Fire needs air. This simple concept is well known, but somewhat ignored when purchasing a high-power stove.

Companies have been working on bigger and higher BTU sealed burners for years. Here is the reality. Sealed burners are great for cleaning. If you have a major boil over. (Think for a moment how often that really happens) You can clean up the mess by lifting off the grate and burner cap (which still needs to be cleaned) and just wipe around the burner on the top surface to clean up the mess. With an open system, you have to lift off the grate and the burner (sometimes a drip bowl) and pull out the drip pan below.

Sealed burners have a bit less cleaning, but there is a compromise. Remember that BTU's are an input rating. Then even fairly high BTU's like 12,000 in a sealed system may not burn as hot. The reason is supply air. The burner ports need supply air to burn. In a sealed system, they are right on top and very close to the bottom of your cooking pan, sitting on the grate. The flame may seem a bit lazy (or cooler) compared to a burner sitting lower with plenty of supply air around it. Usually the open system burners burn more aggressively (or hotter) than sealed systems.

Some of the companies I am selling offer sealed burner units. I will try to make an honest assessment of their individual systems and notate them on the product information pages. However, generally I do not like sealed burners from a cooking point of view and for me cooking is why I buy an expensive stove, not cleaning.