I read about the Capital cooktop on this forum and found it on display at a local appliance store. It looks great and I think we want it, but I have a question. I found nothing on ignitor positioning through a search, but if relevant discussions exist, I would be grateful for a link. In every other cooktop displayed in the showroom, the spark ignitors are nestled in the bases of the burners and covered by the black lids. On the Capital, the design is like that of our current cheaper cooktop---the standalone ignitor rods are outside the burner assemblies. Now indeed it is a hefty ignitor compared to the flimsy ones on the other models, but it seems to me that the Capital ignitor is exposed to damage from spills and such---we've had problems with our current cooktop and need to replace the ignitors with some frequency. I know the Maestro cooktop hasn't been around very long and so there is no track record, but any general information or experience regarding ignitor rod placement would be greatly appreciated.

I've just usually found that cookies that utilize the whole pan in standard home sizes (3"?) mean that there are cookies down the center and cookies nearer the edge than 6 on a pan would be. And that's when uneven baking is more likely to show itself? Doesn't really matter to me, but thought people considering this oven might want to think about it. Didn't want anyone missing that the 6-cookie-per-pan method might be different than theirs.

teachmkt1 Contrary to the unsubstantiated claims that it didn't recover well from from temperature drops, it does great: took about 5-6 minutes to gain 50F at 300 up to 500F with 2 or 3 stops along the way on a preheat. ____ Unsubstantiated claims? I like to differentiate between --information provided by the manufacturer --unsubstantiated claims which may be a person's stated experience but unaccompanied by independent supporting data --personal opinion Each may be helpful but has to be taken for what it is. Here are some examples. This information is from Capital in the User Guide and may be found HERE It is not my "claim" but Capital's own words. "IMPORTANT: If the oven door is left open for a period of time while cooking or the temperature setting is increased by 150° or more, the oven will go into a rapid recovery mode. This is the same heating as PRE HEAT and uses intense heat from the BROIL, BAKE, and CONVECTION Elements as well as the Convection Fan to heat the oven quickly. This may cause foods to burn." "Open the oven door only when required! Opening the door allows heat to escape and requires the oven to recover which can affect cooking. Check food by using the oven light and viewing through the door glass whenever possible" PERSONAL OPINION HERE>>>Not a "claim" but I wrote on a previous thread that this statement would give me pause because there are times I open the door frequently when using my oven. Trevor Lawson posted a response from Capital on this thread. HERE This is it. Again not my "claim", words from the manufacturer. "Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc) This is the answer I received from the factory due to the last thread. There are two sides to this question and the complaints for each is shown below: COMPLAINT: My oven doesn’t recover quickly when I reset the temperature to a higher setting (+150° F) or leave the door open for overly extended periods of time and takes too long to regain the set temperature. a. SETTING: No quick recovery. Oven will cycle normally despite large temperature drops due to the door being left open, or the oven set temperature being reset to a much higher temperature. The recovery time can be very long for large differentials between oven temp and set temp. COMPLAINT: My oven goes into a quick recovery mode when I reset the temperature (+150° F) or <b>leave the door open for excessive periods of time</b>, and burns my food. a. SETTING: Quick recovery is set. Oven will go into PRE-HEAT mode if the difference between the oven temp and set temp is 150° or more. This reduces recovery time if the door is left open or if the set temp is increased." There is a very prolonged discussion HERE that includes comments by the engineer and many opinions. If you want to have some idea of how long it takes to move the temperature up if you need to raise it, without the preheat, again the user guide linked above answers in the delay bake section. A quote from the user manual (not a personal claim). "IMPORTANT When using the DELAY COOK, the PRE-HEAT cycle is eliminated to prevent food from burning. The oven will take an additional 20-40 minutes to heat to the set temperature. Please take note of the additional time it will take to heat the oven when using DELAY COOK." >>>>>using very basic math and the numbers supplied from the user guide. <<<< Assuming the oven is at 72F to start and you used mid range 30 min as the time required to get to a mid range temperature of 350F, add to the normal preheat again given by Capital as 10 minutes, it takes about 40 minutes to come up 278F. This is 7-8 minutes to come up 50F. Here is an unsubstantiated claim. No test data supplied. >>>My Electrolux oven takes about 60 seconds to raise the temperature 50F. I used an oven a couple of weeks ago that had a digital read out of the temperature and it was surprising how much the temp dropped every time the oven was opened even briefly but the oven kicked on and the temperature was restored in seconds. teachmkt1--"it does great: took about 5-6 minutes to gain 50F at 300 up to 500F with 2 or 3 stops along the way on a preheat" I am not sure what this means. Was this in the preheat mode or do you mean you preheated the oven to 300F and then the preheat went off and you turned it up 50F? Either way we have differing opinions on what is great. MY OPINION VVVV This would not be the oven for me because sometimes I open the oven for many batches of cookies or appetizers, stirring, adding something, taking something out or leave the oven open slightly for some types of baking. Open it three quick times and I can be down 100F and then you are looking at 12-15 minutes(using the variation of teachmkt1's, however the number was obtained vs user's guide numbers) for it to come back up if you don't open again.

Panzer, I have Gaggenau single convection oven and combi-steam oven, as well as a Gaggenau induction cooktop. Plus a small Wolf gas cooktop. My fridge and freezer are Miele, Advantium speed oven, Monogram warming drawer and DW, Marvel fridge drawers. Modern Aire hood. I don't believe in going for a single brand. I like to chose what suits me best and panel everything that will stand still for it. :) (I.e., everything but the ovens, Advantium and cooktops.) I don't know anything about current pricing. You can call any of the big retailers and get pricing info that may not be published on the 'net. Universal-akb has a good internet sales department who can help you with that. And I think AJMadison also carries all of these. What I want most in an oven is control and accuracy. I also don't want gizmos to decide how the oven works, like rapid preheat, turns off when the door opens, uses preheat mode to regain temperature after you've opened the door and let out some heat, etc. Gaggenau let's you choose to have rapid preheat, but it's an option in the settings. I don't want any stinkin' computer thinking it knows how I want to cook better than I do, with all those features that I listed. That extends to the menu things on the MasterChef. I use them a little on the Advantium because it's so different than other kinds of cooking. So I LOVE my Gaggenau oven because it will do everything I want the way I want it. You can chose any combination of top or bottom heat, some with only the center on, with or without convection, broiler with or without, etc. It also has its own pizza stone with a special electric element which makes excellent crusts. It's only 12" wide, however, so if you want big pizzas/loaves you have to make them oblong. I can slow cook, dehydrate, souffle, multiple level cooking, broil small, roast big, and everything in between. It'll do anything I want, the way I want to do it. The combi-steam is a marvel. It's the perfect toy for the rich and lazy. :) Some people do up a whole kitchen for the cost of the combi- and plumbing. I just saved up. :) One of the best features is "regenerate". If you have a plate of leftovers, like some sliced meat, potatoes, and veg, you can make it up and put it on the rack in regenerate mode and have it come out perfectly heated and with none of it gone all weird or overcooked. I'm constantly learning new things I can do with it. My first tries at rice were horrible, even though it's dead easy on the stove. I'd given up when a friend was asking, so I gave it one more shot when I wasn't actually making a meal (used it later, reheated). Finally got it right. I found a formula, finally. Use 2/3 the amount of water suggested on the package. At least it worked for field picked organic brown rice. :) It's dead easy once you have that. Use the settings on the clue wheel and adjust the timing for the density of the rice. Dump the rice and water in the pan and flatten it out, put it in, set the timer and forget it. That makes it even easier than the boil and set aside method (though that can be programed into an induction cooktop with memory). My latest trick is the pseudo-braise. Choose a slow cooking temperature on 100% steam, perhaps with just a trickle of liquid in the pan if you just want the tender meat without the veg/sauce. Terrific! There are recipes available for the combi-steam, but if you're used to slow cooking, braising, steaming and similar wet techniques, you can kind of moosh what you know together with the temperatures/steam settings/durations from the clue wheel, adjust for density and mass and kind of figure out how to do anything you want. The plumbed is GREAT! I've been sick and really couldn't face cooking. I thought I could at least steam the green beans, which I had bought at a small store where they only had them in a package with the ends already cooked. That was just rinse, dump in pan, stick in combi-, dump in ice bath, dump in dish. The oven was hot and all so I did up the asparagus too. And the artichokes. Dead easy. Very little prep work. Yummy. I'm sorry I don't have better answers for your direct questions, but I can enthusiastically recommend the Gaggenau ovens.