Open burners don't get hotter per se but they direct the heat to the bottom of the pan. Sealed burners waste a lot of energy shooting heat off to the side of the pan. As a result the edges of the pan are much hotter than the center.

Open burners are differnt not harder to clean. In theory a sealed burner liquid/sauce spills and it gathers in the burner well and you clean with a swipe. In reality it cooks there for a bit before you realize and it takes more than a swipe. On an open burner rangetop, a massive spill will require you to clean out the drip tray plus some other pieces depending on the model.

Under normal cooking I use a lid or an oxo splatter screen .

Sometimes I simply wipe off something that spilled off a spoon and sometimes I don't clean anything on a daily basis. Then give it a medium 2-3 minute cleaning oncer per week. I own a CC self-clean.

If you find your 18k btu sealed burners lacking you are an excellent candidate for a Capital Culinarian.I have not had a problem with my range except for the burner adjustment I needed to get the 140 degree simmer. I live near the Capital factory so they sent a factory tech free of charge.

They are supposed to come out with a few updatesto the Culinarian like the small pan burner with a smaller concentration of heat and a dual-fuel Captial Culnarian in the near future.

Not too many board members own the Capital wall oven. And they generally don't post here very often.I remember an older couple saying the display was not bright enough to see clearly. One owner posted they had a bad part and it was difficult to get Capital to send the part.Overall not a lot of praise nor complaints.

Any other suggestions for ovens with excellent broiling, moist heat and speed cooking?

I don't know of any that can accomplish that trifecta.

kellycares
I currently have Dacor sealed burner cooktop with an 18K BTU burner, but it does not seem to get quite hot enough to do a good sear on meats. So, the Capital cooktop has one 20K burner, so I was hoping it might be a good choice.

You are only adding a little over 10% more heat, but get yourself a cast iron pan and it will hold much more heat than most other types of skillets. I can get it smoking with my 16K burner and a 12 inch skillet. Oil the meat not the skillet. If you want something in the 22-23K range also consider Bluestar. It also has open burners.

But then i read about on this forum about how open burners actually get hotter than the sealed burners.

They don't get hotter but the heat goes more to the center of the pan. Open burners flare a little more. The difference is greater as you increase the heat but I have never found it to be an issue. It might be an issue if you need to have very high heat for a pan less than 7 inches. I'm not sure what you would cook that way but I'm sure someone would need to cook that way. It would also be useful if you stirfry a lot.

I could consider this but am worried about the clean-up. Are they a pain to keep clean?

Cleaning is a matter of preference. There are videos of the cleaning processes on youtube so you can make up your own mind. Sealed is a snap-just a quick wipe. If I have anything that would require elbow grease, I just put a hot soapy rag over it and let it soak while I am doing something else. I had a Dacor ER36D with a black enamel top and it never got clean but the range I have now with black enamel is easy to clean. I am not sure why that is. Look at the Bluestar as well and the videos about cleaning it to compare as some think it is easier than the CC.

I also like the features of the Capital Maestro Double wall oven. It has the moist heating feature and the ribbon infrared broiler, along with the convection. It seems like a good alternative to the Wolf oven which also has the moist heat, but costs about $3000 more.

Wolf has a steam oven. Capital specifically states theirs is not a steam oven.
Capital's New Dual Fuel Series Engineered for Best of Electric & Gas Options

Why do you want moist heat?

Capital seems to think it will make your roasts moist but this is myth.
You a actually want dry heat for roasting to provide crispiness. This is why you have convection, which is drying, the opposite of moist heat. This quote is from the website.

"Capital's latest innovation, combines the best of stable electric heat and the moisture of a convection oven."

This astounding to read this on their website. What the..? They do not have a convection roast mode, which brings more heat from the top to aid in browning. Adding moisture for roasting will also decrease browning. I don't understand the concept as most people want browning and crispiness in their food as it adds flavor.

Interesting on their website they say it is an electric oven that behaves like gas. I have no idea what that means.

But my big question about these products is do they work as advertised and how is the reliability?

Reliability is unknown. Since you don't know that, I would look at customer service for whatever brand you want to buy. There is a lot written about many brands on this forum. Search the brand on the forum by scrolling to the bottom of appliance "messages" page. I am personally very leery of ovens controlled by electronics that have no track record. Consider two single ovens instead of one double.

dodge59 has an Electrolux Icon oven and Electrolux Icon speed oven I think. Maybe he will comment. If you want moisture for some reason, you can easily add a pan of water with much more control of the amount of steam than a fixed amount added to a small chamber.