sidpost, did you make up your mind? We got our 30-inch Capital Culinarian manual clean a couple weeks ago and it's awesome. We also live in a condo without a properly vented hood but we got a recirculating hood and pointed the vent "toward" the window -- it's better than nothing, and it's certainly better than the under-the-microwave hood we used to have. To answer some of your questions: "The new model has 3x23k burners and 1x8k burner" - correct, but that 8k burner still boils water really quickly. We haven't tried to simmer on it yet. -"The new model has stainless center grate, while the old model has cast iron center grates" Not sure about this: ours arrived with the old cast iron grates which we were relieved about. -"The new model comes standard with no vertical back trim piece/vent." Not true: ours came with a 4-inch vertical back trim which we installed and it takes up no depth whatsoever. -"They removed the glass cover on the broiler (the distributer told me this makes more space in the oven)" Apparently this is true, but the broiler on the manual clean is gas and has some kind of diffuser plate that makes the cooking very even. -"The igniter seems to be mounted differently -- apparently this is true, too -- it's tucked on the inside rim of the burner rather than outside." Also, you didn't ask but you can get these stoves in any RAL color for an upcharge. We got a dark green.

Check out this thread on the Appliances Forum. It may have info to help you. I am still considering a 30" CC, and I REALLY like the look of the plain center panel instead of the awkward looking center grates. Nice that it is the same height as the grates. Here is a link that might be useful: Images and Info of new Capital Culinarian

Trevor - I'm hoping you can help us determine if Capital has made any important updates to their ranges in the past 4 years. The reason for asking is that we just moved into a new custom house where we had the builder install a 48" Capital Culinarian Self/Clean Range, Model-CGSR484BG for which we paid over $11K. Unfortunately, in a few short days, we managed to break the oven latch and when we called Capital to arrange a fix, we learned our range was built in 2011. This came to us as a shock as we would have expected to get a 2015 range. I've read other threads where you commented that the simmer issues have been resolved in the newer models. Do you know when that fix was put in place? Have there been other major issues that were resolved in the current models? We're trying to get answers from our builder, who has put us in contact with their appliance distributor, but I'd like to get your independent comment if I may, as I'm sure they have an invested interest to convince us our range is identical to later models. The Capital representative also downplayed the years differential. Any feedback you can give us is much appreciated.

Very interested to know what you decided? I only have a 30 inch space in an existing kitchen to replace a dreadful electric solid surface worn out cooktop that came with the house and install a gas slide in range/oven. This home is a forced downsize and it's very difficult leaving our 48" Viking cooktop so I keep thinking the right high end range might lessen the pain.