The only thing I can think of is if you really wanted open burners, as I believe the DCS burners are closed/sealed. There has been a lot of back-and-forth on this forum along the lines that the open burners have a better flame because of more oxygen under the flame, while the closed burners are easier to clean, or maybe they're not easier to clean. It's one of those endless debates with no right answer, except that you should choose the type of burner that you prefer.

The DCS would be an excellent choice - I've had the 30" range for six years and I'm very pleased. The other range you should consider is Capital - they were founded by the people who were originally at DCS and their 36" range has a self-cleaning option - their burners are also a bit more powerful than the DCS - if I were in the market now, I'd be seriously considering it. By the way, I'm very happy with sealed burners - they perform fine and they're very easy to clean in my opinion.

Another happy 30 inch AG DCS owner here. The stainless top is very easy to clean and so far, 6 months, I have only had to wipe out the oven a couple of times and it still looks new.

We've had our 36" all gas DCS range for 1-1/2 years, and it still looks new. Great power & easy to keep clean. We would purchase it again today.

A question to all of you, owners of DCS manual clean gas ranges, how hot does the exterior (knobs, oven door, etc) get after having the oven at high temperature (400-450) for a while?

Some one else (can't remember the name now, sorry) reported here that the exterior gets very hot. This is very important to me and was one of the reasons why I almost decided to get American. But now it seems like American is having issues with their ranges so I am back to looking at DCS.

So far when broiling, baking, roasting I have not noticed anything to hot to touch.

Nothing on our DCS gets too hot to touch.

Thanks too all who gave me their 2 cents. Now may I ask the owners of the 36inch range....which exhaust system do you have? We are building all new, so I will put an external exhaust on my roof. I suspect this will keep the noise level down a bit......Im thinking of a Broan system.

GIZMONIKE.....Can you tell me if each of the sliding/pull out racks can be fully removed from the oven? And do these get in the way when you clean the oven? Thanks.
richandclaire@gmail.com

I had a 48" DCS rangetop that I installed 3 years ago. I chose it for the BTUs and never had any problems that needed repair. The simmer was great. Full blast wok cooking was fab. Wish my Vent-A-Hood had been able to keep up with it. I found the griddle disappointing as it heated very unevenly and took a long time. I wouldn't choose DCS again because the flame diameter was too wide. It was fine for the wok or very large (10+inch) diameter pans, but sometimes you just want to cook a box of mac and cheese in a smaller pan. I had to do it with the heat on low or the flame would overshoot the sides of an 8 inch pan. Not a complete deal breaker, I know, but if you have 18,000 BTUs, you want to crank it up! So anything that wasn't a "Big Job" that needed a big pan (say, one egg in a six inch skillet?) took a lot longer. This was also a problem with the back burners. The SS backsplash was immediately discolored due to flame overshoot no matter what size pan I used. Yes, the gas was correctly adjusted. I think the biggest problem was the grate sits too low and the burners sit too high. I have since moved into a house with a brand new Dacor Epicure dual fuel (came with the house) and I thought I would have the same problem. I don't because the grate sits higher and/or the burner sits lower. So I can crank the Dacor up full blast (same BTUs as my DCS) with the same pans I had to put on low with the DCS. I am still getting used to the Dacor, so I am not saying it is the final word, but it has given me something to compare to the DCS.

Yes, the sliding racks can all be fully removed from the oven. They're easy to put back in, too. They're very solid & secure, with no shifting, binding, or squeeking. LOVE the sliding racks!

We have the Ventahood liner vent, actually two of them, built into our overhead hood space, since our range is flanked by a Gagg induction cooktop on one side & teppanyaki on the other, making our total cooktop space 66". We initially planned for the vent mechanism to be on our roof (flat section) but changed to VAH when it became apparent that we would have trouble finding service people willing to go up on our roof. The VAH makes some noise but it's low and acceptable.

My 36" AG DCS was just hooked up today, so I've barely turned it on. Simmered up a pot of bean soup on it after I realized this morning that my soup pot wasn't compatible with the induction hob in the temp kitchen. Baked a pan of muffins later, and was very surprised how fast the oven pre-heated. I have a 600 cfm VAH which is still sitting on the kitchen floor. If my HVAC guy can get the correct switch to interconnect with my furnace, I'll be baking all tomorrow afternoon.