You are going to find it difficult to get experienced feedback from someone who has cooked on both units. Trevor at Eurostoves would be a good resource to contact to get an experienced opinion. He has experience with Capital, too. Even if you don't buy from him, you can at least get an educated opinion.

Personally, I always fall on the side of trying to configure the kitchen with a separate range top and independent oven stack. I know you are working on space planning at this stage. I would try to revisit the issue. My reasoning is if you buy the big range you are tied to a huge unit with two ovens and a range top. This is a multi-year, expensive purchase. If something goes on the fritz down the road, you might find yourself in the situation where you have to replace everything if one thing become unfixable. Talk to the Viking owners about this. If you have separate units, you are only replacing one at a time. Should replacement ever become necessary.

If you are a baker, conventional wisdom is you will want the steady heat of electric convection ovens. You may want the steam oven option. If you get a range, you can't have steam. If you are meat eater, the roasting operation of a gas oven is superior in result.

Because of long-term replacement, I would go at the space planning one more time. There is no way I would undertake this project without running it past the kitchen obsessed over at the Kitchen Forum. Tell them what you want to do and see if someone can't work out the puzzle to get it for you. I bet they can do. I've seen them work miracles.

FWIW, I bought the Platinum. What do I know?

The platinum has the Pow-R oven as well. That has a rear mounted burner for faster preheat times. I have not used that oven extensively (Trevor probably has) but I would imagine it would influence cooking somewhat as well since its an additional heat source.

I have heard mixed reviews on the interchangeable grill/griddle. Mostly that people don't use them, they just leave it alone. You can get similar results on the griddle side from a good griddle pan and grilling is messy.

The 25k is nice but wont radically change your life.

That being said, I am finding myself more on the Capital bandwagon. Bluestar's are great, but I think Capital can be had for less money and performance should be pretty similar with the culinarian range.

A few points. One check out Pirch in Oak Brook. Great place and the chefs have used most of the stuff. Two, call Trevor from Eurostoves. He is a phenomenal resource and knows the Capital and BS as well as any human can.

I would try to have separate ovens and range tops for about the same reasons.

There are a few differences in the oven between the RNB and platinum. Two things would be important if you are a baker.

The platinum uses the Pow-r burner and it is not additional but the only burner. There is no bottom burner. This is an issue for me in baking pies and even cakes as most recipes count on heat from the bottom. There might be some other things that rely on that but those would be the main issue for me. the Platinum has the convection fan on low every time the burner comes on as it must because the heat is in the back of the oven. You can't turn it off. This is drying to what you are baking. This is on top of an already dry environment in a gas oven. As a side note most manufacturers state on their website and in their literature that a gas oven is moist heat because water is liberated as a byproduct of combustion. Gas ovens have more air moving through so the moisture is removed. Electric ovens hold onto the moisture from food or added moisture. If using convection during roasting it will only run high speed when the Pow-r burner is off and low when it is on. Drying is a good thing when you are wanting something to brown because it evaporates superficial moisture allowing the Maillard reaction to take place. It is not such a good thing at the beginning of baking cakes or things that need to rise.

As as far as a griddle, it is interesting that some of the features often listed can be a good or bad thing depending on how you use your griddle and burners. I'll use cookncarpenter's bullet points for a framework. There are all kinds of options.

"Always on the stove top ready to go"

The flip side is that you have less flexibility. This might be less of an issue with a 60" range, more with 36" One positive here for built in would be more stability unless you bought an overlay that is fitted. Some people use the griddle everyday so never would take it off. If you want a 24x24" griddle it would be very heavy but some people just have 2 overlays and use as needed.

"No need to remove, store, replace"

You can remove and store.

"Thermostatically controlled, set desired temp and forget about it"

I think it would be easier to reproduce a temperature with a thermostat.

One side while talking about temperature would be that you are limited to 15K BTUs on the BS RNB built in. With overlays, you could have 2 15K burners or maybe more lined up front to back so much more power.

"Once seasoned, extremely non stick-Cleaning is essentially a scrape, and wipe with paper towel (never soap)--Use for pretty much anything that can be cooked in a skillet or on a grill--Can be used as french top for sauce pans, great at keeping foods/plates warm--Excellent for warming tortillas and or leftovers"

These things are pretty much true with all griddles. Chef King is popular and seasons well as does cast iron. Soap is somewhat controversial. :-) Even aluminum will season but it takes longer. Some aluminum griddles come in a nonstick coating.

One thing to consider is the metal that makes up the griddle. Griddles are generally made of steel, cast iron and aluminum. Steel and cast iron tend to have zones of heat, lower and higher while thick aluminum tends to heat much more evenly. There is a photo of this in the review of the platinum that is on the front page of the appliance forum. An aluminum griddle can be bigger because of its excellent heat transfer properties. I have one that is 17x23 that can grill a boatload of sandwiches. Aluminum takes less time to heat and is much quicker to respond to adjustments in the flame. Some people like to have both and you can always buy the add on aluminum if you have a built in. It's not near as heavy as the steel. Some have replaced the griddle that comes with the Platinum because the heat is so intense coming out of the hole on top.

Wow, great information,
thanks everyone!

Cookncarpenter - I very much
appreciate you sharing your experience and enthusiasm with the built in griddle
and RNB in general - on a 36" I would likely just go with an overlay, but
now that I am leaning towards the 48"(rangetop or range) there is no
question that I would get a built in. I
have also never used 6 burners at once, but I really love the space it affords
to slide hot pans around and how it never crowds when using 4 burners. (I currently have an older Viking 42” 6
burner that works very well.)

Homechef - My bias is also separate wall ovens for reasons you mention,
though I am probably not entirely correct to attribute the rethinking of this
to space considerations alone, there is a strong aesthetic element to wanting
them together, but I certainly appreciate the risks you note. Of course, the wall ovens I might purchase
may breakdown and need replacement in 5 years whereas, the Blue Star oven I would
have otherwise purchased could last forever.
There is an element of randomness of risk in either scenario that is
impossible to handicap. And I just might be
rationalizing a bit there! ;-)

But I will evaluate and consider both options and I agree, there is no way
I would begin this project without giving the kitchen forum a crack at my
layout – I just need to get it drawn up so I can present something.

Joe – I do plan to call Trevor as I have appreciated his (and your) insight
as I’ve been reading these forums over the past year +. Work travels are likely to put me in Boston in
the next few months too, so I am hopeful I'll have some time for a side trip. Yes, the
Capital with similar performance at a lower price is very compelling, though I
prefer the Blue Star in the looks department.
Is it worth the ~$500 price difference to me? Relative to the cost of a kitchen renovation,
it’s pretty small, and of course, I’m telling myself the same thing in leaning
towards the Miele columns over the Thermadors!
How many times can I afford to tell
myself this??

I agree, Pirch is a wonderful place, been there a few times but surprisingly they do not sell Blue Star or Capital!

Wekick – I’ve read so many of your comments and continue to learn a lot
about oven function in general. Thank
you for helping to flesh out the differences and the insight on various
properties of the oven and griddle options.
With a 36” I might be hesitant going with a built in griddle, but not
with a 48” and as you note, if I wanted a larger space or more power on occasion I can
always get a large overlay. I would not
expect to be baking cakes, pies or bread nearly as often as say a roast or
finishing up a seared steak or fish in the oven, but I have also never owned
anything close to a high end oven, so who knows how my cooking habits would change....

I am leaning towards the RNB, but will update when I make a final decision.

Home chef covered the 'repair and optimization' rationale of separating the range top from ovens well. I also wanted to move the heat invariably thrown by the fired ovens, away from the space that you spend so much time attending to the cooking process - the range top. Also, if you have two cooks in the kitchen, or one cook one baker, then putting a little space between the two provides a little freedom of movement. You'll naturally still want the range and oven stack close enough for easy range-to-oven access.

We have a 36" six burner BS range top and dual 30" Therm convection ovens and it's been a great setup for us for ten years now. The only thing I would change is bump the range top to 48" with the grill, although cookncarpenter is pretty convincing on the griddle rationale.

And as far as your 'cooking habits would change' - they surely will, and it's all good.

@pauls234 I am curious what you ended up choosing? Did you get the griddle? Thoughts on that? I am also looking at BlueStar.

alishaes,

Sorry, just now seeing this.... well, I have not made my purchase yet. Project got delayed (and kept getting larger!) for a number of reasons, but we did finally start and are in the demo phase.

I did get out to Eurostoves so was able to see, touch, feel, etc the various ranges and have decided to go with the RNB with a charbroiler, though re-reading this thread makes me want to reconsider the griddle! My decision came down to the fact that I could always use an overlay griddle, but couldn't go the other way and create a charbroiler where there wasn't one, though I'm confident I'd be happy with either.

I'll post back in a few months when I actually receive and use the range.

I got the griddle and ended up using an overlay griddle. I don't think you would miss it.

I've since moved. Now, I have an old Viking open burner with a griddle. I hate cleaning out the grease out of the griddle. I'd rather wash the overlay griddle. But, that's me. Your experience may vary. Boy, do I miss my BTU's. This 15,000 BTU on all burners is disappointing. I miss my star shaped burners, too. You are going to love your BlueStar.