I actually owned the BS drop-in and it was great. It wasn't the easiest to clean but it also wasn't that bad. The only pain was having to remove all the grates *and* the knobs to lift the top. That said, I wouldn't have traded it for any sealed burner cooktop. I looked at the Capital and the power wok burner but the sealed powerwok suffers the same problem as every high powered sealed burner I've seen... it spreads the heat to widely. I demo'd both prior to buying the BS and the powerwok burner had all the heat going up the sides of the wok and the center wasn't getting much heat at all. I don't think they've redesigned that burner significantly so I wouldn't recommend it if you are really serious about wok cooking. If you get the BS, get an extra grate so you can modify it to accept a wok without the wok ring. Also, the grates on it are continuous, unless you have a different definition of that than I do. There are a couple of things with the BS to make it better: 1. get the extra grate and modify it. 2. ask if they will replace the rear center and rear left burner to simmer burners. They come with the 15k burner but it looks like they used the same 9.5k orifice they use on the simmer burner. If I recall correctly, this was due to fire certification because they didn't want to put a 1" back on it. 3. make sure you get the "white-glove" warranty extension. Not sure if they still offer that but you get an extra year and a BS tech out to check things out. 4. open up the top first thing and put foil under the burner bowls. I used foil to form little catch cups that I put into the support riser to the burners. Bits of food and liquid that fall down the center hole of the burner will fall into this area that is almost impossible to clean without slicing your hands. The catch cup prevents the need to get your fingers way down there. You'll know what I mean once you get in there. IMHO, there's nothing else on the market today that can even come close to the BS if you are looking for a drop-in cooktop. As a consumer, I'd love to see another player enter the market here... hint.. hint.. BTW, the comment about loosing drawer space is because the open burner design of the BS make it vertically thicker/deeper. The BS extends about 2-3 inches lower below the counter top than average sealed burner cooktops. Good luck with your decision.

I love it actually. Really learnt a lot of the fundamentals in cooking. You learn the theory and then you execute it in the kitchen. The best thing I'd say is that you get a lot of diversity and exposure. And the worst thing is probably that culinary school doesn't really fully prepare you for the actual kitchen. There's nothing like working in the industry and learning about it. Actually, I'm more of the proponent of the classical learning method which is practiced mainly overseas in Europe and such; which is through an apprenticeship. BTW, I'm also have a degree in mechanical engineering. Working on a career change. OK, well I have a few more tips that hopefully might help you. Putting out grease fires. Basically never use water. You can place a lid like the other person mentioned to basically suffocate the fire by removing the oxygen. Another method is to sprinkle flour, baking powder, baking soda. Basically that also works by suffocating the fire. ALWAYS remember to turn off the fire as well. Generally, when you sear, saute, or pan-fry. You don't ever want to heat your oil till the point where it smokes. At this point your fat has basically broken down and begin to disintegrate. You'll impart unwanted flavors onto your food. Also, if you continue to heat it long enough, you'll reach the flash point of the oil and it will combust. Bear in mind that it varies for different types of oils. Some oils have flash points very close to the smoking point and some don't. As far as technicality goes, searing basically has very little oil. Just about as much as sauteing goes. Searing however is not a cooking method in itself. It's just a step. Example, you sear a pot roast to seal the juices of the meat inside before braising it in the oven. Pan-fry generally is 1/3 to 1/2 way of the item you're cooking in. Then finally there's deep fry. Temperature is critical whenever you're frying anything. If the oil is too hot, your item will brown before the inside will have a chance to cook. If the oil is too cold, your item will basically soak up all the oil, and you end up with oily and soggy food. You also don't create a good seal on the surface and your juices will leak out. Now as far as types of oils go, peanut oil is the best for deep frying, pan-frying, searing, saute-ing. It's basically an all-around, high smoke-point, neutral flavored oil. Olive oil is not really the best type of oil to use for deep frying. Light pan-frying is OK. Sauteing is OK too. Olive oil is flavored and also have a lower smoking point. Clarified butter is also OK for quick saute-ing (thin food items). Example veal scallopini (where you pound out the veal to thin pieces). If you're unaware of this, clarified is basically butter with the milk solids and whey removed. Heat up the butter gently over the flame. Do not stir it. The milk solids will be at the top, the clarified butter in the middle, and the bottom is whey and water. The milk solids will float to the top when the butter melts. Skim off the milk solids. You will have clarified butter in the middle. The stuff at the bottom is the whey and water. You get about 75% of clarified butter from butter. OK, here's the heads up on BTU/hr ratings etc. There are a few things to keep in mind. Basically the burner element is a heat transfer device. Your pan contacts the burner and is also emitting heat into the environment. You're basically losing heat to the environment. Burner --> Pan --> Environment. The higher BTU/hr rating will allow you to heat the pan up faster and also accommodate for more heat loss. So lets say you have a really thin pan which barely has any thermal mass. You'll have a hard time retaining a high temperature on the pan if your BTU/hr rating is low. Basically thicker pans have more thermal mass. With all other factors being equal, more thermal mass means more heat retained. Now, at the same time, more thermal mass also means it'll take longer to heat up. Also the type of metal comes into play. Copper vs Aluminum vs Stainless Steel. Different metals transfer heat at different rates. So now that you have your pan heated up and it's a good nice and high temperature that you desire. You place a cold piece of meat on it. There's something else that you would have to deal with which is heat recovery. Higher BTU/hr burners will allow you to recover the heat much faster. Also a good heavy gauge pan (like a copper lined pan) will also help because it would have a high thermal mass retaining a lot of the heat. Another factor with good quality pans (generally thicker pans), is that you get even and uniform heating throughout so that you won't have any hot spots. Basically, it's not just one factor (i.e. BTU/hr rating), it's a combination of your pan, technique, etc. BTW, stir fry is done at a really high temperature. It's kind of a spin on sauteing except it's really quick and the temperature is really high. If you've seen it in a restaurant (mainly Chinese cooking I believe), you'll see the burner ring is huge and the wok is basically shaped to contact the flame all over. With the shape of the wok being concaved, I believe there's also a radiant heat effect at play as well concentrating the heat toward the center. I don't know of any residential setup which will allow you to "really cook" on a wok. If you have noticed, stir frys when done right has somewhat of a slight smoky flavor to them. It's hard to explain. It's not so much that it's burnt or like it's a BBQ. It's a distinct smokiness inherent in the high heat cooking. Hopefully this helps =)

Thank John for additional data point on BlueStar. 3min 40sec seems to be consistent with Trevor's test on Capital 3min 36sec with 25k BTU burner. For my AEG induction wok hob @ 3.2kW, it takes just 2min 52sec to evaporate 80ml of water. It is best however to see in pictures how this behaves. This is a 14" wok that fits the curvature rather well. It sits with bottom half or third touching the recess area. This is somewhere around where the water edge is. It is also around the area where induction coil locates. You can see the darker seasoned area. That's where the main heating zone and my main cooking zone is. At a few seconds in after the induction unit starts on P, we can see bubbles forming. That makes sense as it is the area where induction coil is. At 11sec, steam starts to form. Bubbles now form a solid ring around the edge. At 16sec, steam starts to fill up my cooking area. At 41sec, this is smoking hot wok. Water is boiling vigorously though out. It is a bit difficult to see with this amount of steam, but you know what it is. This show the amount of steam from a different angle. At around 2min mark, the huge heat from induction is dying down. This is mainly because the water level drops below the area of the induction coil. So it is entering the much cooler spot. The heat that keeps evaporating the water now is from conduction, which is not the best thing for thin carbon steel. You can see that it takes quite a long time to evaporate this very small amount of remaining water. The slight red glow clearly shows where the induction coil is. At last, we get there by 2min 52sec. Cheers to induction wok hob. You're the best.

I won't be much help in your question on comparing the sealed burner vs open burner models. But, I'm in the same boat as @stars26. Our kitchen remodel is nearing the end and I have a open burner 36" RCS waiting to go in. I also have a 21K burner upgrade that I will be swapping into one of the 15K front burner spots. From what I've read lurking around the forums here, most owners are very happy with the BTU upgrade from "standard" range models when buying a BS even at the 15k specs. Any BTUs over 15k are just cherry on top for an average home cook is my understanding - not that you wouldn't notice the heat difference, but more that it may not be a necessity depending on your cooking style and menu preferences. I was looking for the extra BTUs in at least one burner, but wasn't able to afford to pay the premium to go up to an RNB. So am going the burner replacement route. I'm looking forward to having the range in place soon and in use hopefully not long after.