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palomalou_gw

Stainless steel stovetop--a huge mistake?

palomalou
10 years ago

Did I make a huge mistake in ordering a Capital Precision MCR304N? Four burners, but sealed, all will do 19K. Stainless steel top under the burners, which I fear cleaning. It will arrive in 10 days.
JWVideo said there is a thread on which are easy, which not, for cleaning. She/he couldn't find it by search and neither can I.
FWIW, I haven't found the black burner pans on the old AG Wolf to be that easy to clean to look really sharp.

Comments (7)

  • philwojo99
    10 years ago

    I can't comment on the cleaning of this specifically as I have a BS open burner range top model. But honestly we were going to go with a Wolf range top and one of the things that steered us away from it was how the unit looked in the Wolf showroom cooking demo that their chef's put on. It still looked OK, but it was scratched and had discoloration near the burners. I know this is normal and it did not affect the unit at all, but to us we wanted something that was going to still look good after 5 years or more of use.

    I don't think that you have made a bad decision in terms of the functionality of the unit, but it will never look like it does the day it arrives in your house, or from the showroom floor, once you start to use it.

    Is it easy, or easier to clean that an open burner? Again I can't answer, but for me, cleaning my open burner BS has been wayyyyyyyyy easier than it was to ever clean my closed burner crappy Whirlpool I had before this.

    Maybe someone else can post their personal feedback on cleaning this unit, or find the post you are talking about.

    Now, would I back out of your order and return it at this point? Probably not, but that is me, if I had already made the decision to go with it and ordered it I would probably stick with it, but again that is just me.
    Phli

  • sandy808
    10 years ago

    If you are O.K. with your stove looking well used within a fairly short period of time, then you've made the right decision.. If discoloration, etc. are going to irritate you, it may make you dislike that range even if it performs well.

    I did a lot of research before choosing a range. I like cooking with gas, and I knew how much I hated cooking with sealed burners. I wasn't getting the precise cooking results I wanted, and cleaning them was a nightmare. I had a fairly decent GE range, but it was awful keeping those gray burner grates, etc. looking nice, and sealed burners do not have perfectly even heating all the way around the burner.

    I love my BlueStar. It is a joy to cook on, and it never looks grungy. It doesn't always look pristine, but it is not noticeable.I wipe it down after use, but I only take it apart to give it a good washing about every six weeks or so, and I cook from scratch every day.It does not have a self clean oven, but I don't miss it at all. The oven interior wipes out nicely, and after a year and a half of heavy use still does not need to be "oven cleaned".

    The nature of stainless is that heat will discolor it, and smudges are noticeable. It is up to you if you can live with that or not. Do some soul searching and go with your gut. This is a very expensive purchase that you will be living with for a long time. You need to be sure that it will make you happy in the long term, and if not, now is the time to make a change.

  • deeageaux
    10 years ago

    You asked about Precision vs Electrolux and nobody responded.

    Just giving a casual look over the forum you know that most veteran posters boil it down to BS vs CC for gas ranges and AR PS if the first two are too expensive.

    But you chose to ignore that advice.

  • jwvideo
    10 years ago

    JWVideo said there is a thread on which are easy, which not, for cleaning. She/he couldn't find it by search and neither can I.

    FWIW, I'm a he.

    Be reassured about the cleaning issues..

    Apparently, I misunderstood your question and sent you looking for a thread that won't help you. When you asked in Marymac's thread about cleaning a stainless "cooktop," I thought you meant the kind that drops into a counter. Didn't know you were asking about a CP range. The cooktops often are a lot shallower than than the tops of pro-style ranges, such as the CP ranges. Shallow means more likely to have crud bake on and also is what makes for vulnerability to heat discoloration.

    I don't have a Capital range of any kind, but I think deeagaeux does, and maybe he can comment. (I think he has a Culinarian but I'm guessing the layout won't differ much from the Precision's.)

    Anyway, for the interim, from what I could see in the photos on Capital's website, you shouldn't need to worry about cleaning and/or heat discoloration. My piddly, basic NXR hasn't had hard-to-clean baked-on crud or heat discoloration after a year of hard use. From the photos on Capital's web site, the CP burner wells are as deep or deeper than on my NXR plus the CP's sealed burners sit inside and on-top of cast brass collars. That's a whole league above the NXR, so you should be fine.

    I express no opinion on whether buying a CP range was otherwise a mistake, huge or small.

    Sandy808:

    Sounds like you had the same vintage of GE range that I did -- one with the gray burner pans and caps --- and had the same cleaning issues that I lived with and commented on in the thread from which palamalou's question derives. As I've said elsewhere, cleaning the stovetop now is mostly a matter of spritzing and wiping with a microfiber cloth. Until I got my current stove, I had no idea that the so called pro-style stoves would actually be so much easier easier to clean..

    This post was edited by JWVideo on Wed, Jul 31, 13 at 20:46

  • palomalou
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Deeageaux, $$$ matter, and I got the Precision for under 3K. As I cannot have an outside vent, a BS or CC seemed a bit pointless. i would not say that I "chose to ignore" a consensus, but it did not address the question.
    JWVideo, thank you for your comments. I am relieved to know that a closed burner does not absolutely have to be a nightmare to clean.

  • alexrander
    10 years ago

    I would rather have the stainless than the black enamel sheet metal. The black thick cast iron that Bluestar uses is great.

  • eve72
    10 years ago

    I would go induction.