Here's our Culinarian, hood, and stove backguard:

(stainless-and-black switch/outlet covers and ORB cabinet handles to come)

This is a slightly edited version of a post I put under a different thread, but thought I should include it here.

I have been using my new CC for just over 2 months now and am EXTREMELY pleased with it (30" LP, manual clean)...

The high end heat has been incredible! I have begun to wok cook and can't believe how awesome it is with the BTUs that the CC throws out. I have been amazed at how accurate and consistent the oven temp has been. Cleaning has been a breeze also. Overall I just love the look, feel, fit and the majority of the design and performance. I can't stress enough how much I love this stove, but at the same time I feel I need to point out what I feel are its deficiencies...

I have to agree with others about my disappointment about the simmer temperature of the CC. It is definitely much hotter than I had expected. I also think that "simmer temperature" metric, while probably accurate, can be misleading. I believe in an earlier post that Trevor said the simmer temperature metric was (please forgive me if I am wrong an please correct me)to bring a gallon of water to a boil, turn the burner down to simmer and measure the temperature after one hour. My perspective is that for the people who really want the ultra low simmer it is mainly for sauces, and who really makes a GALLON of sauce. I did my own test at home and put 2 cups of water in a small saucepan and left it on simmer for about 45 minutes. The temperature leveled off at about 170 degrees. (I am working on LP gas) This is really too hot for keeping a sauce for extended periods, in my limited opinion.
Now I know Trevor has stated that he has had customers keep a beurre blanc for over an hour without breaking, but is that really possible at 170 degrees? Has Trevor's in house range been fine tuned beyond what I have been able to accomplish? Is it a fact that I am on LP vs Natural Gas? I have adjusted my burners down as low as I can without having continual ignition click and have used earlier suggestion about drilling out the holes right next to the spark module. This did help me lower the simmer some, but still resulted in the 170 degree temp hold.

My only other gripe about the CC is the oven racks (manual clean range). As others have stated, the top rack position is basically unusable for anything other than a cookie sheet. I have the latest rack version (I believe) that has the 5th rack position at the bottom that is basically a half step below the previous lowest position. My suggestion is to put this half step down between the top and second to top rack (and why not between them all, no reason not to have "micro" adjustments). This half step down from the top position will allow me to take a pan directly off the stove top to under the broiler for browning/finishing. The current second rack down is really too far from the broiler to get a good quick browning. I have made this suggestion directly to Capital customer service, which they said they were putting in an email to Surjit, so we will see what happens.

My current plan is to remove the oven rack system and take it to a local metal shop and have them weld in a simple roundbar to the rack to create this 1.5 rack position for me. It really looks quite simple, is is only a round bar with a 90 degree bend at the front with only two weld points (one in front, one in back).

Here is a picture of my final install with the Eurstoves hood. This was a replacement of a electric range with a OTR microwave. Unfortunately my backsplash had been discontinued so I had to put a SS backsplash right below the hood. I was able to get the tile sample boards from a few local tile stores to be able to run the tile to the bottom of the upper cabinets.

Rob

A few odds and ends to tie up in the kitchen, but have had our 48" Culinarian w/ grill working for about three weeks now. What a fine piece of machinery!

Just received our new 60" Capital Culinarian today! It's a special order 10 burner version. Hope to be cooking on it soon!

That's one big mamma jamma stove!

WOW that's a stunning set up you have Brian, can I use your pictures on my website ?

Very nice....would love to see the rest of the kitchen. LOVE the stone behind the range. Details, please.

Trevor - yes you can use my pictures but wait until the kitchen is done. I'm an avid photographer so let me shoot some reasonable shots. Let me know your email address and I'll send them to you.

Michelle - I'll post more picture as soon as the kitchen is done in a couple of weeks. The backsplash stone is called White Kinawa and was purchased from Pietra Fina in Hayward, CA

http://pietrafina.com/online-inventory/granite/white-kinawa-granite-3/

The countertops are Virginia Mist, also from Pietra Fina but are hard to see in this shot.

Here's a wider view from tonight with the thermaply off the floors (but the tag still on the Culinarian)...

I can't compete with Brian's stove but I should post a picture anyway.

Almost done!

Dining area and part of the peninsula.

Brianplee,are you in or near Los Angeles? If so, may I please post the name of your kitchen designer?
Gorgeous kitchen!

Hi cooks1818!

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area. We didn't have a designer. It was jointly developed by us and Curtis Poon of cp/m company in Oakland, CA, www.cpm-co.com, who was our general contractor for the project.

This posting is directed towards individuals who are in a quandary over the purchase of a Capital Culinarian stove due to possible service and support issues.

Starting with Trevor at Eurostoves-providing support and information both before and after the sale to Bob at Capital who resolved my issues. Overall my experience has been excellent.

Patience and communication is very important but through it all Bob's attitude has been great

I want thing to be as they should be and "The Team" has made every effort to satisfy me and they have.

I am available to reply to questions and help other "foodies" enjoy this outstanding product.

Thanks again to Trevor and Bob-
Joel Berger
Doylestown PA

Updated full view of the kitchen including the 10 burner Culinarian

Updated shot of the 10 burner Culinarian

This is the pantry wall (left of the Culinarian)

Our 30" self-clean stove was installed today. We just converted from oil heat to gas and took the opportunity to replace a 25 year old electric coil stove with something newer. The rest of the kitchen is unchanged except for replacing the over the range microwave with a Kobe range hood. We do plan to upgrade the countertops to granite when we get enough round tuits.

Here's the first batch of bread fresh out of the oven. We had to set the thermostat to 375 to get our oven thermometer to read 350 matching our old oven. This was baked without convection.

I need to replace a horrible cook top and I think I would like to get the Capital Culinarian 36" wide one, probably with the Wok since I do a lot of S.E.Asian cooking. My current cook top has a popup vent and these are installed in a typical 24" cabinet. My question is:

Does anyone have a range top with one of these pop up vents installed in a typical 24" deep cabinet? I'm trying to avoid another added cost of a hood if possible!

June

My husband did our whole remodel and widen our kitchen. I had a Alley style and we Splurge on a Capital Culinarian and LOVE IT. We have the Grill. It is hard to get use to the extreme heat,flame on our small pots. But its great for Large pots and the oven is auwsome.

CT-Rob - great write-up. Did you ever make that 'after-markket' fix on the oven racks?

Woe is me. Last year I bought a 48 INCH Capital Culinarian 6 burner with Grill, double oven. Am I just the unlucky one or are they all this problematic? Let me state that the burners at 23,500 btu per are pretty darn good, but as a retired Chef I am used to 30K burners. The simmer feature is not good at all, but we compensate on doubling up the grates to elevate the pan. It works. The grill works great, but wish it had more btu. As it is warm up is long and a mandatory function. But the ovens! The convection didn't work, the oven knob turns on at the slightest brush, and gas leaks! The oven wasn't calibrated and was 50 degrees off. The small oven, the gas valve was faulty and it won't work and is still not repaired. It took 6 months to get a repair man out here. I hate to say it but the customer service at Capital is horrible. Passive aggressive.... this guy Everett took all the info, then I'd never hear from him. The only reason it got done was I had the repair facility call Capital! If I had it to do over again, I would have bought another brand. To Capital's credit, the stove is built like a tank! Heavy gauge stainless, but it's soft and scratches easily. We also bought the 1200 cfm hood by Capital. What a bad buy. At 1200 cfm you'd expect it to suck the paint off the walls? Nope. Smoke just waifs up and around it. We can't find any reason for a ventilation problem, it just doesn't suck like we expected. And noisy!!! Wow! Sounds like a jet engine on the tarmac.... We spent over $9,000.00 for this range and hood, and feel like we got a giant stainless elephant for our trouble. Our dream range is one expensive stove. I could have bought much more, for far less. The Culinarian is just not ready.

I just purchased the 36" 4 burner, griddle, Culinarian and now I need to find a vent for island installation. Trevor suggested that a 42" wide, by 27" deep vent with a 10" vent and cfm of 1200 would be best; but I couldn't find any island vents on their website.
Can you please share what vent you are using for a 36" range top. I'm thinking these measurements might be a bit of overkill and certainly more expensive than a lesser powerful unit that may still do the job.
On my old Wolf range I had a Vent a hood which worked fine, but there are a lot more units available these days. So maybe you can share information on what you have and if you're happy with it. Thanks so much for any input!

June

June,

Below is a link to Modern Aire Island hoods.

42x27 with 1200 cfm will do the job and do it quietly.

Smaller and less powerful hoods will do it less well with more noise.

1200 cfm blower running at 600cmf is less noisy than a 600 cfm blower running at 600cfm.

You don't have a wall to help you contain rising steam,smoke and grease. You really need a big capture area.

Unless you can tolerate grease and smoke in your kitchen(great room).

I have a wall mounted 42x24 Indpendent hood with 1400 cfm external blower over a 6 burner Culinarian. I don't think by blower is overkill at all.

Here is a link that might be useful: ME Island Hoods

CulinarianStanzi.... Let me try to address your points

1) I think you have been unlucky with your issues, sure ranges have issues from all manufacturers but you have had more than normal for sure.

2) Capital are testing a new simmer burner in homes and the factory along with a simmer plate. This will be retrofit-able to all ranges once they have it down. They don't want to bring out the burner that will not perform as customers are requesting. No point at all in calling Capital about this they will tell you nothing, just wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks with the tests.

3) Grills take about 20-25 mins to heat up enough to sear meat, this is not a capital issue but general for all manufactures. It does take time to heat the ceramic left to right bars and the solid cast iron grates, again you may have been spoiled with the commercial grills you have used in the past. As i am sure you have noticed the grill will sear once its hot.

4) Not sure why you state that gas leaks, when the oven knobs is turned it actuates the glow plug then once hot enough releases gas which is then ignited by the glow plug. The knob does not require a push and turn just turn.

5) Oven thermostats for all manufactures are not made by or calibrated by any range manufacturer they are outsourced, your thermostat may well have ended up with a Wolf BS or many other ranges sad to say you got it. The small oven is a mystery to me but not working for such a long time is crazy.

6) As for Customer Service, No excuses at all, 6 months to fix a range is staggeringly outrageous, poor response times are been addressed by Capital. I would say that on some occasions all manufacturers to get a bad rap due to the service tech, having said that on the face of it I think in your case Capital has been found to be inept and lacking in this area.... If one of my customers ever had to wait 6 months for service and I knew about it I would be fuming, fortunately that does not happen but I can totally understand your frustration...

7) Capital uses the same stainless steel as everyone else with a slightly improved finish, while your range may well be scratched you scratched it. Mine is also scratched I calm myself by thinking of them as battle scars....

8) I agree on the hood, we had a Capital 48" hood above our 48" range and took it down after 6 months. I needed a good hood that removed smoke and grease form the cooking school and and this hood did not do it. The problem for me is the capture area in general but more so at the front, Capitals is flat and deep with no lip as such. So smoke and grease rises hits the long flat lip / light bar and a sizable percentage rolls out the front. We changed that hood for another hood with a lip that produces more air speed across the front lip, when smoke and grease rises it meets the jet stream of air whipping over the lip into the hood and follows that air into the hood. We also increased the width along with the depth. I am not a aerospace engineer but I understand that the leading edge of a wing and the flow of air over and under said wing have a lot to do with flying. Air has to flow over the leading edge of the hood fast to change the natural direction of rising smoke and grease, if that leading edge is further away from the back wall (ie 27") it stands to reason that more of the outer edge of the smoke and grease will go in the hood. A lot of the noise comes from the transition from rectangle to round, again the one we use does not use a transition it has a round to round connection. If you screw around with moving air it shouts back at you.

NOTE....On a side note everyone should know that increasing the depth is WAY MORE EFFECTIVE than increasing the width. When you increase the depth you put 3 more inches right where you need it in the front, and people don't constantly bang heads with 27" deep as some would suggest. Obviously wide and deeper is the all round better deal.

9) I disagree you could have brought more for less, you could have bought less for less. But you certainly could have had better service from Capital.

BTW.... I have forwarded your post onto My Rep, Head of Distribution for the east coast, Surjit Kalsi, Head of service for capital and the head of Engineering development, with a rather strong note attached....

I do hope you get your range fixed soon so you can report a different story about the Capital Culinarian.

Hello everybody,
I am a long time "lurker", and finally decided to join the forum.

I got lots of appliance information here and made my buying decisions based on the valuable input of you guys. I thank you for that.

My wife and I did visit and talk to Trevor in his store and were very pleased with his no nonsense straight forward style. We ended up buying a really nice selection of appliances from him.

Among others the 36" six burner Capital Culinarian. We have been running and testing it for the last four weeks.

I love it. I have to say I did miss the thread on the simmer problems. I am not having any issues with the simmer so far. The range is very strong and has to be handled that way. We are running the beast through various tests and were pleased so far. I made a classic porcini risotto, my wife a corn chowder, both of which require a fair amount of heat control and it worked great. Also basmati rice worked fine. No simmer problems so far I could see that less power could be handy once in a while. I did order a 12"x24" copper plate and hope to be able to create a "French Top" effect by only heating one burner. Looking forward to that. I am pretty sure to able to have control from warm to simmer that way. We'll see.

I love the power, it takes some getting used to but boy reducing a sauce is no reason to get a cocktail anymore, a quart cooks down in an instant; great! Searing stew meat fast, love it.

The oven as well; made some popovers and was ready to accept a bummer and learning curve but no, they popped over just fine.

Rotisserie: two chickens success. The broiler took a little longer to get up to full heat then I thought it would. I left them in a little too long but still great tasting chicken.

Didn't ruin or burn any food yet.

The only issue I am having is the igniter keeps clicking on two of the burners for which the service guy will come in next Tuesday. Trevor and Capital reacted fast to set this up and so far so good. I don't foresee any problems should be an easy fix.

All in all I think the Culinarian is a great tool. Love it.
Our hood is a 1200 power euro hood 42"x27" does the job like a charm. Huge tube going through the roof though, my wife almost killed me when she discovered the new "chimney".

On the picture you are seeing the range without foot kick; having the floors sanded next week. The last thing will be the tiles for the backsplash.

Klaus

Having problems with the pic. sorry about that.

Eagerly awaiting my range top. It was supposed to be sent out at the end of last week and I thought I'd have it by now. Trevor, I haven't received an answer to my email. Have you sent out my unit? I never got a confirmation, nor have I heard from you after writing a couple of days ago. I hope all is well.

June
Eagle Point, Oregon

Ok, so have been up and running since August. Since I received so much useful info here, thought it only fair to post back. I have a 60" with griddle and grill. Here it is

The good
Looks great and fit and finish is excellent
Burners are highly responsive
Heat on burners is excellent (and lighting has thus far been without issue lights and no clicking)
Heat on the grill is great. Having a grill is so much more useful than I had imagined.
Rotisserie is fantastic
Trevor has been very helpful

The bad
Had to have a tech come out twice in first month, first to fix griddle which would just keep heating up (apparently a wire on the thermostat was broken at some point between factory and my kitchen), second to calibrate oven temp and fix convection fan from making a noise.
Griddle has definite hot spots.

I must say I love the range, and would definitely purchase again. Capital would benefit greatly if they just charged a bit more for delivery and had "white glove" delivery that would set it up, calibrate, etc. I'd say almost every bad post would disappear if they did this. Can't imagine those paying this much for a range would balk.

Two questions: how do you keep the pans from falling off the range, and how do you keep the contents of the pans from falling out of them? :)

So, Trevor, what kind of hood did you get? We got the 48" Capital one and it is not fantastic, as you say. At least we did the 27" depth. It is so noisy that DH is reluctant to crank it all the way up, and as for putting smoke bombs in a pan on the burners, I don't think we'll be trying it!

We're not quite finished the renovation but we're using the 48" Capital Culinarian and loving it. Our kitchen is not large and I worried about the range appearing too large for the room but it does not. We've used the small oven more often than expected because it is a pretty decent size and comes up to temperature quickly.

Watch the vent size on all hoods==my brother, on my recommendation, bought a 48" rangecraft hood and ignored my advice to get the run out through his wall upsized from the 5" or 6" duct that had been there since the 50's. Sounds like a hurricane when it runs, and he blames me for recommending a bad hood. He should have gone for at least 8". Read the hood mfr recs for the outlet size, and do not skimp, or you will be with him on the noise and poor exhaust. You can use rectangular metal instead of round, just use your high school math to convert the recommended diameter to rectangular cross section area.

Mrs. BFF makin' a little love w/ our CC on X-mas!

Hope you all had a great holiday season and wish you all a Happy New Year!

BFF

Hi BrightFutureFoods,

Does the shelf on the stainless backsplash cause the smoke to roll out over the hood? Who is the MFG of the backsplash?

Thanks!

Ryan

Hi BrightFutureFoods,

Does the shelf on the stainless backsplash cause the smoke to roll out over the hood? Who is the MFG of the backsplash?

Thanks!

Ryan

Hi Ryan,

Yes, the shelf does cause the smoke to roll out a bit. For me, it hasn't been a problem thanks to an effective roof-mounted Abbaka blower that draws the smoke up nicely. I recommend an oversized hood capture area.
The backsplash is made by Capital specifically for their range. If I had it to do all over again, I'd buy the SS backsplash again. I love how easily grease spatter cleans up and I feel more secure with flambe techniques and grill flare-ups.

Cheers,

BFF

This post was edited by BrightFutureFoods on Mon, Dec 31, 12 at 14:26

duplicate post - GW glitchy today.

This post was edited by BrightFutureFoods on Mon, Dec 31, 12 at 14:24

I think I have stumbled upon CC heaven! We are building this year, and I'm strongly considering 48" Rangetop CGRT484BG with 4 burners, griddle, and charbroiler. Range is out--dh has bad back and doesn't want to stoop for food retrieval. (Wolf L-series looking good for wall oven, but I digress...)

My question from Sycamore, IL, is since CC is a less common brand, what might I expect from customer service in my location, should the need arise? Am sort of in the boonies :)

Thanks to SuperStorm Sandy we must build a new kitchen. I have been on the fence about the Capital range but you've convinced me this is the way to go. Love the photos, great inspiration.

Capital Culinarian 48" self cleaning gas range with 4 gas burners, 12" grill and 12" griddle.

This post was edited by reneef on Mon, Jun 24, 13 at 12:45

We've had our Capital Culinarian 30 inch self-clean (with rotisserie) for a couple of months. So far, I love it, though I feel like I'm still test-driving it. (HGTV should do its own version of Top Gear, testing appliances in extreme conditions, etc.) Anyway, today I used the self-clean cycle for the first time. How long should the cleaning take? The manual doesn't say, and I imagined the word "cycle" would mean it turns itself off when it's done, like a dishwasher -- but it seemed to stay on longer than necessary (two hours!) so I just turned it off.

Can anyone enlighten me? Or should I call the hotline?

Hi Matt1060,

The Self Cleaning Mode should take 6 hours.Including an hour for the oven to cool down. It should be page 22 in the manual?

I've had my rangetop for over a year and I love the burners; but there are some problems. The simmer is a joke even after it was adjusted. I can bring water to a boil on simmer! So I just push the pot off to the side. Does anyone know if they made a fix for this? The other problem is the griddle. the sides are cold and the middle hot, so cooking pancakes or anything else on it means waiting till the middle is almost burned before you turn turn the pancake around to cook it evenly. Is there a fix for this or do I just have to deal with a bad design on both the simmer and burners? The simmer should have been designed to only light the center part of the burner. Did they even test this before they put it on the market?? I hope Trevor or someone else who is aware of this has some answers. I know that a year ago there was talk of a fix and never heard back about it. If nothing else they should make an iron plate to put over a burner so you can put something on a true simmer. My old Wolf burners also had a couple of heat rings, and on simmer only the middle ring was employed. For as much as I love the burners on this range top, if I had to do it over again with the problem with the simmer and the griddle (which also sticks by the way which my Wolf didn't), I would buy the Wolf range top. Capital Culinaria has a chance to really fix their product and I hope they do. The materials used are of a high caliber and those burners are to die for if they could get that simmer issue re-designed, and the uneven heating on the griddle fixed.

I've had my rangetop for over a year and I love the burners; but there are some problems. The simmer is a joke even after it was adjusted. I can bring water to a boil on simmer! So I just push the pot off to the side. Does anyone know if they made a fix for this? The other problem is the griddle. the sides are cold and the middle hot, so cooking pancakes or anything else on it means waiting till the middle is almost burned before you turn turn the pancake around to cook it evenly. Is there a fix for this or do I just have to deal with a bad design on both the simmer and burners? The simmer should have been designed to only light the center part of the burner. Did they even test this before they put it on the market?? I hope Trevor or someone else who is aware of this has some answers. I know that a year ago there was talk of a fix and never heard back about it. If nothing else they should make an iron plate to put over a burner so you can put something on a true simmer. My old Wolf burners also had a couple of heat rings, and on simmer only the middle ring was employed. For as much as I love the burners on this range top, if I had to do it over again with the problem with the simmer and the griddle (which also sticks by the way which my Wolf didn't), I would buy the Wolf range top. Capital Culinaria has a chance to really fix their product and I hope they do. The materials used are of a high caliber and those burners are to die for if they could get that simmer issue re-designed, and the uneven heating on the griddle fixed.

I've had my rangetop for over a year and I love the burners; but there are some problems. The simmer is a joke even after it was adjusted. I can bring water to a boil on simmer! So I just push the pot off to the side. Does anyone know if they made a fix for this? The other problem is the griddle. the sides are cold and the middle hot, so cooking pancakes or anything else on it means waiting till the middle is almost burned before you turn turn the pancake around to cook it evenly. Is there a fix for this or do I just have to deal with a bad design on both the simmer and burners? The simmer should have been designed to only light the center part of the burner. Did they even test this before they put it on the market?? I hope Trevor or someone else who is aware of this has some answers. I know that a year ago there was talk of a fix and never heard back about it. If nothing else they should make an iron plate to put over a burner so you can put something on a true simmer. My old Wolf burners also had a couple of heat rings, and on simmer only the middle ring was employed. For as much as I love the burners on this range top, if I had to do it over again with the problem with the simmer and the griddle (which also sticks by the way which my Wolf didn't), I would buy the Wolf range top. Capital Culinaria has a chance to really fix their product and I hope they do. The materials used are of a high caliber and those burners are to die for if they could get that simmer issue re-designed, and the uneven heating on the griddle fixed.

Hi can anyone here tell us what exactly are the differences between self
clean and non self clean as far as features included with the 30"
Culinarian series. I know there is a rotisserie, has anyone used this
feature and feels it is a necessity? Does a probe thermometer come with
the self cleaning version? Is that a necessity? I've heard that the
self cleaning mode requires all windows nearby fully open and to prepare
for a lot of smoke filled rooms for hours before the cycle is complete.
If you have pets, specifically a bird, make sure they're out of the
surrounding area. There is quite a difference in pricing between self
clean and non, so was wondering how many here have actually invested in
this additional feature and if so why? Thanks for reading!

"I've heard that the self cleaning mode requires all windows nearby fully open and to prepare for a lot of smoke filled rooms for hours before the cycle is complete."

This means one should do self-clean more often. Don't wait for oven being heavily soiled.

I've just finished the reno on my kitchen which included a 48" 8 burner. So far (3 weeks and lots of putting it through it's paces with various dishes) I love it with the exception of the cool down fan for the oven. It stays on well well after the oven has been turned off and is almost as loud as my hood on it's highest setting. First World problem. Otherwise love it.