I think if wok cooking is priority, then open burner is a must. This is from personal experience. Do a search on "edge heating" or "perimeter heating" and you will probably find some discussions about this. I didn't mention Capital because, at least for now, there is not a Culinarian (i.e. open burner) drop-in cooktop yet. Once there is, my vote would move to that based on my experience with my CC range. Restaurant wok cookers/ranges are all north of 100k BTU some of the larger ones are around 200k BTU. Plus they use gas jets to focus the heat into a 3-5 inch diameter. It's pretty typical to get the bottom of the wok red hot while pre-heating... and yes, these high btu burners can get really dangerous in inexperienced hands. I have a 135k btu outdoor portable propane burner from outdoorstirfry which can outcook both the CC and BS.

Fenwroth, believe me, I have been through all of those options :). Pizzamaking forums are full of people defeating safety features on ovens trying to get the temp high. While that kind of works, the dynamics of a home oven still don't match the neopolitan cooking. So while it would be good to not have to fire up the wood oven for a quick meal by using higher temp, I would have probably still gone for the wood oven. As to using the grill outside, that is what I am going to do for our primary house. But in Seattle area where I live, it rains 6+ months. And for making Pizza, it is more convenient to do it in the kitchen as opposed to carrying things back and forth. So in the new kitchen we are opting to put the wood oven. As to Capital, yes, we are looking at that also in addition to bluestar. So far, I am concerned about the sealed burners but have not done enough research to know if it will really bother us. Also, their 30K wok burner takes 24-inches which pushes us to get a 60 inch unit to have a griddle which is larger than what we were planning for. We may still go for it as the appeal of 30K is high in our eyes :). But I am not quite there yet.

The instructions that came with the wok and The Wok Shop's how-to video on YouTube didn't work well for me. It created a rough, sticky patina that flaked off. There's a video by Poh's Kitchen on YouTube that details a technique that worked better. You don't have to do it as thoroughly as I am, you can let it build a season over time, but I wanted a well seasoned wok in one day. First, clean the residue out of the wok by filling it with salty water and boiling for a few minutes. This removes most of the residue, but leaves some clumps around the top. Not a big deal, just scrub it with some steel wool and dry it off. The clumps are minor and will burn away over time. Turn the burners up to high and hold the wok over the flame until it turns a silvery blue, and continue to move it around until the whole thing changes color. With the wok scalding hot, use a pair of tongs and folded up paper towels to wipe the inside of the wok down with a thin layer of peanut oil, which will start smoking. After it's fully wiped down, turn the heat down to medium and keep moving the wok around for 15 minutes or so to kind of let it burn in. Then turn the heat off and let it cool. Once it's cooled, wipe it down with another thin layer of peanut oil, and then turn the heat back up until it's smoking again. If you look closely at this point, you can see the oil forming droplets and retreating away from the heat source. I found that if you get the right balance of heat, the oil droplets will retreat a bit and then spread out into a thin, flat layer, darken, and appear to solidify. I watched it closely, but you don't have to get that picky about it, you can just keep moving it around and repeating the cooling, oiling, and reheating process. Repeat this process as many times as you want (I did it five times), then use the Wok Shop's technique of coating with oil and putting it in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes. Take it out, cool, and repeat--the 2nd time turning the wok upside down. This helps smooth out the inside coating. You could call it quits at this point, but I did the burner method a couple more times. I was going for the equivalent of several weeks of wokking in just one day. Once I was done, I put a bit more peanut oil in, chopped up some onions, and stir fried them until they were charred. The onions slid around effortlessly without sticking. Cleaning the wok was as simple as running it under water and wiping it down. It cooks completely differently than my first wok did using only the Wok Shop's method. The surface should be shiny, smooth, and slick. A bit of seasoning will come off the first few times you use it. That's fine, just rinse clean, dry, and wipe it down with a thin layer of oil before putting it away. Just keep using it regularly and the patina will stay in good shape. TL;DR - YouTube "Wok Seasoning" and do the Poh's Kitchen method three to five times. Then do the Wok Shop's method a couple times. Then do the Poh's Kitchen method another time or two. Then stir fry some onions. Rinse and wipe.

Wow, that got pretty ugly Dodge. I do agree with you about the hinges/door tho. I wondered why on earth they couldn't seem to get a reliable hinge made. However, it does for the first time appear as tho the new designed hinge is different from the previous ones. Lets hope. foodonastump: I think this will be my last response on this thread as it sunk to new record levels. I just want to clear up that I have never said Trevor's tests were rigged or his experience is not based what so ever on fact or that his posts were not valuable. It is actually that he has a lot of experience on both ranges that I sort of hold him to a higher level than many people. There are a lot of things said on here against BS since the CC came along that are false and Trevor does not come out to correct these inaccuracies they way he would have before the CC or if the inaccuracy was toward the CC. One example I can think of right off the top of my head was when a member of GW posted that the BS burner was 8" in diameter. It was me that had to correct the gross inaccuracy of that. If the same inaccuracy was said of the CC you can be sure he would be there to correct it, or pre CC he would have been there to correct it. And in this case the simmer has been proven to be superior (technically speaking) to the CC. When Stooxie made his post, I think Trevor should have let it be. As to the definition of bias, I simply think of bias to mean impartial judgment. And Trevor does not have that, neither do you or I. Do you think when Trevor performs these tests, that he doesn't give a rats behind which range comes out better like an impartial judge would? Do you think that after the break up of their relationship that he would be an impartial judge? Do you think that he is an impartial judge when he was a very big player in the design and probably the single reason why the CC exists? No way. Because of these facts, and since Trevor has the most to lose or gain, I do believe his bias is probably greater than many, although he certainly does try to keep it under control. And again, I am not trying to bash Trevor. If I have to say it 1000 times I will, I think he is a wonderful guy. The last point I have to reiterate is that there are a LOT of pro's and cons to both ranges that you do not have to have cooked on both to realize. I already realize that the CC has a slight high power advantage. Same as I realize that BS has a low power advantage. I realize CC has an external oven temp advantage same as I realize BS has a oven size advantage. Same thing with buying a car, there are some models you do not have to drive to know that you are not interested. It may be as tiny a detail as the trunk it too small for your needs/wants. I am not 100% certain on this, but I also believe that he was singing the praises of the CC before he himself had cooked on one. So I guess that is it for this thread for me.