i prefer open burners. i find them easier to clean (really, there's not much to clean at all, as food either burns off or falls through to the drip tray), and i believe that the open area around the burner allows for better air flow and therefore better performance.

this issue has been discussed extensively in this forum, already, so if you do a search, you'll find plenty.

I am thinking the extensive discussions are more about "traditional" open verus sealed burners. I do not think that particularly applies to Wolf. Some thoughts:

1) Wolf's "open" burners are probably more similar to sealed burners, because the bowls come within a tight tolerance of the burners.

2) This means that it would take a massive spill for anything to ever hit the drip tray.

3) It also means that the open burners will probably not realize much if any of the supposed benefits of better airflow that traditional open burners have.

4) At least on the ranges, the open burner models have all identical burners. These all have higher output than the sealed burners, and have a lower simmer than all but one of the sealed burners.

5) The burner setup is different - at simmer the open burners have a very small circumferance flame. This is not true of the sealed burners.

To me there are benefits and drawbacks to either. Note that these are my recollections from research a couple years back. Some points may be incorrect or outdated.

We don't have one yet but are getting the open burners. To ya_think's point, we currently have a Viking open burner. One of the issues with that is that the large flame circle. We are hoping that the smaller middle circle provides head to the center of the pot where the Viking does not. We used to have a pro range that had a similar setup and that was superior.

The open configuratino does allow more air flow from the middle section that a solid cover does not.

The one step back from Viking is that it has a single piece tray. So when spills happen, you don't have the smaller drip tray to clean/replace. I think this is a poor design and does take away some of the advantages of open burner that Viking has.

I have the sealed burner -- DH hated the grates that were on the open burner and only wanted the sealed. I know there is a tendency here to prefer the open burner, but I've been happy with the sealed. I have enough power on high and can put my small 1 qt pan on the low.

I think that what often happens when you get to this level of appliance is that most folks find a detail or two they focus on to help make a decision, but the reality may be that most folks won't notice the slight differences involved in many of these debates. Your cooking needs would have to be rather extreme to not be happy either way.

amirm - Your post made me stop at an appliance store. Hate that. On closer inspection I saw that you are right about the airflow. I had not noticed that ring with the hole pattern before.

I think you may be making too big a deal over the single drip tray. So what, line it with foil, put shallow trays within the tray, whatever.

"I think you may be making too big a deal over the single drip tray. So what, line it with foil, put shallow trays within the tray, whatever."

Did you just say to use foil over the house windows instead of curtains? :) That would be quite an ugly thing to do. Inside the rangetop, sure. But not outside.

And no, it is not a big deal or we would not be purchasing it. ;) I simply made an observation that a better design exists than the one they used. My making the immediate area smaller and easier to remove and wash/replace, there is a degree of convenience which does not exist in Wolf....

LOL amirm I am not sure where you misunderstood me. You see windows and curtains. You do not see the drip tray unless you have pulled it out to clean it.

The viking has two drip trays. One you don't see and one that you do. The latter is what I am talking about. It is a black circle which sits on the larger frame which goes across both burners. The Wolf has the identical frame but lacks the smaller circle which surrounds the burner and catches 90% of the spills. Almost nothing makes it below (into the proper drip tray) in our Viking. Hence the point I raised.

Ok I gotcha. What other companies call burner bowls Wolf seems to call drip pans. And yes they span two burners - I understand your objection. The close fit of these drip pans to the burners is one of the reasons my first post suggested these burners are closer to sealed burners in that boilovers do NOT simply fall into the drip "tray" as in other open brands. So yeah, cleanup is probably generally going to be closer to a sealed burner, where you bring your sponge to the range rather than your bowls to the sink. We are on the same page now.

Thanks for the responses. So, if I understand you all correctly, the "open" burners on the Wolf are not like the open burners on a BlueStar where everything falls through. The open burners on the Wolf are sort of like sealed but with better air flow? Did I get this right? Which would be easier to clean?

Just an FYI as far as I know it; the black enamel pans on the top of the range, just under/around the burners, are called the burner pans. The pull-out tray under the entire burner assemblies (the lip is located directly under the burner/oven knobs), is called the drip tray.

sayde - Yes, that is my understanding anyway. Cleaning of open versus sealed (versus "semi-sealed") is a hotly debated personal preference; and my experience with sealed is too limited for me to fairly comment on.

cat_mom - It seems that different companies call it different things. On Viking documentation they call them burner bowls, on Wolf they call it the drip pan (as opposed to the drip tray.) I wouldn't be surprised if someone called them burner pans, and if someone else called them drip bowls. There, I think we have every permutation covered! As long as we can reserve the word "tray" to the flat thing that pulls out from underneath the whole unit we should be ok.

Another consideration. I purchased the Wolf cooktop and, in general, am satisfied with it, especially the controlled simmer and the fact that not all burners go full blast. However, I don't like the placement of the gas outlets which causes the heat to be placed around the edges of the pan. It is very easy to scorch the food on the outside of the pan. I never had this problem with an electric cooktop.

Chances are that you would have the same problem with any high powered gas cooktop. Turn the flame down and consider getting new cookware. If you multi-layers on sides as well as bottoms) you are prone to getting hot spots around the edges. the layered sides distribute the heat more evenly on the sides of the pans as well as across the bottom. If you just have a layered bottom, the heat gets distributed and then hits the thinner sides and can scortch there.

Cuisinart makes a less expensive version, Calphalon has one and I'm sure there are others out there. You can sometimes find them at discount stores like Marshall's or TJMax or look for a good sale and use a coupon ot Linen's & Things or Bed Bath & Beyond. I think you'll see a real difference. I had good quality cookware, but I had to replace some of my pans and got some great buys. It makes a difference.

interesting read. we are about to buy a viking rangetop. Is the overall message that i got from your postings that open burners are better than sealed? thank you for your input.

A couple things to consider on sealed vs. "semi-sealed" (open) on the Wolf:

- The difference between 15 and 16k btu does not tend to be noticeable for the vast majority of cooking (sealed is 15, open is 16).
- While the btu might be lower on the open, as you observed it's a tighter circle, and it's closer to the burner. On the sealed, the larger circumference and lower stack makes for a very low simmer (you can put a $20 bill or paper towel on any of the sealed burners for minutes or even an hour - but why would you cook on a 20 bill?).
- The back left burner on the sealed is a tighter circumference so you would use that on smaller pans that you don't want heat on the sides.

This isn't a push to say sealed is better but these items are worth noting.

Thanks for all the responses -- I've just reread them all.

A related question on the Wolf burners -- I think I read that on the open, the knobs let you choose simmer low med high. But are the infinitely variable, or do you have only four set positions? Is it the same on the closed burners?

Just a thought. Viking and Wolf use black painted steel for their burner bowls and tops. DCS, Capital, American,etc -the top is all stainless. Bluestar the bowls are cast-iron. The stainless tops and the cast-iron bowls are probably easier to clean burnt food off of than the black porcelain painted steel.

sayde- Simmer is an infinitely adjustable inner flame ring. L-M-H is infinitely adjustable outer flame ring. One other note about Wolf open vs closed: the open is acually way easier to clean, because the drip bowls are removeable, as are the burner rings. On the closed burners, once you remove the grate, that's it. Everything else must be cleaned in place. The tops of the sealed burners, which looked so nice when first installed, will soon have burned-on oxidation which will be real difficult if not impossible to clean up.

Thanks drtom77. Would like to be sure I understand-- are you saying that there are two flame rings on the open burner?

I do understand your point about cleaning and am increasingly persuaded to go with open. I have open now on my old Jennair and I put all the grates and pans in the DW. Do you do that with the Wolf open drip pans and grates?

We don't have our Wolf yet. But on our viking open burner, putting the pieces in the dishwasher does little good. Once the stuff burns on the pieces, they require sandpaper class level of cleaning :). So yes, it is nice that they are removable: you can buy a new one if you get tired of cleaning it. And you can take it to the sink and wash up the top grease/food layer. But that is the extent of the flexibility.

Thanks amirm and everyone else who wrote. I noticed on the Wolf website that they say not to put the pieces in the DW. I find that whenever we use the stove for something like seared tuna or really just about anything in a skillet, the neighboring grates as well as the one in use get some spatters. For me the big challenge is not pieces of food or crumbs but the spatters, and for these the dishwasher always worked well. It just seems easier to just put them in there than to wash by hand -- am I lazy or what? I probably put the Jennair grates in the dw several times a week. So I am a perplexed that the Wolf site said not to do it. Has anyone used the dw for the Wolf, and if so, any problems?

May-be I will start a new thread on cleaning the rangetop (and ovens) as this is drifting off topic . . . . .
Thanks again everyone