My wife had an open burner range years ago that was a PITA to clean and was dead set against a Culinarian for our kitchen remodel.

We ordered another range, but when people started taking delivery of the CC and raved about them, I forced my wife to watch Trevor's video showing how to break down and clean the CC.

She agreed that it didn't look too tough so we canceled our initial order and got a Culinarian.

We've lived with ours for a couple of months and my wife has commented more than once about how easy it is to clean. Its easier than our old sealed burner range.

I don't have any recent pictures but the range still looks good. No baked on stains like I had with my sealed burner Viking before. The disassembly of the top is really pretty easy. The only issue that I had was that the stainless steel plate that goes around the burner heads are cut really close to the burners themselves and can sometimes require a bit of fiddling to get it in place. I spoke with Capital about this and they said they are looking into possibly making that cutout a bit bigger to prevent these issues but I haven't heard anything more about it from them.

We ran the self-cleaning oven cycle once but didn't run it to completion because we didn't want to leave the oven running while we were not home. It takes 6+hrs which we didn't anticipate. Frankly, even after doing the rotisserie a couple of times, the oven has stayed pretty clean. We're usually pretty careful to put foil or cookie sheet under anything that might spill over and wipe spills before turning on the oven etc..

The stainless steel is very easy to clean. I usually just use Simple Green (diluted between 4:1 and 2:1 water to cleaner) and wipe with a paper towel. I never use SS polish unless there's a specific blemish I'm trying to buff out. I do line the bottom drip trays and the SS upper drip trays with foil to catch any splatters so I don't have to remove the grates to clean the SS underneath all the time. I replace the foil about once a month and clean the top every couple of days or after any serious cooking session that involves splatters.

Personally, I also find it easier than cleaning than sealed burner which we couldn't really line because of how much SS was exposed and the fact that it runs right up to the burners. That meant we had to lift all the grates out every time we cleaned.

Ultimately, it's what you are use to and, in many ways, depends on what kind of cooking you do. I stirfry and saute a lot so most of my cleaning revolves around oil splatters. For that, the less exposed SS the better.

amcook,

You put foil under the item itself or on a rack below? I assume you don't put foil on the oven bottom. When I was researching other brands I know the foil on the oven surface was a non no due to it melting onto the oven itself. Don't know though if that is an issue with all ovens or only electric ones.

On another note. Have you used the convection. Wondering how the oven does for baking or non-rotisserie coking.

I wondered if it would have been better if there wasn't the stainless steel plates that go around the burner. If they were gone everything would fall through to the drip tray.

strem01,

No, not the oven bottom. Just under the grates and lining the drip tray under the burners. We turn the convection fan on pretty much all the time. My wife is an avid baker and everything comes out great. She loves the oven. The smaller one doesn't heat as evenly but she's even used that one when the main oven is busy. We just baked a cheese cake this morning and a ham for dinner. We used the little oven for the ham since our timing was a bit off with the cheese cake.

chopperace,

I suggested that to Trevor way back when the range was still being designed because I was worried about stains being baked on the stainless like I had on the sealed burner cooktop I had. It turns out that it's not much of a problem. I didn't line it for the first two months or so and didn't have any staining or discoloration. I started lining it just to make cleaning even easier. I think something is necessary for the correct airflow so it's either cast iron or stainless.

The vast majority of the spills are caught by the drip pan around / under the burner head. I think people with Culinarian ranges and ranges tops will agree only a very small amount of spills reach the second drip tray if any, almost to the point where it is redundant and only needs cleaning maybe once a month.

I find my 30'' Culinarian relatively easy to clean. To get it really clean I have to remove a few pieces, but I don't mind. I start by placing a towel on my countertop, then I move one grate at a time to the counter for a wipe down with a hot washrag (no soap). Then the two edge supports come out, a quick wipe and they're done. If the center support plate is particularly grungy, I'll take it to the sink for a wipe down otherwise I will wipe it in place. The plates surrounding the burners usually don't get too dirty, so a wipe down with a hot washrag in place is usually sufficient, but once in while I will remove them to the sink for a more thorough cleaning. Reassembly is quick and easy. My drip tray's have not needed much attention. I've had my range for 5 months, and all I've used so far is hot water and a rag and it looks very clean. I do have some heat discoloration along the back island trim piece, but everything else looks pretty new.

If you don't mind a bit of disassembly and reassembly, you should not worry about the effort required to clean this range.

Jon

Posted by trevorlawson (My Page) on Mon, Apr 25, 11 at 11:42

The vast majority of the spills are caught by the drip pan around / under the burner head. I think people with Culinarian ranges and ranges tops will agree only a very small amount of spills reach the second drip tray if any, almost to the point where it is redundant and only needs cleaning maybe once a month.

My thought was why not just get rid of the drip pan around/under the burner head? Then you wouldn't have to take the grates off to clean. Everything would fall to the drip tray and if you line it with foil just throw away the mess.

I think the reasoning behind it is as follows, you would get to much mess on the strip of steel that holds the burners in place, having the drip trays above that area prevents that area getting all messed up (as can be seen in the pictures below.)

At the end of the day so long as A DRIP TRAY catches the spills does it matter where the tray is located?.

...and redundancy seems like a good idea to me. Note: "...only needs cleaning maybe once a month". That sounds like cleaning to me. Seems like having a safety net underneath is a good plan; everyday to clean up higher, lower one there as second pass. I think it sounds as if it would be a mistake without them both!

....starting to smell the end...