When any sales person starts off by slagging my preference or item of interest, I remain silent and just stare at them. This compels them to continue on with the subject to try to achieve dominance by either citing real facts or a load of BS. Most don't have a very deep knowledge of their products which soon becomes apparent.

Perhaps the link might help with questions you have. Hopefully someone from the area with a Capital will also detail their experience.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dist link in TO

I second laat2. Sales people are driven by commissions and worse, often don't know half what they pretend to. Do your own research.

I too considered the Capital due to the power-wok burner but a few things to consider. The power-wok burner is *not* the same as the dedicated 24" burner they offer. The main difference in the burner design. The dedicated 24" wok burner is a more standard open design with a single "coil" design. The coil is open in the middle and sides which focuses more heat in the center of the wok. The power-wok is a sealed solid cap design which shoots the flames out the sides. For wok cooking, I'd strongly prefer open burners for the heat distribution.

That said, take everything with a grain of salt. My research was a combination of online research and emails with capital customer support. I have never cooked on one. I'm just sharing the reason why I steered away from capital.

Thanks. One thing is that the sales person I was talking to likely knew that if I went with Capital, I had another source to purchase from. He seemed knowledgeable enough, talking about the various gas manifold designs of Capital, Wolf and Viking. I plan to run by a different location with another salesperson to get their take on Capital, without them knowing about my other source.

Just wondering what dealer you went to in Toronto? I was at Caplans last week and I guess they had a sale on their Wolf ranges. Think it was around $5300 for the 30' but don't have all the details. Believe it was for a dual fuel model. Wife wants to go for the Wolf but afraid it is out of our budget and might for for the Bluestar RCS model that is at Coscto for $1900.

Tasco: both Wolf and Viking are having major sales right now ($5500 and $5999, respectively, down from ~$7000) for 36" all-gas ranges. The Wolf needs an addition trim unit for ~$180.

I asked about the Bluestar, and was told it's all cast iron, which I assume would probably require reinforcing my floor, not something I want to do.

We live in Toronto and purchased a 36" Capital Precision two years ago, with 6 burners, self-clean and rotisserie. In retrospect, the self clean may have been a waste of money, but I love this range. I love the consistently high BTUs on all the burners; convection is noisey but great for roasting turkeys and baking; easy slide out grills; price was very competitive; easy to clean sealed burners (although some cooks may prefer open ones) and the range LOOKS great in our kitchen.

I'm having a brain drain at the moment and honestly can't remember if we purchased it from Caplan's or another competitor, as we purchased several appliances from different stores, Caplan's being one of them.

We had a challenge with hooking up the gas line but that was resolved. The temperature also needed to be adjusted. Both times we put in calls to Capital's customer service number in California and got prompt courteous replies.

Please continue with your own research and don't let one salesperson - who may have kick backs - turn you off! I preferred the Capital hands down over the Viking. The Wolf name has a greater reputation, but given the price differential, I was very happy with our selection.

On another note, we got a Viking hood, with 1200 blower; very noisy when the fan is on high but does the job. After two years, the dimmer switch no longer works on the lights, so I'm not wholly endorsing this fan.

Good luck with purchasing your appliances!

I have heard the Bluestar is heavy, but not sure if it is to the point where you would have to re-inforce the floors. Heard from a number of people that have purchased the 30' model and this hasn't been an issue.

I would probably go for the Wolf if we could afford it.

I did end up going to another location, and they didn't have anything bad to say about Capital. We did notice that the build quality of the burners on the Capital do not seem to be as good as the Wolf or Viking, not sure if that makes a difference. I would like to check out a Caplan's at some point, any other good appliance stores in Toronto?

Try Morley's in Woodbridge. They carry all the major brands including Capital, Wolf, Viking.

Intereting. Morley's steered me away from Capital towards DCS (unreliable service was the reason). Said Wolf and Viking were basically equivalent.

So, I had an eventful weekend, having visited Morley's, Caplan's, and revisted Tasco.

Basically, I think I'm going to go with the Viking range and Vent-A-Hoot range hood.

The question that came up was ... 30" or 36"? The difference between the VGCC530-4B with 36" Vent-A-Hood vs. VGCC536-6B with 42" Vent-A-Hood is $1,700 (CAD), after tax, almost all of that difference in the range itself.

The 30" is only four 15,000 BTU burners, whereas the 36" has five 15,000 BTU and one 18,500 BTU burner. The oven is also ~1.0 cf large. So I have to ask the question... would people spring the extra $1700 for the larger oven? I'm not worried about losing 6" of counter space, so I'm trying to gauge whether the extra burners are worth the money to me.

I would go with the 36" if you can spare the money and counter space. The two extra burners will probably not get heavily used but the range will feel much less confined. I've actually used all 6 burners at once making Thanksgiving dinner for 10+ people and one other time just having a dinner party but the extra space to slide a pot of something you finished cooking but can't serve right away or for larger cooking vessels like a wok or stock pot is always a benefit. That's not even considering the extra oven space.

large ovens:
I have all gas 30 inch Viking range. I have never needed a larger oven. Currently, I can put 3 cookie sheets. (comes with 3 racks) I have never baked 3 sheets (I stop at 2) because I am not sure if the oven if "good enough" to handle 3 rows....

I am actually thinking of adding a small but "exceptionally fine" second oven. Most of what I do is not large quantities of cooking. I would like to have a oven with good temperature control, even heating, temperature probe for those pesky meats that need to be roasted to perfection etc.

Just a difference of opinion....

We went with a 36" Bluestar and 42" ventahood and would not do anything different. If you can pull off the extra 6" I would.

We're doing a kitchen remodel soon, and suddenly I have to pick a stove! I want a 36" model, and I'm considering Thermador, Blue Star, American and Capital. I love the idea of sealed burners, but I also love the idea of high btu's. Any input would be appreciated!

I have owned the Bluestar rnb36 for 3+yrs and really love it. I did have the igniter module replaced under warranty,but no other problems except a user created crack in ceramic igniter. I compared Thermador,Wolf and Viking the only one I would consider of these is Wolf.

On the weight of a BlueStar requiring you to reinforce your floor, that is straight BS, not even worth commenting on if you look at the weight of any of these units and the building codes or practices, even 100 years ago. If it came from a salesman, run away and think about why he would need to lie to you to sell against the BlueStar.

Of the sealed burner ranges, I'd consider the American Range or Capital pieces. In my opinion, Thermador is too expensive for what it provides compared to either the American Range or the Capital. They claim a low simmer, but their cycling burners cause spikes that are just as high as any of the sealed burners I tried.

I personally don't like the Viking pieces, and have heard that DCS isn't what it was a few years ago (I wasn't impressed by their pieces then).

With the Blue Star pieces not much more than the American Range in similar sizes, I can't pass them up any more. They are as close to a commercial range as you can get for the home these days. Even the big burners on them simmer lower than the flashiest of the sealed burner pieces I've tested. The clincher is that you can't beat the Blue Star open burners for control and heat uniformity. Its not the sexiest looking top, but it will look like that for years without much maintenance, which you can't say about s/s, glass, or enamel tops.

For hoods, I couldn't see trying to keep the Vent-A-Hood clean. You can't get that box into the dishwasher; you can run baffle filters right through the dishwasher every week and haven them nice and clean without much effort. I ended up with a Prestige; Independent makes nice hoods too in the mid-range. I understand the Blue Star hoods are made by Prestige, for another source of supply. As much as I like some of the more-affordable Kobe hoods, I don't think they could keep up with a 6-burner and the way I cook. Modern-Aire makes beautiful hoods, but I had too much trouble with the Northern California channel to buy one -- the factory staff are beyond helpful though.