In general: I have had open and closed burner gas tops and closed are 100% easier to clean, I would never never get open unless I had daily cleaning help. The BTU rating on the highest burner is important, as well as a very small BTU simmer burner. I also need continuous grate to slide a pot over, and prefer mechanical knobs to electronic keypads. There are some cooktops where the grates are too high off the burners and there are complaints of a feeling of under-powered burners despite the BTU rating. I think this whole open burner for the home thing is nothing short of ridiculous, it is more of a high volume restaurant issue, but his is gardenweb... I do not like the performance of gas ovens. I like electric and I love the functionality of convection. I would never buy an oven without convection. So I would vote for closed burner gas cooking and electric ovens.

Sorry hvtech I did not see this post but will answer now. I don't think that there is any disagreement about how the oven works but rather if this is going to impact the way you use your oven. "without actually owning and using the oven, I don't think you can draw the conclusion that you have" Capital is very specific about how it works. I merely point out what they have written. What specific conclusion do you disagree with? "I also think there is confusion about what preheat mode on any oven actually is. You said in an earlier post that most ovens will go into a preheat mode after a small drop in temperature (25 degrees or so). This is not the case. On most ovens, preheat mode comes on exactly when you'd think - only when the oven is preheating. Not when it is just trying to maintain temperature." The point is not what you are calling the heating cycle, but the fact that it exists, and is responsive to the thermostat which keeps the temperature tightly controlled. Some people use the word loosely to mean whenever the elements come on. For a long time the preheat was the bake element coming on and this was indicated by a little red light. The same red light came on when the bake element came back on to maintain the temperature. Now you have the possibility with some ovens of more elements coming on during preheat and a little light that says "preheating" during that time and the little light may or may not come back on after that. To be more specific, you can call it "preheat" when the elements in the oven are on until it reaches temperature and call it "recovery" when the elements come back on to maintain the temperature. For either, it is the heat coming on when the oven temperature is more than 25F (or whatever defines the thermostat's parameter) from the set temperature to allow a rapid return to the set temp. Every oven I have ever had, probably 15 or so have operated this way- controlled by the thermostat -except one. In some ovens, like Capital electric ovens, the heating is done in a totally different way. The preheat comes on and heats the oven to temp and then a computer program takes over and turns the element on and off rapidly according to "logic" mentioned by Trevor above. It does not know if the oven door is open or a large amount of cold food has entered the oven cavity. It just keeps oscillating blissfully at the same rate unaware of the new burden it has received. The thermostat does not come into play for a long time because it is set so that there has to be a 150F differential, according to the manual, quoted above and confirmed by the notes from the factory. " Preheat mode on ANY oven (not just Capital's) is intensive and has the potential to burn food, so it only comes on when there is not supposed to be any food in the oven." I would not say "ANY" oven. They are all very different, especially electric ovens. The preheat can potentially cause anything from almost nothing to browning to burning depending on how the oven is designed and the food you putting in it. There are some ovens that allow you to put food in the oven and then set a time for it to start cooking. This is very common actually and there are some ovens that advertise no need to preheat. I would not bake a cake in them but you can bake something like a casserole. The preheat is not as intense in those ovens. Ovens that might be more intense would be those that use convection or a combination of elements to rapidly preheat but even this varies widely. " From the user guide and factory info, the only thing that it looks like Capital does differently is engage preheat after a severe drop in temperature (which shouldn't happen in normal oven use, as Trevor's testing indicates)." ----->Please define "normal use"<----- " I can't find any evidence that just because the CC engages preheat after a large drop in temperature, it will also have issues maintaining the set temperature without preheat mode." Capital spells it out for you. "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." In real cooking, you loose heat under certain circumstances. Open the door a few times and you are baking 100F below the set temp with no ability to recover. Another major point. It will not allow the temperature to be reset higher in a timely way unless you open the oven and induce the 150F degree differential and then you would have to take the food out while the temp goes up. "My Electrolux and KitchenAid ovens NEVER engage preheat mode once the oven is heated up and neither have any issues maintaining temperature." The little light that says "preheat" may not be on but my Elux is still rotating through the same elements as when it preheats . they cycle on and off according to need. The only difference is that the convection fan does not come on in bake mode or run high speed in the bake convection mode. Mine has a little picture showing which element is on and when. Whatever name tag you give this ability, this same mechanism does not exist in Capital Electric ovens according to their literature. Make of it what you will. "I know that you had a Dacor oven with issues maintaining temperature, but I don't think you can assume that just because the CC oven sounds like that oven, it will actually work like that oven." HaHa, that oven was what made me study ovens. I am not going by my oven at all, but again what Capital has written themselves. This is why it pays to read use and care manuals.

I have the Miele 48" range and am happy with it overall. Both the ovens work well, the larger one has steam assist and the smaller oven is a speed oven/mw. We use the smaller one primarily as a mw and there was a problem at first, but it works fine now. The controls are very easy to use, though they can seem intimidating when you first use them. The warming drawer under the small oven works well, it made a loud thumping noise at first but was fixed and is quiet now. The burners have a very low simmer and a fairly powerful high. There were some clicking issues, but nothing excessive. This range is not 100% perfect, but most ranges aren't. We are generally pleased. As mentioned above. You need good ventilation- we have a 54" Modernaire hood. In addition to the range, I have a Wolf combi steam oven that is amazing and is the oven we use most often. We would have gone with the Wolf range but were worried about the blue enamel chipping issues.

Ah, the durian challenge. But before that let me note with respect to an earlier message that the CO detector needs to be near the potentially back-drafted combustion appliances, such as a hot water heater, and/or in the general living quarters, not near the hood causing the back-drafting. The Greenheck Guide here is much more thorough covering requirements than I can possibly type into this thread. Essentially one wants a commercial kitchen hood and MUA system with a specific flow rate more or less conforming to the "Extra Heavy" column of the Guide's Figure 4, page 9. This is 185 ft/min = 185 CFM/sq. ft. A means to keep the MUA relatively laminar in the room (a wide source is needed for a small room) will minimize cross drafts at the cooking zone. Under the hood would be a commercial wok stove, ca. 100k+ BTUh for each burner. All the requirements for safety would need to be incorporated into the kitchen, including fire suppression in the hood, lack of nearby combustibles, and commercial rules for the exhaust duct construction. The kitchen would be modeled on Beijing hotel restaurants of bygone years (where coal stoves were used) by having tile on each of the six room surfaces. The floor would have a drain. A steam lance, pressure washer, or other means of directly cleaning the walls, along with stainless steel cabinets, counters, and sink area would allow speedy but thorough degreasing at whatever intervals were necessary. (The floor drain would likely need a grease trap.) This construction may not be more expensive than modern kitchen renovations having expensive wood cabinets, stone counters, and magnificent floors. Oh, and the hood exhaust up-blast blower may need to be on a tall stack if wanting to deal with durian but not wanting to deal with neighborhood torch and pitchfork parades.