Wolf, BlueStar, and Capital were my top choices for rangetops. I ended up with Wolf and am quite happy. I can't imagine having or needing more power/heat than the 16K I have! The large caps, so that the flame has to come out around, worried me about the sealed burner Capital, and a very reputable and credible appliance store in our area decided not to take on the Capital Precision line after they had customers so unhappy with the Capital Performance line, and the support they received in answer to the problems. This is only on the word of that store, but I found them to be the most knowledgeable and helpful staff, overall, that I found in my search. I had to use something to help me decide, and, in contrast, I had only heard good about Wolf's customer service. The Precision line was just coming out, so there was no specific feedback on that one yet. Smarge's simmering problems sound exactly like the problems the salesman described with the former Capital ranges. Anyway, I can speak to one particular experience I had, in which I was quite thankful to have the open burner Wolf instead of the sealed burner Capital...I had a boilover of white clam sauce. It immediately burned on to anything at rangetop level, but most of it dripped through to the catch tray and didn't burn, so was easy to wipe up. For the burned on stuff, it was on the open burner's grate and under pans that I could easily take to the sink to soak and wash out. (As it turned out, the porcelain coating meant I didn't even have to scrub.) If I'd had the Capital, I think the whole mess would've been burned on right under the burner, and I'd have to sop up, scrub, and rinse the stainless surface right at the stove, which would've been difficult and taken much longer. I could have taken the grate to the sink, of course, but even that part would have been more difficult because of the grates being 2-burners wide instead of singular, like for the open-burner Wolf. I am making some assumptions, here, but based on enough fact that I think it would be the case. Who would have thought a boil-over would have made me happier with my rangetop choice? ;-) This is one example, and kind of an extreme one, but I am always glad I have the option to take the stove parts to the sink to clean them out, or to the trash bin to dump out crumbs, etc. I sometimes wonder if I would've liked the BlueStar better, because of the more open burner and because of the disappointment I've had in trying to keep the glossy black underpans of the Wolf looking clean. (the only negative about the Wolf I've experienced.) Like I said, I'm very happy with my rangetop's performance, though, and when the rubber feet burned off my grates, Wolf promptly sent me the new grates they make now (no more rubber feet to burn off). They also sent a whole new set of the black pans that sit under the burners, because they weren't quite sure the new grates would fit the ones I had. They did fit, but Wolf didn't want me to have to wait if I found out they didn't. I think Wolf offers a longer warranty than most and, in my experience, and for the people I know with Wolf, they really seem to want to stand behind their product. Sorry to write so much!

Hey Shaotung Mommy, It's a great idea to the get the big blower -- I have a 1400 CFM blower mounted on my roof and it works great. With the blower on it will not heat up your kitchen. Remember to make sure the construction crew avoid sharp turns or too many turns in the blower ductwork. I think I used 10" round duct. If you have upper cabinets make sure they are set back 3" from the sides of the cooktop, so you will have 36 + 3 + 3 = 42" between your upper cabinets, and your range hood should be 42" wide to catch smoke billowing up from the woks. Also make sure the range hood has adequate depth to catch the smoke and heat from the front burners (woks on the front burner probably will extend past the front edge of the cooktop). Most stock range hoods are too shallow for these powerful cooktops. The hood height above the floor and cooktop... I used a piece of foamboard to determine how high I wanted mine. Obviously you want it as close to the cooktop as possible but it needs to be high enough to keep you from banging your head. I've had only one person bump their head on the hood. It didn't draw blood but they didn't do it a second time! The last issue is the make-up air. With a 1400 CFM blower the air has to come from somewhere or it won't be very effective. I was not able to come up with a good make-up air solution so I need to open windows when I turn on the vent fan/blower. It is cold in the winter here near DC, but it will depend on where you are located. I hope you have a window or two in your kitchen, or a doorway to another room where you can open windows. Enjoy! Billy

Trevor - I'm hoping you can help us determine if Capital has made any important updates to their ranges in the past 4 years. The reason for asking is that we just moved into a new custom house where we had the builder install a 48" Capital Culinarian Self/Clean Range, Model-CGSR484BG for which we paid over $11K. Unfortunately, in a few short days, we managed to break the oven latch and when we called Capital to arrange a fix, we learned our range was built in 2011. This came to us as a shock as we would have expected to get a 2015 range. I've read other threads where you commented that the simmer issues have been resolved in the newer models. Do you know when that fix was put in place? Have there been other major issues that were resolved in the current models? We're trying to get answers from our builder, who has put us in contact with their appliance distributor, but I'd like to get your independent comment if I may, as I'm sure they have an invested interest to convince us our range is identical to later models. The Capital representative also downplayed the years differential. Any feedback you can give us is much appreciated.

We had one of the first 7 series Viking's out with the griddle and it was awful. You would cook 4 pancakes in the front and the first one in the back wasn't ready to be flipped over. We went through four units before we gave up and had it replaced with a 6 burner unit. While we were out the 800 bucks for the delta in cost, we were much more happy this way. An Update: After a LOT of back and forth and uncertainty and looking and trying them out, we are going to go forward with a wolf 6 burner + grill. In our last home the grill was 8 feet from the kitchen. In this one you have to go through a bedroom and down stairs to get to it. So unless I'm doing something pretty darn fancy, I'm not likely going to be using the grill (which is pretty sad because I love that grill). We really want the 48" for comfort of two folk cooking together, which we do a lot. We can't bring ourselves to do Viking again, and they still don't have a wok ring for their 7 series after multiple years (and the aftermarket "works with everything" don't work with it). We seriously considered bluestar and just can't bring ourselves to do the open burner thing. I'm sure it is wonderful, but it's just too industrial for the kitchen we're putting together. Because of the above we are going with the Wolf 6 burner + Grill. We'll spring for a grate with the integrated wok ring in it. I'm not 100% certain just how often we'll use the grill, but I know we'll use it more than the griddle. It's also the same height as the other grates, so you can easily move from one burner to the next. I'm not 100% sure we're making the right decision, but we're making the best decision with what we know! Now to figure out: is a 48" hood "enough" or do we need to give up cabinet space for a 54" hood. And is the 9" low profile Best by Braun hood really just as "good" as the 18" one, if they both have an external 1200 CFS blower.