Thanks for the links. Those are interesting. The Wolf burner is a different design from those videos, but I don't know if it is now better or worse (although it does seem to address some of the complaints). I also don't know how different the cooktop burner on the bluestar is from the range burner shown in the video, but my hunch is they are the same. The idea of an open burner being more even has always made sense to me and appealed and the videos seem to confirm one's intuition on this. As for the Capital on the website mentioned above, they do have a rangetop, but I don't think they have a high end cooktop in gas which would work better for our current kitchen (although their rangetops would look better here than the rivals rangetops from what I can tell because it seems to be a little more slim). In any event, we don't have a Capital vendor here and so even if it were the best product (and it sounds like many feel it is) and it matched, service would be enough to scare me off probably based on where I live. Thanks again to everyone for your input! ps for Miele reliability, it is only one datapoint, but my mother in law's works hard and is like new. She is going to be appalled that we bought something else. (And given how nice hers is, I thought that would be the direction we'd go, but my wife surprised me by picking the Wolf and I felt like given that each one had strengths and weaknesses I felt like this was a good choice, but I also felt any of the three she'd picked I'd have been able to say that about).

Been reading the board for ages, but first post. We did a lot a research on the board and elsewhere as we are just in the completion stages of our kitchen redo. We wanted a 36" all gas range. We were choosing between what was available here. Wolf, Jenn-air, Thermador, Electrolux and DCS for all gas. Loved the open burner Wolf, but this forum persuaded us to stay clear of the Wolf, Jenn-air and Thermador (do search at bottom of page on any, makes interesting reading for hours ;) ). So, we started looking at the DCS. At first we dismissed it as it had what seemed like lighter grates than the others, the burners looked a bit generic sitting there in a sealed one piece pan and the top was stainless instead of black. All our own taste (or lack there of!) issues. We I did a bit more research on them I could find little in the way of bad reports about them (maybe I just missed them, but I really try to research the best I can). So, went back and looked again, purchased and have been using for about a month now. Here are our findings and personnal taste conclusions. The stainless top has been a real boon for us. We've found we like it better as the range it replaced had the black porcelain type top under the burners. Not that we are not clean, but every little spec showed up on the black including dust and lint if you left it for a while unused. Was a bit of a pain really to keep clean as where the grates that had the same coating. The DCS all we've done is wipe with a moist sponge and dry it off to clean the grease spatters etc. The grates are not shiney, but rather a matte cast iron. Might be luck or the way they are designed, but we've found we tend to slop less on them. Probably luck. I've found also that in cleaning I really like the fact that I don't have to change into my workout gear to lift the grates for cleaning. They are substatial and designed for strength (we've had some really large pots/weight on them with no problem sliding around or anything), but not as heavy as on others we looked at that had full length ones. Knob wise they work nice and have good adjustment range with a large scale to get a good gradient of burner level control. I've not paid attention to push in and turn as we have been automatically doing that as that is how our previous range worked. I just went out and double checked for you and they are a push in and turn type knob. What else can I tell you about it.....the burners are sealed. Did not think I would like that, but as it happens, apart from look difference between sealed and the Wolf open type we were looking at I think I prefer the sealed now. Been easy to deal with when the pasta boiled over a bit. Don't know if it is an advantage or not, but the burners are quite a bit closer to the grates than others we looked at. With the size of the burners themselves we've found that, to stop the flame from going up the side of quite a few of our pans, we tend to end up with the flame adjusted in the medium low to low range. We have four burners that are the 17.5K and two at I think 12.5K. Just something to get used to as with our old range we had the burners up on high to med high for everything. The wideness of the caps bring the flame out more and even at that low level it puts out the heat so we've not had any issues with cooking anything. We've found that it just made us a rethink our old habit of settings from the old range and we don't notice any difference in cook time comparable to what we had. Cooks steaks, boils pots and recovers from dropping in cold items well. On the larger pans we have the medium to medium high on which is plenty!!! Have to get the wok out and play with that soon as the full on burner puts out! I've found it really nice that all the burners have a simmer setting. You have the high to low on all and then a bit further after low is simmer which is a seperate part of each burner. Has worked really well. Left quite a few sauces, onions etc. holding on simmer while I'm getting ready for them in another pot without burning them or drying them out. At least that is the way it has worked for me so far. Nice to not have to suffle stuff around to get to a simmer burner. Just turn it down and move on to the next. Each burner has the top part of the burner that is the main burner. Then below that is a different part that lights and runs when you put it on simmer. As with many ranges we looked at that had some sort of really low simmer feature, you can barely see the flame in the daytime or under bright light. That is why I'm glad that DCS put a little light in the marker for temp on each control knob. Can see at a glance if I left a burner on. At first not thrilled with the purple looking colour of this and the fact that it had the light feature at all compared to others we looked at, but now love it! Oven rollers for the racks work fine. Racks have a channel that slides on two wheels that are on each side of the oven. Not as nice as the roller slides that the Electrolux had that we looked at, but we've found that with pans etc. on them they slide out nice and work really well. Husband says the rollers are like how some cabinet drawers slide out. Also pointed out to me, which I can see now we've used them and have them, that easier to clean probably than roller tracks like the electrolux had, if stuff, in the rare event it would, would get down in them. So, overall a big thumbs up for the DCS from us so far. We are really heavy duty cooks so we've used the range daily since we've had it. Like it so far. Do need to read a bit more on the convection to make sure of rack position and that I'm doing things right. Cooked three half sheets of shortbread in the oven, had two pans on one rack and another below it. Looked to me like the area back by the fan was browning faster than the other areas. Will have to check if it is positioning, a design flaw or a temperature setting issue as I put it on at the regular temp I cook it at. Also, need to thermom the oven so I can see where it actually is cooking temp wise. Do this in all we've had, but just not got to it with the other kitchen stuff we've been doing. Manual says it is factory set and not adjustable if I remember correct, but just want to make sure where it is. Seems like every range we've ever had has needed some adjustment. Quite wordy for my first post ever. Guess I've been saving it up! At least, if you can get through my blatherings, I hope it helps with some info you needed and helps you make a decision. Can't provide any info on the Bluestar. Did not find a dealer here for them and only heard of them on this forum. Didn't want to deal with mail order. Our preference on that as read that some have had no issues. We wanted local so we could get for sure service if needed. Right or wrong, we also purchased an extended warranty on ours. Lot of cash for a range so wanted to make sure we were covered. Your choice on that. Cheers

I just spent the last few months looking at ovens. It would be helpful if someone would do a chart. I never found a Verona or a Capitol. I finally found a Blue Star and didn't care for the look. I have a vacation home and therefore two different kitchen setups. Over $6000.00 I didn't look at those ovens Over $3500.00 good quality sturdy racks, true convection oven, continuous grates, high speed burners, quality simmer burners, a must is a better ventahood for higher cpm, quality stainless steel, decorator look Dual Fuel requires 220 wiring. Some of the ovens have wok or griddles and some don't. Between $2000 and 3500, some with better racks than others, continuous grates, high speed burners, simmer burners are a bit high, good stainless steel quality, designer look, a ventahood may be necessary Between $1000 and 2000 microwave with fan is possible for the ventahood, self cleaning, timer, bake modes, convection oven, not as good quality stainless steel, little better racks than lower priced ranges; Between 500 and 1000 low quality stainless steel that can rust, scratch, show burn stains, few with ontinuous grates, most with flimsy racks, has a timer, regular burners, oven light, then there are the differences between the larger ovens and the smaller ovens. Smaller ovens pre heat faster. Take your favorite roasting pan and perhaps a 2nd pan to the store with you and place them in the oven and see how you like it. Bertazzoni height is small. American Range has a very large capacity. The Wolf has a very low simmer burner. The Viking grates are too heavy for me to clean up easily. A lot of the more expensive ovens do not have timers and some don't have temperature indicators or even oven off/on lights. Some knobs turn too easily and my new Kitchen Aid cooktop turns on when I clean. Also, I have to look twice to see if they are on or off. My new Kenmore electric wall ovens have a warm and hold feature and they heat evenly and rapidly. I'll be afraid to use the self cleaning oven for fear it will burn out the electronics. The Bertazzoni burners take an extra 3 seconds to start. The oven needs to be started with the door ajar. Some of the ovens I looked at have oven burners that will light with a match others don't. I liked the write ups on the Blue Star but when I saw it - I knew immediately it was not for me. There is a great deal of discussion about open burners vs. closed burners. I really liked the American Range but didn't want to spend that much money and I wanted a stainless steel top and the one I saw was black porcelain. My last oven rusted (a builder's model) so the quality of the stainless steel was very important to me. Take a magnet with you when you shop to see which stainless steel is better. The Bertazzoni went on sale for just under $2000 and I decided to go with that price. Did I get everything I wanted? - not quite. Do I really like my new oven? Absolutely. The look is exactly what I wanted, the stainless steel is high quality, the simmer burner is not low enough, the high speed burner is more than I need. The information says it is not necessary to preheat. There is no indicator beep when it does preheat. It has continuous grates that are the right weight for me and I find the closed burners and stainless steel exceptionally easy to clean. The oven is a little small but preheats rapidly and I think for my family it will be fine. It has good lighting. The fan noise is like my microwave on low. It turns off when you are through cooking. Some ovens keep blowing and continue the noise. Previously, I never used my self cleaning oven and this one doesn't even have one. I miss having a timer and will be buying something hopefully with a long ring. There are no electronics to burn out so I'm hoping I won't have repair problems. I purchased an oven thermometer to check the temperature. Either the oven or the thermometer is slightly off but not enough to cause any problems. I will probably purchase another thermometer to see which is correct. The convection, I assume, will take getting used to and so far I prefer not to use it. I did use it to dehydraate the other day and it worked fairly well making 'kale'. I like the heavy black knobs and I read that some of the stainless metal knobs on other ovens get hot. The black knobs are easy to read after one day of getting used to them and I immediately can tell if they are on or off. In addition, some ovens let heat out the front and possibly get hot. I am used to the ovens that let heat out the back top and don't feel I will get burned that way. I hope someone will make a chart. GOOD LUCK finding the right appliance for you.

What one wants is to have the hood aperture size overlap the rising and expanding effluent plume. Aperture in this case refers to the area at the bottom of the hood that can be expected to actually capture effluent. Generally this is the empty space within the interior sides, but in some cases might include some of the edge (with enough flow rate and/or steep enough angle). So, given an area at the cooktop that represents the contour of the bases of all pans that might be employed on the burners/hobs, draw an imaginary line upward from the contour edge expanding out at, say, 10 degrees, to the height of the hood aperture. (This is equivalent to multiplying the hood height by 0.176 or thereabouts, to find the edge of the preferred minimum overhang of the aperture.) Very high hoods need additional overlap beyond this to resist cross drafts from helping the effluent escape. If wood is exposed at the bottom of the insert enclosure, its distance from the cooking surface must comply with the range manufacturer's minimum allowable distance to combustible surfaces. If Rustic-R-Us is intended (cabinet-wise and flame-wise), then maybe cabinets made of woods that smoulder instead of burn might be considered, such as ipe or redwood. kas