I think it depends on a few factors: --price you are willing to spend. --the neighborhood that you live in. --power of BTUs desired. --quality of service --whether you are a person who HAS to have the absolute latest and greatest appliance on the market (maximizer vs. satisfizer) Price: Bluestar cooktop will undoubtedly be cheaper than the rangetop, I'm guessing by at least $1,000. The BS cooktops probably start at around $1,650 give or take. So, I'd factor in 1k more (at least) for the rangetop. The highest burners on a BlueStar is 22k. The Capital Culinarian line does not make a cooktop currently. Capital's Maestro line does have a cooktop, but it's not as powerful as the all 23k BTU burners from the Culinarian line. I think the highest one on the Maestro cooktop is about 20k-- That might not be important to you that all burners be 23k though. The culinarian rangetop costs around $3,500, give or take. Neighborhood If your neighborhood is not that swanky, you probably don't want to spend the max on an appliance unless you plan to take it with you if you decided to move. Not everyone is a gourmand, and not everyone is willing to spend the extra money for a cool cooktop/rangetop. BTUs As I said above, the Culinarian max BTUs are 23k and the Bluestar are 22k. ALL Culinarian BTUs are 23k. Only two of the Bluestar burners operate at the 22k max. I think the simmer on Bluestar is lower though. You just have to decided if this matters to you, especially weighed against the added cost of a Culinarian. Quality of Service. I've been a lurker on this site for awhile. It seems that in terms of the best service/reputation, Wolf can't be beat. But you'd have a rangetop with less BTUS (i'm sure you know that if you are interested in BlueStar). You'd be hard pressed to find a company without a customer service issue or two, but some people are reporting problems with Bluestar. Other have had a positive experience. I would call Bluestar and see how they treat you when you ask about possible issues. In the past, the Capital Precision line has been pretty good to many people. The Culinarian is somewhat an unknown entity since it just started shipping this year. I haven't seen too many complaints from Capital owners. Maximizer vs Satisfizer. I'm borrowing this lingo from social psych. If you feel like you HAVE to HAVE the highest BTUs on the market today (maximizer), then Capital Culinarian may be your line. If you okay with specs that just meet your needs and desires, ie.if you are content with a 21k drop in BTU (but a lower simmer), then BlueStar may be fine. Hope this helps a bit. There may be other factors, such as performance, but I think we haven't seen enough of the Culinarian to establish a history of high performance. I'm interested to see how people enjoy cooking on it. People seemed to be happy with Bluestar's performance, outside of any service issues. Also, you could go to see Trevor at Eurostoves, but you could also go to the factory in Southern California and possibly meet the CEO of Capital. It also depends on where in the country you are located--you don't want traveling to be too much of a pain. Although I understand that Trevor will cook on both ranges with you, but I don't know enough about him to vouch for his credibility as a salesman. You'd have to talk to people who have bought items from him.

I know what you mean about exploring things fully for the gear-obsessed. It sounds like you're close, and if you're going BlueStar, I'd try to get an order in my the end of the year. I've recently gotten a "courtesy" email from a BlueStar retailer We simply wish to inform you that the factory has announced a price increase starting on January 1st, 2010. We expect the increase to be around 5% on all items. My wife loves the oven and I love the cooktop (division of labor) so I don't think you can go wrong if you are comfortable with open burners. The Wolf is also a good range, but I prefer the BlueStar burners for their uniformity, control, and output, along with a simmer that is low enough for custards. It was that the American Range and NXR didn't have a low that wasn't as low as my decades-old Caloric (which wasn't that low) that pushed me another notch up in the range market to the BlueStar.

Something no one has mentioned yet....wall ovens, regardless of placement, generally vent out the front. Ovens in ranges vent out the top. (1) How is it to stand in front of an undercounter mounted wall oven while cooking (when under a cooktop)? I would think the hot vented air would be an issue.... (2) Someone mentioned venting...if it vents out the front, your vent hood is not going to do you much good unless it sticks out at least 3 inches beyond the front of the oven (which puts it 3" beyond the countertop). Even then, if you're standing in front of it (to cook), it's probably still not much good. Just more things to think about!

This is a city apartment so most heat is provided through steam radiators heated by a huge multi-million BTU industrial boiler in the basement with no furnace in the apartment itself. The apartment has a central air conditioning system with 3 zones and a 2.5 ton air handler for each zone. The other two zones are a/c only, but the kitchen's zone will have an electric heating coil. A 2.5 ton air handler has 30,000 BTU capacity, which according to your chart, is enough to heat 30 degrees at 1200 CFM. The MUA is drawn from a distant exterior vent over 50 feet away from the kitchen zone's air handler through the return air ducting, so the MUA will mix with the rest of the apartment's already heated (or cooled) return air as it moves from the exterior through the apartment to the kitchen zone's air handler. As a result, the outdoor air will be tempered with a lot of 65-75 degree air before it ever hits the handler to be conditioned. As it was described to me, even if the outdoor temperature is 20 or 30, by the time it gets to the handler, we won't ever need to heat more than the 30,000 BTU air handler's capacity.