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tom2013_gw

Capital Range Oven

Tom2013
11 years ago

I have been looking for a 36" pro model stove and so far on my list is a Viking dual fuel, Kitchenaid Dual fuel and becuase of this forum I am now considering a Capital Culinary. The question I have is with the oven. I am hesitant to buy an oven that is gas. How does the gas oven compare to an electric. After reading the negatives about Viking on this website, I am close to removing it from my list but I have a good deal from a kitchen showroom that is going to sell the display model.

Comments (7)

  • sea_koz
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've always been curious about this topic. Don't restaurants cook with gas ovens? Do bakeries have electric ovens? Presumably if gas is good enough for restaurants, it's good enough for the home?

  • ead51
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    As the eldest of 4 girls it was my job to clean our gas oven with Easy Off. I still have the scars on my arms to prove it. So, with that said, gas is great but the cleaning not so much unless you have an eldest that will do the deed.

    I did look at the Capitol and the room in the oven is fabulous, but glad I went with Wolf DF.

  • deeageaux
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    IF you have nightmares of cleaning a gas oven, the Culinarian offers a self-clean oven model.It offers a motorized rotisserie to boot. And it is cheaper than a Wolf DF. And it offers color options too.Not to mention the stovetop burners.

    As a general rule, bakers prefer electric for very even temperatures. Although there are some breads that bake better with the moist heat of a gas oven.

    Roasting is done better in a gas oven.

    If you are making a single cake the Capital gas oven is more than good enough if you are placing it in the center of the oven. If you are baking nine cakes maybe they won't brown as evenly as a fussy pastry chef would like.

    There are standard gas ovens like Whirlpool,GE,or LG then there are gas ovens the quality of Capital.Unless you are making large amounts of croissants or souffles that need to look perfect you should be more than ok with a Culinarian.

    BTW I have a 36" Self-Clean Culinarian and a 24" Gaggenau electric wall oven.

  • ead51
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    If you live in a city then service is not a problem. However, I don't and I needed to make sure the quality product I choose would be serviced/warranteed by a quality
    appliance business. The nearest city is 2.5 hours away and if I called with a problem I'm sure they would have to "bundle and save" their call here with others in the area.

    I knew I wanted gas but knew I didn't want to manually clean the oven so dual fuel, for me, was important. I also enjoy rotisserie but use my outside grill with that feature. The saving grace is I have natural gas, but hooking it up, buying and installing the hood and creating a soffit for exhaust was pricey but soooo worth it. I bought the Best by Braun hood. A bit noisy but very happy with the product.

    I also used this site to help make a decision.

    Good luck!

  • ead51
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Of course, the biggest considerations were the customer service reputation and product quality/warrantee which have proven to be outstanding.

    Granted, I've owned my Wolf 30" DF for 6 months and it also was a floor model.

  • rwiegand
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've used both gas and electric over the last 50 years to roast and bake and can't say that I've noticed a lot of difference. Convection does improve evenness and gives my bread a better more even crumb in my experience, but the slight different in humidity not so much.

    I gave up cleaning ovens decades ago as a pointless waste of time and effort, so no comment on that. I find most all the objectionable stuff burns off when cranking the oven up to the max at pizza time.

  • wekick
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I too have used both electric and gas ovens for about 50 years about half and half. They have always been conventional ovens with no convection until the last ones which I have had about 4 years. Both gas and electric will bake and roast and as you learn what your oven will do, you can adjust what you do to get the best results.

    There are differences between them though. You will often read that gas heat is "moist" heat because it releases a little water as products of combustion and electric is "dry" heat. While this may seem plausible on the surface, it turns out that gas ovens have more venting so the moisture is quickly removed so it is actually a drier heat. They will also release more heat into the kitchen because of this. If you are under a hood, you can vent this out in the summer. Electric ovens are more of a closed system so tend to hold the moisture of what is being cooked. The moisture is a benefit at the beginning of baking breads and things that need to rise. Dry heat from gas is a benefit for things that need to be crispy like roasts and the back end of baking bread and cakes etc. You will sometimes see written that the moisture from gas heat will keep meat moist. Not only is the heat not moist, but external moisture has nothing to do with amount of moisture in meat. It is the result of the temperature when it is finished and to some extent the time at that temperature. If you read some of the very serious baking forums, they will address these issues. Commercial ovens are often gas as an economic issue but they can have steam injectors if they need the humidity.

    In electric ovens, you have the potential to find some additional technology. These do involve computer boards which some people like to avoid. I would definitely buy an extended warranty if you go this route.

    The first is the use of a third or convection element in addition to a fan(or 2). This is incorporated to help keep the temperature very even. This is especially useful if you have your oven filled. Some ovens have a straight convection mode but they all seem to use the third element in all the modes. The gas ovens have a fan only.

    The second advantage is the ability to choose modes based on what you want to do. Convection roast brings more heat from the top although all elements are used. In my old ovens I would turn on the broiler to finish browning something that was still a little pale when done. The convection roast mode gives a more even browning than just what the broiler can do.

    Some electric ovens will keep a very narrow, as little as 2 degrees temperature range from the set temperature. The normal swing is 25 degrees on each side of the set temp.

    Another difference might be the broilers. Some gas ovens have an "infrared" broiler.

    When I had gas ovens, I used to crank them up too, to burn off most of the stuff that would accumulate.

    I have a 36 inch Wolf DF and Electrolux wall oven. I love them both and feel like my baking and roasting results are much improved.