# Home Kitchen Range



## ChefCosta (Dec 26, 2017)

Renovating my home kitchen. Fighting with oven and Range combinations. A good friend has a Capital Culinarian Range and loves it. 23,000 BTU. Anybody use one of these? Any other ranges I should be looking at?


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## WildBoar (Dec 26, 2017)

Ours is a 36" Bluestar. Very similar, plus you can have them powdercoat it in pretty much any color.

It replaced an electric stovetop and a double electric wall oven (running a gas line to the kitchen was pretty easy). When we eventually rewored the kitchen, we supplemented it with a wall oven, as a single oven was pretty restrictive.


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## inzite (Dec 26, 2017)

i second bluestar as well, i have the platinum series 8 burners and two of them are 25k btu burners. And you can pretty much get it in any color too!


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## boomchakabowwow (Dec 27, 2017)

when i redo my kitchen i am gonna look HARD at the AGA Legacy.


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## Paraffin (Dec 27, 2017)

boomchakabowwow said:


> when i redo my kitchen i am gonna look HARD at the AGA Legacy.



Make sure you can live with smaller ovens. I took a quick glance at the specs, and the Legacy series does have larger ovens than our classic old-style Aga cooker (4 ovens, 2 hobs and a warming plate, continuous $$$ operation). My wife and I adapted, but we learned to cook smaller pizzas, and scout around for oven pans that would fit. The Legacy isn't that restricted, but it looks a bit smaller than some ovens people are used to. Pizza is really the main limiting factor for us, we don't cook huge turkeys.


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## E56789 (Dec 28, 2017)

Capital all the way. We just did a major home reno that involved moving the kitchen among other things. I looked at a variety on cooking options and ended up with a beautiful 48 inch Culinarian. Mine is all gas with the high output open burners. A little more work to clean, but I'm retired and if I'm not in the kitchen, my wife finds other jobs for me.

The original plan was for wall ovens and a cooktop but our kitchen designer asked me some questions that I hadn't considered and the range became the end game.

Capital also does a multitude of colours, some are on their website but they also do custom if that is what you need.

Feel free to ask any questions. Mine is Ruby Red in colour.


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## Anton (Dec 28, 2017)

inzite said:


> i second bluestar as well, i have the platinum series 8 burners and two of them are 25k btu burners. And you can pretty much get it in any color too!



Thats exactly what I wanted but couldnt fit it in. Settled with 6.

How do like the open burner style, cleaning an all ?

Thats some firepower


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## inzite (Dec 28, 2017)

Anton said:


> Thats exactly what I wanted but couldnt fit it in. Settled with 6.
> 
> How do like the open burner style, cleaning an all ?
> 
> Thats some firepower



simply love it. i love that it all comes apart for.cleaning as well as using round bottom woks like yamada! I lined the drip pans with alu foil to keep things clean. Havnt had to clean the grates yet (waiting for the summer so I can clean them outside. And plus mine is the old logo with that massive star so it looks clean as fk.


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## Bill13 (Dec 29, 2017)

David's Bluestar burners kick ass. Sauteed several pds of mushrooms at the last ECG and it was impressive.


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## ChefCosta (Dec 29, 2017)

This is excellent! I never even knew Bluestar existed. Thank you KKF!


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## WildBoar (Dec 30, 2017)

Currently supporting 3 of the wife's NYE dishes....



Cooks great on it's side :doublethumbsup:


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## ChefCosta (Dec 30, 2017)

Yep that looks like a professional Range all right! Legit!


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## Eitan78 (Dec 30, 2017)

ChefCosta said:


> Renovating my home kitchen. Fighting with oven and Range combinations. A good friend has a Capital Culinarian Range and loves it. 23,000 BTU. Anybody use one of these? Any other ranges I should be looking at?



I would look into Thermador Brand they have amazing ranges.


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## Mucho Bocho (Dec 30, 2017)

GE Cafe C2S995SELSS 30 Inch Slide-in Dual Fuel Range with Sealed Burner Cooktop in Stainless Steel https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076471QQ6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


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## alterwisser (Dec 30, 2017)

WildBoar said:


> Currently supporting 3 of the wife's NYE dishes....
> View attachment 38091
> 
> 
> Cooks great on it's side :doublethumbsup:



Love it! That looks about as much $$$ as I spent on my last car lol


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## WildBoar (Dec 30, 2017)

alterwisser said:


> Love it! That looks about as much $$$ as I spent on my last car lol


It was actually quite a bit less then Viking, Wolf, Dacor, DCS, Thermador, etc., although I believe the prices are more in line with some of those other makers now.

It is very simple, with minimal electronics. I don't wan't my dang over or cooktop to stop working because some a capacitor on a control board went bad, and it's $1,100 to fix it... In the 12 or so years with the Bluestar all I have had to do is replace some ignitors (mine came with 'open top' ignitors, which were famous for crapping out when liquid got inside), and even then a couple lasted until a month ago when I decided to be proactive and swap them for closed versions. Not an issue with the new ranges, as the closed-top ignitors are the norm these days. The one 'major' repair I had was to replace the spark module, which I did last month. Two of the burners would not ignite, and the ignitors were not the issue. It was about $150 for a new spark module, and maybe 2 hours to replace with my 4-year-old helping me out. As with the original open-top ignitors, the spark modules were a known weak point, and other makers such as Viking has similar issues with them (they all used OEM).

So to summarize, the Bluestar has minimal electrical, and what it does have is easy to diagnose and swap.


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## ChefCosta (Dec 30, 2017)

Mucho Bocho I looked at the GE Cafe. It looks way easier to keep clean then the Blue Star or the Capital. I just dont know how significant a difference 18,000BTU vs 23,000BTU is.


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## WildBoar (Dec 30, 2017)

The BS is pretty easy to clean, as the everything lifts right off, and anything that gets through falls into the drip tray. Since my wife has a home-based business, our BS is used several times/ day. It has seen many, many oatmeal-related boilovers in the mornings, and regularly gets misted with oil/ grease. Most needed 'clean-up' is swabbing the surface with a paper towel or two.


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## TurboScooter (Dec 31, 2017)

I have a GE with sealed burners - I had to quit researching stoves and get one in a hurry since the old one was right on death's door. I decided to get whatever I could get at a big box appliance store - turns out it took forever anyway.

I think the ease of cleaning sealed burners is over stated - the cooktop surface still has holes once you remove the burner heads and when you clean you need to be careful not to let water get down there since the top doesn't just lift off easily, at least on mine.

On top of that the thing is generally a POS that had to be completely replaced under warranty once (the replacement is better, but it still kind of sucks) and I've been eyeballing a BlueStar ever since as I continued to do my research after getting the GE.


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## Mucho Bocho (Dec 31, 2017)

Turbo, interesting. GE is a pretty big company so curious if different models had different issues.


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## TurboScooter (Dec 31, 2017)

I wouldn't doubt it. It's possible I got a lemon... or lemons, one more sour than the other. I think I'm extra salty about it being crap because I didn't buy a bottom of the barrel model. From what I remember GE had 3 or 4 lines/grades, including a pro style line that looks like it was set to compete with Wolf, Viking and the like. I think it was 3 consumer grades and then the pro style at the top. IIRC my model is from the middle line, but near the top of that line. I bought it for a couple of features it had, one of which turned out to be basically useless for me anyway due to the design.

One of the things I asked the guy at the store was who had the best service/repair network, and he said GE. Samsung and LG were difficult to get serviced due to parts availability and authorized repair guys. Turns out the GE repair guys are hopeless anyway - GE subcontracts all the repair work anyway, so the repair guy works for a 3rd party company, and the training is apparently non existent. It was a huge PITA to get the thing serviced anyway and they couldn't even get close to fixing it.

BlueStar actually has some videos up on YouTube showing some simple and common DIY type repairs you could do. Hard to tell from just a video, but it looks a lot better than my stove, at least.


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## Lazarus (Jan 4, 2018)

I concur on Bluestar, I've a 60" platinum that freaking rocks. It's hard to go wrong with 10 burners as well.


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## Anton (Jan 4, 2018)

Lazarus said:


> I concur on Bluestar, I've a 60" platinum that freaking rocks. It's hard to go wrong with 10 burners as well.



60?? How many kids do you have?


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## Bill13 (Jan 4, 2018)

Mike,

the diff between the 18,000 and 25,000 is significant. I bought a used Wolfe to get their old style "open" burners and while it's fine, now that I've used David's if I had to do it all over again I would get the Bluestar. The only downside of the 25,000 burners is that you can not get the integrated griddle with thermostatic control. To get the integrated griddle you have to "move down" to the Nova line which is 22,000.


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## Anton (Jan 4, 2018)

Those Bluestar have gone up in price significantly 
At least from 4-5 or so years ago


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## Lazarus (Jan 4, 2018)

Anton said:


> 60?? How many kids do you have?



Haha, just 1. I host 6-12 person dinner parties a couple nights a week, the old 4 burner wasn't cutting it as I was using my BBQ as a stove as well. On the bright side, I can make an awesome mac & cheese in the BBQ if I ever need to :biggrin:


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## Bill13 (Jan 4, 2018)

Ebay or Craigslist can be your friend with stuff like this. I bought my used Wolfe off Craigslist from a guy in NJ. We met in the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Center in Philly and slid it from his pickup onto my rented pickup and home I went. Had it in the kitchen and working that night.


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## ChefCosta (Jan 4, 2018)

Bill13 I will definitely look into used ones and close outs. Last thing I would want is an underpowered stove.


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## Paraffin (Jan 4, 2018)

Bill13 said:


> the diff between the 18,000 and 25,000 is significant.



Definitely, especially if you do any Wok cooking, but then you also need the removable rings to accommodate a "real" wok with curved bottom.

If you have the available space and finances, you can do what we did with our kitchen remodel. The traditional Aga didn't cut it in the hob heat department, so we installed a 30,000 btu Viking gas wok burner on the side. It takes up a 36" space, so the main downside is you need an extended ventilation hood over the burner and your main range top. 

It's not close to the massive heat of Chinese restaurant wok burners, but 30,000 btu is safer for a home kitchen. Aside from wok cooking, it's great for quickly heating up a big pot of water for noodles, getting a cast iron pan to a searing heat for steaks, etc. 

In our next house, I'm going to lobby hard for a dedicated wok burner alongside like this, because it means we don't need to go nuts on high-heat burners for the main stove top.


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## JBroida (Jan 4, 2018)

Bill13 said:


> Mike,
> 
> the diff between the 18,000 and 25,000 is significant. I bought a used Wolfe to get their old style "open" burners and while it's fine, now that I've used David's if I had to do it all over again I would get the Bluestar. The only downside of the 25,000 burners is that you can not get the integrated griddle with thermostatic control. To get the integrated griddle you have to "move down" to the Nova line which is 22,000.



Ive got 6 22000 btu burners and they are more than enough for any cooking I do at home and just as powerful as almost every pro kitchen Ive ever worked in fwiw


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## Choppin (Jan 7, 2018)

Maybe this deserves a topic of its own, but do any of you guys use a french top at home? I've been contemplating the idea, seems useful for low heat cooking / just keeping stuff warm and using large pans


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## DamageInc (Jan 8, 2018)

I've wanted one for the longest time.


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## 9mmbhp (Jan 8, 2018)

Choppin said:


> Maybe this deserves a topic of its own, but do any of you guys use a french top at home? I've been contemplating the idea, seems useful for low heat cooking / just keeping stuff warm and using large pans



I have a mini-french top that fits over 2 burners, it replaces the regular 2 burner grate.

I also use 12" copper diffuser plates over a single burner when I need room for 2 or 3 small pots/pans. 

For my cooking the diffuser plates work better than the french top.


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