Once parts are needed for any appliance repair two visits over 12 business days from the first call to the manufacture would be an excellent time frame and customer service. A total of one month would be on the other edge of normal.

Once I had an appliance repair tech come over, identify that my refrigerator compressor was out, he had one in stock in his shop and came back in the afternoon to install. That I think is highly unusual.

I have only had to have my burners and my oven knob adjusted for the Culinarian. I called on a Monday and they came the following week on Tuesday and took about two hours to adjust the six burners and the oven knob that was sticking out about half an inch too far.

Sorry to hear about your problems.

Good luck.

I've posted before on the forum about my extensive issues with our Capital Culinarian. We've owned it for just over two years and have had a half-dozen service calls, mostly for the oven. It was generally not hard to get them to come, but I came to figure at least a week to get them in and then 10 days or more for any parts, plus whatever lead time necessary for scheduling the return. (Sometimes they wouldn't schedule that until the part was in.) And yes, hugely inconvenient for any appliance, nevermind one that one uses daily (and that cost an arm and a leg).

I just reported a problem with 2 igniters and an oven dial. I'll wait to see if we can get some troubleshooting instructions to get a quick DIY fix, or if I need a service call, I'll see how that goes.

David

It's not brand specific. It's system wide on any brand of appliance repair. Most repair persons will be at least 3-4 days out for an appointment at minimum, no matter if it's a Whirlpool or a Capital. That's just how the industry as a whole operates.

It depends what the problem is. The heating element on my KA dishwasher cracked (after 11 years). I called the repair place I use and told them the issue. I said I didn't need anyone to diagnose the problem, just order the part and come do the repair. They said that was fine but I was now responsible for paying for the part, regardless. I said fine, they ordered the part and showed up 2 days later and repaired the DW.

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback on this issue. Today the repair tech was back out, parts in hand. He was surprised (and dismayed) when he realized that he had to strip down the range in order to install the new thermostat. Guess it's a lot faster for other types of ranges.

He didn't test anything before he left. Told us that warranty work does not pay for his time to retest the range after installing the new parts. (seemed odd to me??) So after he left, we had to do the testing ourselves. Turns out the new thermostat still doesn't work right. Recorded the temp as it went through about 5 cycles. Oven set at 350 degrees, temp never went above 339 before dropping down to about 315. I wondered if perhaps our digital thermometer was registering low so I redid the test, adding two more thermometers, a digital one for my smoker and an analog thermometer. Unfortunately, these registered even lower.

Then I tested the broiler. Good news is that it does heat up now. Bad news is that the heat is very uneven. Much hotter to the rear of the oven. I tried to toast bread. Bread in back is burned before bread in front has even started to brown.

So I had to call Capital again and start over. I hope I don't have a lemon.

Our repair tech keeps telling me to get an extended warranty. I don't think it's based on a wealth of experience with this particular range, just a gut feel he has that it could be very expensive to maintain over time...based on what has happened so far.

I'm trying to keep a positive outlook, but will admit I'm dismayed. And my husband is totally disgusted!

Mary Ann

It would seem igniters would be stocked in shop however dials and cosmetic parts would need to be ordered.

I bought one this summer. My broiler works unexpectedly slow. I will be calling for service. The oven and burners work very well. One other surprise: The stainless steel top has some surface damage from the grates. Not a big deal.

I would definitely get the extended warranty, if that option were available.

Today the repair tech is coming to replace a third part, an orifice for the broiler. He is supposed to test the oven/broiler this time, instead of leaving it for me to do.

After the last repair, one of the burner igniters started to malfunction. It lights the burner and then continues to spark continuously, even thought the burner appears to be fully lit. Don't know what this problem occurred, other than this is one of the burners the technician had to dissemble in order to replace the oven thermostat. Maybe something was not put back into place correctly.

So, perhaps, after today, my oven and broiler will work correctly. But now I have a new concern. I had noticed there seemed to be a burned on spill in my oven. It was there during the first visit from the technician because I remembered we commented on it. Funny thing is, I didn't remember baking anything that spilled.

Today, in preparation for the technician, I checked to see that the oven is empty and noticed the "spill" and decided, belatedly, to wipe it up with a damp paper towel. Taking a closer look at what I wiped up, it looks like the oven surface has bubbled and is flaking off. Yikes. Has anyone else had this problem?

Technician is here and he was able to adjust the air intake on the back two burners and they both work great now, no more igniter clicking.

Also, he will order a new bottom tray for the oven to replace the one with flaking coating. I am relieved.

He's installing the new broiler orifice and will be calibrating the oven. I'll report back the results.

Mary Ann

Today the repair tech is coming to replace a third part, an orifice for the broiler. He is supposed to test the oven/broiler this time, instead of leaving it for me to do.

After the last repair, one of the burner igniters started to malfunction. It lights the burner and then continues to spark continuously, even thought the burner appears to be fully lit. Don't know what this problem occurred, other than this is one of the burners the technician had to dissemble in order to replace the oven thermostat. Maybe something was not put back into place correctly.

So, perhaps, after today, my oven and broiler will work correctly. But now I have a new concern. I had noticed there seemed to be a burned on spill in my oven. It was there during the first visit from the technician because I remembered we commented on it. Funny thing is, I didn't remember baking anything that spilled.

Today, in preparation for the technician, I checked to see that the oven is empty and noticed the "spill" and decided, belatedly, to wipe it up with a damp paper towel. Taking a closer look at what I wiped up, it looks like the oven surface has bubbled and is flaking off. Yikes. Has anyone else had this problem?

Technician is here and he was able to adjust the air intake on the back two burners and they both work great now, no more igniter clicking.

Also, he will order a new bottom tray for the oven to replace the one with flaking coating. I am relieved.

He's installing the new broiler orifice and will be calibrating the oven. I'll report back the results.

Mary Ann

Well, I guess I am jealous. At least you were able to get a repairman to come to you. I live near Indianapolis, IN, and there does not seem to be anyone here who works on them. I had such annoyances with my range that they are sending a replacement. I certainly hope the new one does not have all same issues. It has taken over a year to get them to send the replacement.

OMG, Heidi, I feel your pain. No one to work on it near Indianapolis? That seems entirely ludicrous.

We now have the oven temperature calibrated. It's a nice tight cycle of about 10 degrees above and below the set temp.

The new broiler orifice that Capital sent is the same as what was already was already on the range. The tech changed it out but there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the old one.

The broiler still doesn't work right. The tech can't tell what is wrong and I'm confused as well. There is a flame at the rear near the igniter. It is very yellow in color, which the tech thinks indicates that it is getting too much air. But he cannot find any way to adjust the air to correct that. Any good near this flame will burn.

Also, the infrared portion of the broiler is not turning evenly red. The back portion seems to get evenly red, but the front part has sections that are black instead red, so apparently these sections are not getting hot. And when we turned the broiler off after having it on for about 20 minutes, it made a very loud exploding sound. I asked my tech what that was and he said "hopefully the broiler unit expoding".

This comment was made after the repair tech asked Caesar with Capital to send a replacement broiler unit and Caesar very reluctantly agreed to do so. He did not want to send a replacement oven bottom without pictures documenting the problem. The tech is pretty steamed over that.

I can't get over Caesar's apathy about resolving problems with the range. He doesn't seem to have much knowledge about the range or much interest in getting problems fixed. This is a very poor recipe for customer satisfaction.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann, your story sounds distressingly like mine. I posted about some of my experiences in Culinarian--Capital Disappointment.
They sent us so many parts I can almost build a new stove myself. We don't mind doing the work, but for all the $$$$ we spent on this thing we should not HAVE to.
Best of luck. There are so many who love their ranges, I am still hopeful for the rest of us.

Sadly, your experience(s) sound much like mine, too ... Only with Bluestar (oven problems, crappy broiler, myriad ignitor issues, the clicking even when fully lit ... eerie!).

I'm shocked that these little niche brands that rely so much on word of mouth, and hardcore cooks' forums like these to promote their little known products, seem to have such abysmal quality control and customer service. I've always thought if/when I replace my Bluestar--because once the extended warranty expires I'm not putting one more red cent into it, that's for sure--I'd look at Capital. Reading this, I think I'll go more mainstream. Wolf may not have all the bells and whistles, but they sure as heck have service. And quality control. Sigh.

While we were waiting for the new broiler unit to arrive, the final straw broke the camel's back. We had the broiler on for about 20 minutes (no, it wasn't fixed yet, so only the back side of the broiler unit was hot) when suddenly there was a very loud explosion, a roaring sound and flames. My husband quickly turned the broiler off, though he was very apprehensive about getting close enough to the range to do this. We could smell combustion fumes up to 20 feet away.

We realized this stove is just too dangerous and we couldn't trust that repairs would make it safe to use. We contacted the retail store we bought it from and told them we wanted to return the stove. They said they discontinued carrying this range (since we bought it in June of this year) because there were too many repair problems and service issues.

Today they got back to us and said they would take the range back and let us apply the refund to a different range. I'm so excited. I consider myself very lucky to be able to return it. Now I have to figure out what to replace it with. We will have to choose from what they carry, but I think they have a good selection to chose from.

So I'm happy to say that this closes the my Capital Culinarian range chapter :)

Best of luck to all other Capital Culinarian owners.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann, I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles and glad you are getting a new range. May I ask if you live in a large city? I'm getting a new range as part of a kitchen remodel and have had my heart set on Capital but now am so unsure. I live in Los Angeles so I had assumed that at least there would be plenty of skilled repair techs with Capital experience here in a worst case scenario. But if this happened to you in a metropolitan area, then all bets are off.

Living in CA you could / should expect to get Factory service, the ranges are made in Santa Fe Springs 25 mins from LA

Trevor from Eurostoves told me to call him to troubleshoot the igniter issues, but since the range is in our weekend home, it's hard to coordinate.

Worse, my wife also discovered another issue. The main oven does not heat up to the desired temperature, and even at the max setting, barely baked a frittata she was making. I'm sure Capital would like me to hush up and handle this quietly, but I think that would be a disservice to potential customers. I'm not trying to hurt the company, but I believe that this is an opportunity for Capital to step in, reassure, and handle these repairs quickly, and revamp their quality control procedures.

Now I too wish I hadn't gotten suckered in by 23,000 BTUs and settled for a solid, reliable 15,000 BTUs in a mainstream brand.

SherylJ,

I live in a large metropolitan area (Dallas/Ft. Worth area).

I have no beef with the repair company authorized to do the repair. They were always booked close to a week out, so it took them longer to respond than I would like, but they were very professional and appeared to know what they were doing. I ended up enlisting their help to contact Capital on my behalf to get more info about what might be done to resolve the issues.

My beef is with Capital Cooking. I think they have poor QC, perhaps a poor design for the oven and broiler, and worst of all, are totally apathetic about service. There is no reason that it should take them so long to ship parts. Two weeks after a part had been ordered (and not received), Capital would finally get around to sending it, but only after being nagged to do it. And they wouldn't expedite it to make up for the delay. It would sometimes take them 3 or 4 days after they said they would authorize a repair for the repair company to get the go ahead. And when my repair tech contacted them to get more advice about the broiler issues, they had no technical advice to offer. It was quite bizarre.

The burners on this stove are great, although they don't do a true low simmer, not a huge issue for me. But in my opinion, they don't make up for a small oven that isn't true to temp or a broiler that doesn't cook evenly.

I know that it may have been just my bad luck to get a lemon, but Capital has not stepped up to resolve the issue. Fortunately, we bought locally from a reputable store.

Mary Ann

Does crow taste anything like chicken? Because I have to eat quite a bit of crow today.

I thought I had major issues with my 60" CC range (I was even regretting my choice of Capital), but it appears the only real issues are rather minor. The major issue that was a non-issue: ovens not heating up. I got thermometers to document the issue, and it turns out my wife was just impatient. The ovens do indeed work!!! They take 10-20 minutes to preheat, and I think her conclusion the oven wasn't working was from a combination of the preheat time, her being in a rush, and the length of time it took for the frittata to start browning.

Minor issues:
1. Measured temperatures slightly high on small oven (520 F measured, 500 F setting)
2. Measured temperatures moderately low on large oven (450 F measured, 480 F setting)
3. Large oven max setting is 500 but oven shuts off at 500 until you turn to broil setting; also, dial slightly off, shuts off at 490 rather than 500 setting, so 480 is max setting on my unit.
4. Small oven bottom plate that covers/ventilates the burners is not fastened down so as the oven heats, it warps upward. So if you open the oven door, you can't close it because it blocks the door from closing; I now have scratches on it from this impact, so I need a new plate ordered and installed.
5. I still have the original issue of the non-clicking and persistently clicking igniters.

A few nitpicky details:
1. Grill cover is not hinged, which is probably so you can remove it, but it's sometimes awkward to open and close it closely due to friction or getting wedged in the back.
2. The convection fans are pretty loud, but it's good to have them available.
3. There is quite a bit of heat escaping out above the oven doors, but this is probably a necessary venting feature for the gas oven. The oven doors and handles get warm but not hot and are comfortable to touch/hold.
4. There has been a lot of debate on the inter webs including here on GW about the simmer capability of the Capital. My wife does not like the simmer setting on the regular CC burners; I will have to request a couple of simmer burners.

I would like a technician to try to calibrate the oven thermostats and align the dials when they come to replace the bottom plate/burner cover, but for now, it's good to know my range is almost 100% functional, super powerful, and 20-30% less than Wolf. Is it somewhat disconcerting that quality issues exist, but they were thankfully minor!

I'm largely happy now with my purchase now assuming 1) these issues get resolved quickly and 2) it continues to work reliably in the future.

David

David, that is good news, I can feel your relief :).

Did you watch the oven temp change as it cycles on and off? I ask this because it is possible that the slightly high and slightly low readings on your oven could be the result of catching them in the high or low parts of their cycles. If the thermostat is working properly, it will raise the temp above the set temp, then cut off, coming on again when it gets a certain temp below the set temp. This will continue, although I am told that the longer you preheat, the less the temperature fluctuations will be.

The range of the temp fluctuations is partly determined by the quality of the thermostat and partly by the process of getting the entire oven cavity uniformly heated. My repair tech said we should expect to preheat our CC oven for about 30 minutes to get a good stable temperature for baking. That is not based on it being a CC, but a general statement about gas ovens. I was surprised by this.

My CC range went back on Thursday (yeah!), replaced by a Themador Pro Harmony. Would have liked the Pro Grande, but they don't make it in a 30 and that's the real estate we have to work with.

So far I'm very pleased. Broiler is fabulous, very quickly and evenly hot. The burners are a delight - such a lovely simmer, and the high heat is plenty high enough for me, I don't need a blow torch for the way I cook. Haven't baked yet, so that remains to be tested. But I am feeling very optimistic.

For folks in the Dallas metro area, consider Capital Distributing (no relation to Capital Cooking, makers of CC) when you are buying your kitchen appliances. Their prices are good and, even more importantly, they stand behind their products! We would have been screwed if they had not taken the range back. They currently don't carry any open burner ranges since they stopped carrying the CC (I know it's a bummer), but they have a great selection of the others.

Speaking of the CC, I have a wok grate that I will be selling. It's pretty cool, so if you have a CC and want to wok, check it out. I will have my husband put it up on EBAY later today.

Mary Ann

Mary,

Sorry you got a lemon CC, and I hope your frustrations are over! Thermador seems like a boutique or at least semi-boutique brand too, so... good luck! My CC was no picnic, but as long as they fix the major issues and it doesn't keep giving me new problems, I'll be super happy. I really do love the look, the open burners, and the power of my 60" CC.

Thanks for the explanation of how thermostats works on gas ovens; makes sense that it would just overshoot, to keep an average temp of the set temp. This is my first experience with gas ovens. So it looks like minor repairs aside, the small oven is fine; I just need the big oven calibrated to go hotter.

I'm actually very interested in your wok grate... let me know if you want to send me photos directly and avoid the eBay fees (10%, 13% if you count PayPal fees), and possibly the PayPal fees. I've received money via Square Cash; I'd like to try sending money using Square Cash to avoid fees for you. I'm assuming the wok grate is in good shape?

Mini update. Just talked to Bob at Capital Cooking Equipment. He has forwarded my issues to engineering and will be getting back to me; I'll keep you guys posted.

So now that I've redone my math, I kind of sound ridiculous... even to myself.

Clicking/non-working igniters: he said probably just need to be wiped with rubbing alcohol. I'll report back if that works or doesn't work.

Oven dials being off: small oven 4% high, large oven 6% low (5.7 - 6.25%: 330 at 350 F setting, 450 at 480 F setting). It's not that big a deal. It would be nice if there were some consistency (both high or both low by the same amount) so we can remember one correction factor rather than 2. Not being able to go all the way to 500 F, probably not that big a deal. I hope they'll adjust my dials or my thermostats.

The warped floor plate on the small oven is definitely something that needs to be replaced, as well as the now damaged oven door, but now that's my main concern, rather minor.

One other thing: we LOVE the open burners, but we are NOT happy with the simmer setting on the burners. Way too hot, boils too hard to simmer properly. I will be requesting 2 simmer burners as well.

David,

Found this on eHow. The CC has the adjustment in the shaft. Just uses a flat head screwdriver.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5061140_calibrate-gas-oven-thermostats.html

Not sure if the directional instructions in eHow write-up apply to CC, but it might be good to start with.

Mary Ann

David, I posted another message re calibrating your CC ovens, not sure where it went...
Ask Capital to give you instructions on calibrating your oven, you should not have to mentally calibrate your temperature setting each time you use an oven.

My repair tech calibrated my oven. He removed the oven knob and used a flat heat screwdriver to turn a set screw in the shaft. Put your thermometer in the oven, a remote temperature probe like you would use to keep track of temp on a roast would be good.

Turn your oven on, and track the cycling of the temp. You will need to turn the screw in the shaft to adjust the temp up or down. I don't remember which direction the tech turned it, but you could start with what the eHow article says, if you can't get specific info from Capital. You are aiming to have the set temp exactly in the middle of the temp range that the oven thermostat cycles to.

If the temperature range is very large when the oven cycles on and off, you should talk to Capital about getting a new thermostat. After I go the new one, it cycled very tightly, about 10 degrees above and 10 below. I would think anything with 20 to 25 above and below to be acceptable. I certainly wouldn't be happy with 50 or 80 above or below (and some brands of ranges have thermostats that are that bad). But you will need a technician to install the new thermostat. It's not a simple install because it requires removing lots of stuff to get to where it goes.

Good luck,
Mary Ann

Mary Ann, you are a treasure trove of Capital Culinarian experience. Too bad yours didn't work out for you! I'm hoping the repair tech they send out will calibrate my ovens, otherwise I'll do it myself following instructions. I'm handy, but only if I have to be. :)

David

I totally get that, that will be ideal. Ours had a really handy device for tracking the temp, much better than making do with a temperature probe. :)

Sorry about the late update, but my technician took care of all my issues shortly after my last post. Our simmer is acceptable, all burners are lighting, the clicking is mostly gone but it does happen rarely, the ovens run closer to the dial setting.

Thank you, Capital.

David

Thanks for the info which I am taking into consideration as we try to determine whether or not to get a Capital range. It might have been helpful to know whether these were gas or dual fuel ranges and whether sealed or open. Has anyone in Northern CA had experience with Capital?

I have heard from a couple local appliance stores that they stopped carrying Capital because of service issues and unhappy customers. Apparently it is a great product and there was a lot of initial hype around it, but the company was not setup to deal with service issues. I was told that it took too long to get parts (capital at times would refuse to send they anything faster than ground...a problem on the east coast), and that a lot of improper parts would get shipped because Capital would routinely change parts during the production run without labeling them with different part numbers or keeping records of the specific part in each unit. It is because of these stories that I decided to go with the Bluestar Platinum.