Clean up hassle of open burners?!?! Sorry, you have been misinformed. Open burners are no harder to clean than the sealed burners. Do a little more searching and reading on this forum about this topic and then decide. I had a sealed burner in the past and I now have the Culinarian (CC). At worse, the open burners are equal to the sealed burners when it comes to cleaning, especially for the CC. The CC has a stainless steel pan around the burner just like the Precision does. The only difference is the open burner has a hole in the middle of the burner. But even then, there is a little stainless steel shield recessed into the hole to catch splatters and protect what's underneath. Even if this was a problem for cleanup, the performance benefits of the open burner overwhelmingly outweighs any drawback that might exist.

If the CC is in your budget, don't even hesitate. The range really is that good.

The people who founded DCS then went on to start Capital so the two ranges are quite similar. One big difference in the burners is that DCS burners are dual stacked and have an incredible simmer capability - I don't think Capital Precision has dual stacked burners (not sure why) and don't know how well they simmer. I've had a DCS range for about 10 years and love it. I have no info on F&Ps financial status.

Weissman: Do you know if DCS product quality has diminished since the company was acquired by F&P? I have called F&P customer service twice recently: once to inquire about a product spec and once to get clarification on rebate terms. Both operators I spoke to were frighteningly ignorant. Do you have any experience with DCS/F&P customer service? Would you purchase DCS appliances again?

jscout: Why is the CC so much better than other ranges? Also, is the range top exactly the same as what you have on your range? I will be getting a wall oven. For that matter, is the wall oven essentially the same as the range oven?

I know a number of people on this forum have purchased DCS ranges since the acquisition and have been pleased with the ranges. I have called customer service only a few times since the acquisition and never had any problems. I would purchase DCS again but I'd also consider the Capital CC - but like you I prefer sealed burners for ease of cleaning despite what others on this forum think.

"I prefer sealed burners for ease of cleaning"

Do you have any experience of cleaning open burner cooktops?

Yes, my previous range had open burners and I never cleaned it - you should have seen the crud under the cooktop when I finally got rid of it! With sealed burners it's just a simple wipe up, and my 17.5K burners give me plenty of heat for wokking and searing.

You are right, DCS seems to have minimal problems if any. You rarely see complaints. I have been using mine 3 1/2 yrs. The Gas supplier that hooked it up commented it was the first range in a long time he hooked up that didn't need some sort of adjustment. I love the dual stacked burners. I just looked at the rangetop and it is 4 - 17,500 dual stacked burners and 2 - 12,500 dual stacked burners. My 5 burner DCS range has 3- 17,500 and 2 12,500.

Does the dual stacked burner actually result in a better simmer flame? Are there other benefits to the dual stacked design? Do any other manufacturers use it?

I never said the CC was so much better than other ranges. I'm sure you've seen the meaningless pissing contests that have been going back and forth. And for the record, I think it's idiotic and juvenile, so I don't get involved.

However, I did say that the open burner was that much better than the closed burners. I don't care whether it's Capital, Bluestar, Garland or Vulcan or whatever. I'd take an open burner any day over any sealed burner. Some of the perception that open burners are hard to clean are based on those old cheap-ass residential ranges from the old days.

Some genius came up with the idea of a sealed burner. I don't know about you, but when I saute or "sear" on a sealed burner, I almost always let the pan straddle the flame so that it was hottest from the middle forward. I much preferred that cheap range my mother had. Though it was under powered, the heat was at least even. The stacked sealed burners are the next "better mouse trap" to compensate for areas where the sealed burner lacked.

That's where the CC has a distinct advantage. It's based on the Precision, but with an open burner. So it essentially cleans like their sealed burner range, but cooks with the power and finesse of the open burner.

I know you say you're a vegetarian and that you don't need to sear meat. While I do sear a lot of meat, I also cook a lot of vegetarian items. I use a lot of tofu and seitan. One thing I'm able to do again is to take silken tofu and put a crust on it without it getting oily. Caramelizing veggies and bringing out the natural sugars is also much better.

I'm not trying to sell you Capital, since you were already considering the Precision any way. What I want to do is to help you avoid missing out one something based on an assumption or generalization, right or wrong. Let your budget be a deciding factor, not the cleaning. At least in Capital's case, the difference in cleaning is very slim since the platform is essentially the same.

Sealed burners are not wipe and clean as claimed. My wife used to scrub the heck out of her Viking cooktop just to keep the stainless around the burners from looking burnt. We finally threw it out the door & put in an open burner range. Clean up times are far far less than with the Viking. The difference is not clean up time, the difference is cooking power. That decision is for you to make.

kerfuffle6, On my DCS I can simmer things like rice for 2 or mashed potatoes for 2 for over 1/2 without burning, sticking or becoming overcooked. I don't know if another range without the dual burners can do that. I believe some ranges' have one dual burner but the DCS all burners are so no moving pans around and several things can simmer at once.

jscout is correct the old (open) burners were still crappy ring burners where the flame came out the sides,someone just put a cap on top to keep stuff from falling down in the center. If you like to wok cook stay away from sealed burners, look how big the burner caps are on the Precision, all the flame goes around the outside of the wok, not to the center like it should. The CC and Bluestar rangetops would be your best choices. I have a CC range and it is easier to clean than our old sealed burner range, of course it had a black top. The BlueStar is also supposed to be very easy to clean as even the burner bowls are cast iron.

CC owners: How are your simmer burners? Are they as gentle as the ones on eandhl's DCS? Can someone also explain to me why the Precision range top would be difficult to clean, despite the sealed burners?

Maestro wall oven owners: I've read that the racks do not glide smoothly. True?

"I've read that the racks do not glide smoothly."

I can't speak to how the racks roll after they have been used for a while, but the deal-breaker for us was that they only pull out about half-way. "State of the art" these days is full extension racks that give you 100% access.

So, PeterH2, which wall oven did you get and are you pleased with it?

After looking at a couple of dozen (at least), our current plan is to get the Electrolux WaveTouch double. But we are 6 months from starting the remodel, so that could still change.