacor or Wolf are pro.  It is not made for a restaurant.  It is made for a home, and it fits a home.  I happen to have an historic home, and it definitely fits my kitchen (especially the red Vino color) better than the all stainless steel pro models.  And lets be honest  I do not need a Pro range.  I do not cook for an army.

I was also drawn to Bertazonni due to the simplification of the range.  There are no digital readouts on the range.  No digital thermometer.  No digital control panel, no LCD screen.  It is like the ranges I grew up with. It is simpler, yet just as powerful.  For the oven, there is a control knob to set it to bake, convection bake(top and bottom burners) convection (bottom burner), broil, low (for dehydrating), etc.  And there is a knob to set the temperature.  There are two oven lights.  I read in some reviews of the gas oven, that the temperature control of the oven is a bit iffy, and one should simply buy an oven thermometer to use to verify the oven temp.  I had one already, and put it in.  In my electric oven, the thermometer is spot on with the temperature setting I have on the knob.  375 degrees is 375 degrees, etc.  Still having the oven thermometer to double check is something I would do anyway, with any oven.

I have baked meats, bread, and cookies in the oven, all quite successfully.  I made oatmeal cookies this morning, and the bottoms of the cookies are exactly the same, evenly cooked as the tops.  No darker brown on the bottom or the edges.  This is definitely better than my older, non-convection oven it replaced, where the bottoms of the cookies were always a bit overcooked.  I do use insulated cookie sheets, which may help (they are composed of two sheets of aluminum with air space in between, which is supposed to moderate the heat a bit.  In any case, the cookies were perfect.  No hot spots in the oven.

Moving on to the gas cooking top.  There are 6 gas burners of varying intensity. A rough diagram of the various BTUs of the burners is:

-- BACK OF STOVE TOP 
--  6000 -- 6000 -- 10,400 --
-- 17730 -- 6000 --  3750 --
-- FRONT OF STOVE TOP 

The 17,730 is a dual ring burner -- outer ring is 15,000. Inner ring is 2730 -- so the inner ring could be used alone as an alternate, lower simmer burner.  So we have two high output burners (one extra high) for boiling large pots of water and such.  Two low intensity burners (counting the inner-ring of the front left as one of them).  And three moderate output burners.  The burners are brass, and there are three  black (cast iron?) grates.  Each covers two burners and easily lift off.

One of the design features I really liked is that the top, under the grates, is molded of one continuous sheet of metal.  There are no seams or gloves.  This makes cleaning the top much easier.  One still has to clean carefully around the burners themselves, but there are no additional grooves to collect food and grime.

My range also came with an iron wok ring which fits over the grate of the high output burner.  I have not used it yet.  It also included a cat iron simmer grate, which can set over any of the other grates.  What this does is 1) allows for smaller pans to be set over a burner, and 2) slightly lifts the pan a bit higher from the flame.  This works fine, and I have used it with a very small pan to melt butter for instance.

One of the reviews I saw before I purchased my range, was a Consumer Reports video.  You can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sxPGE-EuoE

This review was negative, and had two very silly complaints.  First, they seemed irritated that to turn on a burner one has to 1) press the control knob, 2) turn it to the left, and 3) hold it for 3-4 seconds.  This is actually a safety feature due to the thermo-coupler device in the range.  I expect, as this is a European stove, that it may be mandatory in some countries over there.  In the states, we use thermo-couplers, for instance, in our gas water heaters.  Its a purely mechanical (no electricty involved) device that will shut off the gas if the flame goes out.  It uses the fact that metal expands when heated and contracts when cooled.  When the thermo-coupler contracts, it shuts off the gas.  Thus if the pilot light on your gas water heater goes out, the gas will also shut off (independent of any human shutting it off, or requiring electricity to do so), and your house will not fill with gas.  The same device is used on the Bertazzoni burners, hence one needs to hold the knob in for a few seconds as the thermo-coupler heats up.  Compare this to typical gas ranges in the states, where if the flame goes out, the gas will continue to flow.

Why CR reports this as a negative, when they must know the purpose, is not understandable to me.

They also complained about having to light two separate burners (inner and outer) on the high output burner.  Taking yet another 4 seconds seems an inconvenience of some sort.  Yet, they don't mention that having the two rings provides versatility.  One can access to 15,000 BTU with just one ring, or to a low output 2,730 BTU with the inner.  Kudos for versatility.

They also mentioned that the oven was small  but they reviewed the 4 burner not the 6 burner.  My oven on the 6 burner range is definitely large, using my yardstick, I measure it at 18" deep, 27" wide, and 13" high.  Definitely big enough for a Thanksgiving turkey.

Another complaint about the stove, that is based on the design (as were the CR complaints) is that when the oven is on, it blows air out the front.  I can confirm that it definitely does.  I expect that one purpose of this is to keep the front of the oven, where one places hands, warm rather than getting too hot.  Im not sure what all the design functionality of this is.  It is different from my old range, but it is not bothersome.  We are in the midst of summer, and it is not overheating the kitchen.  Yes, it will heat it up a bit more, but just running any oven will also do that.  But be aware that this design feature does exist on this range.  One user complained that the vented air was hot enough to melt plastic.  This is definitely not the case at all.  Nothing gets too hot when I use this oven.

What else can I think of.  Oh yeah, Bertazzoni was running a sale this year, where if you buy a range, they throw in the exhaust hood for free.  I took advantage of that, as the price of the ranges seems to be set the same everywhere.  That is, my range cost the same whether I buy it online (from any of several sites) or from my local appliance store (Kellys in Salem, Oregon).  I chose the latter, I like dealing face to face with people.

Oh, one other thing that I have yet to experience, but I expect to at some.  Earlier I mentioned that this is simpler range than many modern ranges.  No complicated electronics panel.  Less things to break.  When things break, I can replace more of the parts on this oven than I could on other modern ranges.  This is a selling point for me.  Remember my friend who I asked about the hot spots in her gas oven.  She is still happy with that all gas stove, but she mentioned that one of the things that are prone to failing are the thermo-couplers.  However, she was able to order it and and install it herself quite easily. The manual also have instructions for replacing the burners.  If you are the type of person who may want to save the cost of a service call by performing such maintenance yourself, this range may work for you.

-Shawn