We ordered ours from Eurostoves/Trevor also. Super nice guy and he teaches you about your choices as well. I 2nd the comment, well worth giving them a call. (we have not had ours delivered yet, hope to do so soon as we are building and were not ready for it before.. long story.. heh)

R

Thanks. I may give them a call. We are still looking at a few models. We might go with a 60" as well, just not sure if it fits our needs. We are not too worried about the budget at the moment, but we like to have a large family gathering quite a bit and can utilize a larger stove.

Capital and BS have several different models. Are you looking at the open, uncapped or sealed, capped burners? What level of BTUs do you want. The BS star shaped burners are in different sizes vs the Capital Culinarian is all the same except for one small pot burner. I would look at how you clean the burners. If you can't see them in person, there are videos of cleaning both the BS RNB and CC, which have the open burner trays.

Capital Culinarian has a model with a self clean oven and a rotisserie. You might want to compare the area the broiler covers. The BS Platinum, with the griddle/grill overlays has an unusual oven design, in that all the heat is from the back and the convection fan must run when the burner is on. I bake a lot and there are times I do not want convection and prefer heat from the bottom so would not choose the Platinum.

Trevor has been helpful even to people here who have not bought from him. It is important to know specifically who will be providing your service.

I recommend going with the open burners. My one regret with the 48" range I purchased was the sealed burners. They spread the flames out too far.

James- what about the cleaning issue?

Cleaning open versus sealed burners is great for marketing but, for me it was really a non-issue.

On better open burner cooktops, you just lift up the cook surface and wipe up the boil over. Generally not an option with sealed burners in my experience. I would rather lift the top up to wipe up a mess then scrub the sealed burner 'caps'.

Open burners cook more evenly for me with marginal pans. "Super" pans cook just fine on a sealed burner assuming reasonable size matching.

Thanks did I was just looking for some real world experience with the comparison of cleaning difficulty. Seems as though there is always burn on sauce or food spills on my current range so ease of cleaning is definitely one of my concerns

If your pan covers the burner, sauce or food should fall outside of the active burner itself in most cases. Drips and spills can run into the burner and flow onto the shelf below. Pops and splatters can obviously land on adjacent burners but, they can be wiped up easy enough.

Burned on food cleaning difficulty is more a materials issue than an open versus sealed burner problem. Granted caked on, burned on food and sauce on a "rough" open burner can be bit harder to clean but, soaking in warm water works wonders for me.

Depending on the model, the open burners can be totally removed and put in the dishwasher. I have been known to "boil" dirty ones in a sauce pan when I didn't have a self clean oven. If they are only cast iron, the self clean oven cycle is a miracle worker IMHO. Test it yourself with a cast iron skillet if you want, take your dirtiest nastiest cast iron skillet and self clean it in your oven. Add some oil to re-season and you have basically a new skillet.

The cleaning issue is nothing but FUD and Marketing. How often do you go crazy and sling food all over the place? This from a guy that loves to try and flip his eggs, omelets, etc. Think about it. Do you really think that the flames will not burn away any food? If you do not want to listen to what people argue on an internet forum. Just go to a cooking class or talk to a professional, or serious amateur chef. They all prefer and use (given a choice) open burners.

James- I appreciate the response. I wasn't sure if it was hype or not since it is always brought up. We are really messy chefs

queensinfo, people have very differing opinions about how important It is to keep their range spotless and what is easiest to clean. Some people are really put off by having to take the range top apart and others feel you can really get it clean by being able to break it down. Sealed burner trays were developed to keep the mess out of the works of the range which keeps it easily accessible. They added caps to the burners at the same time to keep food out of the burner ports.

People can give their opinion, but the only way to know what you think is to go if possible and see for yourself. If you can't do that there are a few videos that will give you an idea for these burners.

Capital Culinarian

BlueStar

I would let the cast iron parts season like a CI skillet. Some people put foil on the pull out tray to make it easier to clean.

There are also some burners have semi sealed burner trays. Wolf used to make one with capped burners that had a tray that broke down for cleaning. The American Performer has star shaped, uncapped burners with a tray that lifts off and goes in the dishwasher. It would wipe down about like a sealed burner tray in between major cleanings.

"Just go to a cooking class or talk to a professional, or serious amateur chef. They all prefer and use (given a choice) open burners.

Pshaw I know chefs who have brought commercial ranges into their house and those who did not want anything like a commercial range in their home kitchen. They want to get away from it.

I personally am 50/50 on it. Other things than how you clean have more priority to me. When I bought my range, the oven was the consideration so the burners came along. They happened to have a sealed tray and it is pretty easy to clean. Next time though I might get something else depending on what my needs will be at the time.

If I were going for easiest to clean as the only consideration, it would be induction.