We are looking for a high-end 6-burner (or 4-burner plus grill) range and discussing the usual suspects–Viking, Wolf, etc. I’d love to hear any experiences and suggestions.
Do you want sealed or open burners?
Have had Wolf 4 burner plus center griddle for 7 years now. No regrets on the decision, great cooktop. Have their double convection oven also.
there’s a thread on Blue Star worth reading
I am going to go with a BlueStar Open Burner range- Everything I have read shows them to be the best bet for a pro-sumer open burner set up.
Curious as to why anyone would go with an open burner over a closed burner? I would think that closed is much easier to clean/maintain.
It is true that sealed burner range and cooktops are easier to maintain. However, open burners deliver more even heat. I absolutely love cooking on my Bluestar range. Capital also makes great open burner cooktops and ranges. If you have ever watched Chopped on the Food Network, you have seen a Capital Culinarian range in action.
I have a 60 inch Thermidor with a griddle. I was looking at capital or bluestar but the thermador has sealed burners and similar btu output. 22000 to 15000 btu burners with the ultra low simmer is really useful.
I’ve been very happy so far. Ovens have been great, convection, etc with self clean.
We have a Termador Residential Commercial gas cooktop with six burners and a grill. You can get a griddle/flat top to fit in the grill too. The grates are heavy duty like you see on commercial cooktops and stoves. (weigh about 12 pounds. The best cooktop/range we’ve owned, worth every penny it cost for the cooktop and installation of the gas line. The problem is they don’t make them that heavy duty anymore and this is the new equivelent:
Carrie did a search on home commercial and commercial to see if there was something comparable to our cooktop and the closest thing is Wolf. Thermador and everybody else is making lesser units with thinner grates that will burn out sooner.
I have many years experience on both Thermador, GE Monogram, and Capital ranges. So first off I guess it depends on your price point but if you are looking at Viking and Wolf then I would guess we are near the same price point. I currently use a Capital Connoisseurian that I am very pleased with.
I don’t know the price points of the Thermador units, but they sure did try to emulate something commercial. And fell short. Well short. The BTU output has never been that good and the grates have been substandard. When I would wok with the thermador range I would try to use 2 closed burners. Now I only need one open burner on a Capital.
Anybody who tells you a closed burner with equal BTU to a an open burner hasn’t actually used both. I have. It is not even close. It was an absolute revelation when I started using a true open burner. Serious heat, serious uniformity.
I don’t know what Viking and Wolf are doing nowadays, but the reason I love my Capital is because they combine an excellent burner design with excellent materials. I have super heavy grates and insanely heavy grill grates. That matters. It increases peak output and also retains heat for some time. Also, the clean up tray design is great. I have trays directly beneath my burners, but I also have drip trays under that. They are all heavy stainless, and they are all easily removed and cleaned in a drawer format. That is a huge selling point that I wasn’t even aware of.
My suggestion is to go look at the models you consider. Look at burner design. Consider the cast iron components. Then consider the materials used and how easy they are to clean. I had to consider oven design which ruled out Wolf because they didn’t have a dual fuel unit but that isn’t a constraint for you. Ranges alone are not complicated, it’s flame and spark. You want big BTUs with heavy grates and easy clean up. Good place to start at least.
Not to say there are not equivalents. Blue Star makes good stuff, and others. Have to compare.
I have a Dacor rangetop, which I got an amazing deal on. Doesn’t get much love here but the specs are pretty strong, burners go very high and very very low. I’ve been very happy with it.
I have had a 6 burner Capital Culinarian for about five years and love it. Replaced a POS Viking, no comparison.
I have a 23 year old 48 inch Thermador Professional Grill 4 X 15k gas burners, griddle & grill over an electric proofing oven & a larger electric convection oven , originally $8K. It has been good except for having to replace ignitors several times. We use the grill often (inside , out of heat & humidity).
Concern is they have discontinued electronic parts , so when a significant one goes I’ll be in the market for a new stove also.
I have a 4 burner 5 star. I think it’s 30 inches. It is utilitarian. It gets very hot and because it is only 4 burners with no griddle or grill, large pots and pans fit comfortably on the burners.
If I want to grill I have a barbecue. If I want food from a griddle I go to Denny’s (never).
We have a 48" blue star with six burners and griddle- in general love the burners- HOT and even and easy to clean and maintain and heavy duty lots of space- double oven good size large one fits full sheet pan
Downsides- oven is gas and takes forever to heat up and also is a lot hotter in back- large oven with a fan but smaller oven no; griddle takes a long time to heat up: cleaning lady has on several occasions ripped the electric igniter connection out of central console and it is a bitch to put back in
I have both blue star (the biggest 60") and a 6 burner viking range. IMO the blue star is better simply because there is more space between the heat source and the pot. The blue star dissipates heat more (isn’t as fast as the viking) even with the hottest burner, but it heats significantly more evenly.
We went with a Blue Star rangetop and hood. Didn’t need a new oven. I’ll report back. I’m psyched.
One thing I wished my range had was one smaller burner to handle very low temperatures I also am interested in something like this (found on a GE website).
Rick this is the second smallest burner on mine (Dacor), this is their system for “ultra low” temp. You can temper chocolate on this setting.
Here’s the burner on “normal low”
