Yeah - open burners and manual clean ovens. The more you complicate things the more problems that can crop up. Open burners clean up easy and perform so much better. Self clean ovens - please. Most manufacturers skimp on the insulation and the ovens deteriorate quicker, due to the high heat needed.

Sealed burners were propaganda/hype from the appliance industry to get people to get rid of their working semi-open burners and buy a new range/cooktop.

Capital Culinarian has open burners,a mototized rotisserie,and self-clean. Priced above GE Monogram but below Thermador's with self-clean oven.

The Capital has plenty of insulation but there is always a chance to fry the electronics when using self-clean.

I shudder when I think of the years of punishment I spent working on my Thermador. So far my CC has been an absolute pleasure and the easiest cleaning range I have ever seen....

Deeageaux - I was looking at CC, but it seems like the oven is actually pretty small compared to other models, and the larger oven was my whole reason for wanting a 36". (e.g., on average 1.5 cu ft smaller) Do you find it's spacious enough?

Tael,

The 36" Culinarian oven fits a full size (18"x26") commercial baking sheet.

It fits my 32 qt stock pot which I use to make Birria.

It fits my turkey roaster which comfortably fits a 23 lbs turkey.

When people say their Bertazzoni 2.9 cu ft oven is plenty large I think not for me. I guess there might be a use for the marginally bigger space that I don't know about. For me it is wasting time and energy heating unused space.

The Culinarian 36" oven is 4.5 cu ft. Bluestar 5 cu ft. Wolf is 5.5 cu ft, Viking 5.1 cu ft American Range,which is the biggest,is 6 cu ft. I know GE Monogram claims 6.2 and Electrolux claims 6.4 but I question their math.

I think the CC 36" oven is 1.5 cu ft smaller than the largest not the average. Take the biggest bakeware you use in your oven and go to a showroom. Test it out.

I have a 48" self-clean CC and my large oven is the same as a 36" self-clean CC range. I can tell you that the oven is plenty big enough because it can fit full sheets. I have two thoughts on the oven size.

1) The interior wall of the CC measures 27" across. Let's say another manufacturer's oven measures 28" across. Statistically, that's your 1+ cu ft difference. Now practically speaking, what does extra inch do for you? If you use a full sheet or even half sheets, you're not going to fit anything else. Say you go to 9" pans. You still going to get three across in both. How about 5" loaf pans that measure 6" across the top? Both get four across. Go through your collection of pans and go through your combinations and then decide if there really is any practical difference.

2) The self-clean CC has channels in the side wall for the racks. Most other ranges have metal racks mounted to the side wall to support the racks. They measure from wall to wall for the specs, not rack to rack. So that extra inch really isn't a full inch anymore. It's maybe only half an inch now, practically speaking. What is the real difference?

As a CC owner who just went through a grueling cooking week where I hosted 25 for Christmas, 15 for New Years Eve and 16 for New Years Day Brunch. I did everything from baking cookies to baking bread, from roasting pork belly on the rotisserie to roasting a beef tenderloin, from cooking bacon and sausages to frittatas. Not once was the large oven ever an issue. And to top it off, I ran the self-clean cycle between Christmas and New Years.

If the CC is in the cards for you, I highly recommend it. HTH

Take a look at Bluestar. The 36" Bluestar has oven dimensions of 29"W x 20"D x 15"H with the broiler flush to the ceiling. It fits a full sized 18"x26" cookie sheet.

by the way, the extra 2 inches (not 1") in width space allows heat to flow up around the edges of a 26" baking sheet. And I think the racks and rack guides are better made on the Bluestar than the racks on the C.C., manual or self-clean.

CC is better made than the BS and its hot door.

You don't need airlflow on the outter edge of a commercial baking sheet but even heat for the food held within it. The CC's convection gas oven is as even as any other gas oven.

I think the Bluestar has better solid burners with a better star shape. I think the Bluestar has a better simmer burner (lower) and a better burner for small sized pans when used on med to high flame.

I think the Bluestar Cast Iron grate bowls are better than the stainless under the C.C. burners and easier to clean. I think the Bluestar top is easier to clean and take apart. I think the Bluestar grates themselves are better and don't sit directly over the flame.

I think the Bluestar oven heats more evenly with fewer hot spots than C.C. I think the Bluestar has a better I.R. broiler that doesn't stick out into the oven cavity and isn't covered with glass that has a lower I.R. emissivity and won't get covered with grease like the C.C.

As I mentioned above, I think the Bluestar oven racks and guides are superior to either model of C.C., and the oven itself has more headroom. The Bluestar uses real chrome plated rack guides to hold the racks, not dents in the oven walls.

Of course there is the vast color selection for Bluestar, and I don't have to get out a big wok holder or store it somewhere like C.C. owners who use a wok have to. I'll leave it at that for now.

Open burners are easier to clean as the flame goes straight up to the bottom of the pot instead of out the sides where it fuses any spillovers to the top of the range. I have a CC. The CC and BlueStar are very similar. The CC has all burners the same, the BlueStar has various sizes, which I think I would like, as sometimes I want a lower flame. I did get a simmer plate which really helps. The CC is very easy to clean. The BlueStar owners on this forum say that the BlueStar is very easy too. Our last range was self clean and we never used it, too bad, maybe it would have fried the control board sooner and we could have had a better range that much longer. They look different too, the BlueStar looks more commercial, not a bad thing. Choose which suits you better, feature and looks wise, either one will beat the competition hands down. You will never want sealed burners again.

CC is better made than the BS and its hot door.

See, that's where the fights come from. You have no scientific basis whatsoever for that statement and you're making a claim for a range that has been on the market for 1 whole year. From what I read here it's also in its nth revision due to customer issues so who's to say how it will hold up in comparison?

I keep reading here that the CC still has some unresolved issues, make sure you trot them out as often as you do Bluestar's issues, past or present. You know what they are.

You don't need airlflow on the outter edge of a commercial baking sheet but even heat for the food held within it.

That's a completely contradictory statement. The evenness of heating is 100% related to the airflow. "Convection oven" or not, since it's all hot air convection in the end with these gas ovens. Anything that impedes it hinders efficient heat transfer to the food. That is a scientific fact.

-Stooxie