# Capital Culinarian 36" Range with Griddle



## lidman (Sep 20, 2013)

I've been cooking on my CC 36" open burner free standing range with griddle and rotisserie for 15 months now and thought I would give you the pros and cons of the unit, as I see them. I am an avid cook, but not professional.

It is a very handsome unit, and heavy at 450 lbs. Get it level and in place the first time!

*Pros:*

Range Top and Griddle work great. Easy disassembly for cleaning. Give the griddle a good 15-20 minute preheat as you would expect.

To saute and simmer is a breeze. Oven cooks evenly with only one hotspot that I can find.

Griddle cleans up nicely and drip tray is easy to remove and clean.

*Cons:*

Had one ignitor replaced first month I owned it because it keeps "clicking" on simmer. Capital sent out a technician and he fixed it. Others ignitors "fire" sometimes too and I have to move the pot to another burner because it gets annoying. I sent Capital another request for repair and never heard back from them. Guess I'll have to fix it myself. (yes, the ignitor and burner are dry)

Oven vents directly out the front of the unit, so don't plan to bake anything with people gathered in the kitchen on a warm day; it will run you out of there. On the flip side, you can have supplemental heating in the house on a cold winter day.

Rotisserie is very well built, but unusable. Used it once with a chicken and it created such a chicken fat mess that there was actually a fire in the oven. Spent 3 hours cleaning the darn thing.

Ball bearings on the oven racks do not operate smoothly. Sometimes you have to jerk it to get it rolling...very dangerous.

Knob graduations and font are very small and hard to see, which works ok for the range since you can look at the flame.

All in all, we've learned to love it, but at $7000 I didn't expect some of these things. Maybe I'm just expecting too much.

I can't say I would buy another one.


----------



## sevoforane (Aug 13, 2013)

Great in depth post. I am currently installing the cooktop 36inch with 6 burners. I was looking for a simple cooktop that had all burners max to simmer. This is the only one I found that would do that seems simple enough! I am also installing the capital maestro double wall oven so we shall see. More to follow. Dean


----------



## lidman (Sep 20, 2013)

Well fellow home cookers...

Alas, my wife tells me this morning that the oven doesn't heat up.  Must be an igniter or a fuse. Either way, very disappointed with the reliability of this machine.  I have to say, I wouldn't buy another Capital product.

Lidman


----------



## burnstein (Dec 8, 2014)

My husband and I are re-doing our kitchen and were planning to buy a Blue Star 36" range, until I saw the Capital on line.  A year since your review, do you have any other feedback to provide? Would you buy this range again?

Thanks!


----------



## lidman (Sep 20, 2013)

No, can't say I would buy another Capital product. I've had to replace three ignitors, and I'm glad I'm a do-it-yourselfer or this would have been very expensive.

Griddle cooks very unevenly.  If you use it, make sure to turn it to at least 500 deg, or it will not stay hot enough to cook food.

From a visual perspective, the back of the machine where it vents gets so hot it is heat discolored and can't be cleaned. 

I think this would be a good machine if you left it on all day in a restaurant scenario, but this is not something for the home cook.

Look elsewhere and put the $2000 you save into something else.

Hope this helps and good luck.


----------



## burnstein (Dec 8, 2014)

Thanks for the feedback!


----------

