Product review (5 stars): I love this range
After 26 years, the range that was originally built in during house construction needed repair again and I decided to replace it.  I spent forever searching for the perfect range to take its place.  I finally decided on this one and am absolutely delighted with its performance and features.

After a lifetime of electric coil burners, I stressed a lot about the glass surface, wondering how you coped with boil-overs and cleaning.  Well, I will have to be more careful to avoid boil-overs as there is no lip on the edges of the cooktop to contain spilled liquid.  Cleaning so far is easier than my old range, but not effortless.  The range comes with a sample size of cleaner to clean difficult spots and add a protective shine.  That's more trouble than I want to go to every day however and am still looking for a quick solution.  I guess I'm being sort of picky about it looking like new, but that's my goal.  It looks great at this point, but I haven't had any serious spills yet.

The burner configuration on this model is really great--better than all others I looked at.  There is one 'Power Boil' burner that has more power and heats really fast.  It can be used as either a 6" or 9" size.  Behind it is a 6" burner that can also serve as a 'keep-warm' burner since it has a special 'warm' setting in addition to the normal Hi through Lo.  The two burners on the left side are both 8" which I really value as I have few pans that need a smaller size. Most other units only had one other large burner and on some ALL the other burners were small! On this model, those two 8" burners are close enough together that they can be used with a two burner griddle, if desired.  So with only 4 burners you get the features of more expensive ranges that have extra burners for special purposes.

One thing I particularly like is that I can easily slide a heavy pot off the burner eye instead of lifting to an unused burner or the counter top.  There is space between the right and left burners to rest a pot off the heat.  Speaking of which, while the burner gets hot when in use, the rest of the cooktop doesn't and as a burner cools down after use the 'hot surface' light for that burner stays lit as a reminder.

I also worried about the top scratching as you slide pans around.  You're not supposed to use cast iron pans (or steel wool), but nothing I've done so far with my stainless steel pans has marked the surface at all.

I definitely wanted controls in the front as I couldn't imagine reaching over a steaming pot to use back controls.  This unit has excellent controls, and again I looked at a lot of ranges--they are not all created equal.  For one thing, the burner knobs are well marked both with a picture of the 4 burners and the one in question colored in, and with the words 'front' and 'rear'.  All of them turn in the same direction for Hi.  This may seem obvious, but it's actually not.  Some units I looked at had the Hi and Lo marks on different sides for different burners so it would never become automatic.  You'd always have to think about which way to turn a knob depending on which burner you wanted to use.  The dual size burner knob on this model turns the same way as the others for the 9" size and the opposite way for the 6" size (and is well marked).

The central electronic panel is very easy to use--I didn't have to read the instructions to figure out how to set the clock, the oven temp, cook time, timer, etc.  There is an audible signal when the preheat is complete and when the timers go off.  I've used the kitchen timer to time steaming vegetables on the cooktop and that can be used for something in the oven too, but using the 'cook time' indicator for the oven has the extra advantage of turning off the oven automatically when the time has elapsed.  Even if you then check the roasting item and find it needs more time, resetting the oven temp (and timer again if desired) is easy.  I like that the oven turns off automatically so my bread doesn't burn if I am on the phone for example and can't get to it right away when I hear the signal.  Plus with my old range, I sometimes forgot to turn off the oven right away after removing the food.  This solves that problem.

I've checked the oven temperature with my laser temp gun and it is correct.  The indicator will also tell you the temp as the oven preheats, plus if it has turned off and you restart it, you can tell how much it's cooled.  I found the oven to pre-heat much faster than my old model.  That really pleases me as I've been known to forget to preheat altogether, so a shorter wait is a good thing, and since the temp is displayed as it heats, I can slip the item in a bit before it reaches full temperature if I'm in a hurry.  It seems to hold the temperature well.

I haven't tried the self-cleaning feature yet and will update after I've done that, but so far everything I've tried has worked perfectly--in fact better than expected.  My old range was the drop-in style and new drop-ins are not as tall so I'd have had a hole between it and my cabinet.  As a result, I chose the slide-in model which meant cutting out the toe plate of my cabinet beneath where the old unit was.  Good thing I was prepared for that extra work, because although my old unit was supposedly 30" wide too, the cabinet/counter top hole was actually a bit smaller and my installer had to cut the hole larger to accommodate this unit which really is 30".  The old one had been hardwired in so he had to build a receptacle to plug this unit into.  The unit does not come with a power cord because if you have a receptacle already, it could be either three prong or four.  You can buy either cord to go with this unit.  Attaching the cord to the range is color-coded and not complicated.

All in all, I'm very pleased with my purchase and highly recommend this unit.

Update 7/15/11: I've now used the self-cleaning feature and find it easy and generally effective.  When in process, it locks the door closed and it doesn't unlock until it's finished and the oven has cooled down. This takes rather a long time--like multiple hours--so don't start it right before dinner. It also smells the first time, so I recommend doing it when you can leave some doors or windows open.  I forgot to remove the slide out racks so they discolored (as the directions warned) but I was able to get them sliding easily again by rubbing with a little oil (also in the directions).  You still have to clean the glass door and around the rim yourself.  The cleaning process doesn't do it, but it did do a good job on the rest of the oven (which wasn't very dirty).

Re cleaning the range top, I've found a razor blade gets off lumpy messes the best, then a spray product made for this purpose is good for regular light cleaning.  I use the Scotch holder with cleaning pad otherwise, and only use the cream cleaner and pad that came with the range when I have a bad mess.  I'd never thought of keeping the bottoms of my pots clean, but that's important to reduce cleanup of the range top.  Even a wet pot bottom will require wiping down of the range top after cooking is done.  While it's not as easy to keep clean as I'd hoped, I've managed to keep mine pretty much showroom worthy and the added benefit of being able to use the surface as additional counter space to set things (when it's not hot, of course) has been an unexpected benefit.

The only other thing I might add is that adjustment of burner heat temps is not as easy or as fast as I'd like.  On the power boil burner, you have to set it all the way to low to stop pot contents from boiling.  I've learned to set burners on lower settings than I used with my old unit.  Still I love the range.