I have a Zephyr Savona 30". I am liking the performance but I'm only cooking on an electric range since we are waiting for more $ to upgrade to a gas dual fuel. The lighting is great - 2 50W halogens. Now this may be beacause of the install but it's very loud. I can only stand it on the lowest of the 3 settings. Once again, it may be the install. Actually, I really need to do more resarch to find out if it's just the hood or if it's the install.

ginnys_2010, Just a thought about why local retailers are telling you bad things about Capital. If I'm not mistaken, Capital was doing it's own distribution in SoCal which alienates local distributors and therefore the dealers they have exclusive contracts with. Your head would spin at how fast that tune will change if Capital signs on with a local distributor. I've taken the top off of my Culinarian for cleaning and the bottom panel off for our floor installation and I do not believe that this range would require any special training to service. I'm positive any competent appliance service company would be able to rebuild the range if necessary. That combined with the fact that they have always returned calls to their support number and emails gives me comfort that any issues can be resolved. Being so close to the factory, they might even send out one of their in house techs. As to SS... I've had SS appliances in a restaurant kitchen and there was certainly no "baby-ing" going on. Yes, it does get scratches and some stains but for the most part, it's pretty durable and easy to clean. Enamel and painted surfaces can chip which can then lead to corrosion. Good SS can be easily buffed to remove scratches and stains. I used a green scouring pad (*not* the ones made for non-stick) and buffed out the inevitable scratches of construction after our remodel was done. Just rub gently along the grain of the SS steel and the scratches disappear like magic. In the restaurant, we used a very fine grit (like a 00 or 000) sanding block to buff large areas. Remember SS was used on commercial appliances first because it was easy to care for and repair. Beware however, not all things sold as SS is bare SS. Many refrigerators and dishwashers for instance use a coated SS (sometimes sold as "SS finish" or "Titanium finish") to resist smudges and finger prints. These should *never* be buffed as I described above. Good Luck.

got a call from viking today they are not going to make me wait 2 weeks afterall as its only 1 month old so they are sending someone on tues. yea! I really like the range but its annoying to wait so long. so far so good otherwise, thank you.

From personal experience, I would highly recommend induction cooking, but the reason I'm posting is to say that we have no ability to have a vent to the outside. We have a Zephyr Europa (Genova model) under cabinet hood, and it works brilliantly (for what it is). I had an OTR micro-hood in my previous apartment and it was terrible for a number of reasons - the height of the microwave, the fact that the vent did nothing. The Zephyr on the other hand does in fact completely contain the effluent as long as I remember to turn the fan on to get the air stream going before I start cooking. It has greatly reduced (to almost zero) the number of times I have set off the smoke detector (a regular occurrence in my previous apartment), and the grease on the surrounding cabinets and smells in the room. I'm not suggesting it's as good as venting outside, just that it works fabulously for an under-cabinet recirculating hood.