IMO, Capital being smaller and "newer" and fighting for floor space by good word-of-mouth will "try harder". At the much larger F&P, I would think every customer is just a number. I bought a 48" Capital Precision 8 burner gas rangetop, sight unseen, based on reviews on GW, where I first heard of the brand, and based on my numerous phone calls with them. They were extremely patient while I sort of freaked out after my appliance retailer told me that due to whatever reason, my rangetop was going to be delayed beyond the 12 week window I was quoted (I ordered at the end of Oct. and the holdays were coming, blah blah). I think the delay originated with my area distributor wanting a full truckload or something, but all parties rallied and I got my range within the promised time frame which prevented my countertop fabrication from being held up! It is beautiful and I can hardly wait to cook on it! But, I wasn't yet done harrassing the kind people at Capital and my GC, KD, and myself, called their tech guys a thousand times as we tried to get my rangetop installed flush to the countertop AND cabinet face (I have a very deep cab. and can get it that way). It was designed to sit on top of the counter and in front of the cabinets - exactly as it would if it were a regular range installed in a 24" deep cab. But I dind't want it that way, and through persistance I'm told I'm ultimately able to have it the way I want it. I'm most impressed and grateful to the professional and friendly service we've had after the money was already spent, and fully expect that IF I have any troubles with performance that they will be quickly corrected. I never looked at DCS; are the prices similar?

I looked into Bertazzoni when I was researching ranges. It definitely looks like a sexy stove in person (if stoves can be sexy!) But the oven capacity was much smaller than the Bluestar that I ended up getting. I also didn't like the fact that the gas heating element was at the top of the oven in the Bertazzoni. I would definitely recommend trying to find a place that has the ranges you mentioned so that you can see them in person - because it really made a difference to see them live instead of just comparing BTUs and features online.

It seems to me that your decision should be based on oven capacity, not handle aesthetics. They both are great appliances. dcarch

I use a wok on our Blue Star all the time -- both for Asian and Western food. The built-in wok ring is amazingly convenient. And it brings the wok so close to the burner, it really heats up super quickly. It never takes more than 20 seconds for the oil to start smoking. This is with the regular 22kBTU burners. We have had our Blue Star for a couple of years now, and I really love the experience of cooking on it. And it is such a basic design without any complicated electronics, that it isn't particularly prone to breaking, and if it does break anybody can fix it. There were only a tiny number of service issues that I ever needed done. When I first bought it, I didn't like the default burner configuration. My dealer said they could either special order the configuration I wanted, or they could replace the burners in the field. The latter option would not only cost less but also take a lot less time, as they had all the parts in stock. I decided for that, and replacing burners and orificies only took a few minutes. A couple of years later, I called Blue Star to inquire about an unrelated question and mentioned that my oven door was starting to be harder to operate, even after lubricating the hinges. They volunteered that this was a known defect and offered to send a free replacement door. I popped out the old door and installed the new one. Took about 60 seconds of work. More recently, the oven igniter finally burned out. Given how much I bake, I am amazed how long it lasted. It took me about 30min to replace the igniter myself. I am sure I could have called any random technician to do the job, but it didn't seem worth the trouble. Replacement was so easy to do. Finally, a friend of mine told me that their Blue Star range top didn't work reliably; a couple of burners would click and/or light even though they seemed to click. They had the same problem that you have, where they live too far out in the middle of nowhere, so they have trouble scheduling service calls. The next time I visited, I took a look. A few screws needed tightening in order to give a good electrical connection. I was able to fix it for them, but any service technician could have done so too -- it didn't really require knowing anything that was specific to Blue Star.